Villains are scary. But these villains are scarier. Their power is spreading and manipulating fear, which makes them even stronger. Here are all the comic book Fear Lords.
Scarecrow (Marvel Comics)
Marvel possesses a fear based villain just like DC Comics’ Scarecrow (more on him in a bit). Ebenezer Laughton is a highly flexible criminal who uses a murder of well-trained crows to commit crimes. But he later develops a mutated gland that secretes a fear inducing pheromone which induces powerful panic attacks in people.
Mister Fear
Zoltan Drago was a genius chemist who accidentally created a compound that can induce intense fear when inhaled. he used it to take control of other villains and create the Fellowship of Fear. After Drago was defeated, the mantle of Mister Fear went to one of Daredevil’s old classmates. Larry Cranston developed a drug that rendered him fearless and with Mister Fear’s Fear drug, he gathered a legion of followers who worshipped him out of fear.
Silver Banshee
The McDougal family attempted an ancient magical ritual that bound their bloodline to an entity that feeds on fear. the latest in line – Siobhan McDougal becomes the new Silver Banshee. Silver Banshee is a Superman foe who can use her powers to leave her victims in a catatonic state. Siobhan could then feed on their fears and become stronger.
Psycho-Man
Originally hailing from the Micro-Verse dimension, Psycho-Man uses a piece of technology called the Control Box. The Control Box allows him to manipulate human emotions like hatred, fear, and doubt. After coming to the mainstream Marvel Universe, Psycho-man creates a larger version of the Control Box and almost takes control of the entire planet.
Sinestro Corps
The Yellow Lanterns aka the Sinestro Corps rely on the Yellow Power Ring. This power ring taps into the power of Parallax – the fear entity. Since the Sinestro Corps members are literally powered by the living embodiment of all fear in the DC Universe, they are nigh-unstoppable. Only people who have overcome their fears can stand against them.
Nightmare
Just like the name of the list suggests, Nightmare is an actual Fear Lord. The ruler of the Dream Dimension, Nightmare draws power from inducing fear via nightmares. He then feeds off of that energy. He uses his powers to bring people’s nightmares to life within his realm. His end goal is to absorb all reality into his dimension and become the one true ruler of the cosmos.
Scarecrow (DC Comics)
Jonathan Crane is a scientist obsessed with understanding the human emotion of fear,. In his quest, he develops a brand of fear toxin that can bring out a person’s worst nightmare to life. Now as Scarecrow, Crane terrorizes Gotham City and has been one of Batman’s most relentless foes.
The Serpent
Cul Borson is Odin’s brother and the Asgardian God of Fear. His mastery over fear was so great Odin opted to destroy Midgard to stop Cul from gaining more followers. Cul uses the fear he spreads across realms to power him and make him stronger. During the Fear Itself story arc, Cul proved the All-Father was right to be scared of him.
