In the latest issue of Batman, the Scarecrow has resorted to using a tactic employed by the Joker in The Dark Knight with eerily similar results.
WARNING: The following contains Batman #107 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey & Clayton Cowles, on sale now
The Joker’s plot from Christopher Nolan’s Batman sequel The Dark Knight is one of the most chilling and effective plans ever concocted by the Clown Prince of Crime. While the Joker has concocted many plans that have gotten under Gotham’s collective skin, Heath Ledger’s take on the character managed to get to the heart of Gotham’s most secure institutions and tear them apart from the inside. In Tynion and Jimenez’s run on Batman, another villain from The Dark Knight film series is attempting to emulate Joker’s methods and largely succeeding.
In Infinite Frontier #0, Scarecrow’s plan was put into motion. A gas attack on Arkham Asylum, now known as “A-Day,” left the Asylum in ruins with many dead. Scarecrow was believed to be one of the dead, diverting attention away from himself by using toxic green gas to make everyone believe that Joker was behind the attack. Now that everyone thinks Dr. Jonathan Crane is dead and that Joker’s next scheme is playing out sooner than expected they don’t suspect what’s really coming.
Batman #106 ended with the frightening image of what appeared to be Scarecrow directly behind the unaware Mayor Nakano in his own living room. Batman #107 opens with the news reports on the incident, revealing that it wasn’t Scarecrow at all but a straw man on a wooden post. However, the Scarecrow effigy was left as a message not only to the Mayor but all of Gotham.
This tactic is very similar to what the Joker did during The Dark Knight when he killed Commissioner Loeb and Judge Surrillo. In the film, Joker replaces the alcohol in Commissioner Loeb’s office with acid and places a bomb in Judge Surrillo’s car, all while they are surrounded by police. The same is true of Mayor Nakano, who has tight security all around his home. In both cases, Scarecrow and Joker managed to find the tiniest blind spot in the most secure of places and exploit it to spread fear. This is especially true for Scarecrow considering that no fear toxin was found on the effigy in Nakano’s home. Its sole purpose was to fuel the city’s paranoia.
This tactic works as well as it did for the Joker in The Dark Knight, and Scarecrow manages to turn the city against Batman. While investigating Nakano’s home, Batman is confronted by Renee Montoya, the city’s new police commissioner, and a squad of SWAT officers. Montoya may be taking her orders from Nakano, who has hated the Bat-Family since Joker War, but the new commissioner has known Batman for a long time. Scarecrow is exploiting the fear of not just Nakano but one of Batman’s most trusted allies to push them places they wouldn’t normally go.
With Arkham Asylum gone as well, Scarecrow is slowly eroding the well-known institutions of the city. Gotham is already readjusting after Bane and Joker’s latest attacks, so it won’t take much to push the city over the edge. With citizens rushing to buy gas masks for fear of another A-Day attack and the narrows descending into rioting for fear of food shortages, it isn’t hard to draw comparisons to The Dark Knight‘s conclusion. All Scarecrow would have to do is poison the food or tamper with the gas masks and he would have Gotham at his mercy just like Ledger’s Joker did when holding the boats hostage.
Future State revealed that the actions Nakano are currently taking could lead to a police state ruled by the Magistrate. In this case, the future depicted in the comic book future is arguably worse than the outcome seen in The Dark Knight. Both may be worlds where Batman is outlawed, but only one of them is under brutal, invasive, and insidious martial law.
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