This absolutely won't happen, but a thing I'd love for The Batman II to do, or even ANY future DC media that features Harvey, is to address the Apollo stuff more, it's been rotting in my brain.
I've talked about this a bazillion times I feel, but I want to see writers explore Harvey's DA era more and how crippling and insane it was. Eye of the Beholder, BTAS, Arkham Shadow and Telltale come to mind, but I want more. The angst potential, the pain, the suffering, the display of the full severity of the devastation that was his fall from grace.
Harvey who is a drowning workaholic, becoming cold and neglectful towards Gilda romantically and intimately because he is a self-made slave to Gotham and can think of nothing but his city and making his city better.
Harvey who makes sleep his enemy and food a distraction because his desk is more comfortable than any bed, his paperwork more comfortable than any pillow, and his crusade more satisfying than any person.
Harvey who really is an Apollo - tall, statuesque, pretty, handsome, Gotham's rising sun, its God of Justice, the man who will make fate his bitch - having his hard work be shadowed by opposing sides who cater to the tabloids, who render him down to an object for consumption, who use his looks to downplay the work he does.
Harvey, who refused to drink and smoke because of his father, suddenly finding both in his hands, taking smoke breaks, moving an ashtray into his DA office, frowning when Batman finds him waiting by the batsignal with a cigarette in his mouth and pulling it from his fingers, and rolling his eyes when he has to pull out another.
Harvey who squeezes into himself and keeps his head down or shadowed by a hat as he walks into work, sick of being mockingly catcalled by the tabloid eaters.
Harvey who can't escape the "pretty boy" taunt because it's become his shadow. Harvey who can't escape "Apollo" because it's eroding his already decaying sense of self.
Harvey who turns Bruce away from his office, rejecting his presence at work and in public, terrified they'll start to spread rumours about him sleeping with Bruce in order to get the funding for his campaign.
Harvey who is excited about his work and making connections at Bruce's galas, braving his general distaste for parties, only to notice the shift as he shakes their hands, noticing their questions become more personal, or antagonizing, or downright inappropriate, before politely excusing himself and moving onto the next group.
Harvey, whose words and arguments roll off his tongue like another language when interrogating people from his cases, stopping dead when he notices that they aren't paying attention to him at all, that their eyes are roaming his body as if they're trying to figure out if yesterday's Gazette issue is true.
Harvey who no longer reads the good newspapers about his work, who no longer sees celebration for what he does, he only sees the negative because a rasp inside his head is telling him to look for it, and he's clenching the tabloids, obsessing over the comments, letting it make him push to work even harder, to take more extremes, to leave his by-the-book way of doing things, to prove he is not just a face to stare at.
Harvey who doesn't know or denies that he has DID, who thinks he's just depressed or overworked, who uses the "hair of the dog" approach to deal with how he feels, who thinks it's his past coming back to taunt him, that it's his dad's scolding, raspy voice criticizing him or making him do things he doesn't remember doing.
Harvey who gawks into mirrors for so long that he doesn't even know his own face anymore, who pokes and prods at his face and body because there is someone else inside him, because he doesn't know who or what the tabloids are seeing.
Harvey who breaks down in front of reflections because he either sees his father, or someone he doesn't know.
Harvey who smiles in pain when he's called Apollo, who pushes out that he's "flattered" to be called pretty, who makes charismatic quips to hide his rage, whose knuckles are so white that he has to shove them into his pockets.
Harvey who refuses therapy, who takes offense at "are you ok?", and who never, ever tells anyone about how his objectification makes him so uncomfortable, because he's a man, he's a man, he's a man.
jacobvanloon
janainaart
tangentwithtanner
blakekathryn
