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He is a psychology professor-turned-supervillain who is obsessed with fear and phobias, and takes sadistic pleasure in making people hallucinate their worst fears with his hallucinogenic fear toxin. The Scarecrow later modifies his toxin to combat Batman, to the point of nearly psychologically breaking him.
In Batman: The Animated Series, he was voiced by the late Henry Polic II. In The New Batman Adventures and Rise of Sin Tzu, he was voiced by Jeffrey Combs, who also played Herbert West in the Re-Animator film series, Dr. Vannacutt in House on Haunted Hill, John Nichols in Criminal Minds, Shepard Lambrick in Would You Rather, Weyoun and Brunt in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,Milton Dammers in The Frighteners,Gyrus Krinkle in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!,Crawford Tillinghast in From Beyond, the Rat King in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series, Shran in Star Trek: Enterprise, and another Batman villain, Kite Man, in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In the TNBA episode Over the Edge, Scarecrow's vocal effects were provided by Jeff Bennett in an uncredited role.
Even as a child and prior to becoming the Scarecrow, Jonathan Crane had developed a strong interest with inducing fear; once in school, he scared two girls with a handful of snakes. He eventually graduated from Gotham State University with a doctorate in psychology, and years later would get a job as the leading professor of subliminal psychology at Gotham University. Though he had a bright career in front of him, however, he created a hallucinogenic gas called Fear Gas, which would make anyone experience their darkest fears or nightmares. Crane used his gas to conduct unethical experiments on the students at the university, causing Dr. Long, one of the professors in the university. to see him as a lunatic. As a result, Crane was fired from his job. Driven mad by hatred, he resolved to destroy Gotham University and make them know of the "true nature of horror."
Batman: The Animated Series[]
“
Fight all you want, Batman; but you must succumb to the fear. What hidden terror keeps the Batman awake at night?
„
~ The Scarecrow's first encounter with Batman
Seeking to reduce Gotham University to shambles as revenge for his termination, Crane hires two men named Anthony and Nigel, who became his first henchmen. He then adopts a scarecrow costume for his own and took on the moniker of "Scarecrow". As part of his vendetta, he and his two goons invaded the University's bank by blasting a hole through the ceiling but were confronted by a lone security guard, who had set off the alarm, but Scarecrow sprays him with his fear gas, causing the guard to hallucinate that spiders are crawling all over him. As the goons were confused by what they are seeing, Scarecrow reveals that he had exposed him to his innermost fear; arachnophobia. They then move on to rob the vault. While Nigel stood guard outside, Scarecrow instructs Anthony to take whatever money he can carry and burn the rest, as his primary goal is revenge and not money.
As the duo doused the inside of the vault with gasoline, they were alerted by Nigel of Batman and Scarecrow orders Anthony to climb up on one of the shelves so he could ambush Batman. Shortly after he left, Nigel was immediately defeated by the Dark Knight, and Scarecrow throws two gas bombs at the vault door in an attempt to expose Batman to his fear gas but saw that he is wearing a gas mask, which prevent him from inhaling the gas. However, he signals Anthony to ambush Batman, and the former rips off the latter's gas mask as Scarecrow weakens Batman with a drugged dart. As Batman tries to stop him, Scarecrow ignites the gasoline with a flare and he escapes the vault with Anthony and Nigel.
Later, somewhere in Gotham, Scarecrow watches the news of Batman's successful thwarting of the former's attempted arson and angrily turns off the TV before ranting on having underestimated the Dark Knight but nevertheless assumes that Gotham University is "finished". When asked on why he hates the university, he recaps his backstory and on how he had been fired as a psychology professor. Later that night, he arrives at a Gotham University Museum Benefit on a dirigible and uses its gas hose to pump his Fear Gas into the building through the air conditioning ducts, psychologically driving the university members to paranoia. During the chaos, Scarecrow steals the donation money and takes Dr. Long hostage after spraying him with his fear gas. Though Batman tried to stop him, the crowd immediately hallucinates him as a giant bat, sending them into a hysterical panic as they began attacking Batman en masse, allowing Scarecrow to escape on a dirigible.
Scarecrow initially believed that Batman is dead but Anthony spots the Dark Knight hanging onto the dirigible's gas hose. Scarecrow immediately sends Anthony to get rid of him and during the ensuing fight, Anthony accidentally fires his gun into the dirigible's controls, destroying them, causing the now-out-of-control airship to crash into a skyscraper. Scarecrow and Nigel tried to put out the fire in the dirigible's gondola until Batman crashed in. As he and Nigel wrestle, Scarecrow tries to attack with another drugged dart but accidentally hits Nigel instead, making him experience his claustrophobia. Seeing that he's lost, Scarecrow escapes on a glider while Batman rescues Dr. Long.
Returning to his lair in his chemical plant of Crane Chemicals, Scarecrow, right after taking off his mask, immediately fell into a trap set by Batman, in which he was exposed to his own fear gas, causing him to imagine Batman transforming into a demonic bat-gargoyle-like avenger, which represents his worst fear. Scarecrow was then subdued by the Dark Knight and taken to the GCPD, where Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock found him dangling from a ceiling fan and he was incarcerated in Arkham Asylum.
Sometime later, he escaped to continue his reign of terror. Having lost all of his fundings, Scarecrow sought a quick solution to make money by using a powdered form of fear toxin he created that turns adrenaline into fear, which he then applies on telegrams that he delivers to star athletes, including those from Gotham University, in order to sabotage their games as a means to bet and gamble quick money against them. Scarecrow's ploy was eventually discovered by Batman and Robin, who then arrest the former and took him back to Arkham Asylum.
During his time in confinement, Scarecrow focused his latest plot on Arkham Asylum where he planned to cause mass panic in the city by contaminating the asylum's water supply. While in disguise as a psychiatric patient, he now began preparing to counter Batman's intervention, unlike in his previous schemes. After escaping, Scarecrow, hatches a plot to set Batman up; he radio communicates with newly-recruited henchman Torchy to sabotage the drinking water of Gotham Health Spa by poisoning it with Scarecrow's mind-manipulation gas as part of the first stage of the plan, which was leaked to the Gotham underbelly. As a part of the plan, this tricks Batman into attacking Torchy, and he ended up exposing himself to the gas, causing Batman to hallucinate, which ultimately led him to crash the Batmobile into a tree, leading him to be found and imprisoned in Arkham by its staff.
With his adversary out of the way, Scarecrow can now move on with the rest of his plan without facing any intervention from the Dark Knight. Below Arkham, he has his giant pump machine ensconced within the cave network that is the source of Gotham's water supply and has it filled with his fear toxin, so he could release massive amounts of it into Gotham City's water supply, thus unleashing a fear-filled inferno. At the same time from there, he would study the effects of fear on a massive control group. After escaping confinement, Batman finds the Arkham reservoir and discovers Scarecrow's machine but continues to suffer from constant hallucination. Despite this, he managed to defeat the Scarecrow's henchmen and foil's the villain's plot by disabling the machine, resulting in its destruction. As Scarecrow tries to escape, a giant container unleashing his fear gas explodes, causing the Scarecrow to once again be exposed to his own gas and he was soon arrested again and placed back into Arkham Asylum.
At some point, Scarecrow managed to escape from Arkham. After Batman was captured by Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Scarecrow aids Killer Croc in forcibly bringing Batman (who was placed in a straightjacket) to a sham trial set up by the Joker and locks him to his seat. He then becomes a part of the jury during the "trial."
After Joker sentences Batman and Janet Van Dorn to death, Scarecrow accompanies the other villains as they bring Batman and Janet to the electroshock therapy room and he and Mad Hatter straps him to a table so that he'll be executed. Scarecrow remained present as Joker attempts to unmask Batman before Janet uses one of his Batarangs to shatter the room's only light, allowing Batman to take advantage of the darkness to break free. When Joker tries to shoot Batman but ended up damaging a generator, Scarecrow watched as Killer Croc went through an electric shock. As Batman and Janet tried to escape, Scarecrow blocks their way and tries to attack them with his scythe but Batman pulls Janet out of the way, causing Scarecrow to accidentally decapitate Ventriloquist's puppet Scarface and lodging his scythe into a wall. while struggling to pull his weapon free, Batman strikes Scarecrow so hard it sent the latter flying into Poison Ivy and Mad Hatter, sending them tumbling down the stairs. When Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD arrive to restore order, it's possible that Scarecrow was re-incarcerated alongside the other villains.
During Lyle Bolton's short-lived tenure as Arkham Asylum's Chief of Security, Scarecrow is amongst the many inmates that were terrified of how Bolton treated them (even when they behaved) and of his cruel and extremist ways of punishing inmates. This made Scarecrow so terrified of Bolton, despite being the self-proclaimed "Master of Fear" that he escapes Arkham just to avoid him buy was soon captured by Batman and Robin, who took him back to Arkham, where they became suspicious of Lyle Bolton's demeanor towards Scarecrow and of how the latter reacted in terror towards him.
In a court hearing regarding Bolton's attitude towards Arkham's inmates, Scarecrow, alongside Harley Quinn and Ventriloquist and Scarface, were brought forward for questioning but were unable to say anything after they cowed by Bolton's menacing sneer. However, Batman/Bruce Wayne cleverly provoked a reaction in them by deciding to extend Bolton's tenure, which caused Harley, Scarecrow, and Ventriloquist to immediately reveal Bolton's abuse of power and of how he treated them. This caused Lyle Bolton to go berserk, causing him to reveal his monstrous side to the entire court, with the three villains backing away and cowering in fear. Six months later, after Bolton (now known as Lock-Up) was defeated by Batman, Scarecrow was pleased that the former was apprehended and being imprisoned in Arkham, vowing to "teach" him new lessons in fear as vengeance for what he put him through.
The New Batman Adventures[]
“
This message is for the mayor. You'll soon see what Gotham City will be like without fear. And it won't be pretty.
„
~ The Scarecrow's plan to hold Gotham ransom
Three years later, Scarecrow (albeit with a scarier appearance) returns to Gotham as a much darker mastermind. He had discovered a new variation type of his Fear Gas, whose effects are the exact opposite; it would eradicate fear from a person's mind all together, rendering them unable to discern right from wrong and leading them to make death-defying risks as mindless, reckless, and suicidal daredevils. With help from his associate, an unnamed Guru, Scarecrow tests the toxin out on a few civilians, such as an acrophobic man and Wayne Enterprises employee Seymour Grey. He and the Guru would then anonymously found the Never Fear seminar so that Scarecrow could use his toxin on more test subjects. When a disguised Bruce Wayne infiltrates the seminar to investigate and found a collection of canisters containing the gas in Scarecrow's office, Scarecrow caught him snooping, and sneaking up from behind, he knocks him out before trapping him beside a crocodile enclosure in a zoo.
Scarecrow confronts Bruce for snooping in its office but the latter tries to play dumb by lying that he is just a petty thief looking around for some loose cash, but Scarecrow just shoots him with a gas gun, exposing Bruce to the toxin. He then goads him to climb into the crocodile enclosure to get to him, which Bruce fearlessly does so and is immediately tackled by the crocodiles, who then dragged him underwater. After seeing what appears to be Bruce's blood circling in the water, a satisfied Scarecrow mockingly welcomes him to the "food chain" before leaving. However, soon after he left, Bruce emerges from the water unharmed, having managed to kill one of the crocodiles, which explains the blood in the water. Now under the effects of the Scarecrow's gas, he himself ended up becoming a reckless and suicidal daredevil, that is no longer afraid/hesitant, thus putting his moral code at the risk of being broken.
Taking all of his gas canisters from his lair along with the antidote, Scarecrow boards his subway train so he could release a massive amount of the toxin into Gotham’s subway system as part of his plot to hold the city ransom or Gotham would be overrun by chaos without fear. During the train ride, he addresses a message to Hamilton Hill, the mayor of Gotham, and threatens to throw the City into chaos with fear being absent before bringing up the antidote. He then tells the mayor that if he wants it, then he has to pay him a huge ransom. Scarecrow was then attacked by Tim Drake/Robin, who knocked the antidote out of his hand. Before Robin could arrest him, he was subdued and then cuffed by one of the Scarecrow’s goons. After a now-psychotic Batman took out all of the henchmen, he reaches Scarecrow and began strangling him. When Robin tries to get Batman to stop, this distracted the Dark Knight enough for Scarecrow to attack him with his stick. During an ensuing melee, Batman accidentally destroys the master controls of the train’s front carriage, making it go haywire. Before he could choke Scarecrow to death, Robin used the antidote to bring Batman back to his senses. As the train was heading right for a deep ravine, Batman takes a now-unconscious Scarecrow as he and Robin jumped out of the train before it fell into the ravine and exploding. Scarecrow continued to remain unconscious as the Dynamic Duo took him with them as they left the subway and possibly sending him back to Arkham Asylum.
A short time later, he and his goons besieged Gotham City Hall in an attempt to stage another heist but were once again confronted by Batman and Robin, who are now accompanied by Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. During their final encounter, Scarecrow released one of his fear toxins that made Barbara fall asleep before he was defeated once again. While sleeping, she experienced her greatest fear; In a nightmare, as Scarecrow's henchmen held off the Dynamic Duo so their boss can escape to safety, Batgirl immediately followed him, and she chased Scarecrow to an upper level of the city hall. After she fell to a decoy he had set up, Scarecrow used his stick to knock her off the building, and he and a horrified Robin watched as she fell stories below before roughly landing on the roof of a police squad car containing her father Commissioner Gordon and Detective Harvey Bullock. As Gordon ran up to her, Scarecrow burst into spiteful laughter, causing Batman to knock him out in a rage. Meanwhile, after sending Bullock off to call an ambulance, Commissioner Gordon was horrified to discover that Batgirl is his own daughter Barbara. After she died from her injuries, Gordon angrily confronts Batman over not telling him the truth and blamed the vigilante (and not Scarecrow) for his daughter’s death, developing a bitter vendetta against Batman.
Abilities and Equipment[]
Psychology: Scarecrow is a cunning expert in psychology with a deep focus on fear, specifically the study of anxiety disorders (phobias especially).
Chemistry: A genius in chemistry and toxicology, Scarecrow created his powerful fear-toxin that causes his targets to experience hallucinations of their worst fears. His toxin took forms of syringes, powder, and aerosols. Crane even managed to create a chemical that removes fear from the brain, but to the point where the victim becomes chaotic and unafraid of death.
Pedagogy: He was a professor of psychology before his termination.
Trivia[]
The only sketch of the TNBA Scarecrow without the shadows on his face by Bruce Timm.
Both Scarecrow's second mask in BTAS and third/final mask in TNBA was inspired by Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film series. In a message to artist Cory Smith, Bruce Timm commented that the mask (or rather the face) was made to look like its made out of "inexpertly tanned human skin/leather" to give in to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Leatherface feeling.[1]
According to Bruce Timm himself, there are no existing drawings that features Scarecrow's TNBA facial design without the shadows. However, he drew a sketch for Cory Smith that features just that.
Most depictions of Scarecrow have shown from his past being a victim of abuse from family members and bullying from peers in school before becoming what he is, this version of him shows us that he was a bully instead of being a victim of such based on his childhood obsession with fears and phobias and his sadism in scaring whomever for his amusement.
In BTAS, his voice was initially deep and gruff, but later changed a bit higher. In TNBA, his voice became much more sinister and calm.
While Scarecrow's redesign for TNBA was described in Arkham Files, writer and producer Paul Dini commented that "[They] weren't sure if there was an actual guy in the suit". The reason for the change came out years later in a Crossover comic with TMNT. Crane had been inspired to become a scarier version of the Scarecrow after being frightened by Kraang.
The explanation for the TNBA redesign of Scarecrow was originally going to be seen in a rather darker episode. The plot followed his face being horribly disfigured by a chemical explosion while creating a new form of fear toxin, to which he blamed Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) for. Another story states the noose he now wears was supposed to have him hanged for his crimes in another state, but then snapped, leading people, and himself, to believe him to be an undead being. Another
Regarding the noose wrapped around his neck, it was explained by writer Ty Templeton that Crane had been found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death, but during his execution, it was unexpectedly botched when the rope of the noose suddenly snapped, allowing Crane to survive and escape. From then on, he continued to wear the noose around his neck to symbolize his belief that he couldn't be killed.[2]
The voice of Scarecrow in Lego DC Super-Villains, reprised by Jeffrey Combs, is a homage to the late Henry Polic II who voiced the character in Batman: The Animated Series.
Elements of Scarecrow's crimes and encounters with Batman from BTAS can be seen from his Nolanverse counterpart, majority of them seen from "Nothing to Fear."
Nothing To Fear
Scarecrow and his goons pouring gasoline all over the university's vault money; in Batman Begins, it was at an abandoned apartment where Scarecrow's fear toxin were stored.
Both Batman and Scarecrow experiencing their worst fears through the fear toxin firsthand can be seen in both Batman Begins and BTAS episode "Nothing to Fear."
Dreams in Darkness
Poisoning Arkham Asylum's water supply to cause mass panic in Gotham can be seen in both Batman Begins and BTAS episode "Dreams in Darkness".
Batman: Dark Tomorrow (2003) Ra's al Ghul | Black Mask | False Face Society | Ubu | Joker | Killer Croc | Mr. Freeze | Victor Zsasz | Poison Ivy | Talia al Ghul | Ratcatcher | Ventriloquist & Scarface
