"Two-Face: Year One," The Hefner Cut

[about_faces]

Two-Face: Year One was a mess.

I don't know any other way to describe the most recent retelling of Harvey's origin, released to coincide with the release of The Dark Knight. The odds were against it from the start, as the main problem with retelling origins is that you've got to interest people in reading a story they already know, or at least

Comments

[lego_joker]

Meh, the concept of Scarecrow as a character, IMO, is definitely worthy of Batman's rogues gallery, but the execution's always been... lacking.

Part of the problem is that NO ONE can agree on his personality or M.O., and that's when the writers are feeling generous enough to give him one in the first place.

During the Pre-Crisis era, this wasn't much of a problem, since pretty much EVERY villain had the depth of cardboard, but Post-Crisis... Crane falls rather flat in comparison to the likes of his fellow Rogues. He's never had a "breakout" story like Joker (Killing Joke, Going Sane), Harvey (Eye of the Beholder), Harley (Mad Love), Riddler (Detective Comics Annual #8) Mr. Freeze (Heart of Ice), Bane (Knightfall) or even Hatter (Mad as a Hatter).

Most of the time, Scarecrow just gets used whenever the writer needs a "OMG it was a fear-induced hallucination the whole time!!!" gimmick, or when they need to fill out group shots of Batman's "core" rogues gallery. Off the top of my head, the only writers that seem to actually have an interest in him are Doug Moench and Alan Grant (ever read a Scarecrow story by either of them, Hef?).

There's the "Absolute Terror" arc by Pete Rozum, where he sows terror without his fear gas, but even that comes across as rather flat character-wise.

[thehefner]

Hell, I grew up on Moench and Grant's Bat-stories, including their Scarecrow, which is one reason why I didn't care for him until very recently. For one thing, why did they always have him laugh by going "Harrooo hrraaa!"? These days, whenever I read a Moench/Grant Scarecrow, I always hear Futurama's Richard Nixon in my head. "I'm Jonathan Crane, the masssster of fear! Harrrroooo!"

"Absolute Terror"? Oh good god, I don't think I've read that one! It ran alongside another issue or two that have gone uncollected! While it's not perfect from the sounds of it, I simply must track that one down. I think it's important to have writers explore Crane terrorizing people without gas. For science!

Here's my thing with Scarecrow, and what finally got me to appreciate him. My Henchgirl and her best friend are two of the net's preeminent Batman fanfic authors, particularly for the CATverse series which mainly focuses on three henchgirls working for the Scarecrow. They (the real life Henchgirl in my life, and the girls in the story) constantly refer to Scarecrow as "Squishy." I didn't get it. It just didn't fit at all. He's kind of the opposite of a "Squishy." She said that's exactly the point, and moreover, it drives Squishy up the wall to be called Squishy.

So I started doing so myself, and damn if the thought of an annoyed Crane didn't amuse me in the same way that an annoyed cat is amusing and endearing. So after reading their (faithful to comics canon) take on Scarecrow, whom I now habitually call Squishy, I've come to better enjoy comics!Squishy as a result.

So now I can better appreciate even the Moench/Grant stories, even though they're not what I'd consider to be the finest take on the character. But you're right, they really did seem to have a character crush on him.