Batman has been fighting to solve the crime problem in Gotham City for decades, and he still hasn’t managed to fix things. Despite all of Batman’s efforts and the vast wealth that he’s put into Gotham City, crime remains rampant. Surprisingly, one iconic Batman villain has the key to humanly and safely disabling Gotham’s worst: Scarecrow.

This surprising solution is explained in Detective Comics #29 by John Layman and Aaron Lopresti, where it’s revealed that Scarecrow has created a new version of his fear toxin. Instead of causing someone to become terrified and unable to function, this fear toxin, also called contentment serum, traps the user inside their ideal fantasy, making them completely unaware of the surrounding reality.

While Batman admits that this likely won’t work on Scarecrow forever due to his constant exposure to his own fear toxin, there’s no reason to assume it wouldn’t work on the other criminals in Arkham, like Two-Face or the Riddler. With this new contentment serum, Batman should be able to keep Gotham safe for all time.

Scarecrow’s “Contentment Serum” Could Solve Gotham’s Crime Problem

Detective Comics #29 by John Layman, Aaron Lopresti, Art Thibert, Blond, and Jared K. Fletcher

This new contentment serum that Scarecrow invents seems to be incredibly powerful. It allows Scarecrow to control the entirety of Gotham, with heroic characters like Batman and Catwoman easily falling under the villain’s sway. The only reason Batman was able to break out of it at all was because Poison Ivy wasn’t affected and helped bring Batman out of this delusion. Without Poison Ivy’s interference, it’s unlikely that Batman ever would’ve realized that this utopian version of Gotham City was an actual nightmare. If even Batman’s iron will was unable to break the hallucination, it’s unlikely any other villain could either.

The biggest problem that Batman has faced over the years is simply what to do with the criminals once he catches them. Batman has a major no-kill rule, so killing them certainly isn’t an option. It’s very well known that Arkham Asylum can’t hold them. The Joker even once mocked this by escaping from Arkham the same day Batman delivered him there, leaving Batman a little revolving door toy as he did. Arkham is also not above using drugs to keep its patients sedated. If Arkham could incorporate Scarecrow’s contentment serum, it’s possible that no one would ever escape Arkham again.

Can Anything Solve Gotham’s Out-of-Control Crime Wave?

Contentment Serum Would Safely and Humanely Contain Gotham’s Worst

Gotham City is one of the most dangerous places in the DC Universe, and it’s entirely because of its out-of-control crime problem. Capturing the criminals does absolutely no good if no asylum or prison can hold them, and it’s obviously not Batman’s responsibility to become a murderous vigilante to solve this conundrum. The only solution is to find something that will actually allow Arkham to contain these supervillains. With Scarecrow’s contentment serum, the villains will be perfectly happy in their own reality where they can’t hurt anyone else. It’s a surprisingly perfect solution for dealing with Batman’s biggest villains.

Detective Comics #29 is available now from DC Comics!