The Penguin Star Cristin Milioti Was Also In An Obscure Marvel Series

"The Penguin" is one of the best things to come out of DC characters in some time (which is saying something considering Warner Bros. has been on a roll recently). This is a show that, on the surface, does feel a lot like "The Sopranos" but set in Gotham, complete with a mobster with mommy issues. Still, it quickly became clear that "The Penguin" was its own thing, even standing out from the previous Baman show without Batman — aka the underrated gonzo show "Gotham" — and an excellent character exploration that avoids the typical TV antihero problem of making the character too sympathetic for audiences. No, Oswald "Oz" Cobb (Colin Farrell) is pathetic and sociopathic, a loser who lies, cheats, and murders with ease and without remorse.

But as great as Farrell is in the show, it is Cristin Milioti who steals the show as Sofia Falcone, the notorious daughter of the head of the Falcone crime family, who was locked away at Arkham for a decade. As much as the show is about Oz, it is also just as much about Sofia and her tragic backstory. Milioti manages to portray the character in a way that comes across as unhinged but never over-the-top. This isn't Harley Quinn, but a character who has clearly suffered a lot, and someone who commits actual atrocities throughout the show, but always with a sense that her anger and resentment come from a place of real tragedy.

Before she captivated audiences as Sofia Falcone in "The Penguin," Milioti was briefly part of a different comic book universe. That's right, Milioti was once in a Marvel project. No, not the Marvel Cinematic Universe, exactly, but the second season of the criminally underwatched animated series "Hit-Monkey" on Hulu. Here, Milioti played Iris McHenry, a waitress and daughter of formerly deceased assassin Bryce (Jason Sudeikis) — whose ghost was tied to Monkey (Fred Tatasciore) on a revenge quest.

Created by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, "Hit-Monkey" is an adult animated series about a Japanese macaque (or snow monkey) whose entire clan is massacred. Trained by the ghost of an American assassin (Sudeikis' Bryce Fowler), Monkey becomes a vigilante who hunts down criminals in Tokyo and eventually New York City in season 2.

This is a violent, hilarious, bizarre little show that's unlike anything Marvel has done. Originally, the show was produced as part of Hulu's answer to the Netlix Marvel universe that culminated in the rightfully forgotten "The Defenders." The idea was for "Hit-Monkey" and "M.O.D.O.K." to be a part of a series of animated shows based on Marvel characters that would have also included "Howard the Duck" and "Tigra & Dazzler," ultimately culminating in a crossover series, "The Offenders."

The coolest part of this concept was that each show was meant to have its own unique animation style, rather than force some sort of uniform look. "Hit-Monkey" creator Will Speck once told /Film that the crossover might even have an entirely different animation style, or follow the style of one of the previous shows.

Unfortunately, though Marvel did a big show out of all these announcements in 2019 when Disney+ was just being rolled out, plans quickly changed and the universe collapsed after just two shows, with "The Offenders" never materializing.

As for Milioti, she was quite good in her small role in "Hit-Monkey," playing a weird but funny New Yorker with an attitude who has the most emotional arc of the season as she reunites with her father and tries to rebuild their bond. Though that show never made it past season 2, at least we know "The Penguin" is set to return for a sophomore season — even if, unfortunately, Milioti's Sofia won't return.