| Scarecrow | |
|---|---|
.png) Scarecrow inNightwing (vol. 4) #56 (March 2019). Art by Davide Gianfelice (pencils & inks) and Nick Filardi (colors). | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | World's Finest Comics #3 (September 1941)[1][2] |
| Created by | Bill Finger Bob Kane |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Jonathan Crane |
| Team affiliations | |
| Notable aliases | |
| Abilities |
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TheScarecrow is asupervillain appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. Created by writerBill Finger and artistBob Kane, the character first appeared inWorld's Finest Comics #3 (1941) as an adversary of the superheroBatman. Although the Scarecrow only made two appearances in the 1940s, he was revived by writerGardner Fox and artistSheldon Moldoff inBatman #189 (1967). The character has since become one of Batman's most enduring enemies belonging to the collective of adversaries that make up hisrogues gallery.
In theDC Universe, the Scarecrow is the alias ofJonathan Crane, a professor ofpsychology turned criminal mastermind. Abused and bullied in his youth, he becomes obsessed withfear and develops ahallucinogenic drug—dubbed "fear toxin"—to terrorizeGotham City and exploit thephobias of its protector, Batman. As the self-proclaimed "Master of Fear", the Scarecrow's crimes do not stem from a common desire for wealth or power, but from asadistic pleasure in subjecting others to his experiments on the manipulation of fear. An outfit symbolic of hisnamesake with a stitchedburlap mask serves as the Scarecrow's visual motif.
The character has been adapted in variousmedia incarnations, having been portrayed in film byCillian Murphy inThe Dark Knight Trilogy, and in television byCharlie Tahan andDavid W. Thompson inGotham, andVincent Kartheiser inTitans.Henry Polic II,Jeffrey Combs,Dino Andrade,John Noble, andRobert Englund, among others, have provided the Scarecrow's voice in animation and video games.
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Batman creatorsBill Finger andBob Kane introduced the Scarecrow as a new villain inWorld's Finest Comics #3 (September 1941) during theGolden Age of Comic Books, in which he made only two appearances.[5][6]Ichabod Crane, the protagonist ofWashington Irving'sThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow, was used as an inspiration for the character's lanky appearance as well as his alter ego, Jonathan Crane.[7]
Scarecrow was revived during theSilver Age of Comic Books by writerGardner Fox and artistSheldon Moldoff inBatman #189 (February 1967),[8] which featured the debut of the character's signature fear-inducing hallucinogen or "fear toxin".[9] The character remained relatively unchanged throughout theBronze Age of Comic Books.[10]
Following the 1986 multi-title eventCrisis on Infinite Earthsreboot, the character's origin story is expanded on inBatman Annual #19 and the miniseriesBatman/Scarecrow: Year One, with this narrative also revealing that Crane has a fear of bats.[11] In 2011, as a result ofThe New 52 reboot, Scarecrow's origin (as well as that of various other DC characters) is once again altered, incorporating several elements that differ from the original.[12]
Born in Georgia, Jonathan Crane is abused by his great-grandmother, and is bullied at school for his resemblance toIchabod Crane fromWashington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow",[11] sparking his lifelong obsession with fear and using it as a weapon against others, before they can use it to defeat him like his literary namesake. In his senior year, Crane is humiliated by school bully Bo Griggs and rejected by cheerleader Sherry Squires. He takes revenge during the senior prom by donning his trademark scarecrow costume and wielding a water pistol resembling a real gun in the school parking lot. In the ensuing chaos, Griggs gets into a car accident, paralyzing himself and killing Squires.[11]
Crane's obsession with fear leads him to become a psychiatrist, taking a position atArkham Asylum and performing fear-inducing experiments on his patients.[13] He is also a professor of psychology at Gotham University, specializing in the study of phobias. He loses his job after he fires a gun inside a packed classroom, accidentally wounding a student; he takes revenge by killing the professors responsible for his termination and becomes a career criminal.[14]
As a college professor, Crane mentors a youngThomas Elliot.[15] The character also has a cameo inSandman (vol. 2) #5. In stories byJeph Loeb andTim Sale, the Scarecrow is depicted as one of the more deranged criminals in Batman'srogues gallery, with a habit of speaking in nursery rhymes.[16] These stories further revise his history, explaining that he was raised by his abusive, fanatically religious great-grandfather, whom he murdered as a teenager.[11]
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Scarecrow plays a prominent role inDoug Moench's "Terror" storyline, set in Batman's early years, where ProfessorHugo Strange breaks him out of Arkham and gives him "therapy" to train him to defeat Batman. Strange's therapy proves effective enough to turn the Scarecrow against his "benefactor", impaling him on a weather vane and throwing him in the cellar of his own mansion. The Scarecrow then uses Strange's mansion to lure Batman toCrime Alley, and decapitates one of his former classmates in the alley in front of Batman. With the help ofCatwoman, — whom Scarecrow had attempted to blackmail into helping him by capturing her and photographing her unmasked— Batman catches Scarecrow, but loses sight of Strange, with it being unclear whether Strange had actually survived the fall onto the weather vane, or if Scarecrow and Batman are hallucinating from exposure to Scarecrow's fear toxin.[17]
Scarecrow appears inBatman: The Long Halloween, first seen escaping from Arkham onMother's Day with help fromCarmine Falcone, who also helps theMad Hatter escape. The Scarecrow gases Batman with fear toxin as he escapes, causing Batman to flee to his parents' grave as Bruce Wayne, where he is arrested byCommissioner Jim Gordon due to Wayne's suspected ties to Falcone. Scarecrow robs a bank with the Mad Hatter onIndependence Day for Falcone, but is stopped by Batman and Catwoman. He later appears in Falcone's office on Halloween withBatman's future rogue's gallery, but is defeated by Batman.[18] Scarecrow returns inBatman: Dark Victory as part ofTwo-Face's gang, and is first seen putting fear gas in children's dolls onChristmas Eve. He is eventually defeated by Batman. He later appears as one of the villains present atCalendar Man's trial. It is revealed he and Calendar Man had been manipulating Falcone's sonAlberto; Scarecrow had determined that Alberto feared his father, and poisoned his cigarettes with the fear toxin to bring out the fear; Calendar Man, meanwhile, had been talking to Alberto, with the fear toxin making Alberto hear his father's voice. Together, they manipulate Alberto into making an unsuccessful assassination attempt on his sister,Sofia Gigante. After Two-Face's hideout is attacked, Batman captures Scarecrow, who tells him where Two-Face is heading.[19] InCatwoman: When in Rome, Scarecrow supplies theRiddler with fear gas to manipulate Catwoman, and later aids Riddler when he fights Catwoman inRome. Scarecrow accidentally attacksCheetah with his scythe before Catwoman knocks him out.[20]
The Scarecrow appears in suchstory arcs asKnightfall andShadow of the Bat, first teaming with theJoker to ransom off the mayor ofGotham City. Batman foils their plan and forces them to retreat. Scarecrow betrays Joker by spraying him with fear gas, but it has no effect; Joker then beats Scarecrow senseless with a chair. Scarecrow later tries to take over Gotham with an army of hypnotized college students, commanding them to spread his fear toxin all over the city. His lieutenant is the son of the first man he killed. He is confronted by bothBatman-Azrael andAnarky and tries to escape by forcing his lieutenant to jump off of a building. Batman-Azrael knocks him out, and Anarky manages to save the boy.[21][22] Despite his criminal history, he is still recognized as a skilled psychiatrist. WhenAquaman needs insight into aserial killer operating in his new city ofSub Diego—San Diego having been sunk and the inhabitants turned into water-breathers by a secret organization—he consults with Scarecrow for insight into the pattern of the killer's crimes. Scarecrow determined that killer chose his victims by the initials of their first and last names to spell out the message "I can't take it any more",[23] allowing Aquaman to determine both the true identity and final target of the real killer.[24]
InDC vs. Marvel, the Scarecrow temporarily allies with theMarvel Universe Scarecrow to captureLois Lane before they are both defeated byBen Reilly.[25]
In the 2004 story arcAs the Crow Flies, Scarecrow is hired by thePenguin under false pretenses. Dr. Linda Friitawa then secretlymutates Scarecrow into a murderous creature known as the "Scarebeast", who Penguin uses to kill off his disloyal minions.[26] The character's later appearances all show him as an unmutated Crane again, except for an appearance during theWar Games story arc.[27][28] Scarecrow appears in the third issue ofWar Games savingBlack Mask from Batman and acting as the crime lord's ally, until Black Mask uses him to disable a security measure in the Clock Tower by literally throwing Scarecrow at it. Scarecrow wakes up, transforms into Scarebeast, and wreaks havoc outside the building trying to find and kill Black Mask. The police are unable to take it down, and allow Catwoman,Robin,Tarantula II, andOnyx to fight Scarebeast, as Commissioner Michael Akins had told all officers to capture or kill any vigilantes, costumed criminals or "masks" they find. Even they cannot defeat the Scarebeast, though he appears to have been defeated after the Clock Tower explodes.[29]
The Scarecrow reappears alongside other Batman villains inGotham Underground; first among the villains meeting at the Iceberg Lounge to be captured by theSuicide Squad. Scarecrow escapes by gassingBronze Tiger with fear toxin. He later appears warning theVentriloquist,Firefly,Killer Moth andLock-Up, who are planning to attack thePenguin that Penguin is allied with theSuicide Squad. The villains wave off his warnings and mock him. He later leads the same four into a trap orchestrated byTobias Whale. Killer Moth, Firefly and Lock-Up all survive, but are injured and unconscious to varying degrees, the Scarface puppet is "killed", and Peyton Reily, the new Ventriloquist, is unharmed, though after the attack she is taken away by Whale's men. Whale then betrays Scarecrow simply for touching his shoulder (it is revealed Whale has a pathological hatred of "masks" because his grandfather was one of the first citizens of Gotham killed by a masked criminal). The story arc ends with Whale beating Scarecrow up and leaving him bound and gagged, as a sign to all "masks" that they are not welcome in Whale's new vision of Gotham.[30]
Scarecrow appears inBatman: Hush, working for the Riddler and Hush. He composes profiles on the various villains of Gotham so Riddler and Hush can manipulate them to their own ends. He later gasesHuntress with his fear gas, making her attack Catwoman. He attacks Batman in a graveyard, only to learn his fear gas is ineffective (due to Hush's bug), but before he can reveal this he is knocked out byJason Todd.[31] Scarecrow also appears inBatman: Heart of Hush, kidnapping a child to distract Batman so Hush can attack Catwoman. When Batman goes to rescue the child, Scarecrow activates a Venom implant, causing the boy to attack Batman. He is defeated when Batman ties the boy's teddy bear to Scarecrow, causing the child to attack Scarecrow. After capturing Scarecrow, Batman forces him to reveal Hush's location.[15] In theBattle for the Cowl storyline, Scarecrow is recruited by a newBlack Mask to be a part of a group of villains who are aiming to take over Gotham in the wake of Batman's apparent death. He later assists the crime lord in manufacturing a recreational drug called "Thrill," which draws the attention ofOracle andBatgirl. He is later defeated by Batgirl and once again arrested.[32]
Scarecrow briefly appears in the fourth issue of theBlackest Night storyline. His immunity to fear (brought about by frequent exposure to his own fear toxin) renders him practically invisible to the invadingBlack Lanterns. The drug has taken a further toll on his sanity, exacerbated by Batman's disappearance in theBatman R.I.P. storyline; he develops a literal addiction to fear, exposing himself deliberately to therevenant army, but knowing that only Batman could scare him again.[33] Using a duplicate ofSinestro'spower ring, he is temporarily deputized into theSinestro Corps to combat the Black Lanterns. Overjoyed at finally being able to feel fear again, Scarecrow gleefully and without question follows Sinestro's commands.[34] His celebration is cut short whenLex Luthor, overwhelmed by theorange light of Avarice, steals his ring.[35]
InBrightest Day, Scarecrow begins kidnapping and murdering college interns working forLexCorp as a way of getting back at Lex Luthor for stealing his ring. WhenRobin andSupergirl attempt to stop him, Scarecrow unleashes a new fear toxin that is powerful enough to affect aKryptonian. The toxin forces Supergirl to see visions of a Black LanternReactron, but she is able to snap out of the illusion and help Robin defeat Scarecrow.[36] He is eventually freed from Arkham whenDeathstroke and theTitans break into the asylum to capture one of the inmates.[37]
In 2011,The New 52 rebooted the DC universe. Scarecrow is a central villain in the Batman family of books and first appeared in the New 52 inBatman: The Dark Knight #4 (February 2012), written byDavid Finch andPaul Jenkins. His origin story is also altered; in this continuity, his fatherGerald Crane used him as a test subject in his fear-based experiments. During one of these experiments, Crane's father locked him inside a little dark room, but suffered a fatalheart attack before he could let Jonathan out. Jonathan was trapped in the test chamber for days until being freed by some employers of the university.[12] As a result of this event, he was irreparably traumatized and developed an obsession with fear. He became a psychologist, specializing in phobias. Eventually, Crane began using patients as test subjects for his fear toxin. His turn to criminality is also markedly different in this version; the New 52 Scarecrow is fired from his professorship for covering anarachnophobic student with spiders, and becomes a criminal after stabbing a patient to death.[38]
The Scarecrow kidnapsPoison Ivy, and works withBane to create and distribute to various Arkham inmates a new form of Venom infused with the Scarecrow's fear toxin. With the help ofSuperman and theFlash, Batman defeats the villains.[12] The Scarecrow surfaces again inBatman: The Dark Knight #10, penned byGregg Hurwitz, for a six-issue arc. The Scarecrow kidnapsCommissioner James Gordon and several children, and eventually releases his fear toxin into the atmosphere.[38] Scarecrow is also used as a pawn by theJoker in the "Death of the Family" arc; he is referred to as Batman's physician.[39] Scarecrow appears inSwamp Thing (vol. 5) #19 (June 2013), clipping flowers for his toxins at theMetropolis Botanical Garden.Swamp Thing attempts to save Scarecrow from cutting a poisonous flower, not realizing who the villain is. Scarecrow attempts to use his fear toxin on Swamp Thing.[40] The toxin causes Swamp Thing to lose control of his powers until Superman intervenes.[41] He is later approached by theOutsider of theSecret Society of Super Villains to join up with the group. Scarecrow accepts the offer.[42]
As part of "Villains Month",Detective Comics (vol. 2) #23.3 (Sept. 2013) was titledThe Scarecrow #1.[43] Scarecrow goes to seeKiller Croc,Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, andRiddler and informs them of a war atBlackgate Penitentiary is coming and learns where each of the alliances lives. Through his conversations with each, Scarecrow learns that Bane may be the cause of the Blackgate uprising and will be their leader in the impending war. It was also stated that Talons from theCourt of Owls were stored at Blackgate on ice. Later, looking over the divided city, Scarecrow claims that once the war is over and the last obstacle has fallen, Gotham City would be his.[44] Scarecrow approachesProfessor Pyg at Gotham Memorial Hospital to see if he will give his supplies and Dollotrons to Scarecrow's followers. Scarecrow goes to Penguin next, who has already planned for the impending war, by blowing up the bridges giving access to Gotham City.[45] Scarecrow andMan-Bat attempt to steal the frozen Talons from Blackgate whilePenguin is having a meeting with Bane.[46] Killer Croc rescues Scarecrow and Man-Bat from Blackgate and brings Scarecrow to Wayne Tower, where he gives Killer Croc control of Wayne Tower, as it no longer suits him.[47] Scarecrow begins waking the Talons in his possession, having doused them with his fear gas and usingMad Hatter's mind-control technology in their helmets to control them.[48] At Arkham Asylum, Scarecrow senses that he has lost the Talons after Bane freed them from Mad Hatter's mind-control technology. Scarecrow then turns to his next plan, giving the other inmates a small dose of Bane's Venom to temporarily transform them.[49] Upon Bane declaring that Gotham City is finally his, he has Scarecrow hanged between two buildings.[50]
InBatman and Robin Eternal, flashbacks reveal that Scarecrow was the first villain faced byDick Grayson as Robin in the New 52 universe when his and Batman's investigations into Scarecrow's crimes lead Batman to Mother, a woman who believes that tragedy and trauma serve as 'positive' influences to help people become stronger. To this end, Mother has Scarecrow develop a new style of fear toxin that makes the brain suffer the same experience as witnessing a massive trauma, but Scarecrow turns against Mother as the victims of this plan would become incapable of feeling anything. Recognizing that Mother will kill him once he has outlived his usefulness, Scarecrow attempts to turn himself over to Batman,[51] but Batman uses this opportunity to have him deliver a fakepsychological profile of him to Mother, claiming that Batman is a scarred child terrified of losing the people he cares for to make Mother think she understands him.[52] In the present day, as Mother unleashes a new hypnotic signal to take control of the world's children, theBat-Family abduct Scarecrow to brew up a new batch of his trauma toxin after determining that it nullifies the controlling influence of Mother's signal until they can shut down her main base.[53]
InDC Rebirth, Scarecrow works with the Haunter to release a low dose of fear toxin around Gotham on Christmas and sets up a small stand for her to pick up the toxin. Both he and Haunter are paralyzed by the toxin's effects, allowing Batman to apprehend them.[54] The Scarecrow later emerges using a Sinestro Corps power ring to induce fear and rage against Batman in random citizens throughout Gotham, to the point where he provokesAlfred Pennyworth into threatening to shootSimon Baz as part of his final assault.[55] InDoomsday Clock, Scarecrow is among the villains who meet with the Riddler to discuss the Superman Theory.[56] Wanting to take on villains outside his rogues gallery,Shazam flies to Gotham City where he hears about a hostage situation caused by Scarecrow. Shazam starts to fight him when he begins to get affected by the fear gas. Batman shows up and regains control of the situation by defeating Scarecrow and administering the antidote. As Scarecrow is arrested, Batman states to Shazam that Scarecrow is too dangerous for him to fight.[57]
DuringInfinite Frontier, a re-designed Crane is the main foe of the crossoverFear State.[58]
A master strategist and manipulator, his genius labels him as one of the most cunning criminal masterminds. Crane is a walking textbook onanxiety disorders andpsychoactive drugs; he is able to recite the name and description of nearly every known phobia. He is even known to have a frightening ability to tamper with anyone's mind with just words, once managing to drive two men to suicide, and uses this insight to find people's mental pressure points and exploit them.[59] Despite his scrawny build, Crane is a skilledmartial artist who uses his long arms and legs in his personal combat style known as "violent dancing", developed during his training in theKung Fu style of theWhite Crane, for which Scarecrow sometimes wields a sickle or scythe.[60]
Scarecrow also has proficiency in bothbiochemistry andtoxicology, both important to the invention of his fear toxin, which he atomized with mixed chemicals, including powerful syntheticadrenocortical secretions and other potenthallucinogens that can be inhaled or injected into the bloodstream to amplify the victim's darkest fear into a terrifying hallucination. Its potency has upgraded to an extreme level over the years; in some stories in which it appears, fear toxin is depicted as capable of prompting almost instantaneous, terror-inducedheart attacks, leaving the victim in a permanent psychosis of chronic fear. Other versions of the toxin are powerful enough that evenSuperman can be affected; in one story, he mixes the toxin withkryptonite to simultaneously weaken and terrify the Man of Steel.[36] To instill his toxin, he often uses a hand-held sprayer in the shape of a human skull and special straws which can be snapped in half to release it. In one story, Scarecrow concocts a chemical containing wildfowl pheromones from his childhood that causes nearby birds to attack his opponents.
In the story arcAs the Crow Flies, after being secretly mutated by Dr. Linda Friitawa, Scarecrow gains the ability to turn into a large, monstrous creature called the Scarebeast. As Scarebeast, he has greatly enhanced strength, endurance, and emits a powerful fear toxin from his body. However, he has to be under physical strain or duress to transform.[61] During theBlackest Night mini-series, Scarecrow is temporarily deputized into theSinestro Corps by a duplicate ofSinestro's Power ring.[34] He proves to be very capable in manipulating the light of fear to create constructs until his ring is stolen byLex Luthor.[35]
Crane, with only a few exceptions in his incarnations, is cruel, sadistic, deranged, and manipulative above all else. Crane is obsessed with fear, and takes sadistic pleasure in frightening his victims, often literally to death, with his fear toxin.[11] Crane also suffers from brain damage from prolonged exposure to his own toxin that renders him nearly incapable of being afraid of anything - except Batman. This is problematic for him, as he is addicted to fear and compulsively seeks out confrontations with Batman to feed his addiction. He is also known to have a warped sense of humor, though not to the level ofBlack Mask or theJoker, as he has been known to frequently make taunts and quips related to his using his fear toxin or his love of terrifying others.[62] DuringAlan Grant's "The God of Fear" storyline, Scarecrow develops agod complex; he creates an enormous hologram of himself that he projects against the sky, so he will be recognized and worshipped by the citizens of Gotham as a literal god of fear.[63]
Abigail O'Shay is a Gotham University student who writes herdoctoral thesis on vigilantes like theBat-Family, whom she calls the "cape and cowl crowd". She is fascinated by the kind of trauma a person would have to go through to fight criminals while in costume. She learns about such trauma first hand when Jonathan Crane, then uses her as the test subject in experiments using his fear toxin, intending to test its readiness for use on Batman. She spends more than a year in Arkham Asylum recuperating from Scarecrow's experiments. Blaming Batman for her trauma, O'Shay adopted the identity ofMadame Crow with the intention of making sure no one would feel the kind of fear she did ever again as she becomes a member of the Victim Syndicate.[64] In a reversal to Scarecrow's fear toxin, Madame Crow has a set of gauntlets that fire needles filled with "anti-fear" toxin, which removes fear in the hope of keeping people from fighting to avoid their own trauma.[65]
As one of Batman's most recognizable and popular opponents, the Scarecrow appears in numerous comics that are not considered part of the regular DC continuity, including:
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