Batman Scarecrow First Appearance: World's Finest #3

Batman's Scarecrow first appeared in World's Finest Comics #3, cover-dated September 1941, created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff (Wikipedia). The same issue tells his origin. GoCollect's record for the issue lists a 15-cent cover price, 100 pages and a cover by Jack Burnley, and notes that the Sandman feature begins in this issue and that it is Johnny Thunder's last appearance in the title.

The character was modeled on Ichabod Crane from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He made only two appearances in the Golden Age and then disappeared from the comics until 1967 (Wikipedia).

PriceCharting had no listing for World's Finest Comics #3 when we checked on September 25, 2026, so there is no current price ladder for it here. The public figures we could confirm are older:

• CGC 4.5 (Promise Collection copy): bidding at $3,900 on Heritage Auctions on April 9, 2022 (Bleeding Cool)
• Overstreet 2021 guide, VG 4.0: $864, as quoted by Bleeding Cool
• CGC census, March 2022: 13 copies graded 4.5 and 45 graded higher (Bleeding Cool)

With fewer than 60 copies at 4.5 or better in that census, sales are infrequent. For a current value, check completed sales at Heritage Auctions for the same grade and page quality.

Batman #189 (February 1967) brought the Scarecrow back after 26 years. Writer Gardner Fox's story is where his fear-inducing gas first appears (Wikipedia). PriceCharting values by grade, retrieved September 25, 2026:

• Ungraded: $139.81
• 4.0: $235.50
• 6.0: $451.19
• 8.0: $969.67
• 9.2: $2,579.36

PriceCharting labels it the first Silver Age appearance of the Scarecrow. It is the key most buyers can afford: an ungraded copy costs a small fraction of what a World's Finest #3 in low grade brought in 2022.

His origin has been retold several times. The versions summarized by Wikipedia:

• Childhood: born in Georgia, abused by his great-grandmother and bullied at school because he looked like Ichabod Crane. He first wore the scarecrow costume to take revenge at his senior prom, carrying a water pistol made to look like a real gun.
• Losing his job: as a psychology professor he fired a gun inside a packed classroom and accidentally wounded a student. After he was fired he killed the professors responsible and became a career criminal. Another version has him fired for covering an arachnophobic student with spiders.
• Later expansions: Batman Annual #19 and the miniseries Batman/Scarecrow: Year One filled in the post-Crisis origin; in The New 52 (2011) his father ran fear experiments on him as a child.

The constant is an obsession with fear, which he studies and then uses as a weapon.

Yes, in the comics. Wikipedia notes a story that reveals Crane has a fear of bats, and describes him as addicted to fear: he keeps seeking out fights with Batman because Batman is the one thing that can still frighten him.

• Batman Begins (2005): Cillian Murphy plays Dr. Jonathan Crane, Arkham Asylum's chief administrator, who secretly makes a fear-inducing hallucinogen.
• The Dark Knight (2008): Murphy returns briefly; Batman catches Crane at a drug deal with the Russian mob.
• The Dark Knight Rises (2012): freed from Blackgate Penitentiary during Bane's takeover, Crane presides over kangaroo courts.
• Television: Charlie Tahan and David W. Thompson in Gotham; Vincent Kartheiser in Titans.
• Voice: Henry Polic II in Batman: The Animated Series; Dino Andrade in Batman: Arkham Asylum; John Noble in Batman: Arkham Knight.

All from Wikipedia's Scarecrow articles. For live-action film, Wikipedia lists only Cillian Murphy, who played him in all three of Christopher Nolan's Batman films.

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the title, issue number, date and publisher; reprints and facsimiles say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode that did not exist in the cover year means a later edition.
• Paper: decades-old newsprint tans at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and replaced covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service such as CGC can detect them.

Shoot the front cover flat and straight on in even light, then the indicia and the back cover. World's Finest Comics #3 is a thick square-bound book, so also photograph the spine. Make sure the title and issue number are sharp: a Batman #189 and a later Batman issue with the Scarecrow on the cover differ in value by hundreds of dollars. ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover art from the photo, and there are free scans every day.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market.