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Monday, March 18, 2013

The Dark Knight: The Penguin's Crime Wave

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The fine folks at Capstone Publishing have put another installment of their DC Super Heroes line of books for young readers, and this time Aquaman is along for the adventure!

The Penguin's Crime Wave is written by Laurie Sutton and drawn by Luciano Vecchio,and opens with the waddling scoundrel trying to pull a heist at the Gotham City Museum of Natural History. Of course, the Dark Knight Detective is there to stop him:
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The Penguin is defeated, and in the next chapter the story moves forward in time, to a fancy soiree at Gotham Bay, attended by millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. The Penguin resurfaces again, literally: popping out of the water inside a giant penguin-ized submarine!

Pengy kidnaps some of the swells, and takes off with Batman in pursuit in his Bat-Plane. It is attacked by some rocket pack-bedecked robot penguins, forcing it into the icy waters. Batman attempts to escape, but the Bat-Plane is damaged. Before the water seeps in, Batman hears a knocking on the hull of the ship, and sees it's an old friend:
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Some of Aquaman's finny friends tell him they have found the Penguin's arctic hideout. They make their way there, and give chase, which leads the Penguin to throw a mysterious egg at Batman, which produces a black cloud. The Penguin uses the confusion to try and escape, leading Batman into a strange chamber--one he recognizes as belonging to another old foe, Mr. Freeze!
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The Penguin believes he has got Batman where he wants him, but it's just a ruse: using his thermal Bat-Suit, the Dark Knight waits for the Penguin to get close enough to the tube to break out of it using tools from his Utility Belt and grab him!

But the oily bird manages to slip away again, using one of his umbrellas as a mini-helicopter. Just then, the Sea King pops out of water riding a giant orca, ready to take the Flighless Felon into custody. Knowing when he's beaten, the Penguin is reduced to begging the Batman to save him!
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Batman thanks Aquaman for his assistance, and carts the Penguin back to Gotham City, while the Sea King looks after the innocent civilians that were kidnapped. The End!


As a company, Capstone has been extraordinarily good to Aquaman, giving him his own books as well as having him appear in other titles, like this one. As I've said many times before, if I had been a kid when books like these were being published, I would have read them until they fell apart. It's Classic Aquaman, doing all kinds of Classic Aquaman stuff! Can't be beat. It also comes with a glossary of terms, character bios, and discussion questions for all the young readers out there.

The Penguin's Crime Wave was written by longtime DC editor/writer and Aqua-Fan Laurie Sutton, who has been kind enough to talk to the Shrine on several occasions. This is her first chance to write Aquaman, and we'll be talking to her tomorrow about the book!


If you would like to order a copy of The Penguin's Crime Wave, use the handy link below. Not only will you get yourself this handsome little book, but you'll throw the Aquaman Shrine a few shekels in the process:



Other Capstone titles featuring Aquaman:
 

2 comments:

Earth 2 Chris said...

I'm going to point my wife in this direction, as she is the children's librarian at our local library. She has ordered several of the DC Capstone books, and this looks like another winner!

Chris

Connor Harley said...

This looks like another interesting one my kid would love to get one.