Origin

The Scarecrow, aka Jonathan Crane, is first introduced as a professor of psychology who liked to frighten birds as a child. Fascinated by the psychology of fear, he realizes he can use the emotion to manipulate others and becomes a criminal donning the costume of a scarecrow, a symbol of fright.

In 1989 the Scarecrow's history was greatly expanded on in Batman/Scarecrow #1. When Jonathan was growing up he was often bullied and picked on by the other kids. They would call him “scarecrow” on account of his skinny body and long extremities. He was not quite the popular kid and in high school he took his revenge on the bullies that had previously made his life miserable. During the senior prom he shot and killed one of the students. Then dressed as a scarecrow he causes Bo Griggs, the leader of the bullies, to crash his car. This leaves Bo paralyzed and his girlfriend Sherry Squires, who had earlier rejected Crane, dead.

Crane finds that he takes tremendous pleasure in scaring people. Fear becomes an obsession of his and he moves on to become a psychology professor at Gotham University. However, he gets fired from his position for harming a student during a demonstration of his theories. He chooses to take the persona of the Scarecrow and use the emotion of fear as his main weapon to take vengeance on those responsible for his dismissal from the university.

Team-Ups

Although his motivation seems to be very personal and not always compatible with the needs and wants of other foes, The Scarecrow has, in fact, been a part of several criminal organizations. He was a part of the Injustice Gang and also of the Secret Society of Super Villains. He has also worked with other Gotham villains such as Joker.

Powers

Obsessed with the power of fear, he uses it as his main weapon. Everything from the way he dresses to his choice of hideout is designed to play on the fear factor. To enhance the experience of fear he has produced several varieties of his fear gas which is a toxic compound that causes people to go insane with horror and sometimes even die. Their worst nightmares manifest themselves as if they were reality.

Crane has developed his own personal style of fighting, “the violent dancing” which takes advantage of his long extremities. It resembles the crane style of Kung Fu the famous Chinese martial art.

By the means of mutation he was able to transform himself into a murderous creature called “the scarebeast” which possesses incredible strength and endurance and also the ability to produce a very powerful fear toxin.

Crossovers

The Scarecrow is one of Batman's best known foes and he appears in many story arcs. He's been in several crossovers including the ones with Daredevil and Judge Dredd.

Personality Traits

The Scarecrow has been portrayed both as a true mastermind, a genius, and a lunatic. He has been able to devise intricate plots which have caused Batman to suffer extensively. Yet he's also been shown as a mumbling lunatic who has a fixation with nursery rhymes, such as in stories written by Jeph Loeb.

His obsession is fear and the way people behave when they find themselves under its influence. His motivation seems to be the scientific search of knowledge on that matter and he will go to any extent to prove his theories. Experimenting on humans and causing them irreversible trauma and even death is not beyond his methods. Some of his crimes have been caused by his need of money to continue his research.

Since Batman has been able to beat him by facing his worst fears, The Scarecrow, as many of Batman's foes, has developed a fixation with Batman. He's dead set on killing the masked vigilante.

Because of his unstable personality, every time Crane is apprehended, he is put into Arkaham's custody. He has been shown as being comfortable, to a certain extent, in the asylum, even stating that he finds it to be a much more suiting home for him than the outside world would be.

Cartoons

The Scarecrow appeared in the animated series of the 70's The Superfriends

He was one of Batman's enemies in the Legion of Doom leaded by Lex Luthor.

They depicted him as quite the useless foe, and most of the times he was just there to be beaten either by Batman and Robin or by some other member of the Superfriends

In Batman: the Animated Series, a cartoon from the 90's, the Scarecrow was far more competent as an enemy of the Dark Knight. In several episodes he has caused Batman to nearly succumb to his greatest nightmares and fears such as the death of his parents, his enemies triumphing, or him failing his duties as the Dark Knight. In The New Batman Adventures he is given a much more sinister character design. With a harsher voice, a noose around his neck, and a Texas Chainsaw Massacre-esque mask, he is made to look more like a corpse than a scarecrow.