Issue(s): Marvel Spotlight #26
Cover Date: Feb 76
Title: "Death waters of the River Styx"
Credits:
Scott Edelman - Writer
Ruben Yandoc - Penciler
Ruben Yandoc - Inker

Review/plot:
Here is the second appearance of Marvel's other Scarecrow, later the Straw Man.

The Scarecrow is out on another mission, this time at the police station where demons are attempting to retrieve the Horn of Kalumai from the evidence room.

When he returns home, he is unable to bring the Horn into his painting...

...so Jess Duncan and Harmony Maxwell find it. Then Jess' brother Dave comes in the room, looking disoriented, and passes out. When he wakes up - no, even while he's passed out on the couch - Harmony launches into a nagging tirade...

...and then they all just wander off to an aquatic exhibit, like blackouts are normal things that happen sometimes, like hiccups.

Of course, i'd want to get to this exhibit too, because it features a demonic hell-fish.

Demons show up again, and apparently Harmony is some kind of unflappable super-judo expert because she just starts tossing them around.

I'm all in favor of women in comics not being defenseless hostages, but i don't think the solution is to turn non-powered women (or men) into demon killers.

Jess is overcome by a mysterious compulsion to draw sketches of everything, so he's no help. But with Dave conveniently out of the room again, the Scarecrow shows up again and helps fight the demons.

I say "helps" because in addition to Judo-Grip Harmony, it turns out that the hell-fish is also on our side. So the Scarecrow frees it from the aquarium...

...and it creates some demonic whirlpool that sucks down all of the demons and itself.

With the immediate threat wrapped up, Kalumai himself appears and talks directly to the readers.

It's all insane enough to be interesting, except the story really isn't all that clear and the art is a bit non-traditional; cool sometimes and kind of awkward other times. This is pretty much the only thing Ruben Yandoc (obvious anagram!) did for Marvel, aside from a couple of non-continuity Unknown World of Science Fiction stories.

A letter writer in an issue of Marvel Two-In-One says that Scott Edelman personally sent out postcards to people writing in response to this issue, telling them to look for the Scarecrow in an upcoming issue of Two-In-One. That's intriguing. Was that normal procedure for new characters? It makes sense especially since they got bumped around in these try-out books (even Scarecrow's appearance in Two-In-One kept getting bumped); how else could you judge if a character was showing popularity if readers didn't know where they'd be showing up next to buy the book? But at the same time it seems a little desperate.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This should appear before Scarecrow's appearance in Marvel Two-In-One #18.

References:

• At the beginning of this issue, the Scarecrow retrieves the Horn of Kalumai, which was used by the bad guy in the Scarecrow's first appearance, Dead of Night #11.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Ruben Yandoc is his real name. He was a Philippine artist who primarily worked on DC's mystery and war books.

I don't think the postcards were Marvel policy for tryout characters; we'd be seeing them on ebay now if they were.

It really looks like the already awesome monster fish has an eyepatch in that fourth scan. That's just his nose tattoo, I guess, but the perspective makes it look like he's mer-Nick Fury.

Does the fish get an origin here?

No origin for the fish. It's said that in "less civilized times, [it] would be considered a god" but i think they just mean because it's a big crazy looking fish. I may decide to worship it as a god myself. Other than that, and the fact it is one of the Scarecrow's "allies" there's no information about it beyond what you see in the panels above.

I am indifferent to the Scarecrow, but I really wish that fish would come back.

it feels like in the early to mid 70's marvel threw any, ahm, stuff at the wall to see what stuck. So little of it did.

I liked the Scarecrow. The idea of an insanely laughing straw guardian who killed his foes mercilessly but was apparently benevolent appealed.