Jonathan Crane was a corrupt psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum who becomes involved in activity orchestrated by both the League of Shadows and the mafia in Gotham City, taking up the persona of The Scarecrow, a gas-proof burlap-masked external tormentor portraying himself as a "master of fear", who uses his patients as human guinea pigs for experiments on his trademark fear toxin derived from an organic compound found in a blue flower that grows in the League's Himalayan monastery. Notably serving as the secondary antagonist of Batman Begins, the Scarecrow has went on as a supporting antagonist and recurring enemy of Batman throughout the rest of the The Dark Knight Trilogy.
History[]
Batman Begins[]
While testifying that Victor Zsasz, one of Carmine Falcone's men, was insane, Crane was approached by the assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes, who commented on the high number of Falcone's associates that he had at Arkham and implied that he was corrupt in his assessments. Crane responded by telling Carl Finch, Rachel's boss, to make sure that she knew what accusations the DA office has authorised her to make. He then met with Carmine Falcone to discuss the latest shipment of drugs, and explained that the packets hidden inside toy bears went to the drug dealers, and those hidden inside toy rabbits went to the Crane's apartment in The Narrows. Crane also explained that the less Falcone knew, the better. When Falcone was apprehended, Crane visited him after the gangster cut his wrists hoping for an insanity plea. Falcone threatened him with his unexpected knowledge of Ra's al Ghul's plan and asked to be a part of it. Knowing that Ra's would never trust a criminal like Falcone, Crane donned the Scarecrow's mask and unleashed his toxin through a briefcase, driving the mob boss to an extremely terrified and mentally-incapacitated state of mind.
Anticipating that Gotham's brand-new vigilante hero Batman would find the stash of fear toxin laced into the stuffed animals, the Scarecrow went to his apartment with two of his henchmen with the intention to burn the evidence, though both of his men ended up knocked out by the vigilante before they could actually do anything beyond spraying gasoline all over. Donning his mask again, he sprayed Batman with his fear toxin and set him on fire, though Batman narrowly escaped with his life and mind intact. The next night, Rachel became furious yet concerned about Crane's actions on transferring Falcone to Arkham on suicide watch, and Crane showed her that he had been pouring his fear-inducing drug into Gotham's water supply. He dosed Rachel with it, but Batman rescued her by overpowering the Scarecrow's henchmen and spraying the doctor with with a dose of his own medicine, destroying what was left of his sanity and divulging his real superior as Ra's. But Batman found the identity of the Scarecrow's employer impossible since he was trained by the League of Shadows in the martial arts and killed Ra's by burning his headquarters down on him when he found out his actual scheme was to destroy (though he claimed that Ra's was dead because he was oblivious that the "Ra's al Ghul" he killed was a decoy).
The Scarecrow was subsequently arrested by DetectivesJames Gordon and Arnold Flass, but later escaped in the mass release of Arkham inmates prompted by the League as part of their urbicidal plot. As Ra's the Scarecrow's fear gas on the Narrows, the Scarecrow himself pursued 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, the Scarecrow appeared as a fiery eyed, deep-voiced monster riding a fire-breathing horse. While stating "There is nothing to fear, but fear itself - I'm here to help," the Scarecrow was eluded when Rachel shocked him in the face with a taser, causing him to aimlessly ride off into the night, screaming in pain. In the aftermath of Batman foiling the League's scheme to spread the gas on the entire city via the monorail train, Gordon informed him that the Scarecrow remained at large.
The Dark Knight[]
In the coarse of nine months following his escape, the Scarecrow continued going into business with the new heads of Gotham's organized crime, such as the Chechen, supplying them the drugs to his fear toxin in an active route on the drug trade since Falcone's shipments stopped due to Batman and the new District Attorney Harvey Dent arresting or scaring away most reliable suppliers. However, the mob boss was enraged to learn the true nature of the drugs when he tested it on one of his customers and confronted the Scarecrow in an empty parking lot to discuss their negative effects, bringing along one as an example and with his henchmen and Rottweilers at his side. The meeting was interrupted when a group of Batman impersonators wearing hockey gear as armor and wielding firearms as gadgets attacked, only to be pounced upon by the dogs. As the Chechen fled the scene, the Scarecrow easily held his toxin against one of the Batmen until the real Batman arrived. Scrambling into his van, he made a getaway whilst Batman dealt with the impostors and gangsters. However, Scarecrow's plans went awry when Batman crashed into his vehicle mid-transit. Unmasking him as a strangely happy Crane (possibly due to the fear he felt when Batman arrived), Batman tied the Scarecrow up and left him for the police with the Batmen and Chechen gangsters.
The Dark Knight Rises[]
After eight years of imprisonment under the Dent Act in Blackgate Prison with no chance of parole, Crane was one of the thousands of prisoners freed by Bane. Once liberated, he presided over a "kangaroo court" in which the rich aristocracy of Gotham were persecuted and given a choice between death and exile. Crane forced Phillip Stryver to go to exile, where he had to walk across the ice-frozen river that connected Gotham to the other shore, away from the city. Stryver, along with presumably everybody else who tried the exile option, fell under the ice and froze to death. In addition, Bane also granted Crane full control of the courts to the extent that even Bane himself would not affect his ruling decision in the courts. the now-Commissioner Gordon chose death, but Crane made him have death by exile. However, Gordon was saved by Batman while he began the walk. Thus, Crane was presumably apprehended by the GCPD after Bane and Talia were killed.
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
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