Comments on: 365 Reasons to Love Comics #31

By: Fred

Fred — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:53:08 +0000

Well one good thing about 'Hush' was that it is not in the DC universe continuity. At least I am pretty certain that's what I read in the introduction. So, yeah, we can ignore that they butchered the character like that. I did like in 'Hush' that it was argued that Perry White had to know that Clark was Superman but was smart enough to keep it to himself. I thought that was a nice touch.

By: The Kirbydotter

The Kirbydotter — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:15:13 +0000

Wow!
You do dig up the good stuff buddy!
I too had forgetten about Harold!
The Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle was the last great and long run on the character. I pretty much stop reading Batman after that.

After their run we got the whole KnightFall/KnightQuest/KnightEnd mess (Knightmare?) which I skipped completely. (I fell back on Puckett/Parobeck/Burchett's Batman Adventures for the only worthwhile Batstories of that dark period)

There was a nice shorter Doug Moench/Kelley (more detective type of stories) run that followed the multi-crossovers that is also well worth the read.

But Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle is certainly among the few definitive Batman. Even Ace the Bat-Hound made sense the way it was written by Grant. Penguin was an interesting villain for the first time. New iconic villains like the Ventriloquist were introduced.

Greg Burgas: "Harold was an excellent character; those days were when they were actually trying to build up Batmanâ€™s supporting cast. When he showed up in â€œHushâ€ only to betray Batman and get killed, it made me want to kick Loeb in the groin."

Boy! Am I glad I didn't pick up the whole 'Hush' storyline. Jeff Loeb wrote that? I usually like what he does. Bad Loeb! Bad, bad Loeb!

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:57:40 +0000

Harold was an idiotic character who is best left forgotten. Not only was he a bad retread of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I never understood why Batman even needed the guy. Since when was Bruce Wayne not smart enough to design and build his own gizmos? Harold was the worst kind of supporting character: someone who diluted the main character instead of complimenting him.

I largely agree, but I've never been under the impression that Bruce builds his own gadgets. Maybe the odd one here and there, but mostly he has them built for him by companies he owns, but where ownership would be very hard to trace. At least that's how I've always understood it

Dan

By: John

John — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 23:14:59 +0000

Damn. After reading the description, I thought today's character was Kilowog. Instead, I have to be reminded of this loser.

Harold was an idiotic character who is best left forgotten. Not only was he a bad retread of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I never understood why Batman even needed the guy. Since when was Bruce Wayne not smart enough to design and build his own gizmos? Harold was the worst kind of supporting character: someone who diluted the main character instead of complimenting him.

By: HammerHeart

HammerHeart — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:12:30 +0000

Reason #934 why "Hush" was a pile of steaming manure.

By: Mr.Chris

Mr.Chris — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:01:40 +0000

I had completely repressed that part of Hush from my memory. Thanks for giving me more reason to hate it.

Harold was a great character. Like Superman, Batman seems to have gone through an editorially-decreed razing of any supporting chracter created after the 40's.

I guess they've kept Lucius Fox, but how often does he show up?

Anyway, this column has been awesome.

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:35:29 +0000

I liked the character well enough when he first appeared (in The Question IIRC) but I really didn't like having him live in the Batcave. It was just a bit too cosy

By: J To The AAP

J To The AAP — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 10:58:14 +0000

If editorial didn't know what to do with him they could've at least gave a gracful bow before his exit.

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 07:31:28 +0000

Harold was great, when reading Hush I wanted to spit on the issue in question, but it wasn't mine, and my friend who'd lent to me had never even heard of Harold, which I thought was criminal.

Damn, I miss those mid-80s Batman comics.

By: Jeremy Tobin

Jeremy Tobin — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 05:42:22 +0000

I like the reveal during one issue when Jean-Paul Valley was Batman for a while that Harold was hiding in a separate room and just decided to build a new Batmobile that could ride on the subway rails. I don't think I was used all that much but I was impressed that the guy decidd to build a Bat-train in his spare time, even after the guy pretending to be Batman kicked him out.

By: Matt Liparota

Matt Liparota — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:54:50 +0000

I didn't mind Hush so much, but the latter chapters...well, let's just say they left something to be desired. Unfortunately, that's the only story featuring Harold that I've ever been exposed to. Wasn't there a B:tAS story that involved him? If so, I'm sure I saw it.

By: Scott King

Scott King — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:31:41 +0000

I've never heard of Harold.

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 02:25:01 +0000

Oh, and people wonder why Loeb has a bad reputation. He can write some good stuff, but killing Harold is one of the reasons why.

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 02:24:18 +0000

Harold was an excellent character; those days were when they were actually trying to build up Batman's supporting cast. When he showed up in "Hush" only to betray Batman and get killed, it made me want to kick Loeb in the groin.

By: Kyle Hayes

Kyle Hayes — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:44:19 +0000

I remember one of my favourite scenes from the Cataclysm/No Man's Land arc was Bruce telling Harold that he wouldn't be needed for a while, followed by Harold going out into the world and seeing an entire Gotham in need of his technical expertise.

That was awesome.