#Bruce vs. Ozzie and Batman vs. Two-Face will always be the superior match-ups over Joker vs. Bruce in either capacity

[fantastic-nonsense]

i've heard people talk about how two-face is an ideal arch nemesis for batman but i haven't heard that much about the penguin in that role and i'm interested to hear more if you wanna talk about it 👀?

okay so. tl;dr on why Ozzie is an excellent arch-nemesis and narrative foil for Batman and is one of the two Rogues (along with Two-Face) who should replace the Joker as Bruce's main villain: he is the evil Bruce Wayne. He is everything Bruce is, but bad. Tommy Elliot wishes he had the narrative foil-ism Penguin has over Bruce.

He and Bruce are both Old Money and part of the Five Founding Families of Gotham (The Waynes, the Kanes, the Arkhams, the Cobblepots, and the Elliots)

They both run very successful businesses: Bruce runs Wayne Enterprises and Oswald runs the Iceberg Lounge. Where Ozzie uses his business as a front for his criminal activities, Bruce uses his business to help fund his activities as Batman.

Bruce uses his obscene amount of money to help people in any way he can. Ozzie uses his to set up a business, get richer, and fund his own criminal activities (which are largely in service to no one but himself).

They both take up an animal theme for their personas, but for opposite reasons: Bruce becomes Batman to both reclaim his fear of bats and strike fear into the hearts of criminals, and Oswald becomes Penguin as an ode to the birds he's obsessed with and dresses like.

He's also emblematic of everything Bruce fights against and originally fought as Batman: he's a corrupt rich businessman who uses his wealth and power to exploit people and avoid accountability. He uses his money to throw parties for local politicians and auction off weapons and launder money and fuck over the little guy. And he gets away with it because he's rich and powerful and can utilize the illusion of respectable legality that his money affords him to stay out of trouble with the law.

There's a reason Bruce focused on the mob and organized crime during his early years as Batman, and it's because Gotham's core problem is and always will be corruption. That is ultimately why Batman is needed, why Bruce can't just solve the city's problems as Bruce with his philanthropy and social work: because the corruption entrenched into the very foundations of how the city and its justice system operates prevents long-term improvement. And who better to symbolize Gotham's corruption than an old rich white man masquerading around as a gentleman criminal?