How I think the Scarecrow came back from the dead (Spoilers for AVENGERS #64)

In AVENGERS #64,we see the original Scarecrow(Ebenezer Laughton)again. In it, he mentions about having escaped from a mental instituion (Ravencroft?). This is all fine for the casual Marvel reader,but to us longtime Marvel fans, the Scarecrow was meant to be dead,his spirit possesing Dan Ketch in GHOST RIDER #85.(His last previous appearence) Well,if Marvel won't explain how he came back to life,I will.

In whatever section of Hell Laughton was imprisoned in,(Mephisto's, Pluto's Hellstrom's,Hela's) his spirit managed to escape it,perhaps during the HELLCAT mini-series. After that,Laughton,perhaps through supernatural means(or maybe he met Arnim Zola), created a new body for himself. He then went back to his old criminal ways before meeting Captain America again and got placed in the loony bin after that encounter..

Do I get a No-Prize?

Andrew Kieswetter

Do they still hand out those things?

Well, that would explain why Laughton didn't seem to have the fear-causing/super-strength implants he was surgically endowed with in Fear, the 1993 one-shot. Or did those get otherwise explained away?

Maybe, in preparation for the upcoming Avengers/JLA mini-series, the Batman villain Scarecrow slipped between universes, and assumed the identity of Marvel's Scarecrow! (or, Geoff had a brain-blip, and thought he WAS writing for DC when doing #64, and said mental institution Scarecrow escaped from was supposed to be Arkham).

All he needs is a lot of straw. And a brain, of course.

JLH

I don't know much about the Scarecrow, but that was the lamest villain appearance since Fabian Stankowicz used to cause trouble.