- For the yellow lantern version, see Fearsome Scarecrow.
Doctor Jonathan Crane was bullied and tortured as a child. In later life, his obsession with fear and its causes led Crane to become one of Gotham City's most feared and nightmarish villains - the Scarecrow.
As an adult Professor Jonathan Crane is a psychologist turned psychopath. As the Scarecrow, he uses a hallucinogenic fear gas to terrorise his victims, often leaving their minds permanently crippled in his bid to "torture the bullies of the world".
Background[]
Unloved by his mother and abandoned by his father, Jonathan Crane lived mostly with his great-grandmother who was a religious zealot who tormented the boy in her care. Punishing Crane for the slightest misdemeanour, she would lock him in a church where he would be attacked by crows.
At school, he was also bullied by other students both for his awkward, lanky gait and for his uncanny resemblance to the character Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The bullies, who dubbed him "Scarecrow", frightened Crane but he refused to give in to his tormentors and vowed to turn the tables on his attackers and make them fear him.
One day, Crane secretly watched his great-grandmother and discovered that she laced his clothes with a substance to get the crows to attack. Finding a library, he learned all he could about all types of sciences, particularly chemistry and developed his own version of his great-grandmother's mixture; testing it out on one of the bullies at school.
Delving even further into the workings of the human mind, Crane discovered how to manipulate the fear response in his intended victims and took his revenge against the bully ringleader; dressing up as a scarecrow and armed with an array of chemically-tainted smoke bombs, caused the high schooler to crash his car while driving; resulting in him killing his girlfriend and paralyzing himself from the waist down.
As an adult, Crane became an expert psychologist; specializing in fear, and acquired knowledge of how certain combinations of chemicals could affect the human psyche. After becoming a professor at Gotham City University, he was dismissed for using unorthodox and dangerous teaching methods that resulted in the injury of one of his students. His fragile mind snapped and he again adopted the guise of the Scarecrow to exact his revenge against the university's faculty board; killing them through their fears.
Finding a new field of employment through crime, Crane sold his fear-inducing skills to the highest bidder and amassed a reputation of murder that brought him to the attention of Batman; whom Scarecrow has dubbed as the "Greatest bully of them all".
Combat Statistics[]
- Scarecrow (Gotham Sewers)
- Scarecrow (Arkham Asylum)
- Scarecrow (Brothers in Arms)
- Phantom Scarecrow
- Scarecrow Hallucination
Involvement[]
- Scarecrow is one of the three villains that have taken over Arkham Asylum.
- Scarecrow is the focus of the Halloween event "Spooktacular, Spectacular".
- He is one of the possible bosses in the Turf War: Team Joker duo of the Riddled with Crime episode.
- Scarecrow is one of the random bounties in the Amusement Mile's Gang War (Bounty: Joker & Riddler Allies / Wanted: Joker & Riddler Allies).
Heroes[]
- He is releasing fear gas in East End, and he is the final boss of the first quest chain for Tech heroes (Batman). His henchmen are referred to as Screamers, Hallucinations, Tormentors, and Poisoners.
- Scarecrow is one of the random iconic encounters for heroes in Alternate Metropolis during the Brothers in Arms operation.
- A Sinestro Corps version of Scarecrow called Fearsome Scarecrow is a bounty for heroes in the War of the Light Part I DLC.
Villains[]
- Some time after his defeat, he apparently approached Mr. Freeze, asking to help with his plan to save Nora, but was turned down.
- One of his henchmen send the player on a mission to gather blood samples for Scarecrow's experiments.
Associated Equipment[]
- Scarecrow's Tattered Helm
- Scarecrow Sack
- Scarecrow's Sinister Cleaver
- Scarecrow's Twisted Cleaver Dual Wield Style
- Scarecrow Emblem
- Enhanced Scarecrow Emblem
Trivia[]
- The Scarecrow first appeared in World's Finest Comics #3 (1941)
- The Scarecrow is voiced by Christopher S. Fields.
- Scarecrow sometimes appears with a trained magpie named "Craw" and other times with a trained crow named "Nightmare".
- Due to his excessive use of psychological chemicals, Crane has become unable to feel fear and claims that Batman is the only one capable of scaring him.
- Crane is capable of mutating into an over fourteen-foot-tall monster known as "the Scarebeast" due to some genetic manipulation done to him secretly under the instruction of the Penguin.
- Although Scarecrow doesn't have real mental powers, he uses a gas to scare and reveal secrets of his enemies' minds.
Gallery[]
See also[]
External links[]
- Scarecrow DC Database