#despite scarecrow wanting a brain there is not a single brain cell to be found in dorothy's trio

[ichiwashername-o]

Do you think Scarecrow had an innate fear of fire, or do you think there was a learning curve there?

The obvious answer is whatever is the funniest.

An important lesson was learned today.

Wicked Master Post Here

[frootertooter]

Loose thoughts/somewhat of a messy personal analysis Year One Scarecrow bc my god it's been eating at my brain cells, but also I find it a little bizarre that I can't find a single analysis of the comic available??? So uhh strap in bois it's unstructured yapping time B')

Oh yea just to preface: I've not read any of the other Year One comics yet? I have no clue if the others are actually connected?? While reading this tho, everything felt like it was a standalone comic so I'm looking at it as such

Parallels between Crane and Bruce: Two of the most important things to both Scarecrow and Batman throughout the story are their usage of fear and control. Both using it as means for vengeance. When either happen to lack control, they may get more aggressive. For Bruce it could be lashing out more than usual at criminals, while for Crane it's smashing a table out of spontaneous anger. What differentiates the two however is that for Crane, fear and control are meant to punish those he felt have personally hurt him- a method taught and learnt through the abuse he received from his Grandmother.

For Bruce, his entire original intent in becoming Batman was to help others, and he uses intimidation/punishment as a tool to achieve that goal. Lamar in ways serves as proof of the effectiveness within the story that it has indeed worked. Bruce throughout the story however, can't realize that difference until the moment he finally meets Crane, and finally confirms the killer's "insanity". It becomes a major internal obstacle for him, and an insecurity that weighs heavily on his mind. (I mean imagine hunting a serial killer and slowly noticing how similar the two of you are,, I don't think it'd weigh lightly on anyone's conscience, let alone Bruce Wayne's of all people ksdfs- In ways it's also really similar to Arkhamverse's and the adjacent A Serious House on Serious Earth's Joker? With how they try and "prove" that Batman is just as insane as they are by attempting to repeatedly break him?)

Robin: Grayson as Robin throughout the story serves as a person to ground Bruce when he begins to start silently spiraling- questioning him, but never actually holding him back. I just really like how Grayson and Bruce's relationship is written within this comic. They're really close and crack jokes with each other, but it's revealed Grayson's been silently harboring internal fears of Bruce/Batman for a while. All completely unknown to Bruce until Dick's struck by the fear toxin. Throughout the story, Grayson sees Bruce's tactics and it's pretty clear both visually and through text that he seems to disapprove? Yet even then, he can't seem to bring himself to outwardly stop Bruce, supposedly out of fear? Despite that tho, Grayson still clearly cares about Bruce and tries to help him out, as seen in that discussion between the two where Bruce starts having his insecurities get to him again. (Also the way Dick is written here really reminds me of my boi Timbo from TNBA, and my favourite episode where he has to stop Bruce after he got dosed by Scarecrow's no fear toxin kdfkd- I think I'm just biased towards stories where robin isn't afraid to sass/take down Batman when needed??)

guhgh.. the way Bruce hesitates while asking Grayson if he's afraid of him...........

The final portion of the story is where it breaks down for me however, because I can't tell what exactly certain scenes are trying to convey? Which is why I'm also kinda making this post, bc I haven't found any other analysis of this comic that explains it/ this comic at all????? (Please if someone else reads the comic and gets it, tell me bc I'm,, just confused??? and I can't seem to find anything on this comic????)

Post-Bruce finding out Grayson fears him somewhat in a "god-fearing kinda way", I don't get why he becomes so aggressive with robin? Perhaps it's because he already had a plan in motion to catch Scarecrow and didn't want Grayson to interfere?? But then why not tell him the plan if that's the case???? And what's up with Bruce pinching Grayson's neck?? or the pinch paralleling the next domestic abuse panel? (My best guess is that it's meant to be a transition??? But if that's the case, I dunno odd choice imo)

And my final bit of confusion is why the fear toxin still affected Batman briefly if he made it so that it would work "specifically and only for scarecrows"???? Because that couldn't have just been a pretend fake-out if we see Bruce hallucinating his parents right?????

Overall tho, love this comic's story and art- Sean Murphy's angular, straight-edge, grittier, yet dynamic artstyle lends itself to the story so damn perfectly it's wonderful- Not gonna delve into it, but the visual parallels between the flock of crows and bats, and both Bruce and Crane reaching for the book were so cool to me dkfkd,, or the way Murphy's artstyle conveys Batman's brutality when taking people out mghhfghgj- Always a massive fan of these short story/series comics