Nepenthes said:
Yeah right he's poor. He wants dearly to be a respectable aristocrat like Bruce Wayne but he's a seedy profiteer at heart, the polar opposite of Bruce Wayne. Both Batman and Bruce mix in the same circles as Cobblepot (criminal vice and upper class society) and anything can happen in or around the Iceberg Lounge and his postion as an underworld middle man. He's a character for any occasion.
There's also tension in how far Batman will tolerate his operations, against his value as an information source, and he's a foil to other villains because he's not actually insane and has no grand plan for domination or destruction. He also reflects Batmans control issues; always needing an umbrella and hot women around him (and that's a massive plus in itself) as a means to counter his paranioa and create a desired image. People call him The Penguin, the sleazy fiend but he wants to be Oswald Cobblepot the gentleman of esteem. And he can be a formidable threat to Batman if he wants.
What in particular do you think he lacks as a character?
Right on brother!
In "Batman Returns" you kind of see how Devito's Penguin just wanted to be referred to by his birth name, instead of his adopted villain name the people of Gotham gave to him. However, Burton didn't totally focus on that much, he just wanted to wish he could've known his parents or understand their refusal to not love him, and wanted a sense of belonging. Max Shreck gave him that belonging, but it was a false belonging, and the media and the people took him into their hearts, and it all became too surreal and a fantasy to Penguin, till they dropped him on his butt when Batman got onto their scheme.
This new Penguin should be like you said arrogant, sophisticated, has a fetish for birds, is respectable businessman but not up to par with Bruce Wayne which he despise. And like I've been saying he can still have his trademark top hat, monacle, and bird-like nose, but lose the waddling, webbed hands and feet, and him eating freshly caught fish out a pail.
As for domination, in this movie he should just be an armsdealer. In movie "3" his obsession with bringing down Bruce Wayne should grow bigger. He could work with Mr. Earle and Roman Sionis, rising up the corporate ladder, while Joker and Two-Face are on the loose.
Batman will become so obsessed with bringing down Joker and Two-Face that he'll forget his duties as Wayne and before he knows it Wayne Enterprises and Wayne Corp would become bankrupt and a colossal takeover would happen with--- Oswald Cobblepot moving in and Mr. Earle and Roman getting jobs.
From there Bruce would lose millions, lose his father's company, and have to restart and rebuild from scratch.