WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #3 (1941)
Written by Bill Finger
Pencils by Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson
Sadly the cover scene doesn’t actually happen: “World’s Finest” was an anthology book, Superman and Batman don’t even meet.
This is an extremely rare occasion of a major Batman villain that doesn’t debut in his regular titles.
Psychology classes were pretty dangerous in the 40s!
There are countless examples of people becoming supervillains because they were made fun of by their peers, but how many do you know that were driven to crime by criticism about their fashion!?
I never thought of the scarecrow as a symbol of poverty, but apparently it’s a major theme here.
The Scarecrow doesn’t use his trademark fear gas in his first story. Instead he just scares people by shooting them!
He’s also not very committed to his theme. What do bombs have to do with scarecrows!?
First Hugo Strange, then the Joker, now the Scarecrow… was every single Batman villain a physical threat in their first appearance!?
It’s easy to be the world’s greatest detective if you randomly know everything!!!
Seriously, this comes out of NOWHERE.
They track the Scarecrow and they defeat him in a frankly ridiculous manner.
I can see why the Scarecrow has only 2 appearances in the Golden Age. He’ll have to wait until 1967 to be brought back, this time with the fear gas.
Historical significance: 6/10
When the Scarecrow is re-introduced, they will keep the same exact origin. Without the reference to how he dresses.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Everything is surprisingly grounded.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
This was quite bad. Batman randomly knowing the Scarecrow’s secret identity was especially dumb… what, he knows the nickname of EVERY professor in Gotham!?
How close is this to the modern character? 5/10
The look is pretty much there. The rest of the character however doesn’t feel like the Scarecrow… he should be all about fear, but he’s only interested in getting rich. Adding to the fact that he doesn’t have any gimmicks, he ends up being very generic.