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"The 6 Days of the Scarecrow": As the mayoral campaign starts in Gotham City, Batman goes out on patrol and is shot with a dart in the back of his neck. He takes the sample of the dart back to the Batcave to analyze it, but is unable to find anything wrong wit

Detective Comics #503 is an issue of the series Detective Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1981.

Synopsis for "The 6 Days of the Scarecrow"

As the mayoral campaign starts in Gotham City, Batman goes out on patrol and is shot with a dart in the back of his neck. He takes the sample of the dart back to the Batcave to analyze it, but is unable to find anything wrong with the dart.

The next day, Bruce realizes that his mere presence causes fright on the people nearby and he deduces there must be a connection between the dart and the strange events. As Batman, he tries to get more information, but his investigations are futile as every person he interrogates is too frightened to say a word. The problems don't end there, as he has caused Alfred to be terrified of him. Batman decides to remain in the Batcave and continue his investigations from there, but Alfred, knowing Bruce's problem, contacts Dick Grayson and informs him about the situation.

Robin enlists Batgirl's help and they get in touch with Batman, who provides them the instructions necessary to crack the case. In the meantime, the one person behind it all, Scarecrow, is planning to strike at Gotham after six days have passed, time in which the drug he used on Batman will drive the manhunter insane.

After four days of investigation, Batgirl and Robin manage to find clues that connect to Scarecrow and they locate the crook's hideout, but they fall for one of Scarecrow's traps. He used a Batman dummy placed as a scarecrow in a corn field and he had his henchmen take the young heroes to their hideout.

When Batman learns that his young sidekicks have both been kidnapped, he decides to go looking for Scarecrow himself, with only one day left before madness strikes. Batman is able to locate Scarecrow's hideout, but the master of fear has been expecting him. His henchmen were dosed with an antidote that prevents Batman's fear to project unto them. This only makes things easier for Batman as he could beat them without concern. Scarecrow's last resort is to inject Robin and Batgirl and a stronger dose of his fear toxin, but Batman stops him and Scarecrow injects himself. During the struggle, the whole place catches on fire and Scarecrow's hideout is destroyed.

After taking the antidote, Batman takes Jonathan Crane to Arkham Asylum, where the medical staff is unable to help Crane as the dose was too high and he is now afraid of himself.

Appearing in "The 6 Days of the Scarecrow"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Scarecrow
    • "Big" Fredo (Single appearance)
    • Betty Lunden (Single appearance)
    • Carl (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Notes

Trivia

  • According to the letters page of the previous issue, this story was developed after the cover art by Jim Starlin, which was created prior to the script.


See Also

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