| |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Portrayed by | Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) Dave Wittenburg (Lego Batman) Dino Andrade (Arkham Asylum) Christopher S. Field (DC Universe Online) |
| First Appearance | In comics World's Finest Comics #3 In video games Batman: The Animated Series |
| Latest Appearance | DC Universe Online |
Jonathon Crane, better known as the Scarecrow, is a supervillian from DC Comics's Batman franchise. Crane makes use of "fear gas" which gives the victim realistic hallucinations of their greatest fears. So far Scarecrow has appeared in seven different Batman games.
He appears in Batman: The Animated Series for Game Boy, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, the video game tie-in to the movie, Batman Begins, Lego Batman: The Videogame, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold - The Videogame for the Nintendo DS.
Biography[]
Taunted and bullied in his 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 adopted the identity of the Scarecrow and armed himself with a specialized fear-inducing gas that makes a person's deepest fears become frighteningly real. His ongoing criminal reign of terror makes him one of Batman's most psychologically dangerous foes.
Attributes:
- Master of psychology and chemistry
- Creator of fear-inducing gas
- Motivated by an obsessive need to create fear in others
Appearances[]
Lego Batman: The Videogame[]
The Scarecrow appears in Lego Batman as an enemy of Batman and ally of the Joker. He is a playable character and has one special ability, mind control. With mind control, he can control guards and make them open doors. In addition, he can use his fear gas to petrify his victims. He makes use of his "violent dancing" martial skills in uarmed combat.
Batman: Arkham Asylum[]
Prior to the events of Arkham Asylum, an anonymous tip to Scarecrow's activities noted in the patient interviews in the form of a vial of the Scarecrow's Fear Gas was left at police headquarters. Using this, Batman was able to create an antidote. The Scarecrow was found by Batman using his Fear Gas to attack his state-sponsored psychologist. Batman apprehended the Scarecrow and locked him back up into Arkham Asylum. It was revealed that the vial came from Dr. Kellerman. Even though Scarecrow was back in Arkham, he continued his plans from a secret loft hidden in the Intensive Treatment Center, plotting his next move and even getting his hands on the blueprints of Arkham Asylum.
During the events of the game, as Batman takes the elevator in the Medical Facility, the Scarecrow pumps his fear gas into the elevator. The Scarecrow is first seen spraying multiple staff members with his gas which eventually kills them. Later on, Batman sees Commissioner Gordon crying out to Batman for help, before being dragged out of view. He then finds Commissioner Gordon's dead body and attempts to contact Oracle, telling her of Gordon's demise. However, he is unable to contact her and he continues onto the morgue.
As Batman enters the morgue, he can hear ghostly voices saying "You shouldn't be here!" and "Get out of here!" which gets louder and louder. When Batman exits the room, he finds himself back in the same room minus the voices. He finds three body bags in the middle of the room, one with Batman's deceased father and another with his deceased mother in it. The third has the Scarecrow in it which jumped out of the body bag. The morgue then transformed into a surreal otherworld made up of elements from the asylum. As Batman proceeds through this area, he has to be careful and not be caught by the gaze of the now gigantic Scarecrow. Batman eventually makes it up to a ledge which has the Batsignal. He then shined the light of the Batsignal onto the Scarecrow which ended the hallucination.
After destroying Dr. Young's Titan formula, the Scarecrow attack Batman again. This caused Batman to enter another hallucination in which he relived his parents' deaths, walking down a never-ending hallway that soon transformed into a street with pouring rain. As Batman walked down the 'street', he heard his parents and a younger version of himself talking in the background, before they were met and attacked by Joe Chill, with his voice monstrously distorted. Batman then briefly took the appearance of his eight-year-old self, hearing Jim Gordon and another officer discussing the murder in the background, before Gordon himself asked the young Bruce about the criminal. The voices soon ended, and another giant Scarecrow hallucination ensued, in which Batman escaped Scarecrow's hold once more by shining a second Batsignal at him. Upon returning to reality, Batman found himself atop Arkham Mansion's clock tower with himself locked in.
Scarecrow used his Fear Gas for a third time when Batman re-entered the Intensive Treatment center. The toxins caused Batman to relive the starting events of the game, but with the Joker and Batman in opposite positions. Much to the Scarecrow's surprise, Batman was able to break free of the Scarecrow's hold, waking up clutching Crane himself. Scarecrow injected Batman with even more Fear Toxin, leading up to another giant Scarecrow hallucination, in which Scarecrow watched as Batman fought his army of skeletons, including two larger ones (actually Joker's thugs, two injected with Titan). Batman broke free once again, causing the Scarecrow to flee to the sewers below. Batman followed Crane there and confronted him by an underground river, leading straight to Gotham's water supply.
As Scarecrow threatened to dump his fear gas into the water supply, Killer Croc burst out of the water grabbing Crane and attempting to eat him. After successfully stopping Croc from eating Crane, Croc retreated into the water while still clutching Crane.
In one of the three alternate endings after the credits, Crane emerged from the water by the docks and grabbed onto a floating crate containing the Titan formula. The same goes for Croc, and Bane.
Other appearances[]
- Scarecrow appears as a boss in the Nintendo DS version of Batman: The Brave and the Bold - The Videogame.
- Scarecrow, most recently, appears in DC Universe Online.