Publisher Marvel Comics | Creator Scott Edelman | |
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Created by Scott Edelman (writer)
Rico Rival (artist) Notable aliases Scarecrow, Skirra Corvus Abilities Superhuman Strength
Invulnerable, except towards fire
Fear inducement
Plant manipulation
Portal creation
Weather manipulation First appearance Dead of Night #11 (August 1975) Similar Lurking Unknown, Dweller‑in‑Darkness, Olivier, Llan the Sorcerer, Dakimh the Enchanter | ||
The Scarecrow, later named the Straw Man, is a fictional character, a super hero appearing in the Marvel Comics universe.
Contents
Publication history
The Scarecrow was created by Scott Edelman and Rico Rival and first appeared in Dead of Night #11 (August 1975). Gil Kane and Bernie Wrightson provided the cover art. The Scarecrow character originally was scheduled to appear as a feature in Monsters Unleashed and Giant-Size Werewolf but both of those series were cancelled before the Scarecrow feature could appear. It was then rescheduled for Dead of Night and after that series was cancelled as well, the character was to have a self-titled Scarecrow series but it was not published. Edelman and artist Ruben Yandoc produced a follow-up story which appeared in Marvel Spotlight #26 (February 1976), and was eventually concluded by Bill Mantlo in Marvel Two-in-One #18 (August 1976)
Many years later, he was brought back in the pages of Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #31 (July 1991) in which he took on the name "Straw Man" to differentiate himself from the costumed killer the Scarecrow. He subsequently appeared in issues #38 and #40 meeting Daredevil in the latter issue.
Scarecrow did not speak in his early appearances, but in his later appearances he did and he pretended to be a newscaster named Skirra Corvus, Latin for "Scarecrow."
Fictional character biography
The Scarecrow is an extra-dimensional magical entity (possibly a demon) which takes vengeance on its enemies. He lives inside a palimpsest painting of a laughing Scarecrow purchased by Jess Duncan and opposes the centuries-old Cult of Kalumai. The Scarecrow battled demons at a police station to recover the Horn of Kalumai, which would have allowed Kalumai to travel to earth. Kalumai later spread his influence through the painting into a man who was mutated into a fiery creature and then fought the Thing and the Scarecrow. The Straw Man was invited by the Dweller-in-Darkness to join the Fear Lords, but he betrayed them to Doctor Strange.
During the "Fear Itself" storyline, the Straw Man fought against Nightmare's attempt to use the fear brought by the Serpent to become the King of Fear.