Batman

The Scarecrow has returned to Gotham City, but he's no longer the meek punching bag Batman is used to. The villainous genius has always preyed on the worst fears of his victims, but has refined his legendary fear toxin to even greater effectiveness and deadlier consequences. As the Scarecrow's origin is unfurled, Batman must find out not only how to conquer this dangerous psychopath, but how to beat his own worst fear.

The theme of fear was clear from the opening. Having Batman's rogues escape without a good plot explanation was cyclical, but luckily there wasn't too much focus on it, instead on the new empowering formula they were taking. Some issues: the new villain White Bunny a) could've been explored with more depth considering the whole descent into madness thing and b) definitely should have had more clothes on. The other villains all seemed to be reading Bruce's monologue as well because they started talking about fear for no real reason. Also, Batman took a LOT of hits and I was left at times scratching my head at his superhuman nature. Everything else was good though, with some typical fights and clean simple art.

Every once in a while someone takes a shot at the lesser ranking villains in the Batman world. So in a week I have gone through the Riddler (Earth One) and now in this book on the Scarecrow. And scary is the way he comes across in this take by Gregg. We also get a bit of a back story which makes you feel bad for the fellow for a few seconds. But for me the reason it never reaches 4 stars is that there is no plot or investigation holding this together. Its a straight fight between the two and the winner takes all. What might have been. Sigh!