Scarecrow (DC Comics)
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| The Scarecrow | |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | World's Finest Comics #3 (Fall 1941) |
| Created by | Bill Finger Bob Kane |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Jonathan Crane |
| Team affiliations | Assorted Batman rogues Injustice Gang Secret Society of Super Villains |
| Abilities | - Well-educated on the psychology of fear - Develops various tools which induce crippling fear - May transform under duress into the monstrous "Scarebeast", gaining superhuman strength, endurance, and a more potent hallucinogen. |
The Scarecrow (Dr. Jonathan Crane) is a DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of Batman. Created by Batman creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane, he first appeared in World's Finest Comics #3 (Fall 1941). His scarecrow costume, lanky appearance and surname were inspired by Ichabod Crane of the horror fable The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
The Scarecrow is an insane former professor of psychology/psychiatrist who uses a variety of drugs and psychological tactics to utilize the fears and phobias of his adversaries.
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. He was featured several times in the Emmy-winning 1990s cartoon Batman: The Animated Series, where he was first played by Henry Polic II. When the series was revamped and shown together with Superman: The Animated Series, the character was voiced by Jeffrey Combs. In the 2005 film Batman Begins, he was played by Cillian Murphy.
Fictional character biography
Golden Age
In his first appearance in World's Finest #3 during the Golden Age of Comic Books, the Scarecrow is first introduced as Jonathan Crane, a professor of psychology, who turns to crime after he is 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 is that, as a child, he had liked to frighten birds. Ostracized by his fellow professors for his appearance and reclusiveness, he turned to crime to make himself part of the social elite. His modus operandi is to use his Scarecrow persona and threaten his victims into doing whatever he wants. In terms of his costume, he merely wore ragged black hat, trenchcoat, mask, and wielded a Tommy gun.
His first crime involved a businessman named Frank Kendrick being sued by a former partner, Paul Harold. When Herold refused to cooperate upon meeting and hearing his demands, the Scarecrow killed him and became a media sensation. Bruce Wayne, who happens to be a patron and trustee of the university, investigates the matter as Batman and discovers Crane's disturbing behaviour and forced resignation, leading him to suspect the professor. In his second appearance, he approached a store owner named Dodge with the offer to rob other establishments, in order to increase his sales. After Batman and Robin learn of the plan and question Dodge, Scarecrow attempts to kill him, but the Dynamic Duo capture him in the nick of time. He is then sent to Gotham State Penitentiary.
Two years later in Detective Comics #73, he escapes from jail and forms a gang of criminals to do his bidding. While he struggles to rob a Chinese antique dealer, Batman and Robin foil the plan, and he and his cronies are sent back to prison. This version of the Scarecrow was much like other gimmick villains in that he based a lot of crimes around nursery rhymes and words that rhymed with "hat." He does not appear from 1943 to 1955, but it is revealed that he developed a hallucinogenic chemical toxin that could be used to envoke deep phobias within those who breathe it in. When Batman tries to intervene, he is affected by the toxin and hallucinates that all of his allies have disappeared; hinting at a strong case of autophobia. Feeling he has no once else to turn to, he confides in an old enemy, Selina Kyle, to help him stop Crane, and she is successful in helping stop the Scarecrow and getting Batman over his delusions. Exactly what happened to Crane is not revealed because of the revelation that the Golden Age universe was actually Earth-2, part of the Multiverse.
Silver Age
Throughout the 60s Silver Age of Comic Books, the Scarecrow was revived to be one of Batman's most recurring rivals. He is a frequent member of the Injustice Gang. Ironically, in this Earth-One incarnation, Crane has a strange fear of birds, even though he has a pet magpie named Craw.
Post-Crisis, Modern-Age Version
Following the 1986 multi-title event Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot, Crane's 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 (who had rejected Crane), to have an automobile accident which paralyzes Griggs and kills Squires. From this, Crane discovers a savage delight in literally frightening people to death.
He grows up to become a professor of psychology at Gotham University, specializing in the psychology of fear. The flower pot incident is left intact, but the real reason he is fired is due to injuring a student by accident. After his dismissal, he kills the regents who fired him and becomes a career criminal. Following this, he transferred to Arkham Asylum and became a psychiatrist, where he performed more fear-induced experiments on his patients. He takes the moniker "the Scarecrow", the favorite taunt of the hated bullies, as part of his revenge. The 2005 one-shot comic, Batman/Scarecrow: Year One, expands upon the earlier origin story. The novels explains that Jonathan Crane was born out of wedlock and also suffered terrible abuse under his religious fanatic grandmother. His father took off before he was even born, and his mother did not show any love or affection towards her son at all. He developed a taste for fear and an affinity for crows when his grandmother locks him in a dilapidated church full of birds.
During a Batman Confidential story arc, he is shown out of costume at Arkham Asylum still working as a pyschiatrist, while planning the renovation of Arkham, and he briefly comes face to face with the Pre-Joker Jack. Whether or not he has already become the Scarecrow is unknown.
History in the Batman universe
In the Knightfall storyline, 1993, he was one of the prisoners that escaped. He first attacked one of Joker's henchmen and he told Scarecrow that his boss was after the commissioner. Scarecrow went to the Joker and decided to become partners in terrorizing the mayor. Soon they went to the sewers with the mayor were Batman arrived. Scarecrow gassed him with fear toxic but instead Batman got angry. So Scarecrow made the water come into the sewers. Batman escaped with the mayor but Joker and Scarecrow escaped as well. Later, at Scarecrow and Joker's hideout, Scarecrow was bashed by Joker after he tries to poison him. He was then sent to Arkham. These stories were in Knightfall parts 5, 6, 7, 9 and 12.
It wasn't long before he escaped again, this time wanting to become the God of Fear. He brought together a small group of boys to terrorize the city while he enjoyed to chaos. Soon, Batman and Anarky arrived and together they defeated the Scarecrow and saved the boys. But this time Batman was different. These stories were in the Shadow of the Bat 16, 17 and 18.
In a 1998 Scarecrow special "Mistress Of Fear" written by Peter Milligan, the Scarecrow is jailed after being testified against by a young girl called Becky Albright. Through the constant teasing by his supervillain peers, the Joker & the Riddler, inside prison Crane considered Becky to be his natural nemesis at first since he could not scare her into not testifying against him to begin with. After initially breaking out of jail again he opted to take his time and eventually give her every fear he could think of just to shatter her very being and make her afraid of him at last. The Scarecrow appeared as promised on a subway train and used every 'Fearomone' he had on her. In the following week Crane in disguise as a janitor visits a recovering Becky in a Hospital and finds out that she and him were exactly alike all along (made fun of simply because of the way they look) and also that she had done something that he had never done by keeping her feelings in check and kept living her life normally. Disturbed by this revelation, the Scarecrow paid one final visit to Becky upon her release and offered for her to join him as his "Mistress of Fear", offering her to lash out against her own psychological tormentors, but Becky promptly rejects him and causes the Scarecrow to almost kill her as Batman finally arrives and pins him to the ground in the climax. Emotionally hurt and confused the Scarecrow calls out that she has allowed all of the people who have taunted her all her life to simply get away with it and states that she is everything that he himself hates. Batman finally adds as the special ends that if Crane had wanted to, he could have killed her anyway when he had the chance; instead, she wasn't everything he hated, but rather everything that he feared.
In "Fear of Success" Johnathan Crane is released from Arkham Asylum for one day by Human Resources in order to give a motivational speech to Wayne Enterprises, much to Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox's reluctance, during of which Crane goes to severe length marking out the multitude of normal fears with which can be simply underestimated and finally pointing out whilst grinning fanatically that he himself is a very good example of this case. As he finishes his speech his 'Fearomone' gas starts leaking everywhere and he reveals himself in his Scarecrow attire once again. During the ensuing chaos the Scarecrow is caught once more but due to the extent of the Scarecrow's 'Fearomone' gas this time, Batman starts to hallucinate over and over that Sasha Bordeaux tells him his loved one's had just died whilst everything was happening at Wayne Enterprises. Batman tries to overcome the repeating scenes of monotonous tragedy until he storms out in the final one carrying the binded Scarecrow upon his back. In the final pages of the comic whilst transporting Johnathan Crane back to Arkham Asylum Bruce Wayne is shocked by the crowding of the media around his home that Lucius Fox had indeed suffered a stroke as told by Sasha earlier and that the Scarecrow's final scene of the tragedy had indeed wrung true after all. In stories written by Jeph Loeb, such as Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Hush, Crane is shown to have an inclination to sing nursery rhymes at times. In the Elseworlds story, Batman: Crimson Mist, Crane was shown to be singing a modified version of "Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead", from The Wizard of Oz.
During the No Man's Land storyline in 1999, Scarecrow didn't have the chemicals and resources necessary to make his fear gas. He was taken in by a merciful Church mission which provided free food and shelter to refugees of the earthquake. The Minister of the Church told the Huntress that without Scarecrow's fear gas, the Church and it's refugees had nothing to fear from Crane since he is now "just a man." The Scarecrow later manipulated the Minister and a former Black Mask Gang Member, Mikey, into believing that receiving crates of weapons and ammunition from The Penguin would help and protect the Church. Scarecrow then told rival Gotham Gangs such as the GCPD, Penguin's Gang and former Black Mask members of the weapon crates in the Church. Crane wished to watch the carnage and fear ensue as each gang would either fight or defend for the weapons and ammo. Eventually, the Scarecrow coaxes members of the Church to pick up the weapons and defend themselves from the attackers. The Church members are soon told by a surviving former Black Mask Gang Member, Leo, about how they've been manipulated by the Scarecrow. Crane finds this situation ironic and thinks the oncoming onslaught from the Church members will make him a martyr for his own cause. Before the Church members beat the Scarecrow to death, the Huntress intervenes and convinces the Church members that the Scarecrow is a small and pathetic man that shouldn't be beaten dead. Instead, he should be praised because he's shown the church how much they have left to lose when there's so little left. The members then begin to praise Scarecrow and many members say they will pray for him and become his friend. This horrifies the Scarecrow, resulting in him abandonning the Church, removing half his costume and burning it in a trash can.
Crane undergoes a major change in the 2004 Batman story arc As The Crow Flies. While working with the Penguin, he is mutated into a monster. He turns into this "Scarebeast" during times of great strain or when it is necessary to defend himself.
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 an 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 and Robin. 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.
Recently, the Scarecrow has decided to stop using his typical fear gas, as he feared that other Arkham Inmates were right that he was nothing without them. Instead relying on his training as a psychologist, he drives two inmates to suicide using only his words, also apparently terrifying the rest of Arkham's inmates. After manipulating the guards to freeing him, Crane embarks upon a string of vicious serial murders, terrifying Gotham without using his trademark gimmicks.
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.
Other appearances
The Scarecrow also makes 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 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 make a guest appearance in one of Jonathan Crane's dreams in The New Batman Adventures, in which they briefly pretend to be prison administrators allocating him to a teaching job following his parole. However, though they resemble Cain And Abel physically, their personalities and habits are radically different - Cain makes no witticisms, while Abel repeats Cain's sentences rather than stutter - and both have small horns entangled in their hair.
In JSA: The Liberty Files, an alternate version of the Scarecrow appears as a Nazi agent of Adolf Hitler. This version of the Scarecrow is eventually killed by Mister Terrific, the Batman and Hourman.
Crane also teams up with his Marvel Comics counterpart in Marvel vs. DC (see below).
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Richard Friend.
Powers and abilities
Fear evocation
Crane is a psychologist with a specialty in phobias. Using a variety of toxins that cause his victims to hallucinate that their phobias have come to life, the Scarecrow can instill fear in all who see him. In Batman Begins, the fear toxin he uses is extracted from a mountaintop blue flower from China, and only works in vapour form. Crane uses his Scarecrow mask to enhance the effect of the hallucinogen.
Unarmed combat
When forced to fight, he has used a style called "violent dancing", which is based in partly off the crane style of kung fu and drunken boxing, which makes full use of his long arms and legs. Most storylines however have suggested he has no real means of hand-to-hand combat, presenting him as physically unintimidating.
Scarebeast
During the "As the Crow Flies" story arc (commencing with Batman #627, July 2004), the Scarecrow is transformed into a murderous creature known as the Scarebeast by the Penguin and his assistant Linda Friitawa (Fright) 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. After being defeated by Batman by injecting it with massive amounts of tranquilizers, the Scarebeast reverts back into Jonathan Crane, who ends up in a critical coma, from which he later awakens.
The Scarecrow has also 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.
In other media
Animated television series
The Batman/Superman Hour
The Scarecrow's first appearance outside the comics was the 1968 Filmation series The Batman/Superman Hour, in an episode titled "The Great Scarecrow Scare". This series' portrayal of the character was tamer than others; he didn't use fear-based attacks, and merely wanted to rob the farmers' market.
Super Friends
In the 1978 animated series Challenge of the SuperFriends, the Scarecrow appears as a member of Lex Luthor's Legion of Doom. In this series, he is voiced by Don Messick. This version speaks in a hissing voice, has no powers at all and is used mainly when the plot calls for an incompetent villain.
The character's identity and motivation are expanded upon and the character finally became three-dimensional, using his fear-inducing devices for the first time in an episode of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians titled "The Fear". That episode also reveals Batman's origin for the first time in a medium other than the comics. Andre Stojka voiced the Scarecrow in that episode.
Batman: The Animated Series
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The Scarecrow is a villain in Batman: the Animated Series. He has appeared in 5 major roles, as well as having 4 small cameo appearances. He is well-known for having variable character designs, changing drastically from time to time.
Batman: the Animated Series
In his first appearance in the DC Animated Universe, the third episode of Batman: the Animated Series entitled Nothing to Fear, the Scarecrow's past is revealed in a flashback. As in the comics that spawned the series, the Scarecrow's real name is Jonathan Crane, and his fascination with fear emerged as a young child. While growing up, Crane constantly experimented with the effects of fear, eventually becoming a professor at a university where he worked on developing fear toxins, conducting experiments on human guinea pigs. Shortly after creating a fear toxin that caused victims to see their greatest fear, Crane was fired by Dr. Long, the head of the university, for his unorthodox and dangerous methods. Crane then became the Scarecrow, and attempted to exact revenge upon the university and Dr. Long.
While attempting to burn down the university, the Scarecrow succeeded in hitting Batman with a dart filled with fear toxin. Batman foiled the arson attempt, but the toxins had a great effect on him. Dr. Long had recently claimed that he was a disgrace to his father's name, and it became clear that Batman's greatest fear was his father's rejection, and he was haunted with images of his father mocking him. This was Batman's weak point in this battle against the Scarecrow, and when the Scarecrow attacked the university a second time, Batman had to struggle to ignore the images. He managed to overcome his fear, forcing himself to realize that the visions were not real and convincing himself that his father was proud of him. Because of this, Batman was able to defeat the Scarecrow's henchmen and arrest the villain.
The Scarecrow makes his next appearance in the episode Fear of Victory, in which he fixes sporting events by giving telegrams dusted with his powdered fear toxins to the players. Crane, having bet on the other team, wins large quantities of money. In a confrontation at the end of the episode, Robin, who was previously affected by the powder, manages to overcome his fears and prevents the Scarecrow from dropping a vial of fear toxins on the crowd below.
In his third and final appearance, in the episode Dreams In Darkness the Scarecrow plans to poison Gotham's water supply with his fear toxins to discover what would happen when a whole city went mad with fear. When Batman fought one of his henchmen, he once again got a dose of fear gas, and experiences hallucinations of his parents getting murdered, his worst enemies triumphing over him, and his greatest friends turning against him. Batman manages to fight his fear once again, and infects Scarecrow with his own gas then sends him back to prison, terrified.
The Scarecrow has no other major appearances in the original animated series, but does have some cameo appearances. He appeared playing chess with the Mad Hatter in Joker's Wild, and was seen being arrested again in Harley's Holiday. In the episode Trial, he didn't have a speaking role, and was seen only escorting the prisoners and attempting to kill Batman with a scythe. In the episode Lock-Up, the Scarecrow was said to be the only prisoner to escape from Lyle Bolton, a security guard who used methods of torture against the prisoners, but not to commit any crimes - only because he was terrified of him. Ultimately, after Bolton went rogue and was arrested, the Scarecrow was last seen, uncostumed, triumphantly watching him and promising to teach him new lessons in fear.
The New Batman Adventures
The Scarecrow also appears in the New Batman Adventures, in an episode called Never Fear. Here, he had a different scheme; he infects his victims with a gas that removes fear, causing them to become reckless risk-takers. The Scarecrow infects Batman with this anti-fear gas, causing him to go berserk and try and kill his enemies. The Scarecrow holds the city ransom, demanding large sums of money in exchange for the antidote to the gas's effects. Batman tries to kill the Scarecrow, who is saved by Robin, and the Scarecrow is arrested.
In the New Batman Adventure episode Over the Edge, the Scarecrow kills Batgirl by knocking her over the side of a building. The police blame Batman, discover his secret identity, and attempt to arrest him. Commissioner Gordon hires Bane to help him capture Batman, which results in Batman's death. However, at the end of the episode, this is revealed to be Batgirl's dream, caused by the Scarecrow's fear gas. This was the Scarecrow's final appearance in the DC Animated Universe. His final fate is unknown; arrested in Over the Edge, he is presumably still incarcerated. The scarecrow makes an appearance in batman:gotham adventures issue#3 he later appears in issue#32 due to the hallucination in which appears to be Batgirl's dream. He later returns in issue#13 when commissioner Barbara Gordon is troubled by it again.
Bruce Timm, the show's creator, writer, and part-time director, felt that the Scarecrow was supposed to be scary, and that so far he didn't look right and that none of the designs were working, as he said in one of the conversations on the DVD. When the New Batman Adventures came out, the designers completely redesigned the Scarecrow, giving him a twisted death mask with completely blank eyes and a noose around his neck, dressed all in black and looking more like a corpse than a Scarecrow. In this version, he was also given a new voice, said to make the Scarecrow sound creepier (provided by Jeffrey Combs). This version was never shown out of his costume. Timm actually commented that there may in fact not even be a person inside the costume of this version of the Scarecrow.
Other
The Scarecrow never appears in Batman Beyond, nor is he mentioned. However, in the animated movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, there is a member of the Jokerz gang, Ghoul, whose design resembles the Scarecrow's, and his costume is possibly influenced by Batman's old enemy. The Batman Beyond villain Spellbinder, like the Scarecrow, is also able to show people horrific illusions.
As part of the original 13 members of the Legion of Doom, the Scarecrow was originally slated to appear again in the DC Animated Universe in the third season of Justice League Unlimited, but apparently due to a "Bat-Embargo" enforced by Warner Bros., this did not occur.
The Scarecrow was set to appear in The Batman, but was not included because he appeared in Batman Begins. However, a picture of the unused design is at this link. According to writer Joseph Kuhr, he had originally written the fourth season episode, "Strange New World", to introduce Scarecrow into the show, only to find the character was still off-limits to them.
Untitled Anime Project
An as of yet untitled anime movie is set for release a few weeks before the release of the Dark Knight film. In it, Batman takes on some of his foes from the traditional comic stories. In one of the two pictures for the film, Batman is fighting a criminal that looks to be the Scarecrow.
Film
Batman Begins
The Scarecrow was originally going to appear in the cancelled Batman Triumphant project that would have taken place after Batman & Robin, but due to that film's mediocre box-office performance, Batman Triumphant never came to fruition. Ewan McGregor, Steve Buscemi, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd were considered for the role.
The Scarecrow appears in the 2005 movie Batman Begins, portrayed by Cillian Murphy. Much like his comic counterpart, this version of the Scarecrow is a corrupt, sadistic psychiatrist specializing in psychopharmacology at Arkham, secretly allied with Ra's al Ghul and Carmine Falcone, smuggling the former's hallucinogenic drugs into Gotham to create fear gas to use upon his patients in cruel experiments. He first appears in the film as Dr. Jonathan Crane, testifying in court that Victor Zsasz, who "butchers people for the mob", is legally insane and should be moved to Arkham for rehabilitation. This enrages Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes, who later accuses him of being corrupt. Crane then meets with Falcone to discuss having her murdered. When Falcone later attempts to blackmail Crane, Crane dons his Scarecrow mask for the first time in the film and douses Falcone with his fear gas, driving the mob boss insane and leaving him repeatedly uttering "scarecrow". Crane attributes this to him identifying the image with a Jungian archetype.
In Crane's first encounter with Batman, he sprays Batman with his fear toxin and sets him on fire, though Batman narrowly escapes with his life and mind intact. With the help of Lucius Fox, Batman acquires an antidote to the toxin. Shortly thereafter, Batman has a second confrontation with Crane, this time at Arkham, where he must rescue Rachel Dawes after Crane has sprayed her with his toxin. Batman overpowers Crane's henchmen and sprays the doctor with a dose of his own medicine, destroying what's left of his sanity and divulging his real superior: Ra's Al Ghul. Crane is subsequently arrested by James Gordon, but later escapes in the mass release of Arkham inmates prompted by Ra's Al Ghul as part of his plot to destroy Gotham. As Ra's Al Ghul unleashes Crane's fear gas on the Narrows, Crane, now calling himself Scarecrow, pursues Rachel and a boy through an alley on a horse, dragging a dead mounted police officer from its stirrups. Rachel eludes Scarecrow by shocking him in the face with a taser. Scarecrow aimlessly rides off into the night, screaming in pain. In the film's final scene, Gordon reveals that Crane is still at large.
Crane wears a mask, seemingly a poorly stitched burlap sack with a hangman's noose dangling around the neck. The mask has a built in rebreather and acts as a gas mask, and enhances the effect of the hallucinations in his experiments. The mask is put to good use when a victim is poisoned, making his appearance all the more terrifying to the victim (Batman hallucinates bats flying out of the "mouth", while Rachel hallucinates worms growing from it). His voice is also distorted when the victim is contaminated with the toxin thanks to a voice scrambler built into the mask[citation needed]. He also wears an unbound straitjacket at the movie's climax due to his incarceration in and breakout from Arkham Asylum.
A "second-stage" mask was designed for the film to be used in one of the final sequences. The mask during a hallucination would appear to almost be melting or dripping off his face, but such scenes were not included in the final cut.
The Dark Knight
In an interview with Wizard Magazine, David S. Goyer said that the Scarecrow's role in The Dark Knight probably won't be much bigger than Willem Dafoe's role in Spider-Man 2.[citation needed]
Amalgam Comics
In Amalgam Comics, the Scarecrow is combined with Bloodscream to form Bloodcrow, and with the Scarecrow of Marvel Comics to form Scarecrow.
Video games
The Scarecrow appears in four video games: Game Boy's Batman: The Animated Series, Super Nintendo & Genesis'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.
Lego sets
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.
In a second wave, the Scarecrow pilots an old-style crop duster in an aerial fight against Batman's Batcopter in the set #7786 Batcopter: The Hunt For The Scarecrow.
Other Scarecrow
There is a Marvel Comics supervillain named Ebineezer Laughton who also goes by the moniker "Scarecrow." He is primarily a foe of Ghost Rider and Spider-Man. Like Crane, he resembles a lanky field scarecrow when in costume (the most distinct visual difference between the two is that Crane's costume usually includes a straw hat). Though Laughton shares the ability to induce fear in others (albeit supernaturally), he is primarily known as a contortionist (similar to another villain, Ragdoll). During this Scarecrow's most recent appearance (And first after Batman Begins) in Sensational Spider-Man, it's joked several times by Spider-Man that "Yes. I have a Scarecrow villain too."
In Marvel vs. DC, Laughton talked Crane into kidnapping Lois Lane, but Ben Reilly (out of costume) showed up and KO'd them both at the same time with a single kick.
Similarly, a Scarecrow action figure from Hasbro's Ghost Rider movie line bears at least some resemblance to the Batman Begins Scarecrow, as they have nearly identical burlap masks.
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External links
