Scarecrow (comics)
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| The Scarecrow | |
 The Scarecrow, from Batman #373, July 1984. Art by Ed Hannigan and Dick Giordano. |
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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 | Injustice League 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. - Master of drunken boxing and crane-style kung-fu. |
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 psychologist who uses a variety of drugs and psychological tactics to use the fears and phobias of his adversaries. He does not commit his crimes for wealth, but rather as a form of "research" to further study the effects of fear on humans, making the innocent citizens of Gotham City his unwilling guinea pigs. While he will occasionally commit robbery or other types of larceny, he does so only to get the funding he needs to carry out his experiments.
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 voiced 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. He will return for the sequel The Dark Knight in 2008.
Contents |
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Golden Age
Elements of the Scarecrow fear gas appeared in Batman publications prior to his first appearance. For instance, the idea of fear gas first appeared in Detective Comics #46 in December 1940, in a story featuring Hugo Strange, in which Strange uses a special fear dust in order to scare the police and successfully rob a bank. Later Strange gets the idea to take over the US government.
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 turns 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 wears ragged black hat, trenchcoat, mask, and wielded a Tommy gun.
His first crime involves a businessman named Frank Kendrick being sued by a former partner, Paul Harold. When Harold refuses to cooperate upon meeting and hearing his demands, the Scarecrow kills him and becomes 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 behavior and forced resignation, leading him to suspect the professor. Crane then approaches 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 invoke 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. Feeling he has no one else to turn to, he confides in an old enemy, Catwoman, to help him stop Crane, and she is successful in helping stop the Scarecrow and getting Batman over his delusions. Exactly what happens to Crane is not revealed because of the revelation that the Golden Age universe is actually Earth-2, part of the Multiverse.
[edit] Silver Age
Throughout the 1960s 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, he has a pet magpie named Craw, even though Crane has a strange fear of birds.
[edit] 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, especially his resemblance to Ichabod Crane from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 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. As in the original version, he loses his job after he fires a gun at his students to prove a point; in this version, he injures a student. After his dismissal, he kills the regents who fired him and becomes a career criminal. Following this, he transfers to Arkham Asylum and becomes a psychiatrist, where he performs cruel, 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 miniseries, Batman/Scarecrow: Year One, expands upon the earlier origin story. The novels explains that Jonathan Crane is born out of wedlock and also suffers terrible abuse from his fanatically religious great-grandmother. His father takes off before he is even born, and his mother does not show any love or affection towards her son. He develops a taste for fear and an affinity for crows when his grandmother locks him in a dilapidated church full of birds. The story also shows Crane murdering his grandmother, and learning that his mother gave birth to a baby girl.
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 criminal who will one day become The Joker.
In the Knightfall storyline, Scarecrow is one of the prisoners that escaped from Arkham after Bane blows it up. He first attacks one of The Joker's henchmen, who tells Scarecrow that his boss is after Commissioner Gordon. Scarecrow goes to the Joker and decides to become partners in terrorizing the mayor. Soon they go to the sewers with the mayor, where Batman arrives. Scarecrow gasses him with fear toxin, but Batman responds with anger rather than fear. Panicked, Scarecrow makes the water come into the sewers. Batman escapes with the mayor but Joker and Scarecrow escape as well. Later, at Scarecrow and Joker's hideout, the Joker savagely beats Scarecrow with a chair after he tries to poison him. He is then sent to Arkham.
In the Shadow of the Bat storyline, Scarecrow escapes and brings together a small group of boys to terrorize the city while he enjoys the chaos. Soon, Batman's successor, Jean-Paul Valley, and Anarky arrive and together they defeat the Scarecrow and save the boys.
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 is shown to be singing a modified version of "Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead", from The Wizard of Oz.
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 are right that he is 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 murders, terrifying Gotham without using his trademark gimmicks.
On Green Lantern vol. 4 #27, after Green Lantern Laira murdered Amon Sur, the son of the deceased Green Lantern Abin Sur and a member of the Sinestro Corps, his yellow power ring attempted to reach Crane as his successor in Arkham Asylum, but thwarted by two Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart.
On the cover of Justice League of America #13 (Vol.2), it shows Scarecrow as a member of the new Injustice League.
The cover of DC Universe Special - Justice League of America shows Scarecrow as a member of Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains.
[edit] 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 himself 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.
[edit] 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 Marlowe 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 kills The Owl and is eventually killed by Mister Terrific, the Batman and The Clock.
Crane also teams up with his Marvel Comics counterpart in Marvel vs. DC (see below).
[edit] Powers and abilities
[edit] 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. However, recently he has displayed the ability to literally frighten people to death without relying in the chemical (only talking to people was enough), suggesting a great ability to dominate the human psyche using fear as a weapon. In Batman Begins, the fear toxin he uses is extracted from a mountaintop blue flower from Tibet, and only works in vapour form. Crane uses his Scarecrow mask to enhance the effect of the hallucinogen.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Scarebeast
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Richard Friend.
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.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Animation
[edit] 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. His voice was provided by Ted Knight.
[edit] 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". Andre Stojka voiced the Scarecrow in that episode.
[edit] Batman: The Animated Series
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
The Scarecrow is a recurring villain in Batman: the Animated Series. He has appeared in three major roles, as well as having four cameo appearances. He is well-known for having variable character designs, changing drastically from time to time. He is voiced by Henry Polic II.
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 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 the head of the university. Crane then became the Scarecrow, and attempted to exact revenge upon the university.
While attempting to burn down the university, the Scarecrow hits Batman with a dart filled with fear toxin. Batman foils the arson attempt, but the toxins have a great effect on him; he begins to hallucinate that his dead father is rejecting him as a failure. This is Batman's weak point in this battle, and when the Scarecrow attacks the university a second time, Batman has to struggle to ignore the images. He overcomes his fear, forcing himself to realize that the visions are not real and convincing himself that his father would be proud of him. Batman then defeats the Scarecrow's henchmen and arrests the villain. During this encounter, Scarecrow is exposed to his own fear gas and is revealed to suffer from a phobia of bats.
The Scarecrow makes his next appearance (in a more altered version of his costume) 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, with which he buys the chemicals he uses in his research. In a confrontation at the end of the episode, Robin, who was previously affected by the powder, overcomes his fears and prevents the Scarecrow from dropping a vial of fear toxins on the crowd below.
In his third and final appearance (his costume now more grotesque than the first two versions), 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 fights one of his henchmen, he once again gets a dose of fear gas, and experiences hallucinations of his parents' murder, his worst enemies triumphing over him, and his greatest friends turning against him. Batman fights his fear once again, and infects Scarecrow with his own gas then sends him back to Arkham, out of his mind with fear.
The Scarecrow makes no other major appearances in the original animated series, but does appear in a few cameos. 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 is seen only escorting the prisoners and attempting to kill Batman with a scythe. In the episode "Lock-Up", the Scarecrow is said to be the only prisoner to escape from Lyle Bolton, a security guard who tortures the asylum's prisoners, but not to commit any crimes - only because he is terrified of him. Ultimately, after Bolton becomes a criminal and is imprisoned in Arkham, the Scarecrow is last seen, uncostumed, triumphantly promising to teach him new lessons in fear.
[edit] The New Batman Adventures
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The Scarecrow also appears in the New Batman Adventures, in the episode "Never Fear". Here, he has 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' effects. Batman tries to kill the Scarecrow, but Robin stops him at the last minute, and the Scarecrow is arrested.
In the 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, who discovers after Batgirl's death that she is his daughter Barbara, 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.
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 is voiced by Jeffrey Combs. This version is 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; The producers felt that creating an identity outside of the costume would detract from the fear element of the design.
[edit] 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. However, in a series of comics that take place in the same continuity as Batman Beyond, Scarecrow appears in a flashback when Commissioner Barbara Gordon starts to become haunted by the events of "Over the Edge".[1]
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. According to writer Joseph Kuhr, he had originally conceived the fourth season episode, "Strange New World", to introduce Scarecrow into the show, only to find the character was still off-limits to them.
[edit] Film
The Scarecrow was originally going to appear in the canceled Batman Triumphant project that would have taken place after Batman & Robin, but due to that film's poor box office performance, Batman Triumphant never came to fruition. Howard Stern, Ewan McGregor, Steve Buscemi, Nicolas Cage, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd were considered for the role.
[edit] Batman Begins
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, one of Falcone's assassins, 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 and incarcerated in Arkham, but later escapes in the mass release of Arkham inmates prompted by Ra's al Ghul as part of his plot to destroy Gotham (Crane was not told about this part: he believed Ra's only wanted to hold Gotham ransom). As Ra's al Ghul unleashes Crane's fear gas on Gotham's slums, 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. To the boy, who was affected with the gas, Scarecrow appeared as a deep-voiced monster riding a fire-breathing horse. After he spouts the quote "You Have Nothing To Fear, But Fear Itself", 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 maggots crawling from it). He also wears an unbound straightjacket at the movie's climax due to his incarceration in and breakout from Arkham Asylum. Cillian Murphy explained that the relatively simple mask was done because "[He] wanted to avoid the Worzel Gummidge look. Because he's not a very physically imposing man, he's more interested in the manipulation of the mind and what that can do."[2] Like the rest of the film, Batman Begins' depiction of Scarecrow received high praise from fans.
[edit] Batman: Gotham Knight
Scarecrow has been revealed to appear as one of the villains in the upcoming Batman: Gotham Knight (which takes place between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) voiced by Corey Burton. [3]
[edit] The Dark Knight
Scarecrow appears in the upcoming The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins. Cillian Murphy is confirmed as reprising the role, but it is believed his part is much smaller. He can be seen for roughly 70 nanoseconds of the 1:06 in the film's third theatrical trailer. He seems driving a white van which is severely damaged when Batman lands on its roof. [4]
[edit] Video games
The Scarecrow appears in four video games: Game Boy's Batman: The Animated Series, Super Nintendo and 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. Also in the upcoming Lucasarts game Lego Batman: The Video Game, Scarecrow will be featured as a playable character. To attack, he removes his hat and smashes it against his opponent or obstacle.
[edit] Lego sets
The Danish building toy company Lego recently introduced its "Lego 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 "The Batcopter: The Chase for Scarecrow".
[edit] Other Scarecrow
- See also: Scarecrow (Marvel Comics)
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. During this Scarecrow's most recent appearance (and first after Batman Begins) in Sensational Spider-Man, Spider-Man jokes that "Yes. I have a Scarecrow villain too."
In Marvel vs. DC, Laughton talks Crane into kidnapping Lois Lane, but Ben Reilly (out of costume) showed up and knocks them both out 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.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Adam Smith. "The Scarecrow", Empire, July 2005, pp. 77.
- ^ http://independentcomicssite.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=388&Itemid=1
- ^ http://www.empireonline.com/trailer/breakdown/darkknight/default.asp?NID=22514
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