Being a supervillain like the Joker or Lex Luthor in DC Comics takes a lot of time, dedication, and meticulous planning. It also demands loyal minions capable of carrying out the primary villain’s orders on their adversaries. If a villain wants to be respected and feared by his or her foes, he or she requires minions who can do this by brute force. However, there have been a few cases where henchmen have outperformed their superiors.
One of these uncommon situations is Ignatius Ogilvy, also known as Emperor Penguin and Emperor Blackgate. Ignatius Ogilvy is a villain who owes his powers to a combination of Venom, Man-Bat Serum, and Poison Ivy’s poisonous brew. Ignatius ultimately broke away from his former boss and established himself on his own.
Examine this blue-skinned DC criminal mastermind, who is a power-hungry and simply scary antagonist to everyone who gets in his path. You do not want to be caught planning a coup against him. Do not let his humble origins in crime deceive you; he worked his way to the top for a reason.
A Street Sharp Criminal To The Emperor Of Gotham
Ignatius Ogilvy was a Gotham City criminal who started working for the Penguin. Emperor Penguin and later Emperor Blackgate were the names he assumed and was known by as he became his own boss. Ignatius Ogilvy’s parents, like the parents of another wealthy orphan, were killed just outside of the Monarch Theater years ago. He has a striking resemblance to none other than Bruce Wayne himself in this regard.
Ed Ogilvy, his father, was a small-time crook who had always been faithful to his bosses but was assassinated during a business negotiation. This left an impression on young Ignatius, signaling the beginnings of a lost and troubled child who would grow up to be a terrifying villain. A lot of his decisions reflected the fact that he did not want to be like his father and wanted to be in control of situations instead of serving a higher power.
Following his father’s passing, Ignatius rose through the ranks of the Penguin’s top subordinates, eventually becoming his right-hand man. While his father had never rocked the boat, Ignatius had seen how well it had worked out for him, ultimately resulting in his and his mother’s death. It was then that he decided to proverbially buy the boat itself and one day become his own boss.
When Ignatius Ogilvy entered the Penguin’s gang, he was simply a young boy. He began his career as a runner and a watchman, and in one of his operations, he met Batman for the first time. Batman defeated Ogilvy’s entire crew and walked over to the boy, who was frightened and cowering in the corner and intimidated him to keep out of trouble, hoping to prevent another young kid in Gotham from turning to a life of crime but Ogilvy, obviously, did not cooperate with Batman’s demands and goes on to confront him in battle much later.
After several successful missions, the boy remained with the Penguin and rose through the ranks. During one of these encounters, Ogilvy fought Batman once more, but this time as a regular henchman. Three batarangs were used on the criminal’s left arm, leaving a permanent scar. Even with Batman on his back, Ogilvy continued to assist Penguin, eventually becoming one of the Cobblepot’s right-hand men and, eventually, his favorite. The Penguin sent Ogilvy on a task to gather information from a bank with a new recruit.
While Ogilvy was obtaining the information, the new hire raided the bank’s locker in an effort to please the Penguin. Ogilvy, on the other hand, was not pleased and killed the man for making such a blunder. This showed that Ogilvy’s initiation into a life of crime was complete and he belonged to the dark side now, with no intentions of returning. This is seen in Detective Comics Issue #13 where we first get introduced to Ogilvy while he is still Penguin’s right-hand man and was at his beck and call.
We see as he is ordered around by Penguin in Penguin’s quest to kill Bruce Wayne and be remembered as the more loved philanthropist in Gotham high society. The story progresses from here on as we see Poison Ivy wants to destroy some of Penguin’s operations because of all the pollution they cause. Ivy is kidnapped and left for dead by none other than Ogilvy and it is after this incident that Penguin gets a call from Joker.
Cobblepot was apprehended by the Joker when he returned to Gotham City to assist him with his scheme at Arkham Asylum. While he was away, Penguin put Ogilvy in control of his operations, understanding that whatever the Joker had planned would be time-consuming and ugly. Penguin truly trusted Ogilvy because of how hard the young man had worked and how loyal he had been to him the entire time.
Penguin’s trust was hard to gain but once achieved, it opened many doors. Ogilvy was obviously not satisfied with just being a henchman and made his timely move to take over the throne that had been entrusted to him for safekeeping. Ogilvy took advantage of the Penguin’s absence to effectively take over his crime syndicate. Ignatius then saved Poison Ivy from her death that he had orchestrated himself under the command of Penguin to earn her favor and officially took over Cobblepot’s operations under the assumed identity – of Emperor Penguin.
In the later issues of the Detective Comics, we watch as terror spreads with the looming presence of Joker in the apprehension of his arrival, the city is rife with violence as Joker fanatics take to the streets and it is during this time that Ogilvy decides to take advantage of the situation, gathers other mafia leaders and instructs them to kill all their enemies and pin it on the ongoing fanaticism and Joker so as to cement his position in Gotham City. Batman sees through this plan easily as he identifies that the killing methods are not the same but Ogilvy brushes it off as he notes that the entire city is none the wiser and that is all that matters.
A while later, as the city keeps spiraling into chaos, Penguin returns after being freed by Batman from Arkham only to find that everything that was his including his house, accounts, money, and people, all now answer to Ogilvy and he vows to destroy the slimy double-crosser who he had once trusted with his entire empire. However, he gets arrested thanks to Batman before he can reach Ogilvy, the new Emperor Penguin, and is sent to Blackgate.
It is during this time that Ogilvy unleashes the man-bat serum on Gotham City, transforming a large number of residents into creatures. The serum’s creator however quickly devises a cure, which he released into the city and restored normalcy to the citizens. Seeing that his chaos had been halted, he decided to do something drastic and taking on an earlier debt from Poison Ivy citing the time he had saved her life, Ogilvy used a cocktail of drugs made by her to develop superhuman strength and durability, including Venom, Man-Bat Serum, and some of Ivy’s special plant brews.
In addition to this, he also changed his physical appearance and transformed into a big lumbering dark blue monstrosity with red eyes, blue skin as tough as bark, and pointy ears. This made him strong enough to face off against Batman. And face off he did.
In issue #20, Ogilvy apprehended Batman and punched him around like the Bat was nothing. With sheer strength, agility, and a fighting style that Batman had not expected from him in his wildest dreams, Ogilvy overpowered him pretty quickly and using a chain, strung him up from a tree branch, effectively hanging Batman as he lit a cigarette and proclaimed himself to be the King of Gotham city. He then left Batman hanging and walked away.
Thus, Ogilvy challenged Batman to a fight and won the first round however, he would definitely regret walking away and not making sure that Batman was truly dead. The Penguin, on the other hand, saved Batman from the brink of death as he lowered the wounded hero to the ground. His motivations were simple, if Batman succeeded in defeating Emperor Penguin, Penguin would get his life back. In the second fight, Batman used his gadgets to defeat Ogilvy. Ogilvy was stripped of his power and imprisoned in Blackgate.
Though he was eventually defeated by the Penguin and Batman’s combined forces, he managed to shake Cobblepot’s grip on power and cement his place in history. Ignatius Ogilvy became the new leader of the crime organizations at Blackgate Penitentiary after killing a prisoner who called himself “the Boss” after being brought there. He insisted that his subordinates call him Emperor Blackgate which they did because he was feared and respected for his meteoric rise and epic battle with Batman.
He started from nothing, and slowly but steadily made his way up. This one is a story of sheer intelligence and willpower that fuelled this young man who found himself in a life of crime and before long, was far too deep in it to quit. However, this is not the story of a frail little boy who was taken in by the Penguin and taught work, this is the story of the cunning man who overthrew the supervillain penguin but most importantly, it is the story of a young boy who wanted to be King because he saw his father die while serving as a pawn. He brought the mighty Batman, the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader to his knees as he strung him on a tree branch. Now Emperor Blackgate, maybe one day he’ll return to give Batman a run for his money.