DC Database
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Esther Cobblepot is the wife of Tucker Cobblepot and comes from one of the wealthy and influential Gotham City families. She is the mother of Oswald Cobblepot, the ruthless criminal who fights Batman as the Penguin. In Earth-One continuity, Penguin's unnamed mother originally owned a bird shop that she inherited from her husband, who died from bronchial pneumonia after he got caught in a thunderstorm. Traumatized by his death, Mrs. Cobblepot became an overprotective mother to Oswald and always forced him to carry an umbrella in order to protect him from suffering the same fate as his father. Combined with his looks, the habit of carrying an umbrella caused Oswald to get bullied by the other children in his neighborhood. Oswald and his paternal aunt Miranda often helped Mrs. Cobblepot in managing the bird shop, but when Oswald's mother eventually fell sick and died, the family shop was expropriated by creditors.

Mrs. Cobblepot was created by Michael Fleisher and Romeo Tanghal, first appearing in The Best of DC #10. (1981) After the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Penguin's mother and aunt got merged into a single character. Miranda Cobblepot was now portrayed as the authoritative mother of Oswald. Afraid to lose him like her husband, the widow often went as far as intimidating and openly threatening her son whenever he would refuse to carry an umbrella. Miranda Cobblepot was created by Alvin Schwartz, Jack Burnley and Charles Paris, originally appearing as Penguin's aunt in the Batman and Robin comic strip. (1946)

A reimagined version of the character was also introduced in the Burtonverse, in which she was named Esther. The Cobblepots were one of the wealthiest families in Gotham City and lived in a mansion on the outskirts when Esther gave birth to Oswald. Horrified by their son's monstrous appearance, the Cobblepots abandoned Oswald, which subsequently put him on the path to become the Penguin. In the regular DC Universe, Miranda Cobblepot was eventually renamed Esther Cobblepot following the Prime Earth reboot. However, her overprotective nature from the original comics was maintained in contrast to her husband. It was also established that the Cobblepots had three other sons apart from Oswald, named Jason, William and Robert. Esther Cobblepot was created by Daniel Waters and Sam Hamm, originally portrayed by Diane Salinger in the Burtonverse movie Batman Returns. (1992)



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