HA HA HA: "Feel the strings... Feel the joints... Feel the wood... Feel the points..." With a sudden sparkle, Abra Kadabra performs what may be his favorite magic trick of all, transforming the ill-fated Chester "Chunk" Runk into a bulbous wooden marionette bound by string and rhyming incantation to the demented puppeteer's will. (Puppets, of course, have been associated with the villain ever since the publication of The Flash #133, featuring one of the Silver Age's most memorable classic covers.) Kadabra's so delighted by this trick, in fact, that the air is soon filled with the sinister onomatopoeia we most associate with the comic book supervillain. From an early age we're taught that these joined letters--"HA!"--equate to the sound of human laughter. The onomatopoeia is so ingrained in our consciousness, in fact, that we sometimes utter the word itself in place of actual laughter! None wield it quite so well as the supervillain, however. Where would the likes of the Joker, Sinestro, or Black Manta be without it? In this instance, Abra Kadabra seems only too happy to demonstrate. Is it any wonder Wally West fears for his sanity?
Issue: The Flash (v.2) #23 (February 1989)
3 comments:
Thanks, Rob!
Of course, if you're really evil, or a mad scientist, the "HAHAHAHA" would change to "BWAH HA HA!" often rendered with the tip of the pinky in your mouth...
Quite right, James. That is, after all, how we distinguish those who are simply evil from those who are super evil!
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