The Penguin is considered an arch foe in Batman’s Rogue Gallery.

But rarely does he seem to get his proper due in modern comics.

He lives in the shadow of the Joker, Bane even the Riddler in recent years. 

The Penguin, a.k.a. Oswald Cobblepot, gets better treatment in the movies such as Danny DeVito in the role for “Batman Returns,” though that was nearly 30 years ago, or in current television in “Gotham.”

But all hail the Penguin, the “Emperor Penguin,” in the third volume of the “All New 52” “Batman: Detective Comics” run from a few years ago.

Writer John Layman and artists Jason Fabok and Andy Clarke bring the Penguin to wonderful life and pay him his due.

Here, the Penguin puts a hit out on Bruce Wayne, upstages the billionaire by commandeering and thwarting a fundraiser naming a children’s center in honor of the late Martha Wayne, Bruce’s mother, then the Penguin saves Wayne from the assassins he hired.

And that’s just for starters.

The art and writing are solid Batman storytelling. Not the stuff of the masterpiece Batman stories being touted as must-reads in this the 80th anniversary year of the Dark Knight. But definitely better than the first two volumes in this series of “Detective Comics.”

“Emperor Penguin” is worth hailing.