Daredevil may be known as the Man Without Fear, but that title has always been a challenge Matt Murdock issues himself rather than a truth about his outlook. So it's no surprise that when it comes down to the biggest threat in his rogues' gallery, readers are confronted with a foe who uses the blind superhero's own fear against him. Like DC Comics mainstay Batman's own fear-based villain the Scarecrow, Mister Fear is armed with a gas that causes his victims to become afraid, as well as a frightening costume to help them find him particularly terrifying.
Mister Fear was one of the first villains to focus his attention on Daredevil in 1965's Daredevil #6. But while this original version shared pretty much his entire gimmick with one of Batman's most famous villains, he's since move past his early limitations to become an incredible force for evil - one who beat Matt Murdock in every way that matters.
There have been several usurpers who have taken on the Mister Fear identity in the villain's comic history. The first to don the identity of Mister Fear was part-time sculptor and chemist Zoltan Drago. Drago had spent years perfecting his distinctive fear gas formula before finding his long-awaited success. Drago's experiments culminated in a fear gas which could be dispersed through pellets of his own making. Following Drago's death at the hands of the mercenary Machinesmith, professional lawyer Larry Cranston would eventually take up the identity of Mister Fear, modifying Drago's fear formula to fit his own plans. But Larry Cranston's rivalry with Matt Murdock began long before the blind lawyer's career as a costumed superhero, and Cranston's law-school grudge pushed him to take things further than Drago ever did.
Mister Fear's trademark gas has the effect of warping the mind of those in close proximity to the vapor, but Cranston's breakthrough was in realizing the huge range of behaviors fear could prompt beyond simply weakening his foes psychologically. One of Cranston's greatest victories against Daredevil was compelling Matt Murdock's ex-wife Milla Donovan to murder a fellow admirer of Matt's, Lily Lucca, turning her artificial fear of being replaced into murderous rage.
Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Michael Lark would expand the idea even further in Daredevil Vol 2 #99- 105 when Mister Fear used his gas to create obedience and even attraction in others, giving Lily Lucca a perfume which caused those around her to desire her, and which she eventually realized couldn't be neutralized. Mister Fear even admitted to using a version of the gas on himself, but this time to eliminate his own fear response, turning him into a true Man Without Fear. Indeed, by the time Mister Fear was locked up (not before pushing Matt's spouse into residency at a psychiatric ward), the gas had altered his pheromones such that everyone around him felt the compulsion to please him.
Unlike Scarecrow's mostly psychedelic-induced fear toxin, Mister Fear's chief gas is composed of pheromones capable of bending virtually anyone to his will without them understanding why. This level of power invites comparison to the Purple Man, another Daredevil villain who controls others, but Cranston is actually more dangerous. Purple Man can't use his powers on himself, struggles to use them on Daredevil, and can't control people beyond a certain radius. In contrast, Mister Fear can choose when to deploy different emotional responses, has "improved" himself on numerous occasions, and can prompt specific behaviors even when he isn't present. Mister Fear hasn't been seen much since the storyline that made him so vastly powerful, and for good reason - in being able to make pretty much anyone feel whatever he wants, Mister Fear is easily Daredevil's most over-powered villain.
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