The Scarecrow is one of the many supervillains of Gotham City, home of Batman in the DC Comics series.

Jonathan Crane became obsessed with fear and revenge from being bullied throughout his entire childhood and adolescence for his lanky frame and bookish nature. He committed his first murder at the age of 18 by brandishing a gun in his high school parking lot during the senior prom--dressed in the scarecrow costume that would later become his signature--causing the main bully and his girlfriend, who had earlier rejected Crane, to get in a wreck, paralyzing him and killing her. He found that he delighted in frightening people literally to death.

He became a professor of psychology at Gotham University, specializing in the psychology of fear. After his dismissal for firing a bullet at a flowerpot to get his point across, he killed those people responsible for his dismissal and became a career criminal. He took the moniker "the Scarecrow," the favorite taunt of the hated bullies, as part of his revenge.

Now, using a variety of fear gases and his freakish scarecrow costume, the Scarecrow instills fear in all who see him. When forced to fight, he uses his own style called "violent dancing", which is based in part off the crane style of kung fu, and makes full use of his long arms and legs.

A psychopathic sadist, the Scarecrow is one of the many criminals in Gotham City to be confined to Arkham Asylum whenever Batman apprehends him.

In other media

In the 1970s animated series Super Friends, the Scarecrow appeared as a member of Lex Luthor's Legion of Doom. In this series, he was voiced by Don Messick.

In the 1990s' Batman: The Animated Series, the Scarecrow was voiced by Henry Polic II and then by Jeffrey Combs.

He will also appear in the upcoming live-action film Batman Begins, portrayed by Cillian Murphy.