# Larry Cranston

Larry Cranston is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

## Publication history

Mister Fear is the identity of multiple supervillains who use a special 'fear gas' fired from a gas pellet gun; the third version (Larry Cranston) first appeared in Daredevil #89 (July 1972) and was created by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan.
The fourth version (Alan Fagan) first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #92 (April 1980) and was created by Steven Grant and Carmine Infantino.

## Fictional character biography

Lawrence "Larry" Cranston was a law school classmate of Matt Murdock who also became an employer for a while. Cranston was staying in a hotel room across the hall from Zoltan Drago. He happened to overhear Starr Saxon killing Drago, and after learning that Saxon himself had died, Cranston decided to take on the Mister Fear guise himself.
As the third Mister Fear, Cranston went mad during his first effort against Daredevil in San Francisco, jumping off a building, assuming that he was wearing a rocket pack which he had previously worn in battle with the hero, and seemingly died due to injuries sustained in a fall.
Cranston survived the fall and returned years later. He masterminded a series of campaigns meant to discredit Daredevil with the aid of the Enforcers, the Eel, and the sleepless woman Insomnia. Daredevil defeated them and Cranston abandoned the Mister Fear identity.
Cranston later resurfaced, along with the Enforcers at his side, providing the criminals of Hell's Kitchen a drug that causes the user to become psychotic and completely unafraid of death, in the "Without Fear" storyline. He also made an attempt to overthrow the Hood, as New York's main crime boss. In an attempt to make Daredevil's life miserable, Cranston also secretly gave an overdose of the drug to Milla Donovan (Daredevil's wife); the result led to an innocent man's murder by Milla. The two fought, but Cranston, having murdered the drug's creator and destroyed all of the antidote's known samples, forced Daredevil to spare his life due to the fact that he was the only one whose testimony could save Milla from being sentenced to death for the murder committed earlier. But before he was sent to prison, Cranston had one of his henchmen provide him with a new chemical compound he had created: one that made everyone worship him. With this new power, Cranston entered jail as a prison "king", surrounded by bodyguards, saluted by prison guards, and entering a lavish cell with a female officer waiting to greet him.
During the "King in Black" storyline, Mister Fear is among the villains recruited by Mayor Wilson Fisk to be part of the Thunderbolts at the time of Knull's invasion.

## Powers and abilities

Mister Fear employs a compound based on the flight scent pheromone—chemicals produced by most animals, used to communicate a variety of simple messages over distances. This flight-scent pheromone stimulates fear reactions in herd animals. The drug is tailored for human beings, whose reactions to pheromones are not completely understood. It induces severe anxiety, fear, and panic, and sometimes nightmarish hallucinations in his victims, rendering them incapable of fighting or resisting his will. The drug is most commonly used in the form of gas pellets shot from a gun. The pellets rupture on contact, releasing the flight scent, which is inhaled by the victim. The dosage contained in one pellet is enough to incapacitate a normal adult male for about 15 minutes, or an exceptionally fit male, such as Daredevil, for about five minutes. The side effects of anxiety, edginess, and mild nausea can persist for several days.
Larry Cranston had a law degree, and a fair amount of legal expertise. He sometimes employed one-man jet devices, as Mister Fear. When Larry came after Matt Murdock in an attempt to ruin the man's life, he displayed the ability to influence the minds of other people into doing whatever he wanted them to do. Using a drug he created, he also made himself fearless. He also trained extensively in hand-to-hand combat for his confrontation with Daredevil.