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Politics as “the Product of Everything You Fear”: Scarecrow as Phobia Entrepreneur

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Abstract

First appearing in World’s Finest Comics #3 in 1941, “the Scarecrow”—criminal alias for Dr. Jonathan Crane, professor specializing in the psychology of fear—is one of Batman’s oldest villains. Though he appeared only five times in his first three decades, his presence grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By the 1990s, he was a regularly recurring member of Batman’s Rogue Gallery, thanks in part to the animated Batman series. He achieved a kind of stardom in the 2000s and 2010s as the only villain to appear in all three films of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, as a central villain in the Arkham video game series, as one of the earliest featured villains in the Gotham television series, and as a playable character in the Injustice 2 video game.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example: Jason Dittmer, Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013).

  2. 2.

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    David V. Reed and Sal Amendola, “The Sinister Straws of the Scarecrow,” Batman Arkham Scarecrow (Burbank, CA: DC Comics, 2016), 89, 76, 79. (Originally published in Batman #296 1978).

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    Corey Robin, Fear: The History of a Political Idea (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004).

  6. 6.

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  7. 7.

    Jeff Shantz and Hisham Ramadan, “Phobic Constructions: Psychological, Sociological, Criminological Articulations,” In Manufacturing Phobias: The Political Production of Fear in Theory and Practice, ed. Hisham Ramadan and Jeff Shantz (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 51–68.

  8. 8.

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    Erik van Ree, “Fear of Drugs,” International Journal of Drug Policy 8 (1997): 93–100.

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  25. 25.

    Denny O’Neil, Ernia Chua, and Dick Giordno, “The Scarecrow’s Trail of Fear,” Batman Scarecrow Tales (New York, NY: DC Comics, 2005), 48. (Originally published in The Joker #8 July–August 1976).

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    Ramadan and Shantz, “Phobic Constructions,” 11.

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    The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, “History of Anti-vaccination Movements,” The History of Vaccines, January 10, 2018, accessed April 21, 2018, https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/history-anti-vaccination-movements

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  30. 30.

    Doug Moench, Bret Blevins, and Mike Manley, “Year One: Scarecrow Masters of Fear,” Batman Arkham Scarecrow (Burbank, CA: DC Comics, 2016), 141–186. (Originally published in Batman Annual #19 1995).

  31. 31.

    Mark Ames, Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion from Reagan’s Workplace to Clinton’s Columbine and Beyond (Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2005).

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  33. 33.

    Introduced in “Never Fear,” directed by Kenji Hachizaki, The New Batman Adventures (November 1, 1997; Warner Home Video, 2008), Kindle Fire.

  34. 34.

    Mike W. Barr, Alan Davis, and Paul Neary, “Fear for Sale,” Batman Scarecrow Tales (New York, NY: DC Comics, 2005), 111. (Originally published in Detective Comics #571 February 1987).

  35. 35.

    Doug Moench, Kelley Jones, and John Beatty, “Scarecrow Part Two: Haunted House of the Head,” Batman Arkham Scarecrow (Burbank, CA: DC Comics, 2016), 226. (Originally published in Batman #524 1995).

  36. 36.

    Moench, Gulacy, and Palmiotti, Terror, 106.

  37. 37.

    Peter Milligan, Duncan Fegredo, and Bjarne Hansen, “Mistress of Fear,” Batman Scarecrow Tales (New York, NY: DC Comics, 2005), 127–148. (Originally published in Scarecrow (Villains) #1 February 1998).

  38. 38.

    Lydia Saad, “Confidence in Religion at New Low, but Not Among Catholics,” Gallup, June 17, 2015, accessed January 9, 2017, http://www.gallup.com/poll/183674/confidence-religion-new-low-not-among-catholics.aspx

  39. 39.

    Alan Grant, Bret Blevins, and Adrienne Roy, Shadow of the Bat #17 (New York: DC Comics, late September 1993), 6.

  40. 40.

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  41. 41.

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  42. 42.

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  43. 43.

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  44. 44.

    Bruce Jones, Sean Murphy, and Lee Loughridge, “Year One: Batman Scarecrow” Batman: Two-Face and Scarecrow Year One (New York: DC Comics, 2009), 19. (Originally published in Year One: Batman Scarecrow #1–2 2005).

  45. 45.

    BAS 20.

  46. 46.

    Martin Staples Shockley, “The Teacher in American Literature,” The South Central Bulletin 31, no. 4 (1971): 218.

  47. 47.

    Moench, Blevins, and Manley, “Year One,” 167.

  48. 48.

    “Nothing to Fear.”

  49. 49.

    Daniel W. Drezner, “Everyone Thinks the Current State of Higher Education is Awful. Who is to Blame?” Washington Post, August 14, 2015, accessed April 21, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/14/everyone-thinks-the-current-state-of-higher-education-is-awful-who-is-to-blame/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.45601756c96c

  50. 50.

    F.H. Buckley, “How Trump Can End Brainwashing on College Campuses,” New York Post, January 9, 2017, accessed April 21, 2018, https://nypost.com/2017/01/09/how-trump-can-end-brainwashing-on-us-campuses/; Molly Ball, “Donald Trump and the Politics of Fear,” The Atlantic, September 2, 2016, accessed January 20, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/donald-trump-and-the-politics-of-fear/498116/. Also: Corey Robin, “How Political Fear Works,” The New Republic, February 6, 2017, accessed April 21, 2018, https://newrepublic.com/article/140431/political-fear-works

  51. 51.

    Moore, Critchlow, and Buscema, Batman/Scarecrow 3-D, 33.

  52. 52.

    Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics, directed by JM Kenny and Scott Devine (Burbank, CA: DC Comics, 2013), DVD.

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  55. 55.

    Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan (2005; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2005), DVD.

  56. 56.

    Michael Reaves and Steven-Elliot Altman, Batman: Fear Itself (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2007); Matthew K. Manning, Erik Doescher, Mike DeCarlo, and Lee Loughridge, Batman: Scarecrow, Doctor of Fear (North Mankato, MN: Stone Arch Books, 2013).

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    Rocksteady Studios, Batman: Arkham Knight (London: Eidos Interactive, 2015), Microsoft Windows.

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  59. 59.

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  60. 60.

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  61. 61.

    Peter J. Tomasi and Szymon Kudranski, “Double Jeopardy,” Batman Arkham Scarecrow (Burbank, CA: DC Comics, 2016), 257–276. (Originally published in Detective Comics #23.3 2013).

  62. 62.

    “The Fearsome Dr. Crane,” directed by John Behring, Gotham (February 2, 2015; Warner Home Entertainment, 2015), Blu-ray; “The Scarecrow,” directed by Nick Copus, Gotham (February 9, 2015; Warner Home Entertainment, 2015), Blu-ray.

  63. 63.

    Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, Batman: Haunted Knight (New York, NY: DC Comics, 1996), 11.

  64. 64.

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  65. 65.

    Moore, Critchlow, and Buscema, Batman/Scarecrow 3-D, 17; Moench, Blevins, and Manley, “Year One,” 170.

  66. 66.

    Shantz and Ramadan, “Phobic Constructions,” 51.

  67. 67.

    Robin, Fear, 3.

  68. 68.

    Ball, “Donald Trump.”

  69. 69.

    Conway, Newton, Adkins, and Oda, “The 6 Days of Scarecrow.”

  70. 70.

    Barr, Davis, and Neary, “Fear for Sale.”

  71. 71.

    Robin, “How Political Fear Works,” para. 2.

  72. 72.

    Fox, Kane, and Giella, “Fright of the Scarecrow,” 35.

  73. 73.

    Rocksteady Studios, Batman: Arkham Knight.

  74. 74.

    Moench, Blevins, and Manley, “Year One,” 170.

  75. 75.

    Ramadan and Shantz, “Phobic Constructions,” 3.

  76. 76.

    Johns, Reis, Albert, and Prado, Blackest Night #6, n.p.

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Correspondence to Christina M. Knopf .

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Knopf, C.M. (2019). Politics as “the Product of Everything You Fear”: Scarecrow as Phobia Entrepreneur. In: Picariello, D. (eds) Politics in Gotham. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05776-3_11

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