The Scarecrow
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- This article deals with the Scarecrow of DC Comics. For the Marvel Comics supervillain, see Scarecrow (Marvel Comics).
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 The Scarecrow, from the cover of Batman #246
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The Scarecrow (Dr. Jonathan Crane) is a DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of Batman, created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane for World's Finest Comics #3, in Fall 1941. He is characterized by dressing as a field scarecrow and using fear as his super power, gimmick and theme of his crimes.
His surname and lanky appearance has him often comapared by his peers to Ichabod Crane, the fictional character of the horror fable The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. As a costumed criminal he emphasises his gawkyness to the point that he looks creepy.
The Scarecrow is an insane former clinical psychiatrist and college proffesor that becomes a costumed super criminal, using a variety of drugs and psychological tactics, he creates, induces and uses the fear and phobias of his victims, standbyers and adversaries. Although more refined and articulate than Batman foes such as The Joker and Two-Face, he is likely no less sadistic, murderous or insane. Among the most famous enemies of Batman he is only one that has never tried to reform.
Jonathan Crane is bullied in his childhood to the point of ecoming paranoid, hating people in general and developing an obsession with dominating their fears to the sadistic point of bending and controlling them. Fear and knowledge are his means for power and control. He is a quiet yet eloquent man with a megalomaniac (he likes to be also known as the "God of Fear") passion for control, fear and knowledge. As the Scarecrow he spends every penny he gets in books and material for his experiments.
Most of his crimes involve using his weapons for extorcion or stealing, kidnapping important people like major Armand Krol or his former bullies and torture them to get power or satisfaction, causing fear havoc in Gotham City, and brainwashing people to commit crimes for him. Sometimes he enjoys using psychology to manipulete people like a puppetmaster. Many of his schemes have the goal getting money for bigger experiments and crimes.
The Scarecrow made only two appearances in the 1940s. Batman writers of the 1960s revived him and he has since consistently appeared in Batman comic books and related media, getting major exposure for the first time as a persistent villain, part of the Legion of Doom, in The Challenge of the Super Friends animated series and as the villain exploting Batman's traumatic fear (related for the first time outside comics). He was featured nine times in the Emmy-winning 1990's cartoon Batman: The Animated Series, where he was first played by Henry Polic II and later, when the series was revamped for a third season, the character was voiced by Jeffrey Combs. In the 2005 film Batman Begins, he was played by Irish actor Cillian Murphy. There are consistant rumors sustented by the holding of his usage rights by the producers that he will be featured once again in its sequel, The Dark Knight.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Current continuity
The Scarecrow was first introduced as Jonathan Crane, a professor of psychology at Gotham University, who turned to crime after he was fired; an expert in the psychology of fear, he had fired a gun in a classroom full of students to illustrate a point. The only thing revealed about his early life was that, as a child, he had liked to frighten birds.
His origin story was greatly expanded in the 1989 graphic novel Batman/Scarecrow #1, part of the Batman: Year One continuity. In the novel, he becomes obsessed with fear and revenge from being bullied throughout his childhood and adolescence for his lanky frame and bookish nature. He commits his first murder at the age of 18 by brandishing a gun in his high school parking lot during the senior prom. Dressed in the ghoulish scarecrow costume that would later become his trademark, Crane causes the head bully, Bo Griggs, and his girlfriend, Sherry Squires, to have an automobile accident which paralyzes Griggs and kills Squires. Crane then discovers a savage delight in literally frightening people to death.
He becomes a professor of psychology at Gotham University, specializing in the psychology of fear. After his dismissal for harming one of his students, he kills the regents responsible for his dismissal and becomes a career criminal. He takes the moniker "the Scarecrow", the favorite taunt of the hated bullies, as part of his revenge.
As one of Batman's principal modern adversaries since the Silver Age (he was created during the Golden Age, but he spent more than two decades absent), the Scarecrow is a regular member of the Injustice Gang and briefly joins the Secret Society of Super Villains. A psychopathic sadist, the Scarecrow is one of the many criminals in Gotham City to be confined to Arkham Asylum whenever Batman apprehends him.
[edit] Batman: The Long Halloween
The Scarecrow is part of the supervillain gang gathered by Carmine Falcone in Batman: The Long Halloween. By the end of the story, lead by Two-face the group betrays their boss and becomes the new power figures in the crime scene of Gotham City.
[edit] Knightfall
In the Knightfall crossover, he plays a big role along with the Joker. After Bane sets all the Arkham Asylum inmates free, creating chaos in Gotham City, the Scarecrow hears the Joker goes to Cornelius Stirk for help to induce fear to Commissioner Gordon in a failed attempt to control the Gotham City Police Department, he seeks him and proposes to go after the mayor Armand Kroll instead. They kidnap the mayor and start torturing him to make phone calls that increased the chaos in the city, threatening to cut the budget for firemen right after Firefly set part of the city on fire, or canceling the aid of the army to control the inmates. After Batman rescues the mayor, the two insane criminals fight and go each one his own way.
[edit] God of Fear
Right away, in the pages of Alan Grant's Shadow of the Bat #16, 17 and 18, under the alias of "professor Rance", the Scarecrow organizes a "harmless psychological experiment" at Gotham University, offering to pay $50 to each volunteer. He asks them to wear helmets and and takes control over their mind, gaining a small army of suicidal Scarecrows to create fear and havoc in the city. At the time, Bane has broken Bruce Wayne's back and Azrael replaces him as Batman. This was the first case of Azrael-Batman, and he managed to defeat the Scarecrow with some unwelcomed aid of Anarchy. This is the first story in which the Scarecrow proclaims himself the God of Fear. The nickname became so popular that it was featured in the Batman: The Animated Series episode Harley's Holiday, when Batman and Robin take the Scarecrow back to Arkham and he is screaming nsanities.
[edit] Strange Scarecrow
In the three part story Strange Scarecrow, he is helped to escape Arkham by Professor Hugo Strange, who finds his psyche fascinating. They both design a plan to torture and destroy Batman, but the scarecrow gets tired of Strange and kills him (or at least that's how it seems).
[edit] Scarebeast and the War Games
Crane undergoes a major change in the 2004 Batman story arc As The Crow Flies story arc (commencing with Batman #627, July 2004). In the story he is hired by the Penguin to develop a "fear dust" that would help the crime lord control his subordinates. However the Penguin's real plan was to use Crane as a testing subject of geneticist Linda Friitana, who pretending to be his lab partner, mixed her work with his and transformed him into a murderous creature known as the Scarebeast, in order to kill off his disloyal colleagues.
Through the intensely traumatic mutation, the Scarebeast possesses super strength, endurance, clawed hands and can release an even stronger hallucinogenic gas. He slaughtered Penguin's underlings until Batman and Robin stopped the him and thwarted the Penguin's plans. Dr. Friitawa, however, calling herself "Fright", gave herself a refined dose of the serum and escaped.
After being defeated by Batman by injecting it with massive amounts of tranquilizers, the Scarebeast reverted back into Jonathan Crane, who ended up in a critical coma, from which he awakened later. He turns into this "Scarebeast" during times of great strain or when it is necessary to save his life. The Scarecrow has transformed into the Scarebeast in the "War Games" story arc. However, the Scarebeast has yet to be seen again after this storyline, and his recent appearances in Villains United Special and Batman seem to indicate the Scarebeast may be gone.
[edit] Villains United, the Infinite Crisis and One Year Later
Scarecrow rejoins the new Secret Society of Super Villains, and is part of the assault on the Secret Six (Villains United #6). He is caught in the explosion caused by Parademon. He is later seen in Villains United Special #1, alive and well. He is also seen in Detective Comics #820 as part of One Year Later, where he is defeated by Batman. In this appearance he is depicted in a costume that appeared to be an amalgamation of his original costume and the costume seen in Batman Begins.
[edit] Other appearances
The Scarecrow also has a cameo appearance in The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes. Specifically, he appears in Sandman #5: "Passengers" as a friend of Doctor Destiny at Arkham Asylum. He quotes Goethe and attempts to dissuade Destiny (albeit not forcefully) from escaping, saying Arkham is a better home for their kind than the outside world. (See Characters of The Sandman - Minor Mortals)
Later, Sandman Characters Cain And Abel made a guest appearance in one of Jonathan Crane's dreams in The Batman Adventures, in which they brefly pretended to be Prison Adminstrators allocating him to a teaching job proving his parole. However, though they resembled Cain And Abel physically, their personalities and habits were radically different - Cain made no witticisms, Abel repeated Cains sentences rather than stutter - and both had small horns entangled in their hair. This was perhaps due tot he fact that the Dream was mainly written from Crane's viewpoint.
[edit] Inconsistencies
The Scarecrow's behavior and personality in the current continuity has changed back and forth according to the writers. For instance, in some contemporary versions, the Scarecrow has an ironical phobia of birds, in some others, he has been shown occasionally as having a pet crows like Craw or Nightmare; and yet in some other versions, he gets pleasure from scaring birds. In stories written by Jeph Loeb, the Scarecrow is one of Batman's more unbalanced villains, and has an inclination to sing nursery rhymes. In addition, Loeb's version of Crane is a psychiatrist (as portrayed in Batman Begins) and not a professor of psychology. Tim Sale's artwork, which often coincided with Loeb's stories, gives Crane's costume a very strong resemblance to that of Dr. Syn, a very different character who also took on an alter-ego known as the Scarecrow.
[edit] Company crossovers
In the 2000 AD Batman/Judge Dredd crossover comic Judgement on Gotham, by writers Alan Grant and John Wagner, Scarecrow is shown breaking into a morgue along with his Igor-like henchman Benny, collecting various juices from corpses to include in his fear gas. He delights in scaring "a ghost" by creeping up on it and saying "boo". The ghost turns out to be the spirit of Judge Death, whom he promptly allies with on the basis that the Judge can show him "a veritable feassst of fffear". After inhabiting a corpse, Judge Death dispatches Benny, but is treated to a whiff of fear gas, revealing his fear of losing his power to frighten. The Scarecrow ushers the Judge to a rock festival, where all carnage ensues (he records it on camera for "his private collection"). Scarecrow is apprehended when Judge Dredd's partner Anderson shoots his can of fear gas, dousing him with it and sending him into a terrified delusion that he is being attacked by birds. Judge Death is taken down by the combined efforts of Batman and Dredd.
The second Batman/Daredevil crossover book features Scarecrow in New York, apparently attempting to kill Wilson Fisk (aka the Kingpin) and take over his crime operation. In reality, this is merely a setup to draw attention from his true scheme: unleashing a massive dose of fear toxin into an incoming storm from atop the Statue of Liberty. This would spread the gas throughout New York City, causing all its citizens to suffer like "Sodom and Gomorrah." In the end, he blasts Daredevil with a dose of fear toxin, but Daredevil lives up to his "Man Without Fear" trademark by quickly brushing off the effects of the gas and defeating Scarecrow.
Marvel Comics has their own version of the Scarecrow character in Spider-Man. Inexplicably, he looks essentially the same as Jonathan Crane, and also uses hallucinogens to distort reality. It is unknown if this is a plaigirism of Crane's persona, or a homage. In Marvel vs. DC, Marvel's Scarecrow talked Crane into kidnapping Lois Lane, but Spider-Man showed up and KO'd them both at the same time with a single kick.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Using a variety of toxins that cause his victims to hallucinate that their phobias have come to life, the Scarecrow instills fear in all who see him. When forced to fight, he uses his own style called "violent dancing", which is based in part off the crane style of kung fu, and makes full use of his long arms and legs.
[edit] Scarebeast
As Scarebeas, the Scarecrow is 12 foot tall and possesses super strength, endurance, clawed hands and can release a hallucinogenic gas stronger than the chemical he regularly uses. He can turn into "Scarebeast" during times of great strain or when it is necessary to save his life.
[edit] Other versions
| Earth/continuity | Creators | First appearance | Appearances | Main article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Earth | The Scarecrow | |||
| Earth-2 | The Scarecrow / Earth-2 | |||
| Earth-1 | The Scarecrow / Earth-1 |
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Video games
The Scarecrow appears in four video games: Game Boy's Batman: The Animated Series, Super Nintendo's Adventures of Batman & Robin, Batman Begins (a tie-in to the 2005 movie) and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu. His role in the movie tie-in game is almost the same as the movie and is one of the game's boss fights. In the game, extra information is given about the Scarecrow's various quirks; he uses his patients as a form of personal army who frequently attack Batman in various levels. In Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, he is dressed in rags and is the first major boss to fight in the game, spraying the player with fear gas.
[edit] Lego set
The Danish building toy company Lego recently introduced its Batman line of building sets, currently into its first wave. An incarnation of the scarecrow with his makeshift laboratory appears in 7785-Arkham Asylum set which includes Nightwing and his motorcycle as well. The Scarecrow appears as is his standard appearance in the comics and in Batman: The Animated Series.
[edit] External links
- http://www.dccomics.com
- http://www2.warnerbros.com/batman
- DCDP: Scarecrow - DC Database Project
