Writer: Doug MoenchPlot: Dr. Hugo Strange's efforts to resurrect the Scarecrow in the battle to destroy Batman succeed, perhaps a little too well.
What happens when you brainwash a bad boy so that he's nastier than before? And you amplify his fear toxin? He comes back to haunt you. Jonathan Crane's no dingo when it comes to psychology, since he used to be a professor in the same field, so when Hugo tries to alter his mind, it doesn't take.
Doug retells the Scarecrow's origin in four pages, which he wrote back in Batman Annual #19. Though this is quite an able retelling, there are slight differences from before - like the party costumes that Jonathan, Sherry, and her boyfriend wore, and the creation of the Crane form of martial arts - which make reading that annual imperative to truly understanding Jonathan's metamorphosis.
It wasn't until this second part of Terror that I realized what Strange's girlfriend is. At first, I thought she was just brainwashed, but when you find out her composition, tell me you don't shout "Eww!", too! That is, unless you've been hanging around department stores way too long. It's freaky things like that which thankfully invoke the earlier days of the title, when darker, abnormal themes could emerge.
Fond memories of Doug's work on Batman resurface in this issue, as Batman wields talkative logic and dark wit. Oppositely, Moench's recent scripts for the Batman: Outlaws and Batman: Haunted Gotham minis weren't hallmarks of his career. He's worked with Paul Gulacy on a Hugo Strange story in the past, called Prey, in Legends Of The Dark Knight #11-15, one of the best arcs in the title's run so far. This five part arc certainly seems to be meeting the quality of its more than a decade-old predecessor.
