Description

Batman: Shadow of the Bat (#16-18) The God of Fear                       Comics Lot
Featuring the three-part God of Fear storyline.  Awesome!!
Writer: Alan Grant
Artist: Bret Blevins
Inkers: Mike Manley & Steven George
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editors: Jordan B Gorfinkel & Dennis O’Neil
All Covers by: Brian Stelfreeze

Arkham Asylum, that home of lunatics, paranoids, and the murderously insane, is being torn down and rebuilt. The son of the original architect, Jeremiah Arkham, is the new chief administrator, and he’s ripping out the old, and bringing in the new. Now, instead of the dark Victorian corridors and dank cells, there are shiny new fluorescent lights illuminating a floor plan laid out like a labyrinth. All of this, of course, in the name of progress.

But in the new asylum are the same old inmates: Cornelius Stirk, the murderously insane night-dweller; Scarecrow, whose greatest joy is to bring fear to others; and Mr. Zsasz, the serial killer who has laid waste to over a hundred lives… As well as one other, very special guest of Arkham Asylum… Batman.

Now, in “God of Fear”, Scarecrow gathers a crew of helpers who help launch a massive fear attack on Gotham City. Meanwhile, Anarky escapes from juvenile detention and plots his revenge on Batman.

Story/Spoilers
In issue #1, Some students at Gotham University discover a poster offering $50 to participate in a psychological experiment. Two bullies force a young man named Herold who has a stutter into participating as well. In the room that the experiment is to take place, the students are excited to see that it involves some kind of virtual reality helmets. Meanwhile, Jonathan Crane has set up the experiment as part of a plan to take revenge on Gotham City.

At Wayne Manor, Tim Drake is surprised to discover Jean-Paul Valley wearing the Batsuit on the balcony. He warns that Bruce Wayne has a rule against wearing costumes in the manor outside of the Batcave. Jean-Paul is unconcerned, and deliberately flouts Bruce’s rules, stating that he will take up the Batman’s mission in his own way. He storms off into the cave, adding that Robin’s services will not be required. Tim worries that his dream life as partner to his hero is going down the toilet.

Dr. Crane – under the pseudonym of Professor Rance – begins the experiment, but Herold recognizes him as the Scarecrow, and the man who killed his father. Annoyed, but not put off, Crane sprays Herold and the supervising teacher Ms. Stopes with knockout gas, and forces everyone into their virtual reality helmets. Herold has a series of nightmares culminating in watching the Scarecrow shoot his father right before his eyes.

Meanwhile, Lonnie Machin has escaped a juvenile detention centre, and enacts his plan to bring down the elites of the world by taking them on as Anarky. He becomes disgusted with the number of criminals loose on Gotham’s streets following the breakout at Arkham Asylum. He fires up a flare to attract the attention of the Batman, and then observes as he systematically beats a group of thugs up.

With his hypnosis experiment complete, Scarecrow ensures his control over the students by forcing them to stand, sit, bark like dogs, and finally to have one of the students kill another in cold blood. Satisfied that he has their obedience, he orders them to get their costumes out of his van.

As he watches Batman take out the crooks, Anarky comes to the conclusion that the evil of Gotham City is Batman’s fault, having set himself up as a vigilante. His implied challenge to villains to take the city away from him leads criminals like Joker, Two-Face and Mister Zsasz to threaten Gotham. Having decided this, Anarky vows to bring Batman down.

Scarecrow has each of the hypnotized students dress in similar scarecrow costumes to his own, and reveals that he intends to become a living god of fear, with their help. Before leaving, he instructs Ms. Stopes to release fear gas into the vents of the university at precisely ten o’clock.

Next in issue #2, Scarecrow deploys some of his troops with instructions to strike at precisely 11 o’clock. However, before moving on, his focus settles on the boy who earlier accused him of killing his father. The boy explains that his father Paul Herold had been shot by Scarecrow. Scarecrow realizes that the man was his first victim, and that he had intended to steal the man’s collection of antiquarian books. He decides not to do pass up the opportunity, and drags the boy along as he makes to steal those books, finally.

On the streets of Gotham City, Batman violently beats two thugs, warning them that if he sees them out on the streets at night again, he will beat them more, whether they’ve done wrong or not. Afterwards, he hears over a police scanner that the Scarecrow is on the move.

On the scene at Gotham University, Harvey Bullock and Renée Montoya of the GCPD question the Dean, noting the Scarecrow’s obvious involvement. Montoya discovers a tape addressed to the Batman, and Bullock insists that they play it anyway, unaware that Batman is already in the room. On the tape, Scarecrow promises that by the end of the night one million people will be affected by his fear toxin, and worship him as the god of fear. Suddenly, the tape stutters, and Batman leaps into action just in time to prevent the detectives from being caught in an explosion as it self-destructs. Before leaving, Batman demands a list of the missing students.

In an alley, Anarky observes a motorcycle gang called the Anti-Batz terrorizing some citizens, expressing disgust that even the gangs identify themselves with reference to the Batman, whom he blames for all the crime in Gotham. Anarky takes out the gang members, declaring that their methods are against the people, and therefore, he is against them. His experience with the gang only solidifies his desire to take out Batman.

As Scarecrow loots Herold’s father’s antiquarian library, he offers to explain the story of how he was killed. As a young boy, Jonathan Crane had loved causing fear, and had also loved to read. Eventually the two interests combined such that he began an intense study of fear, and became a professor of psychology. After overhearing some colleagues questioning his methods of teaching and likening his physique to a scarecrow’s, he decided to use the scarecrow as his symbol, and became a villain. He hired himself out to a business man whose partner was Paul Herold. Herold was suing Scarecrow’s employer, and refused to drop the suit, so Crane shot him.

After finishing his story, Scarecrow reveals his plan to have six Scarecrows (seven including Ms. Stopes) release fear gas across Gotham in venues where it will affect large volumes of people. As the clock strikes ten, the gas is released, and people all over the city are consumed by their worst fears.

Anarky sneaks up on Scarecrow, attacking and subduing him. Unfortunately, after removing the mask, he discovers that it is merely one of the six students Crane hypnotized into doing his bidding. Meanwhile, Batman attempts to save some citizens from a fire caused by the outbreak of the fear gas. He soon realizes that it’s no simple fire, and that all of the people have been affected by the toxin. He is suddenly distracted by a huge hologram of the Scarecrow calling on the citizens to worship him as the god of fear by midnight, or the city dies. Anarky also sees the Scarecrow’s message, and forms a plan to take out Batman and Crane in one easy move.

Finally in issue #3, A member of Scarecrow’s gang wanders into a GCPD precinct office claiming that he is the real Scarecrow and has come to turn himself in. Suddenly, he empties several canisters of fear gas, and the officers inside all become prey to their worst fears. In the confusion, the Scarecrow impostor is shot.

Meanwhile, Batman tracks down the equipment with which Scarecrow is projecting a giant hologram of his face across the Gotham City skyline. Unfortunately, it appears that this location is only one of several projector sites, and he has more work to do. Jean-Paul struggles with his desire to lay blame on Bane and get vengeance on him, but eventually he realizes that he must protect the city by eliminating the Scarecrow’s threat.

After watching a news report calling him a crazed maniac, Scarecrow becomes aggravated that the people refuse to worship him as god of fear. He complains aloud to his thrall Phil Herold, a boy whose father he killed years ago. Phil’s internal anger builds despite the fact that he can’t even move of his own volition, thanks to the Scarecrow’s fear conditioning.

Batman hears a list of students from Gotham University who the Scarecrow kidnapped, and recognizes Phil Herold’s last name, and his father’s book collection. Meanwhile, Anarky watches Scarecrow from afar, planning to take him out – though, he believes that Batman is the real cause of the Scarecrow’s existence (and the existence of all other costumed villains in Gotham).

At Gotham City Police Headquarters, Commissioner Gordon struggles to handle all of the chaos in the city with his police force spread thin. He receives a call from the Scarecrow warning that if Gordon can’t persuade the city to accept him as God he will release fear gas from a central location, and put the entire city into chaos. Batman overhears Gordon’s warning over his police radio, and wonders how the plan would work, given that the gas would disperse if it were not released into an enclosed space.

Anarky watches from afar, waiting for the Batman to appear as Scarecrow reveals to Phil Herold that he actually intends to release his toxin into Gotham’s water supply, and not into the open air. Moments later, Batman appears, but Scarecrow spots him, and Anarky fires a flare at him to prevent his escape. Batman engages in physical combat with Scarecrow, who ironically uses the Crane style of fighting.

Batman manages to defend against Crane’s attacks, and prepares to savagely beat him, but he is suddenly enveloped along with Scarecrow in a net cast by Anarky. He promises to return Scarecrow to Arkham Asylum, but has determined that he must kill Batman, explaining how he believes that Batman attracts the insane criminal element to Gotham. However, Scarecrow’s mind control over Phil Herold is still intact, and Phil knocks Anarky to the ground while Scarecrow injects both Anarky and Batman with fear toxin and crawls out of the net.

Batman and Anarky are overcome by their fears. Anarky fears a world controlled entirely by bureaucrats and elites, while Batman fears that underneath the mask, he is really nothing at all. Strangely, Jean-Paul’s fear is replaced by a new program, put in place by the Sacred Order of St. Dumas. Finding that his toxin hasn’t worked on Batman, Scarecrow attempts to rely on Batman’s famed code of honour by having Phil leap off the roof.

Rather than save Phil, Batman begins beating Scarecrow into unconsciousness. When he is satisfied, he looks to see that Anarky has caught a rope around Phil’s leg, and is struggling to hold him up. After Batman helps him pull Phil to safety, he questions why Batman would allow an innocent to die. Batman claims the greater good demanded Phil’s death, and then grabs Anarky stating that if he ever gets in his way again, he will kill him.

Comics lot contains: Batman: The Shadow of the Bat – The God of Fear (1993) Issues #16-18.  DC Comics

Comics are bagged & double boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

All First Printings
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: 1993
Format: FC, 32 pages, Comic, 10.25″ x 6.65″
UPC: None Stated

Collectible Entertainment note: Comics are in Very Fine to Very Fine + condition.  Beautiful Lot!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Batman and/or Scarecrow collector / enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Highly recommended.

Please read return policy.