Danny DeVito Writes For ‘The Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant’ #1: First Look And Covers

by Olly MacNamee

DC Comics have been celebrating quite a few milestone anniversaries in recent years with 100 page special issues, and plenty more to come. With both The Joker and Catwoman also getting the 100 page Spectacular treatment it’s now time for the rest of Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery to get a look in too with the announcement of The Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant #1, celebrating The Penguin’s 80th anniversary as well as other criminals’ birthdays too.

“Gotham City may be protected by the Dark Knight, but the home of Batman and his allies is also plagued by some of the deadliest, most nefarious villains in the DC Universe! In this oversize anniversary giant, DC proudly presents tales of Batman’s deadliest foes written and drawn by some of the biggest, most exciting names in comics!”

And to tease this new anniversary issue we get a first look at a Penguin/Catwoman story by none other than acclaimed actor, screenwriter, and producer Danny DeVito. Best known these days for his stint in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, DeVito played The Penguin in the 1992 hit movie Batman Returns. He is joined by Detective Comics’ artist Dan Mora on this fun heist story/romance between The Penguin and his “crush” from Batman Returns, Catwoman.

This anthology also celebrates the anniversaries of other Bat-baddies, with stories spotlighting:

The Scarecrow (story and art by Wes Craig)
Poison Ivy (written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Emma Rios)
Ra’s al Ghul (written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, art by Riccardo Federici)
Talia al Ghul (written by Nadia Shammas & Joshua Williamson, art by Max Raynor)
The original Red Hood (written by Stephanie Phillips, art by Max Fiumara)
The Mad Hatter (written by Dan Watters, art by Skylar Patridge)
Killer Moth (written by Mairghread Scott, art by Ariela Kristantina)

And, as this is an anniversary one-shot, expect the usual array of spectacular covers too. Here’s a lits of which artist is taking on which bad guy/gal:

Main cover by Lee Bermejo
The Penguin variant cover by Frank Quitely
The Scarecrow variant cover by Wes Craig and Jason Wordie
Poison Ivy variant cover by Marguerite Sauvage
Talia and Ra’s al Ghul variant cover by Riccardo Federici
Killer Moth, Red Hood and Mad Hatter variant cover by Dan Mora
Batman/Villains 1:25 ratio variant cover by Francesco Mattina
Batman/Penguin 1:50 ratio variant cover by Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn