Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: N/A
Written by: Bruce Jones
Art by: Sean Murphy
Colored by: Lee Loughridge
Lettered by: Nick Napolitano
Editor: Matt Idelson
Publisher: DC Comics
For those of you who complain about how many ads are in comics, I may have found the book for you. 48 pages, not one ad. Of course, it’ll cost you 6 bucks American (sorry Canada, you’ll have to pick up this book to the tune of 8 dollars). So what does this book offer for the price besides the lack of those pesky ads (and a nice front and back gloss cover.
Well…not much as it turns out. Certainly much less than I was hoping for.
Batman and Robin are hunting a new killer on the scene who calls himself the Scarecrow. Although cornered, all the duo can manage to get of the man is a handful of straw. From there, they will unravel the mystery which takes them from Gotham to the heart of Georgia. Meanwhile, Jonathan Crane reminisces with a former mentor about the child who would be Scarecrow.
Scarecrow’s origins are not anything we haven’t seen before, even if it this is the first time we are seeing it directly connected to Crane. He had a Carrie-esque childhood with his great grandmother, a woman who tortured him for his “perverse” interests like reading James Joyce. At school, things were also awful as he was tortured by classmates and called things like “stair rail” and, of course, “Scarecrow”. An explanation for his love of scaring birds (as seen in the Shadow of a Bat “God of Fear” story and his other Year One story found in the TPB Four of a Kind) is offered. The ejection from his scholarly pursuit is rehashed (it hinged on the “psychology” of a gun). It’s all pretty predictable.
As Jones discussed in interviews, there is an effort to compare Crane to serial killers. What’s odd is that there is no real effort to develop that idea. Batman comes right out and calls him one, but, where’s the proof? Crane seemingly has, to date, only killed for profit or revenge and neither of those qualities are features of serial killers. Just because Batman says, “So he’s a serial killer who makes a profit- he’s still a serial killer,” doesn’t make it true. It might make him a spree killer or, as Robin mentions, a signature killer, but it does not make him a serial killer. Body count is not the key to serial killers, motivations and obsessions are. Nothing offered here reinforces the idea that Crane is nothing more than a control freak who kills to fund his primary interests or to hurt those that hurt him.
Giving credit where credit is due, however, Jones does have Batman acknowledge an interesting connection between he and Crane (the “Guy dresses up in something horrific” etc quote). I’m not entirely convinced that Batman would be that quick to make such an observation, but it is dead-on and, I think, the first time I’ve read it.
On the art side, Murphy does a nice job for the most part. However, he falls into the same trap so many have before him: he can’t make Scarecrow look scary. His interpretation of the costume is unique and all about belts and buckles, but not spooky in the least. Plus, he makes Crane appear diminutive at points, which should never be the case. Crane is tall and ridiculously thin and it is an important feature of his character. Here, he appears sort of short and of normal weight, most of the time.
