Scarecrow

Professional Criminal

65 (NW)

**Scarecrow**is a major antagonist in *Batman: Shadow War, Batman: Red War* and *Batman: New War.*He is a criminal obsessed with fear and had armed himself with a specialized fear-inducing toxin that makes a person's deepest phobia become a frightening reality. Scarecrow's reign of terror makes him one of Batman's most recurring and psychologically dangerous foes.

## Biography

### Early Life

Jonathan Crane was born out of wedlock and suffered severe abuse as a child. His father took off before he was even born, and his mother was made to leave her newborn son in the hands of her grandmother, a religious fanatic with less than pure intentions for the boy. As a child he was exposed to severe physical and emotional torment and torture from his great grandmother, the worst of course being the Kenny families chapel, where flocks of crows nested, and he was forced to dress in a suit resembling a scarecrow contaminated with a homemade chemical designed to enrage nearby crows and force them to attack the source. It was because of this Crane developed a crippling fear of his grandmother.

In his childhood and teenage years, Crane was the victim of taunts and jeers due to his lanky frame and spindly legs. He was also bullied for his personality traits. His grudge against the people who hurt him grew stronger and Crane was eventually tired of being a victim. He managed to learn the recipe for the fear chemical that his grandmother used to scare the crows and, one certain night, he dressed up as a ghoulish scarecrow to terrify some of the people who bullied him at high school. Unfortunately, his fear methods proved to be a bit too successful and caused the ultimate deaths of his bullies. Crane became fascinated with the whole event and he then proceeded to murder his grandmother using the same chemical she previously used on him.

After high school, Crane enrolled at Gotham University where he became a professor of psychology after eliminating the main teacher by exposing him to a prototype version of his fear toxin. Crane started his classes with the emphasis on the study of fear, which caused him to be eventually fired for using harsh methods such as firing a revolver in class. Following this, he was transferred to Arkham Asylum and became the head psychologist, where he performed fear-inducing experiments on his patients in secret. Around this time, Crane also worked as an intern at a psychiatric clinic, where he was in charge of a young and disturbed Elliot Thomas, but instead of treating him, he allowed the boy's mental state to worsen.

### First Battle with Batman

Crane re-adopted his Scarecrow persona and targeted those involved in his sacking at the university. Scarecrow staged his victims' greatest terrors with the use of his Fear Toxin and killed them in that manner. Scarecrow attempted to kill Scottie Mullen by drowning her while she is bound and gagged, though Batman arrives on the scene and saves her, though Scarecrow managed to escape by exposing the Dark Knight to his fear toxin. The fear toxin caused Batman to relive the murder of his parents and it affected him so much that he couldn't go back out into the night as Batman, allowing Scarecrow to continue his vengeful and experimental killing spree.

With Alfred's assistance, Batman was determined to stop Scarecrow from taking any more lives and finds him psychologically tormenting his former boss and university principal Gerald Harris by strapping him to a chair and injecting a large amount of Fear Toxin into his veins, causing him to hallucinate about being on fire and Scarecrow as a fiery demon. Scarecrow then doused Gerald with gasoline and prepared a lighter to set him on fire, however Batman, much to Scarecrow's surprise, confronts Scarecrow and demands he stop. Batman manages to stop Scarecrow from murdering Gerald and when Scarecrow makes another attempt to expose Batman to fear toxin, the Dark Knight grabs Scarecrow's arm and turns the fear toxin onto him, causing Scarecrow to scream in terror as the toxin's effects kick in and Scarecrow hallucinates Batman as a demonic creature surrounded by bats, reminding him of the flock of crows and his grandmother. Scarecrow is left cowering in a corner when Gordon and the police arrive on the scene, fearfully muttering about a demon and Gordon places Scarecrow under arrest for his murders. Scarecrow is seen as criminally insane and is incarcerated at Arkham Asylum.

### Hush

Some time later, Scarecrow joined his once child pupil Thomas Elliot, who had taken the identity of the criminal Hush and Scarecrow provided the psychological profiles of all of Hush's enemies including Batman. Scarecrow used his Fear Toxin on Nightwing, but he was stopped shortly after that by Batman. However, Scarecrow manages to escape.

### No Man's Land

When Gotham City became a no man's land, all the villains started to claim their territory. Scarecrow took over a drug manufacturer's lab and began to use his tools for his own experiments. Once the two drug manufacturers returned to their home, they immediately noticed that someone had invaded their lab. Scarecrow then ambushed and sprayed the men with his fear gas, causing them to scream in dread before Scarecrow drew his scythe and used it to kill them. Afterwards, Scarecrow slowly lifed one of their severed heads, before announcing that hell is coming to Gotham.

Scarecrow spent his days abducting and torturing victims, including rival gang members, to test how lethal his toxin had become. At some point, Scarecrow was called to a meeting along with Gotham's other super-criminals by a new figure called the Red Hood to offer a chance to work together to kill Batman in a complicated plan, afterwards allowing the criminals to take over and tear Gotham apart how ever they wish. Scarecrow agreed to the Red Hood's plan.

After Red Hood distracted Batman at Ace Chemicals by kidnapping hostages and threatening to use the plant to massively damage Gotham further, Oracle's location was revealed to Scarecrow by Red Hood in a watchtower and Scarecrow was instructed to abduct Oracle without harming her. However, during the kidnapping, Oracle purposefully left behind a trail for Batman to follow and rescue her.

## Personality

Scarecrow is a downright, sadistic criminal who took glee in murdering innocent people and driving them into insanity, possessing an incredibly calm and deep voice, and spoke in a soft-spoken monotone. He was extremely intelligent and manipulative and treated the concept of fear like a religion, said that almost every action one does was solely because of fear, and proved his megalomania by wanting to control fear and use it to gain power. He is an emotionless mastermind and an omnidicial maniac. His psych is extremely fractured and eventually begun to see fear as a fundemental factor in life and without it, life is meaningless. As a person, who was essentially a man of fear he understood that hope was the catalyst of terror, and is against its concepts.

## Abilities

* **Genius Level Intellect:**Scarecrow's genius renders him the most intellectually clever and terrifying criminal mastermind that can dive into the minds of his enemies through nightmarish tactics.
	+ **​Expert Psychologist:**He is a walking textbook on anxiety disorders and psychoactive drugs, and has even conducted fascinating research on how fear is the driving force of everyone's lives and the psychophysiology of phobias. A phobia expert since adolescent, Scarecrow is highly intelligent in reciting the name and description of nearly every known phobia. He knows how to use words to affect a person's actions, managing to drive his victims to suicide with nothing but words. He also can use this insight to find people's mental weaknesses and exploit them.
	+ **Expert Chemist:**Scarecrow is a proficient chemist and has used this skill to develop his infamous Fear Toxin.
	+ **Expert Tactician:**Scarecrow is a creature of the shadows, who realizes the value in waiting for the right moment to strike fear in all who see him, and is considered to be one of Batman's most psychologically dangerous foes. Weaponizing fear, he studies his enemies by exploiting their darkest phobias to garner control over their pressure points. He can also cause a person to fear something they didn't before.
* **Expert Combatant:**Scarecrow is a manic martial artist with full use of his long arms and legs in Violenting Dancing. He is also skilled with farming tools as he tends to use pitchforks, sickles and scythes as well as using firearms.
* **Intimidation:**Using a variety of toxins that causes his victims to hallucinate that their phobias have come to life, Scarecrow instills fear in all who see him.

### Equipment

* **Fear Toxin:**Scarecrow's signature weapon and is a chemical compound that could be either inhaled or injected directly into the bloodstream. When ingested, it induced intense and sometimes irrational fear, which caused the user to go insane or even die in larger doses. Death can be caused by extremely concentrated dosage with the cause of death being swift and sudden heart attacks as the toxin would cause heart rates to increase exponentially and lead to cardiac arrest.
* **Scythe:**Scarecrow uses a scythe as his main weapon.
* **Other Weapons and Firearms:**Scarecrow often uses firearms, usually a pistol, as well as explosives and farming tools including sickles, pitchforks and knives.

### Weaknesses

* **Anxiety Disorder:**Scarecrow once suffered from corvidophobia (fear of crows) after being attacked by a flock of crows at his family aviary. He managed to overcome this but, since his encounter Batman, he had developed chiropteraphobia (fear of bats).
* **Obsession:**Scarecrow is motivated by an obsessive need to spread massive terror around Gotham.
* **Fear Toxin:**Should he not be cautious over his use, Scarecrow will get a taste of his own medicine. He eventually gained an immunity to the fear toxin after years of exposure.

## Appearance

Jonathan Crane was a thin and tall man with black hair, blue eyes and wore glasses as well as a business suit. When he became Scarecrow, Crane wore an old burlap mask with a stitched mouth and eye holes, as well as having rips and stitches all over it. To vicims under Fear Toxin, Scarecrow's mask often appeared to have flames or maggots covering it.

For his future crimes, Scarecrow changed his appearance and wore a burlap mask that showed his eyes and mouth, and was topped off with a hat and cloak. He was shirtless and his trousers, cowl and sleeves were woven together from various rags. His mask had been altered into a cowl with the aesthetics of a hood and a noose, and acted as a gas mask. Scarecrow wore a brace over his right hand with syringes that extended over his fingers, which allowed him to simultaneously attack and inject a victim with Fear Toxin if they didn't breath in his gas. Scarecrow often hunched over so that his skin was hardly visible and looked more like a scarecrow.

After his injuries, Scarecrow changed his appearace again and was blind in one eye and his face is damaged with a mixture of scar tissue and a mask. His right leg was secured by a leg brace and is also very tall. His gas mask is surgically grafted to his throat, as it didn't cover his mouth or nose. He also has a respiratory bypass, making his voice more gravelly and there are two tubes into the underside of Scarecrow's lower jaw, with one of them being attached to his Fear Toxin canisters. He wore a trench coat that was modified to hold multiple vials of Fear Toxin, which provided him a larger supply and his fingertip syringes were upgraded to include claws that were latched to his wrist for combat. Altogether, Scarecrow now resembled an undead being.

In the future, Scarecrow wears a white lab coat over a formal suit, a burlap bag that features three gas filters with one on each side of the jaw and a third over his mouth as well as a pair of telescope-like lenses over his eyes, over his face and a loose hangman's noose around his neck. However when under the effects of his Fear Toxin, Scarecrow takes the appearance of a tall, nightmarish creature with features resembling those of a scarecrow and a skeletal corpse and his eyes and mouth glow bright orange.

## Killed Victims

* Countless Victims

1. **Multiple Unnamed Bullies:**Deaths caused by fear toxin.
2. **Unnamed Grandmother:**Heart attack caused by fear toxin.
3. **Adam Jodowsky:**Hanged.
4. **Kristin Kringle:**Bitten and poisoned by a spider.
5. **Two Unnamed Victims:**Murdered.

## Quotes

* "Scream. Scream. Or I will make you scream."
* "Knick Knack, Paddy Whack. Give a dog a bone!"
* "Hush, little baby, don't say a word."
* "I once knew a man whose dog told him to cut his entire family into pieces. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark!"
* "Professor Crane isn't here right now. But, if you'd like an appointment?"
* "I know an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn't know what to do. She gave them some broth but gave them no bread. And she beat them and whipped them and put them to bed."
* "Fear is primal. Raw. Blood pressure increases. Veins in your skin contract. Your immune system shuts down. Even if you attempt to steel against fear...it is undeniable. Fear makes us human. That was the conclusion of Charles Darwin. Who am I to argue? I'm a man of science, too. A psychologist. But few know my academic achievements. If you knew me at all, you know me as...the Scarecrow."
* "There's nothing to fear, but fear itself!"
* "I respect the mind's power over the body. It's why I do what I do."
* "Buyer beware. I told you my compound would take you places. I never said any places you wanted to go."
* "Fear is the glue that holds society together. It's what people suppress their worst impulses. Fear is power."
* "I am fear incarnate. I am the terror of Gotham. I am the Scarecrow!"
* "Fear lives in darkness."
* "It's coming along, dreadfully."
* "I thought you'd appreciate the beauty of it."
* "The experiment is nearing its conclusion. Your friend will be driven mad."
* "No. Not Hell. Hell is what is coming."
* "They scream, and they cry. Much as you're doing now."
* "In here, only the mind can grant you power."
* "It's the fear of victory, and the agony of the Scarecrow!"
* "It will take much more to bring every single pathetic person in Gotham to their knees kissing my feet!"
* "An entire city, screaming in fear...I wonder if we'll be able to hear it."
* "Welcome to the food chain."
* "Fool! You'll kill us all!"
* "How can the world know fear...true dread...when it has you? A stalwart knight, ever ready to slay monsters. Fear isn't pure biology, Batman. It's more than instinct. True fear is the absence of hope. And hope is the spread wings of a Bat, shining on the clouds."
* "There is no Crane...only Scarecrow!"
* "Poor little Bat. You're in my world now."
* "Is the world falling apart or just your mind? Are you scared? Embrace it."
* "Look around you. These are the broken fragments of your mind."
* "Are you scared, little Bat? Do you need your mommy?"
* "I will break you!"
* "Stay still, this won't hurt!"
* "Your mind will shatter like glass!"
* "Do you believe what you see, Batman?"
* "Just a twisted shell of a man."
* "You're fighting back. Good. It can only weaken your resolve."
* "Oh, I won't rush things this time. I'm going to savor every moment of your terror as I slowly destroy you."
* "You've ingested enough toxins to drive ten men insane. What are you!?"
* "Why fight it, Batman? You're as crazy as the rest of us. You need us as much as we need you."
* "I will unleash your greatest fears."
* "How much more do you think you can take? Does it scare you to know that I have almost defeated you?"
* "How many more bones will you crush? How many more lives will you destroy in your pursuit of what you call justice? You are the product of everything you fear: violence, darkness, helplessness. All that remains is for you to watch, as I drag your beloved Gotham into oblivion."
* "Tomorrow, this will seem like child's play."
* "I'm afraid I must disappoint you."
* "Gentlemen, tonight is the night that Gotham changes forever. The night it becomes a wasteland of nightmares, a forsaken symbol of Batman's failure, a monument to fear."
* "The people of Gotham can run all they like, but they will not avoid their fate."
* "My toxin's design has been perfected over of clinical trials. The speed at which it enters the bloodstream is matched only by the ferocity with which it takes hold."
* "The fallout will last for a century or more."
* "I thought you brave enough to confront me."
* "Fear makes you predictable."
* "I am in complete control."
* "Nothing hurts like losing one of the family, knowing that there is no one to blame but yourself."
* "You might fool everyone else, but you can't fool me. There's something different about you. You're afraid."
* "You've always buried your fears, locked them away deep in your subconscious. Hidden. But something is gnawing away in the darkness of your mind, isn't it? Something even you can't control."
* "The cracks are forming as it pushes its way to the surface. I can almost taste it."
* "It's gone, Dark Knight...the grip you had on Gotham. Your long reign of terror. I'm sovereign now."
* "It all falls apart, Batman. Everything you worked for. The peace you built on a foundation of sand."
* "What did you do, hero, to enkindle such hatred?"
* "You're not dying, it just feels like you are. My toxin is filling your lungs, drowning you in your greatest fears."
* "What can you see? A city engulfed in fear? Betrayed by those you trust the most? Your darkest secrets revealed?"
* "As I tear you apart, Gotham will watch. I will cut that mask from your face, and the whole world will see the fear in your eyes. Then they too will understand. There is no savior. No more hope...no more Batman."
* "You almost killed these men. You were ready to abandon your beliefs, everything you stand for."
* "Astonishing. Such brutality."
* "But fear reveals the truth, erodes your self-control."
* "Who said anything about running?"
* "Something's changed. You're different!"
* "How does it feel to see your city in the brink of ruin, your friends in the clutches of death?"
* "We both know fear is theatrics, Batman, so permit me the indulgence of putting on this show."
* "Beneath the mask is a man. A man who grieves, a man who suffers. A man who fears the reckoning to come."
* "Welcome to Gotham...The city of fear."
* "Do you see them? All the monsters you created?"
* "You promised that Gotham would be safe. Protected! But what does the world see now!? My toxin choking its streets! Blotting out the moonlight! Poisoning the sapplings you thought could stop me!"
* "You actually believe you've won, don't you, Batman? Savor this fleeting delusion of victory."
* "My instrument of fear!"
* "You're fighting for every desperate fool who thinks that when their worst fears come to pass, a hero might come and save them."
* "Tonight, the myth of Batman dies and Gotham dies with it."
* "A fallacy, a fragment of hope in a world of suffering and pain."
* "What will you give to save your friends, I wonder?"
* "Are you still the master of your own destiny?"
* "It is time for the people of Gotham to see their savior for what he truly is. A man. Just a man. Devoid of hope, betrayed by his friends, crippled by fear."
* "And that fear makes you mine."
* "Shh...it's ok to be afraid."
* "Do you know what happens when a man refuses to be controlled by his fears? He must face them!"
* "You cannot sustain their hope any longer, Batman. They will die forsaken and afraid. Reflect on your failure as you salvage their corpses from the rubble."
* "Why aren't you scared!?"
* "Without fear, life is meaningless."
* "And at the end of fear, oblivion!"
* "You failed, now suffer!"
* "Now madness takes you, forever!"
* "Didn't you know, Dark Knight, you can't fight fear?"
* "Die, knowing that I will make them suffer, every one."
* "You die here and your legend dies with you."
* "You have failed to stop me Batman, now Gotham will fail."
* "This is the end Dark Knight, you have nothing to be afraid of anyone."
* "Prepare yourself, Batman. My reign of terror starts now."
* "Then you'll appreciate my new formula."
* "Everyone has something to fear."
* "Classic anger displacement."
* "We should continue your therapy."
* "Everyone has a family."
* "Everyone has something to lose."
* "Let's explore this terror together."
* "Unless your mind breaks first."
* "Ooh, you're shivering."
* "You look pale."
* "Pain is the root of fear."
* "Failure is your greatest fear."
* "You're barely human."
* "A freak judging a freak."
* "I'm more traditional."
* "Sweet, sweet dreams."