A quick refresher for anyone who missed it: in Scarecrow: Year One, Jonathan Crane was the son of a teenaged junkie (Karen Keeny) who lived with her abusive mother and grandmother. He was raised by his crazy great-granny, never knowing either of his parents. As an adult, he seeks out his mother, who is married to a man who regularly beats her, with whom she has a daughter. I find it interesting that despite the fact that his reason for being there is to kill his mother, the only person who dies is the husband, who Crane takes down without a second's hesitation when he's about to hit Karen.

Also, Karen flirts with Batman. She's such a MILF.

The last Sunday in May was Mother's Day. The holiday could mean different things to different people, but to eight-year-old Marilyn Keeny, it meant a day of fun with Mommy.

Karen and her daughter didn't get to spend much time together. Ever since Marilyn's father had died and they'd moved to Gotham, her mom had been busy, busy, busy. Her job at WayneTech was a good one—Mr. Wayne was more generous with his employees' salaries and bonuses than most CEOs, and he showed more interest in the well-being of a mere secretary than the bare minimum necessary to get the job done. According to rumor, that was because he was a skirt-chasing philanderer, but he had never done anything more with Karen than the occasional casual flirtation. She thought he was a nice enough guy. Marilyn thought the sun must rise and set on his whim.

It wasn't bad, living there in Gotham. A little cold. Mari could vaguely remember her last sweltering summer in Georgia, when the air conditioner had been broken and neither one of her parents had been happy. Daddy had been angry, always angry, right up until the moment he died, when he had been too surprised to be much of anything else. Mommy had seemed broken, and it had been a long time before her eyes had started to sparkle the way they did now. Mari had cried all the time.

Things were better in Gotham. She didn't even mind the cold very much. Who was she to complain about having to wear a coat, when she had a whole day at Gotham Adventure Fun Park to look forward to—thanks to Mommy's Wayne Enterprises employee discount.

She had never been so excited. She had never seen her mommy look happier. This was going to be the best Mother's Day ever.

"Sorry, little girl. You're not tall enough to ride the Watchtower. Why don't you try Titans Tower instead?"

"I hate kid rides," Mari pouted. She was trying her best to be good, but that just wasn't fair. She wanted a ride that would shoot her a million miles into the air and throw her back down to earth. It sucked to be short.

"There must be something else you'd like to do," Karen suggested.

"Well..." She pointed at the nearby House of Horrors. "That?" Her mother went strangely pale.

"No."

"But, Mommy!"

"I said no," Karen repeated.

"Why not?" Having forgotten her promise to be on her best behavior, she was on the verge of throwing a screaming fit.

"Because I said so! I don't want to take you on a scary ride, Marilyn."

"I'm not scared."

"Do I need to take you home?"

Karen wasn't much of a disciplinarian; in fact, Marilyn pretty much had her mother wrapped around her little finger. But when that question came up, she knew better than to keep arguing.

Still, she muttered defiantly, "But I want to ride it."

"Could we please compromise, just this once?" Karen asked, pointing out the sign for a ride that Marilyn hadn't noticed. She read it laboriously.

"A-mer-i-can Hol-i-days. The…happiest…year…you've…ever…seen." She looked up at her mother skeptically. It sounded dumb.

"Just get in line, will you?"

By the time the ride actually started, Marilyn had forgotten all about throwing her fit, although she still wasn't perfectly satisfied with the excuse for staying off the haunted house ride.

The two of them sat together in the front seat of a tiny little car that rolled down its little track into a pitch black room, and stopped. Marilyn shivered with anticipation.

"Ten!" She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. "Nine!" She grasped her mother's hand. "Eight!" She couldn't stop fidgeting. "Seven!" Okay, now she was getting kind of bored. "Six!" All right, already. "Five!"

"Four, three, two, one," Marilyn announced loudly. Karen shushed her. Behind them, someone laughed. Mari ignored it, just willing the car to move forward.

And then she was blinded by light. And the music started.

"Have a happy holiday, happy happy holiday, have a happy holiday, it's Newwww Yearrrr's Daaaay!" The room was shimmery white with fake snow, populated with ringing bells and jerkily dancing plastic people who looked an awful lot like Betsy Wetsy. Most of them looked like they were jazzercising, but she saw a few putting coins in piggy banks or putting away half-eaten food. One pair in a tuxedo and a pretty dress was dancing under a huge disco ball thing, and a few more were setting off fireworks. Boring fireworks that were clearly just lights on the wall.

"What are they doing, Mommy?"

"Making their New Year's resolutions."

"Like when you stopped smoking?"

"Uh…yeah, just like that."

Mari giggled. Her mom was so silly, thinking nobody could see the pack of cigarettes in her pocket.

The car moved into the next room, garish red and pink, two of Mari's favorite colors, but not very pretty put together.

"Happy Happy Valentine's Day! Tell your sweetheart it's okay!"

Mari wrinkled her nose. Gross. The plastic people were kissing each other.

"Everybody's feeling fine! Happy Valentine!"

And she could have written a better song than that.

"Mom, this is boring. I want to go to the House of Horrors."

Meanwhile, in the House of Horrors:

OH GOD MY EYES! MY EYES! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE! OH DEAR SWEET JESUS, NO, NO, NO!