Continuing the story of 2022’s The Batman, the HBO original series The Penguin focuses on Oz Cobb’s rise to power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld. However, in his journey, Cobb’s story resembles another iconic HBO fictional mobster, The Sopranos’ Tony Soprano. Here’s how Oz Cobb and Tony Soprano’s arcs compare.
Is Oz Cobb Gotham’s Tony Soprano?
More than just being a story about organized crime and the rivalry between mobsters and their respective syndicates, there are some personal similarities between Oz Cobb and Tony Soprano that are apparent from the first episode of The Penguin. Oz and Tony are both protagonists caught up in a criminal profession while also possessing deeply rooted personal insecurities that affect their trajectory in their respective series. This usually manifests itself in pathological trust issues or the occasional impulsive spurt of violence, usually stemming from perceived threats to their competence or stature within their social hierarchies.
Beyond their criminal activities, so much of Oz and Tony’s insecurities are informed by dysfunctional relationships with their mothers, both of whom are still alive at the start of their respective series. Francis Cobb and Livia Soprano are overbearing women who constantly belittle and ostracize their sons, always ready with a toxic critique or other methods of emotional abuse. So much of how Oz and Tony carry themselves in their stories can be traced to how they were raised by their mothers, albeit in different ways and against very different antagonists.
How Oz Cobb Is Different Than Tony Soprano
While their backgrounds, temperance, and illicit professions are certainly similar, Oz is on a very different journey in The Penguin than Tony Soprano was for much of The Sopranos. For most of the series, Tony is the de facto boss of the DiMeo Crime Family in New Jersey, with Junior Soprano named as the official head of the family as a means to quell Junior’s ambitions and distract law enforcement attention away from Tony. Throughout The Sopranos, Tony is very much at the top of his game within the New Jersey organized crime scene, with the conflict primarily coming from rival families and crooks, especially the New York crime syndicates.
Comparatively, The Penguin is about Oz’s rise to power, with the wayward mobster not heading any major syndicates of his own but rather discarded by the Falcones after the death of their own criminal patriarch Carmine, as depicted in The Batman. Given his lowly position and being rightfully suspected of murdering Alberto Falcone at the start of the series, Oz resorts to pitting the Falcone family against their longtime rivals the Maroni crime syndicate out of self-preservation and opportunity. Tony’s journey in The Sopranos is about staying on top, while Oz’s journey in The Penguin is about staying alive and taking what he believes belongs to him.
The Penguin is currently streaming on HBO and Max, with new episodes dropping Sundays.