Record File: Jonathan Crane
Name: Jonathan CraneAlias: The Scarecrow
Height: 6'3
Weight: 150lb
Physique: Tall and lanky
Old Occupation: Professor of psychology of Gotham State University; dismissed for unorthodox methods of teaching.
Known Weapons: Fear serum, skull bomb (a small hand-held skull that shoots fear serum when squeezed), dart gun (often loaded with fear serum darts) and a scythe or a pitchfork. On occasion, he does sport a regular gun.
Current Status: At large
Background: Jonathan Crane was born in Arlen, Georgia, and was abandoned by both parents almost immediately after. He was raised by his great-grandmother, who, in his own words, "maintained him," and raised him in a loveless atmosphere. As he grew up, she would often punish him by locking him in an old church/aviary and allowing the crows to come down and attack him---leading to an ironic demise when he learned how she trained them and turned the tables on her.
He was never liked at school, and was often the victim of cruel and malicious pranks by his peers. Because of his thin, almost emaciated-looking form, he was often compared to Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He was also often compared to a scarecrow, a moniker from which he later took his criminal alias. Crane would later get revenge on some of his old classmates, the most notable incident being prom night, where his scare tactics lead to one car swerving off the road and paralyzing his longtime enemy, Bo Griggs, for life, and the death of Griggs' girlfriend, Sherry Squires, whom Crane had once adored.
After graduating from high school, Crane continued both his studies of fear and of chemistry, and later became a professor of subliminal psychology at Gotham State University. He was later deemed a lunatic and dismissed for his fear experiments on his students, with the final straw being his unorthodox lesson in fear that involved firing a gun in class (some versions have him shoot a vase and a shard hits a student; other versions simply have him fire a blank to make his point).
Unable to teach again, Crane turned to his other loves---fear and chemistry---and set out on a criminal career as the Scarecrow. In his on-going quest to understand the nature and origins of fear, Crane's schemes often involved turning Gotham's citizens into unwilling pawns for his experiments.
He started out as a killer-for-hire, leaving pieces of straw as a calling card. In his first year as the Scarecrow, Jonathan lead the Batman along a killing spree, in which he targeted members of his own family for their various wrongs: the grandmother who wanted him dead as a baby, the parents who abandoned him, and his half-sister who would have been given the fair chance at life that he never had. Batman managed to stop him from killing the latter three, though not before Crane had instilled a good bit of terror into both his parents.
Most of his later schemes would include the use of fear, including but not limited to his vengeance on Gotham State University where he felt he was wrongfully dismissed, drugging up some of Gotham's finest athletes, then betting against their teams when they became too terrorized to focus properly, destroying his old tormentors from school, poisoning Gotham's water supply with his toxins, and even once made a serum that took away fears of some of Gotham's citizens in order to make them act recklessly. When he is not out to turn Gotham into a large science experiment, his schemes are often personal vendettas. Once, however, Crane did use his knowledge of fear and phobias to try to help his best student, Molly Randall, by terrorizing the boy who hurt her.
Putting him in Arkham has arguably made the Scarecrow more dangerous, as he has had access---and at times made himself an ally to---the likes of the Mad Hatter and the Joker. He does also get along with some of the other inmates, such as Harley Quinn.
Recently, however, Crane's experiments have started to take a toll on his health. His own fear serum, after numerous uses, has made him unable to feel fear at all, and as it stands, he has yet to find a permanent way to fix this.
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Then you've thought of me often, have you?
*smirks again*
Want to tell me and I'll tell you if you're warm or cold?
*smirk*
You say to the woman who wears leaves..
I know I like it.
Are you taking fashion tips from Nygma and Tetch?