Scarecrow (DC)

"And at the end of fear, oblivion!"

- Scarecrow's game over sequence from Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Dr. Jonathan Crane is The Scarecrow. He is a villain from the Batman series. He has invented a gas that makes people see their greatest fears. He doesn't commit crimes for fun or for revenge, but as an experiment to further develop his Fear Gas.

Batman Begins
Scarecrow appears in Batman Begins as the secondary antagoist, portrayed by Irish actor Cillian Murphy. In the film, Dr. Jonathan Crane is the chief administrator at Arkham Asylum and is secretly working with both Ra's al Ghul and mob boss Carmine Falcone, who brings shipments of drugs in for Crane to use to create his fear toxin.

In order to maintain Falcone's participation, Crane has Falcone's thugs, including Victor Zsasz, declared insane and moved into Arkham Asylum, rather than facing criminal charges, which Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes finds highly suspicious.

Later in the film, after Falcone is captured by Batman and imprisoned in the Blackgate Penitentiary, he slits his wrists in order to get an insanity plea. When Crane is summoned to inspect him, Falcone attempts to blackmail him into letting him in on his and Ra's al Ghul's plan. Instead, Crane puts on his Scarecrow mask and gasses Falcone with his fear toxin, leaving him in a state of psychosis and having him moved to Arkham Asylum on suicide watch.

When Rachel hears about Falcon being moved to Arkham, she is once again suspicious. She personally goes down to Arkham to meet with Crane, believing Crane himself to be the one responsible for Falcone's condition. She informs Crane that she has arranged for a doctor from County General to have their own evaluation of Falcone that same night and to be on the Judge's desk by the next day. Crane takes Rachel down to the basement level and shows her where his fear toxin is created. Frightened, Rachel attempts to escape, but Scarecrow catches up with her and gasses her with a consecrated dose of his toxin. However, before he can continue experimenting on her, Batman arrives and battles Scarecrow, eventually gassing him with his own toxin and learning that he was working for Ra's al Ghul. Crane was eventually put in a straitjacket and imprisoned with Arkham himself.

Near the end of the film, when Ra's al Ghul's men release the Arkham Asykum inmates, Scarecrow is freed as well, and when the fear toxin is mass-released into the air by Ra's, he is encountered on horseback by Rachel and a young boy as a demonic looking rider. However, he is chased away after Rachel uses a taser on him. This is the last time he is seen in the film.

The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises
Scarecrow briely appears at the beginning of The Dark Knight, having still been on the run after being released in the previous movie. He is shown at an attempted drug deal with the crime lord known as "The Chechen". However, he is captured by Batman.

In The Dark Knight Rises, following Bane's launching of Gotham City into anarchy, Dr. Crane serves as a judge for mock trials against the rich and powerful of Gotham City, usually offering the options death or exile, which both lead to the vitims dying.

Batman: Arkham Asylum
The Scarecrow is one of the villains Batman faces in the videogame Batman: Arkham Asylum. The first time you will fight him in the morgue, but thanks to his gas, you end up in a different "world". In this world, The Scarecrow is gigantic, and Batman must avoid his gaze while getting to a giant lamp. the Scarecrow dissapears when the light hits him. The second time you face him is in the Mansion. Batman fights him in the same world, and must do the same thing. But now, The Scarecrow summons skeletons to fight the Batman. The third time Batman faces him is in the penintiery, it's the same thing, but when Batman shines the light upon Scarecrow, he releases more gas, and Batman must now face the skeletons Scarecrow summons, in order to beat him. After this, Scarecrow runs off, shouting that it is impossible that Batman survived his gas. He threatens to release the gas in the sewers, but Killer Croc prevents him from doing so. Despite him appearing to be killed by Croc, it's hinted that Crane's still alive. On one of the ending in Arkham Asylum, a crate of TITAN was floating around. Then all of a sudden, one of Scarecrow's arms remerged out of the water and grabbed the crate, hinting that he escaped Killer Croc's grip somehow. It's confirmed he is alive be decoding a message at the end of the sequel.

Profile
The Scarecrow also has an entry in the Character Bios. His profile states: Taunted and bullied as a youth, Jonathan Crane vowed to overcome his fears through the study of psychology and biochemistry. Kicked out of his university for experimenting on human subjects, Crane then adopted the identity of the Scarecrow and armed himself with a specialized fear-inducing gas that makes a person’s deepest phobias become frighteningly real. His ongoing criminal reign of terror makes him one of Batman’s most psychologically dangerous foes. thumb|270px|left|Scarecrow's Death

Facts

 * Real Name: Jonathan Crane


 * Occupation: Professional Criminal, Former Psychiatrist


 * Base of Operations: Gotham City, Arkham Asylum


 * Eyes: Blue


 * Hair: Brown


 * Height: 6 ft


 * Weight: 140 lb


 * First Appearance: World's Finest Comics #3 (Fall, 1941)

Attributes

 * Master of psychology and chemistry
 * Creator of fear-inducing gas
 * Motivated by an obsessive need to create fear in others