Let the Fearful Things Out

 Ebenezer Laughton was a thin naturally flexible and double-jointed youth who, along with his brother Ralph was raised by an alcoholic mother who abused them both but took to beating Ebenezer viciously whenever she felt he misbehaved. Feeling guilty afterwards Ebenezer's mother would give him gifts to try and make up for what she had done. Thinking that rewards always followed punishment, Ebenezer began deliberately misbehaving to receive beatings in order to get gifts.

 Growing into a socially stunted and awkward young man, the abnormally flexible and agile Ebenezer worked as sideshow "rubber man" dubbing himself Umberto the Uncanny. Winning a spot on a variety television show, Laughton was performing on stage when Iron Man chased a criminal who had robbed the theatre into show. Ebenezer using his Olympic level acrobatic skills subdued the thief as a publicity stunt. As Iron Man hauled away the criminal and thanked Umberto for his help Laughton realized the criminal potential of his abilities and decided to go into crime.

 Stealing a flock of trained crows from a fellow performer and stealing a scarecrow costume from a local costume shop he hid and trained the crows to follow simple commands and assist him in his new costumed criminal guise as the Scarecrow. Deciding he needed to hit someone wealthy for his first score he targeted the new luxury apartment of Anthony Stark. Despite successfully robbing the apartment the Scarecrow was tracked down and defeated by Iron Man and sent to prison.

 Breaking out of jail Scarecrow resumed robbing high rise apartments with his trained crows and defeated Spider-Man. The Green Goblin offered Scarecrow a position in his criminal organization but the arrogant Scarecrow refused and when next he fought Spider-Man he was defeated and sent back to prison.

 Escaping jail yet again Scarecrow took part in an unsuccessful mass super-villain attack on the wedding of Reed and Sue Richards but was quickly defeated by the assembled heroes and guests of the wedding and sent back to jail.

 Count Nefaria offered Scarecrow membership in the Nefaria Family of the organized crime syndicate called the Maggia. Accepting the offer Scarecrow was busted out of jail by Nefaria's men and joined the Eel, Porcupine, Plantman and Unicorn disguised as the original X-Men framed them as part of Nefaria's bid to blackmail the US government by holding Washington D.C. hostage underneath an impenetrable dome.

 The real X-Men defeated the group which had splintered due to greed and infighting over the ransom money and the dome was destroyed.

 Policeman Brian Muldoon disguised as the Cowled Commander later broke Nefaria's group (minus the Unicorn) out of jail and had them spread chaos across the city in order to emphasize the need for a stronger police force. Captain America and Falcon outed Muldoon as the ringleader of the crime wave and defeated the group. Already deranged from the abuses and defeats he had suffered previously this particular defeat sparked Scarecrow's obsessive hatred of Captain America.

 Sent to a maximum security prison the Scarecrow quickly escaped but was defeated once again by Captain America, the already unstable Scarecrow was placed in solitary confinement for nearly a year and his mind totally snapped.

 Upon escaping, the Scarecrow armed himself with a pitchfork and began a killing spree around the city and stalking people in central park at night, stabbing them to death with the farm tool, sometimes stuffing their corpses with straw and turning them into makeshift scarecrows. Captain America was approached by Laughton's brother Ralph who told the Captain about the abusive childhood Ralph and Ebenezer endured and Ebenezer's increasingly violent behavior, delusions and false memories.

 During the final fight Scarecrow suffered a nervous breakdown while being beaten by Captain America and the unstable criminal started sobbing calling the Captain "father" and begging him not to beat him anymore before collapsing on the floor crying.

 The Scarecrow was once again arrested and this time imprisoned in the superhuman prison The Vault located in the Colorado Rockies. During the Acts of Vengeance the Vault was a scene of  a mass prison break. Escaping his cell the Scarecrow was defeated by Hawkeye and returned to his cell.

 Months later during another prison break caused by Venom, Scarecrow, Rhino and Armadillo tried to stop their fellow inmates and convince them to just serve out their time but Venom's allies Klaw and the Controller beat the trio into submission.  The Venom mass breakout was stopped by the combined efforts of the Avengers and Freedom Force.

 Unable to treat his insanity The Vault transferred Laughton to Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York. Somehow coming into contact with his crows through the barred window of his cell Scarecrow got them to bring him scarecrow masks and a straight razor. Donning his mask and becoming the Scarecrow once again Laughton made a bloody escape from the hospital and resumed his serial killings which he now believed would "free the fear" and "let the fearful things out" of his victims by ripping them open with his pitchfork or razor.

 Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch) tracked down Scarecrow and during their battle impaled him on his own pitchfork and left him for dead. Scarecrow was rescued by the shadowy organization the Firm, who performed a series of surgeries on Laughton (which unknown to all he was awake through the entire time) giving him the ability to produce pheromones that cause panic and intense fear in his victims and for his body to actually feed off the emotion of fear of his victims  enhancing his strength.

 Slipping his restraints Laughton slaughtered everyone present in the operating room and escaped once again going on a killing spree across to city to attract the attention of  Captain America. Captain America and Ghost Rider both sought out Scarecrow and once again Ghost Rider killed Scarecrow by impaling him on a spiked wrought iron fence.

 The Firm once again took Scarecrows body and resurrected him leaving him inside a vault with other mutants and creatures they had created hoping he would lead them as their personal army of fear.

 Ghost Rider utterly destroyed the Firm organization and when the FBI opened the vault where they had kept their experiments Scarecrow escaped and using a new pitchfork created by the Firm was able to physically hurt Ghost Rider with it. During the melee but he was shot in the spine and collapsed apparently dead. The creatures that had been inside the Firm's vault with him dragged Ebenezer's body away.

 Healing and abandoning the Firm's creatures The Scarecrow made a home for himself in Brooklyn on a patch of poisoned waste ground. Realizing the fear of others fed his strength and continually healed him Scarecrow began abducting victims, bringing them back to his house and torturing them in order to be fed a constant flow of fear to add to his powers. Deciding he wanted to make Ghost Rider fear him the Scarecrow lured the spirit of vengeance to his house which he lined the narrow halls and walls of with his still living victims prevented Ghost Rider from lashing out at him without risking hurting the innocents he protected and avenged.

 When Scarecrow demanded Ghost Rider submit to torture or else he would kill another victim Ghost Rider stunned Scarecrow by promising to inflict upon him vengeance a thousand times greater than anything Scarecrow could do. Grabbing the stunned Scarecrow, Ghost Rider crushed and broke the major bones in his body and held him so that they would heal improperly and disjointed angles crippling Scarecrow with immobility and intense constant pain. The police easily capture Scarecrow and sent him to prison.

 Transferred to the government research and containment facility/prison known as The Black Hole, the Scarecrow underwent extensive surgery to fix his damaged limbs. The Ghost Rider was also captured and being held in this prison. When he broke free from his cell the Ghost Rider caused a blackout which allowed the now healed Scarecrow to escape and slaughter the surgeons working on him and feeding off their fear.

 The mysterious warden of the facility known only as The Spook, armed the subterranean nuclear reactor of the Black Hole and set it to detonate before confronting the Scarecrow without fear and tasked Scarecrow with stopping Ghost Rider from deactivating the core before leaving. Accepting his task the Scarecrow attacked Ghost Rider but the spirit of vengeance managed to overpower Scarecrow and narrowly escaped the prison before it detonated. Scarecrow was consumed by the explosion and vaporized.

 Scarecrow's soul was sent to hell where the demon Blackheart sent Ebenezer's bodiless spirit to possess the dead body of Barbara Ketch, the deceased sister of Ghost Rider's human host Daniel. Following a harrowing battle with Ghost Rider, Scarecrow's soul was cast out of Barbara's corpse and once again cast into Hell.

 For reasons unrevealed Scarecrow was cast out of hell and sent back to Earth in human form where he resumed his killings but he was captured by the Falcon and sent to The Raft super-prison. Later Scarecrow escaped during a the massive breakout caused by Electro blowing up the prison and he took part in gang beating Spider-Man before escaping.

 Scarecrow was then hired by the Chameleon to serve with his team, the Exterminators, seeking vengeance against Spider-Man when his secret identity was made public during the Initiative but he was defeated by Black Cat and like the majority of the world he had his memory of Spider-Man's secret identity erased by Mephisto.

 During the Dark Reign event Scarecrow allied himself with The Hood and joined his gang becoming his occult advisor and sent the Hood to Satana for help with his possession by Dormammu. When the Hood's gang was defeated by the Avengers Scarecrow was arrested and sent back to prison where he was passed over for rehabilitation in the Thunderbolts program due to his severe mental illness and unpredictability.

 Scarecrow and above listed characters copyright Marvel Comics.

 Special thanks to for being the model for the girl that should have stayed out of the park that night.