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Jonathan Crane is a psychopathic teenage criminal operating in Gotham City. The son of the later Gerald Crane, he was rendered insane after experimentation with a chemical agent created to illuminate fear. After years locked up in Arkham Asylum, Crane was released, becoming a criminal called the Scarecrow.
Biography[]
Jonathan Crane lost his mother at a young age, and left in the sole care of his father Dr. Gerald Crane. Although Gerald was a caring father, the death of his wife drove him over the edge and he began to look into a way to remove people's fears. Dr Gerald Crane resorted to kidnapping and exposing people to terrifying situations in order to extract their adrenal glands before then leaving them to die. He uses the adrenal glands in the experiments which creates a fear toxin which once administered exposes one to their deepest fears, although following the process all fear is removed.
Gerald first tries out the toxin on himself which forces him to witness hallucinations of his wife dying in a fire. He fights through the process and in the end all fear is removed. He takes Jonathan to a field where he administers the drug on his son but accidentally overdoses him. Jonathan witnesses a scarecrow in the field which comes to life, causing him to be overtaken by pure terror. They are interrupted by detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock. Due to his fear being removed and losing all self preservation, Gerald advances on the detectives firing his gun, resulting in Gerald being gunned down and killed. A panic stricken Jonathan is taken to hospital where he has to be restrained and forced to constantly hallucinate a monstrous scarecrow attacking him.
Jonathan's broken mental state causes him to be sent to Arkham Asylum, although he is often mistreated and abused under the watch of the Warden Reed. Two years following his incarceration Reed sells Jonathan to a gang of robbers who want to use Gerald's toxin in their criminal activities. Jonathan takes them to the Crane household where he digs up books that once belonged to Gerald and contains the recipe for his fear toxin. The gang force Jonathan to create fear toxin, and use a scarecrow to frighten Jonathan into complying. When going to rob the Iceberg Lounge owned by Oswald Cobblepot they leave Jonathan locked up in a room with the scarecrow. Jonathan has a complete mental break and in order to cope finally gives into his fears and embraces the scarecrow. Dressing himself in the scarecrow's costume and the head sack, he dismisses his identity as Jonathan Crane and instead becomes the villainous "Scarecrow". When one of the gang members return after the botched robbery, he is confronted by Scarecrow and gassed with the fear toxin.
Armed with a scythe Scarecrow arrives at Arkham Asylum and exposes Warden Reed to the fear gas in revenge, forcing him to face his fear of clowns. Scarecrow exposes the inmates to his toxin and allows them to run riot in the facility. Gordon infiltrates the asylum and has a battle with Scarecrow, who ends up managing to escape and go on the run. Gordon manages to help the inmates by using the water sprinkler system to relieve the effects of Scarecrow's formula.
At some point afterwards Scarecrow is apprehended by the authorities and returned to Arkham Asylum, where he enters into a partnership with other supervillains Jerome Valeska and Mad Hatter. They manage to break out of the asylum, and put together a scheme to plunge Gotham into chaos. Scarecrow, Jerome and Mad Hatter found a villainous team known as the "Legion of Horribles" that consists of other Gotham villains such as The Penguin, Firefly, Mr. Freeze and later Butch Gilzean/Solomon Grundy. Scarecrow modifies his toxin for Jerome to use against the city. This new toxin causes the victim to laugh controllably to the point their skin goes pale and they die. Jerome comes close to gassing a huge crowd of people using a blimp, although this plot is averted thanks to the authorities. Jerome allows himself to die by falling from a tall building, although a new modified laughing agent is sent to his twin brother Jeremiah Valeska: which transfers him into Jerome's villainous successor The Joker.
Scarecrow allies himself with Jeremiah Valeska. When Jeremiah's followers kidnap Bruce Wayne's butler and guardian Alfred Pennyworth, Scarecrow attempts to stop Selina Kyle from rescuing him and attacks her with his scythe. Before fleeing Scarecrow informed Selina that it didn't matter either way as Bruce would be driven insane.
Following Jeremiah and Ra's al Ghul destroying the bridges of Gotham and isolating it from the mainland, Jonathan took over his own territory and started his own gang as the city got thrown into chaos.
Abilities[]
- Chemistry: Regardless of not being a scientist like his father, Jonathan is a master chemist.
- Psychology: After exposing his victims to his fear-toxin, Crane will make them embrace their darkest fears.
Weaknesses[]
Phobia (formerly): Jonathan developed formidophobia (fear of scarecrows) after being injected with fear-toxin. Therefore, he would hallucinate living demonic scarecrows; although, later on, hallucinations are only triggered if he saw an actual scarecrow. It wasn't until he was locked in a room with a scarecrow that he decided to embrace and, in turn, become his greatest fear.
Trivia[]
- This is the youngest version of the Scarecrow, who appears in his teenage years during the events of the series. Due to this, he isn't depicted as a professor or doctor like in the comics or other media, instead gaining the knowledge of his fear toxin by his father.