Sentence:  As "The Dark Knight Rises" brings a close to Christopher Nolan's staggeringly ambitious Batman trilogy, it's worth remembering that director chose The Scarecrow as his first <WSD>villain</WSD>—not necessarily the most popular among the comic's gallery of rogues, but the one who set the tone for entire series. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The bad person in a work of fiction; often the main antagonist of the hero.