The Straw Man, originally called the Scarecrow, is a fictional character appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

s published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

Publication history

The Scarecrow was created by writer

Scott Edelman Scott Edelman (; born 1955) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer and editor. Career Writer In the 1970s, he worked in American comic books, in particular writing horror comics for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. For Marv ...

and artist Rico Rival and first appeared in ''Dead of Night'' #11 (August 1975).

Gil Kane Gil Kane (; born Eli Katz , ; April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character. Kane co-created the modern-day vers ...

and

Bernie Wrightson Bernard Albert Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017) was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein, adaptation of the novel ''Frankenstein'' illustration work, and for his other ho ...

provided the cover art. Artist Bill Draut was to have drawn the first appearance of the Scarecrow, but did not complete the assignment. The Scarecrow was originally 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 ''Marvel Spotlight'' is a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics as a try-out book. It stood out from Marvel's other try-out books in that most of the featured characters made their first appearance in the series. The series or ...

'' #26 (February 1976), and the story was eventually concluded by

Bill Mantlo William Timothy Mantlo (born November 9, 1951) is an American comic book writer, primarily at Marvel Comics. He is best known for his work on two licensed toy properties whose adventures occurred in the Marvel Universe: '' Micronauts'' and '' R ...

and Ron Wilson in ''

Marvel Two-in-One ''Marvel Two-in-One'' is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring Fantastic Four member the Thing in a different team-up each issue. Publication history Original series The concept of teaming the Thing with a differen ...

'' #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 "the Straw Man" to differentiate himself from the costumed killer named the

Scarecrow A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin that is often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops. ...

. He subsequently appeared in issues #38 and 40, meeting Daredevil in the latter issue. The Scarecrow did not speak in his early appearances. However, 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 In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off in preparation for reuse in the form of another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid ski ...

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 Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

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 Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as ...

. During the '' Fear Itself'' storyline, the Straw Man fought against

Nightmare A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety, disgust or sadness. The dream may contain situations o ...

's attempt to use the fear brought by the Serpent to become the King of Fear.

Powers and abilities

The Straw Man possesses superhuman strength, plant and weather manipulation, the ability to command crows, the ability to create portals and the ability to induce fear in others. He is invulnerable to everything, except for fire.

Reception

The Straw Man was ranked #30 on a listing of Marvel Comics' monster characters.

References

External links

* * {{Marvel Mystic, state=collapsed Comics characters introduced in 1975 Fictional characters with weather abilities Fictional scarecrows Horror comics Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength Marvel Comics demons