Penguin: One Bad Day - Written by John Ridley, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Cam Smith
Hope lives! The One Bad Day series by DC started out with a BANG with the Riddler story by Tom King and company, so I was worried DC started out with it's best and we were in for a decline. The Two-Face edition proved that mostly right, with an average Two-Face story, definitely not the "Best Two-Face Story Ever Told" like the promos promised. But John Ridley, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Cam Smith have proven me wrong. Penguin #1 is an incredible fun, engaging, and sad story about the Penguin as his lowest. The humor is sharp (the ten dollar thing KILLED me), the art is stunning (The Batman confrontation and the PENGUIN IN ACTUAL FLIGHT), and the story is unpredictable. It's also the funniest Batman story I have read to date. Which I'm sure is wrong but I'm hard pressed to think of one that can match this comic. The Batman/Superman double date comes close. John Ridley does an astounding job making the reader feel empathy for the Penguin. He shows us just how important the Penguin is to Gotham, with some pretty dark scenes with Batman struggling to choose who to save in the newly chaotic Gotham without a Penguin. Ridley and King knocked it out of the park with their issues of One Bad Day, and I highly recommend this comic to anyone lucky enough to find a copy. Penguin and Riddler are two of the best comics released this year, so track down your copies ASAP! Kudos to both creative teams.