Many of Batman’s villains try to tap into the feeling of fear to try and scare the hero, often with little to no success. One of the few villains to ever make him feel terrified was the Scarecrow. Heavily relying on the use of his fear toxin, he's had varying levels of success against his opponents. Considering he is one of the few villains to emotionally shake Batman, it’s a wonder that he doesn’t receive more attention in the comics.
While underrated in many respects, there are several stories that may instill some fear in readers just as much as the characters he haunts. Even though they rely on the same theme, they still manage to shake anyone up.
10 A Good Time To Go Back To School
Imagine a villain growing weary of violence. His first thought might be to do anything within his power to stay away from it. Maybe even find a way to return to his roots, or to a time when he knew not to cause harm to others. But sometimes old habits of hold may be hard to part with.
Batman Adventures Annual #1 is broken up into a series of stories surrounding each villain, but the one centering on Scarecrow, "Study Hall" by writer Paul Dini and artists Klaus Janson and Rick Taylor, is particularly interesting. The story takes him through what he believes is his own rehabilitation process and he even takes up teaching at a university. He soon enough finds himself back to his old ways when he finds out his favorite student has come into harm's way.
9 Making A Business Out Of Fear
"Fear of Success," a story told in Batman: Gotham Knights #23 by writer Devin Grayson and artists Bill Oakley, Brian Bolland, John Floyd, Gloria Vasquez, and Darwyn Cooke shows the Scarecrow once again taking the role of a teacher. He is invited to a lecture in which he discusses fear and how it is tied to success. Of course, this isn’t without having made plans of his own to sabotage the event by releasing fear toxin into the crowd.
The story begins with what would seem like a very typical plot. This takes an extremely sharp turn when it's realized that Batman, having absorbed some of the fear toxin, is caught in a reality loop. His bodyguard, Sasha Bordeaux, repeatedly communicates an urgent message but the Dark Knight has trouble distinguishing the truth. He only realizes the horrific news once the toxin has worn off.
8 A Hell Of A Drug
Back in 1987, Scarecrow starred in a story called "Fear for $ale" (Detective Comics #571) by writer Mike W. Barr and artists Alan Davis, Paul Neary, Adrienne Roy, and John Workman. He made an entrepreneurial venture into the business of informally manufactured and sold pharmaceuticals. He managed to create a performance-enhancing drug that removes the feeling of fear, which seems like a good thing at first glance. The issue comes when athletes, who are normally skilled enough to avoid injury, end up making deadly mistakes from risky maneuvers resulting from their overconfidence. To the ones that remain alive, he bribes them with a costly antidote but Batman figures this out and puts a stop to his antics.
This story highlights the fact that Batman is a man with fears of his own. His fear ends up alluding to what would be one of the most influential and horrific things to happen in Batman’s history.
7 Nothing To Be Scared Of
The Scarecrow thrives off of the fear of others. So what happens when someone who’s supposed to be an easy target ends up being his greatest adversary? He does everything he can to make her scared of him.
In New Year’s Evil: Scarecrow by writer Peter Milligan and artists Duncan Fegredo, Duncan Fegredo, Bjarne Hansen, and Albert DeGuzman the titular character is about to stand trial for releasing his fear toxin in a quiet suburb. The only one able to stand as a witness against him is the unassuming Becky Albright. He escapes Arkham Asylum to make every attempt to scare her, only to find out that he’s become the very thing he despised and was fearful of as a child.
This story takes a wonderful twist in focusing more on the Scarecrow’s own fears while trying to sabotage the bravery of someone else.
6 A Haunting From The Past
Batman Year One: Scarecrow follows Batman and Robin as they hunt for a serial killer who is terrorizing Gotham. All signs are pointing towards the Scarecrow, who is stowed away and holding his old psychology professor captive.
Fans get an in depth and personal look at Scarecrow’s story as a child. All the experiences and things that have haunted him for years are brought to light as he deals with traumas by projecting violence on his victims. It is also revealed with greater detail how he came to choose the scarecrow as his symbol of fear.
5 A Fearful Gathering
Joker’s Asylum by writer Joe Harris and artists Juan Doe and Rob Leigh is a collection of stories featuring each of the big villains that Batman has come up against. The Scarecrow’s story doesn’t begin completely focused on him. It focuses on an unpopular girl named Lindsay who is invited to a slumber party. Just before she goes, she tells her therapist that she fears that it may be the set up for a prank against her. Her suspicions turn out to be correct.
As it would turn out, it's revealed that her therapist is actually the Scarecrow who is plotting with Lindsay a “counter prank” against her so-called friends. This results in them experiencing harm that is reminiscent of slashers films not too dissimilar from Scream.
4 A Good Time To Party
In Batman/Scarecrow 3-D by writer John Francis Moore and artists Carl Critchlow, Sal Buscema, and Alex Sinclair, Tim Drake finds himself thrown into Gotham’s party scene when he’s invited to a party at Club Meltdown by his girlfriend, Ariana Dzerchenko. When he arrives, he finds himself suffering from hallucinations, which later cause him to act out of character while assisting Batman with surveillance on the Scarecrow. It’s learned that the DJ at the club was pumping out something akin to LSD into the crowd. The scarecrow later hijacks this system to target a large crowd of youths with his fear toxin, causing them to react frantically as it begins to settle in their bodies.
While the story itself isn’t particularly fantastic, much of the imagery required using 3D glasses, which would have made for a really interesting version of the art. Adding this perspective into the story made for another layer of experience in enjoying the comic.
3 Origins Revisited
Another version of Scarecrow’s origins was explored in the collected series Batman: Four of a Kind. The year one story, "Scarecrow: Masters of Fear" by writer Doug Moench and artists Bret Blevins, Mike Manley, Stuart Chaifetz, and Albert DeGuzman finds the character offering his services of using fear to kill a prominent mob boss’ rivals. This is after Batman learns of the deaths of several professors who each seemed to have been killed by fear.
This story displays more of the Scarecrow’s motivations while showing the parallels to a story he had read as a teen: the one of Ichabod Crane and later of the scarecrow in Wizard of Oz. It's through his bullies acting out the former story that Scarecrow has a twisted epiphany that causes him to escalate into his methods of violence that carry through the remainder of the story.
2 Death That Comes From Fear
Batman: Haunted Knight contains three stories of Halloween specials featuring the Dark Knight. In the first part, "Choices" by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale puts Batman against the Scarecrow as he tries to apprehend him.
Tim Sale’s work is paramount in illustrating the hunt. As Batman struggles through the vivid imagery of his fears he is forced to confront his life choices both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. His fears nearly drive him to his death, but ultimately Scarecrow creates the platform for an eye-opening experience for Batman.
1 Violence Is The Root Of Fear
The scariest of all Scarecrow stories comes from the New 52 version of the character. Batman: The Dark Knight story, “Cycle of Violence" by writer Gregg Hurwitz and artists David Finch, Richard Friend, Sonia Oback, and Dezi Sienty lays the groundwork for imagery that is frightening enough even without the story.
The story wastes no time in weaving in a series of gory events. From the first images of Scarecrow stitching his own mouth together, to Batman being nearly gutted by a scythe, this collection does not pull any punches with the level of violence and the details with which those actions are shown. It definitely puts some reason into why a character like Scarecrow would be as frightening as he is in real life.