Scarecrow (cartoon character)
Scarecrow (Eng. "The scarecrow") is a fictional character owned by the US entertainment company Time Warner . The character is the main character in a number of comic book publications in the program of Time Warner-owned DC Comics and has also found commercialization in a number of merchandising products including action figures, posters and trading cards.
The character of the "scarecrow" gained notoriety above all as a recurring opponent of the superhero character Batman in his comics and cartoon series and, more recently, in the movie Batman Begins from 2005, The Dark Knight from 2008 and The Dark Knight Rises from 2012.
The IGN website listed Scarecrow as No. 58 in a 2009 ranking of the 100 "best fictional villains".
Description of figures and publication history
The figure of the scarecrow can be assigned to the figure type of the so-called super villain, who usually faces one or more superhero figures as opponents. It was developed in 1941 by writer Bill Finger and illustrator Bob Kane for issue # 3 of the World's Finest Comics series.
Appearance
As the antipode of the crime hunter Batman, Scarecrow is presented in this issue as a criminal former psychiatrist and university professor (hence a typical bad mad scientist ) named Jonathan Crane, who dressed as a scarecrow (usually a brown torn rag suit, often with a hat and even straws , that protrude from the costume) and equipped with psychoactive nerve gases terrorized the population of Batman's hometown Gotham City . In addition, there is often a pitchfork or scythe , usually used as an execution tool.
The specialty of the “fear” gas developed by Crane is that it lets everyone who comes into contact with it experience their worst subjective nightmares in the form of hallucinations. A mixture of scientific fascination for the psychological phenomenon of fear , which he would like to research further through practical "field tests", as well as a very personal sadistic joy in the fear of his victims is given as a motive for Crane's behavior .
The background story (so-called origin story) of Scarecrow, which developed over time, shows that Jonathan Crane already found an abnormal pleasure as a child in frightening other people and animals (especially birds). He then turns this preference into his profession, choosing fear as his research focus as a psychiatrist. Mockery, which accompanied him all his life because of his eccentric nature and his lanky appearance, first embittered him against his fellow men and aroused the desire to torment them and to take revenge for the suffering suffered. After Crane is dismissed as a professor because of his unorthodox teaching methods (he brings a firearm to a lecture for demonstration purposes) and the mistreatment of students in the context of fear experiments, he decides to attack his fellow human beings dressed as a scarecrow.
The real name of the scarecrow, Crane, is a meaningful name that alludes to the figure of the spindly schoolmaster Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving's story, The Saga of the Sleepy Gorge : The extremely slender Jonathan Crane resembles his namesake in his appearance as well as in that Motive of frightening others. In contrast to Ichabod Crane, who is the victim of a bad Halloween joke, Jonathan Crane is the one who plagues others with terrifying pranks. Within the fictional reality of the Batman and Scarecrow stories, Irving's character appears more frequently as the Scarecrow's inspiration.
After the scarecrow figure had not been used in any Batman story for more than twenty years, the author Gardner Fox and the draftsman Sheldon Moldoff took it out of the shadows for Batman # 189 from February 1967 and - slightly revised - reintroduced to the Batman comics, where she has appeared continuously since then. After his defeats to Batman, Robin or other superheroes or law enforcement officers, Crane is usually taken to the mental hospital at Arkham Asylum , from which he - like other villains - can escape again and again.
characterization
A recurring theme in the Scarecrow stories are attempts by Cranes to approach people or institutions that once did badly to him (like classmates in college who mocked his skinny stature or professors at university who smiled at his poor clothes) avenge them by causing them to suffer severe anxiety and even death with his nerve gas attacks. Other stories show him as a kind of gunman who deliberately roams the streets to terrorize individuals or crowds. He either tortures them in public places or he takes them to his own torture cellar, where he systematically destroys them psychologically. In still other stories, Scarecrow uses his skills to extort protection money or to sell drugs he designed, such as "Thrill". After Scarecrow was temporarily transformed into a monstrous creature called Scarebeast under the influence of a mutagen administered to him by doctor Linda Friitawa in the 2004 storyline "As the Crow Flies", he is the same again in subsequent stories.
Scarecrow often works with other Batman villains like the Joker (as in the Knightfall saga) as a team or he is hired as a henchman by villains like Hush or Black Mask (Battle for the Cowl, 2009). Scarecrow often also has a crow as a pet.
Appearances in other media
Scarecrow was featured as a villain in the animated series The Batman / Superman Hour (episode "The Great Scarecrow Scare", US dubbing voice Ted Knight 1968). Challenge of the SuperFriends (US dubbing voice Don Messick, 1978), The Super Powers Team. Galactic Guardians (episode "The Fear"; US dubbing voice Andre Stojka) and Batman. The Animated Series (US dubbing voice: Henry Plic II, later Jeffrey Combs).
In 2005, Scarecrow was one of several main villains in the movie Batman Begins , in which he was played by Cillian Murphy . Murphy returns in the role for cameo appearances in the sequels, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises . Unlike in the Batman comics, Jonathan Crane is the director of Arkham Asylum, Gotham City's psychiatric hospital . There he carries out questionable anxiety experiments on his patients, and declares henchmen of the criminal Carmine Falcone to be insane in return for payment in order to enable them to be released from prison more quickly. Also in contrast to the comics, Scarecrow in the films does not wear the outfit of a scarecrow, but a suit, so that only with a sack-like mask resembles a real scarecrow.
In the direct-to animated film Gotham Knight , Scarecrow is dubbed by actor Corey Burton .
The Origin story of Scarecrow is told in the Gotham crime series . Here Jonathan Crane is first played by Charlie Tahan and from the second half of the fourth season by David W. Thompson . The prequel series shows Jonathan before turning into Scarecrow in his youth. He is represented as the son of Gerald Crane, a scientist who is responsible for the creation of the Scarecrow gas in this continuity. This serum was originally developed to eliminate feelings of anxiety. When Jonathan is injected with the fear serum by his father, he is haunted by hallucinations in which living scarecrows terrorize him. He is then sent to a mental hospital, from which he is only freed by a gang of criminals in the fourth season. These force Jonathan to reconstruct the formula for his late father's fear serum. Crane eventually becomes Scarecrow when he is psychologically tortured with a scarecrow by the criminals for an extended period of time, eventually overcoming his pathological fear of scarecrows. He dresses in a Scarecrow costume, armed himself with a scythe and decides to throw Gotham City into chaos with his fear gas. Later he is locked in the Arkham Asylum, from which he can escape together with the Mad Hatter and Jerome Valeska. Together with Pinguin , Mr. Freeze and other villains, they form a league of Gotham City's most feared criminals.
Since the 1990s, Scarecrow has been used as an opponent of Batman in numerous video and computer games: for example in Batman. The Animated Series , Adventures of Batman & Robin , Batman Begins (2005), Batman. Rise of Sin Tzu , Lego Batman and Batman. Arkham Asylum (US dubbing voice: Dino Andrade; 2009). In the latter, Scarecrow's appearance has been fundamentally revised: He wears a gas mask and a glove claw studded with syringes, which is reminiscent of the character of Freddy Krueger from the horror film series Nightmare on Elm Street. In the hallucinogenic highs that Batman goes through under the influence of the Scarecrow gas, Scarecrow appears as a monstrous giant. In the game Batman Arkham City , the player comes across several clues about Scarecrow, so his mask lies on a scaffold. However, there is no meeting.
In the recently released video game Batman: Arkham Knight, Crane returns as Scarecrow and works with the eponymous Arkham Knight to bring Batman down for good. In an evacuated Gotham, in which there are only police and criminals, Scarecrow threatens to infect all of Gotham with his fear toxin by means of the so-called cloudburst and to let the city sink into chaos. In addition, thanks to the Arkham Knight Batman, Scarecrow is always one step ahead and kidnaps those who are close to him. In the finale, Batman finally manages to inject the toxin into Crane himself, whereupon the player witnesses Scarecrow's greatest fear: Batman. A completely frightened and disoriented crane is then taken to the GCPD (Gotham City Police Department) and put behind bars. The story ends with the unmasking of Batman and his designated Knightfall Protocol by leading Gotham's people to believe that Bruce Wayne / Batman was killed in an explosion at Wayne Manor.
Publications under the Scarecrow title
- New Year's Evil: Scarecrow , 1998.
- Batman / Scarecrow. Year One , 2004.
- Scarecrow Tales , 2005.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Scarecrow is number 58 . Ign.com . Retrieved July 15, 2012.