New Comics: The Rogues hold court in Scott Snyder's Joker story, "Death of the Family" (SPOILERS)

[about_faces]

At the risk of invalidating my opinion right off the bat, I want to briefly discuss the use of the Bat-Rogues--especially Harvey--in Scott Snyder's current Joker event, Death of the Family.

Comments

[1mercystreet]

Oh dear. No. No, I don't like this at all.

Harvey might not be an extrovert like Joker or a social engineer like Penguin, but I have a hard time thinking that the other Rogues don't respect him. As you've pointed out, he was an incredibly good lawyer, and he had the ability to inspire people and change the criminal horizon of the city forever. The very fact he can go from being a respected public servant to a crime boss with a sizeable chunk of the underworld in his pocket should be proof of that.

Also, Harvey wouldn't be Joker's favourite fall guy if there wasn't something about him that was still uncorrupted and unbroken. Mister J might frequently try to needle Harvey into full-on insanity but I suspect that if he ever suceeded, he'd lose interest in Harvey completely, in part because there would be nothing left to break. At the same time If Harvey was really nothing, and wasn't worthy of respect, I don't think he would register on Joker's radar at all. He'd just be an anonymous, broken madman that Joker wouldn't see as worthy of his attention at all.

[about_faces]

As you've pointed out, he was an incredibly good lawyer, and he had the ability to inspire people and change the criminal horizon of the city forever.

Totally. Between his brilliance and charisma (and maybe also his ability to help keep his peers from going to Blackgate or worse), they may not LIKE him, but he would certainly be far more than tolerated.

And I agree with the second paragraph 100%. If that part of Harvey weren't still in there somewhere, the Joker wouldn't even care!