Scarecrow (DC Comics)

Scarecrow
Scarecrow in Nightwing (vol. 4) #56 (March 2019). Art by Davide Gianfelice (pencils & inks) and Nick Filardi (colors).
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	World's Finest Comics #3 (September 1941)[1][2]
Created by	Bill Finger Bob Kane
In-story information
Alter ego	Jonathan Crane
Team affiliations	Legion of Doom Injustice Gang Secret Society of Super Villains Injustice League Sinestro Corps
Notable aliases	Schrocken Scarebeast[3] Ichabod Crane[4] Master of Fear[4]
Abilities	Criminal mastermind Expert psychologist and biochemist Utilizes fear-inducing toxins and chemicals

The Scarecrow is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane, the character first appeared in World's Finest Comics #3 (September 1941), and has become one of the superhero Batman's most enduring enemies belonging to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery.

In the DC Universe, the Scarecrow is the alias of Jonathan Crane, a professor of psychology turned criminal mastermind. Abused and bullied in his youth, he becomes obsessed with fear and develops a hallucinogenic drug—dubbed "fear toxin"—to terrorize Gotham City and exploit the phobias of its protector, Batman. As the self-proclaimed "Master of Fear", the Scarecrow's crimes do not stem from a common desire for wealth or power, but from a sadistic pleasure in subjecting others to his experiments on the manipulation of fear. An outfit symbolic of his namesake with a stitched burlap mask serves as the Scarecrow's visual motif.

The character has been adapted in various media incarnations, having been portrayed in film by Cillian Murphy in The Dark Knight Trilogy, and in television by Charlie Tahan and David W. Thompson in the Fox series Gotham, and Vincent Kartheiser in the HBO Max streaming series Titans. Henry Polic II, Jeffrey Combs, Dino Andrade, John Noble, and Robert Englund, among others, have provided the Scarecrow's voice in animation and video games.