We describe the singularity of all but finitely-many germs in a pencil generated by two germs of plane curve sharing no tangent.

We study pencils of plane curves $f_t=f-t{l}^N$, t ∈ ℂ, using the notion of polar invariant of the plane curve f = 0 with respect to a smooth curve l = 0. More precisely we compute the jacobian Newton polygon of the generic fiber $f_t$, t ∈ ℂ. The main result gives the description of pencils which have an irreducible fiber. Furthermore we prove some applications of the local properties of pencils to singularities at infinity of polynomials in two complex variables.

Using the notion of the maximal polar quotient we characterize the critical values at infinity of polynomials in two complex variables. As an application we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a family of affine plane curves to be equisingular at infinity.