The Penguin Episode 1 Rewrites Batman History In One Huge Way

When Matt Reeves' "The Batman" descended on theaters, it delivered a cold, gothic crime story that cherry-picked aspects from essential stories from the Caped Crusader's long history. One particular element involved Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) being killed by The Riddler (Paul Dano), not Two-Face as in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's beloved Bat-tale, "The Long Halloween." And just as that story had elements tweaked and turned into "The Batman," so too does "The Penguin" take and adapt other aspects from DC Comics history.

The new HBO series, which sees Colin Farrell return to television after having just starred in Apple TV+'s critically acclaimed "Sugar," also looks to Loeb and Sale's DC catalog for inspiration. Plucking from the Batman sequel story to "The Long Halloween," "Batman: Dark Victory," this new show rearranges pivotal moments in Gotham's gritty history by way of Sofia Falcone, who is played by Cristin Milioti.

Fresh out of Arkham and clearly the black sheep of her family, Sofia is still carrying the weight of the crimes she apparently committed that put her in the same facility as The Riddler (Paul Dano) and Joker (Barry Keoghan). While her deeds aren't discussed in much detail, whatever she did was enough to earn her the nickname "The Hangman," — the same name the comics version of the character was given as the killer in "Batman: Dark Victory." What's worth noting, however, is the point in time Sofia is given the title here and versus in the comic the show is riffing from, and what that could mean for Oz and the Falcone family going forward.

The tweak to Sofia's character that's been put in place with "The Penguin" is that in "Batman: Dark Victory," she's a far cry from the version we meet here. In the comic, the daughter of Carmine Falcone fakes being wheelchair-bound after falling out a window with Catwoman in "The Long Halloween." As a result, it puts her at the bottom of the suspect list when the Hangman murders begin. Eventually, it's revealed that Sofia's the one behind the heinous crimes and that she's following in the footsteps of her brother, who, in "The Long Halloween," was revealed to be the Holiday Killer, a villain with a list of victims that are all killed on specific celebratory holidays.

The similarities stop there, of course. Thanks to Oswald's input, any chance of Alberto (Michael Zegen) going on a seasonally guided killing spree has been pretty much eliminated. Due to Oz's efforts to clip the Falcone family tree, the Holiday Killer's crimes won't come to pass in this universe — at least, not by Alberto's hands.

With that said, and with a whole story set to unfold in "The Penguin," might the Hangman strike in Reeves' Gotham? Or could the Holiday Killer take a different form and cause more issues for Oswald that the Batman won't be around to address? Mark your calendars for next week to find out.