A solid Batbook, but you're gonna need to read up on what happened before in this arc if you're going in cold. Definitely can't stand separately.

I enjoyed Winick's plot and script here. I like when villains are working off each other. I thought the ending was way too obvious and I wished there was more background into how the Scarecrow got to where he is here. Dustin Nguyen's art was really good. Overall, a fun read that doesn't get talked about much.

I picked this book up because it was rated as one of the better scarecrow-centric batman stories. Scarecrow is my favorite villain in batman, so I wanted to finally find a story that does him full justice. This comic kind of did, but not really.
First off, I loved the art style in the book. It was dark and unsaturated, with a very gritty design on the characters and locations. The scarebeast (main antagonist) felt a little out of place with its over the top design, but it was still cool to see.
The story starts off promising, with the penguin being a delightfully smarmy foil, and setting up Jonathan crane (scarecrow) for the rest of the story. I especially like the set up for Jonathan crane as being tired of just being seen as the fear gas guy, which is pretty meta considering that's most of what he's been portrayed as despite his potential.
From there, the book gets surprisingly violent and intense, almost like a mob movie. It's a nice change of pace to have batman be a detective in the organized crime area of Gotham rather than the supervillain side. Penguin stays fun to watch, and we get glimpses of crane being more than what he seems.
Unfortunately, the story dips at the end. Not only is the climax rushed and doesn't satisfyingly conclude the mystery angle, not only is the obvious twist obvious (scarecrow being the scarebeast), but it turns out that scarecrow didn't even make the choice to be the scarebeast. His assistant who had no character was the secret mastermind, and Penguin oversaw it. The ending felt like a waste of potential that it was building up, and in the end, only serves as a teaser for 'under the red hood.'

Tldr: The first 2/3 are really fun and intense, but the last third is rushed with a disappointing payoff.

One of L'il Gotham's Dustin Nguyen's first takes at the Batman Family.

The Scarecrow makes a play for the Penguin's piece of the pie that is Gotham City. A number of bodies are turning up and it appears to be at the hands of a powerful new drug created by Jonathan Crane. Now Oswald Cobblepot and the Dark Knight are on the hunt for Scarecrow. One will bring the madman to justice. The other will take the fiend to hell! It all depends on who gets to Crane first!

This was a very good story by Judd Winick (Pedro and Me). There's a great twist character in the end. Plus, all of the characters were executed beautifully. But I need to talk about that cover...

It's awful. Check that- it's MOSTLY awful. Matt Wagner's Batman is done in a classic 1930s way that I love. But that has got to be the worst renderings of the Scarecrow I have ever seen this side of a Kelley Jones Batman: Gotham After Midnight.

A good book with not so great covers. I'm counting the individual issues in this volume as well. Nguyen's sketchbook is awesome and worth a good portion of the cover price of $12.95. Though with this book being 15 years old, you can probably find it used for a very nice price.

Edición argentina que traduce la saga siguiente a Broken City.

(B+) 77% | Good
Notes: Though suitably Batman in tone and character, its convoluted, monster-centric, far-fetched plot feels very Scooby-Doo.

A standalone story, classic Scarecrow with a few twists. The most memorable scene was Batman hallucinating that Jason came back as a villain, because that actually happens much later in Batman's life. Kind of explains his reaction, if he'd been worried about it all along.

Was alright, so many better batman though

Not a bad Batman story overall. But considering this is called "As the Crow Flies" I thought there should have been more Scarecrow and less Penguin. But it was enjoyable either way.

A rare occasion when the Dark Knight does not triumph in the end. All three villains accomplish their plans and elude his grasp. This disappointment is probably why most people give it 3 stars.

Una releida de una buena historia de batman. Con un buen scarecrow. Podría haber estado mejor

Batman goes up against Scarecrow and Penguin and gets to push through his fears.

Interesting artwork with a focus on darker shades.

OVERALL GRADE: B.