Scarecrow Scans Master Post: The Complete "HAROO HRAAA"

[about_faces]

Back during that mystical period known as the nineties, Batman writers Alan Grant and Doug Moench decided--for whatever reason--to give the Scarecrow a bizarre laugh that went "HAROO HRAAA" or sometimes "HAROO HRAAII."

At least, I think it was meant to be a laugh. Maybe it was meant to be the Scarecrow version of "BOOGA-BOOGA!" which would

Comments

[lego_joker]

First post, because my ego is in much need of stroking. :)

For my next "I've got waaaaay too much spare time on my hands" project, I'm considering re-writing the Pokerap and inserting Batman villains into it instead. Of course, if this comes to pass, you are contractually required to sing it and put it on Youtube.

In other news, I've just discovered that one of my favorite mangas, Franken Fran, has ended... about a month ago. It's impacted me more strongly than I thought it would - like the friend that bit the dust as soon as you stopped keeping tabs on him every 24 hours.

That, and the ending was both odd and strangely fitting for such as grotesque, bizarre, yet charming manga.

[vw_tb0]

I LOVE the idea of a pokerap with Batman villians.

[about_faces]

Oh good lord. Well, through enough super-obscure ones in there, and we'll see... ;)

Although personally, I might be tempted to instead just do this one straight:

[lego_joker]

Well, you can help now!

So far, I've got three sets of rhyming names. I thought up a fourth one, involving Firefly, but I forgot who the other guy was by the time I rushed to write it down.

Any ideas?

[psychopathicus]

My personal impression was that the 'Hroo Hraa' business was supposed to be his imitation of a crow - something that would seem to be backed up by the inclusion of more typically crow-like noises such as 'Kraaw!' in some of these panels. I've had ample opportunity to listen to crows over the years, and some of the noises they make do sound something like that, if delivered in harsh, crow-like tones. Psychologically speaking, I'd always kind of assumed that it was the noise he'd used to scare birds as a kid (again, note him doing that in several panels), and having made a career of doing the same to humans, he'd adopted the noise as a sort of battle-cry or war-whoop, used both to unnerve others and to psyche himself up.

[about_faces]

Weird. I've never heard crows sound that way. Now I'm going to be listening around for anything resembling "HROO HRAA."

[psychopathicus]

Well, 'HROO', if pronounced exactly as written, is admittedly a bit of a weird noise for a crow to make, but 'HRAA' is not. For that matter, if you dropped an 'O' and replaced the H's with K's, you'd have 'KRO KRAW', which is a very crow-like sort of noise. And that's just crows - if you include ravens in the mix, you'd have a whole new range of sounds, as their voices are deeper and croakier and include more 'O' sounds. (There are a lot of crows living in my neck of the woods, so believe me, I know of what I speak.)

[anonymous]

A wee bit off topic, but have you seen the new DC Lego sets? It looks like Two-Face is going to have his own set on shelves as we speak: A two-toned semi. I also heard that the Scarecrow is due for a little yellow brick version this fall.
-Nobody

[about_faces]

I saw that at our local K-Mart not too long ago! I consider it a mark of maturity that I resisted the thirty-dollar splurge on something that I didn't really need, with money that could be better spent on more practical things that won't be a choking hazard for the baby.

The second he's old enough for Legos, though... bam, zoom, straight to the eBay!

[psychopathicus]

I could have sworn there was already a Two-Face Lego set in existence. I remember seeing one in a catalog or something - and this was at least a year or two back - that featured Two-Face and his gang driving around in an armored van painted half-grey half-black and with two large 'coin' emblems on the top, one scratched one clean. Is that what you're talking about?

[about_faces]

Indeed there was, and it's crazy rare and expensive. I actually once thought I found it for cheap on eBay and was feeling so damn proud of myself until I realized that what I spent twenty bucks on so eagerly turned out to just be the booklet that came with the set. So, yeah. Never getting that set. The new one, from what I've seen, throws in more classic orange-and-purple color schemes. Old school!

[vw_tb0]

A really great Scarecrow story that treats him like a serious villian is The Sinister Straws of the Scarecrow (Batman vol 39, no. 296) by David V. Reed. It's a 70's comic, so it might not be in print anymore. But it's well worth lokoking at, if you can find it. I got it at Book Nook. I also own a copy of Eye of the Beholder, which I also got from Book Nook. You can find some real gems there.

[about_faces]

I think I've seen that one, yeah! That's a real Scarecrow gem, one that really should be reprinted. The art alone is unlike anything else I've seen from Bronze Age DC.

[abqreviews]

I've got to admit I love the work that went into this, and I find it amusing that you've created a (mini) meme

[about_faces]

I would not be adverse to seeing someone try to pull off the bully origin stuff as long as they didn't lose focus on the "professor" aspect of the character, as Moench eagerly did. Funny thing is that one of Moench's very earliest Scarecrow stories showed several pages of Crane lecturing quietly to himself about science and psychology of fear, which is one of the best examples of "man of science" Scarecrow that I've ever seen in the comics. Go figure.

The Joker's Asylum story was great, one of the two in that first series which were genuinely excellent. It's well worth checking out.

Futurama's also worth checking out, but I have no idea what your viewing experience will be like. For me, I gained a great fondness for the show watching the reruns every weeknight on Adult Swim back in my college days, so it had that ritual experience going for it. Even then, I rarely laughed out loud, but I still loved the show for its intelligence, wit, and great characters. If you do check it out sometime, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[psychopathicus]

I actually think that the whole bully thing adds a needed bit of depth to the character, as without it, his origin is basically just 'grew up obsessed with fear, liked to scare birds, became the Scarecrow to get money'. The bully angle is both semi-plausible and adds that element of twisted wish-fulfillment that is present in a lot of great villains - I mean, who hasn't wanted to get back at their tormentors at some point? I think Crane being a refined man of science who is basically just a bitter child at heart makes for an interesting bit of character duality - the trick, however, is to focus on both of these elements, not just one or the other.

[about_faces]

Then I take it that you haven't read the Scarecrow: Year One origin, have you? It provided a great basis for captaintwinings to build upon for her version of the character. Here, read this to see some of the details from that origin, and how she and Henchgirl developed it from there. I personally find the southern gothic horror family dynamics far more interesting. As for the bully origin, I agree with you in theory, but in practice, I find the results far too ugly and disturbing. I loathe stories about bullied kids becoming bullies themselves. It upsets me on a personal level, as well as on a moral level, because it comes dangerously close to suggesting that they deserved to be bullied in the first place if he ended up becoming a killer and sadist. With the Year One origin, you can still have a degree of "bitter child at heart," but I far prefer how it's employed there.