Issue 19 – Scarecrow

Issue 19 – Scarecrow post thumbnail image

Don’t be afraid, it’s just the latest episode of Capes on the Couch featuring Gotham’s premier fear fetishist, Scarecrow! Anthony & Dr. Issues talk about how Jonathan Crane would be a mage, and Anthony goes on a non sequitur about cookies. It’s par for the course, really – listen now!

SHOW NOTES:

  • Introduction
  • Background (02:50)
    • Created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson – World’s Finest Comics #3 (Sept. 1941) – only made 2 Golden Age appearances, later revived in the 1960s
    • Jonathan Crane was bullied as a child because he looked like Ichabod Crane, becomes obsessed with making others afraid
    • Becomes a psychologist, works at Arkham and conducts secret experiments on patients
    • Utilizes a fear gas that creates hallucinogenic visuals of victim’s worst fears
    • Often allies with other members of Batman’s rogues gallery
      • Worked with Hugo Strange in the Terror storyline, but betrayed him
      • Robbed a bank with Mad Hatter during Long Halloween
      • Part of Two-Face’s gang in Dark Victory – puts fear gas in children’s toys on Christmas Eve
      • Helps Riddler fight Catwoman in When in Rome
      • Teams with Joker in Knightfall to ransom the Gotham mayor – sprays fear gas on Joker, but has no effect
      • Hired by Penguin during As the Crow Flies – ends up mutated into Scarebeast creature
      • Works for the Riddler and Hush during Hush storyline – uses knowledge of other criminals to manipulate their fears
      • Recruited by Black Mask in Battle for the Cowl arc – helps create a new drug called Thrill, but defeated by Batgirl
    • Blackest Night/Brightest Day – Immune to fear and yet addicted to it, he allies with Sinestro, who gives him a yellow power ring, until it is stolen by Lex Luthor under the spell of the orange greed ring – kills LexCorp interns for revenge, and creates a new fear toxin capable of affecting a Kryptonian
    • New 52 – Origin story now that he was subjected to fear experiments as a child by his father, who died of a heart attack while Jonathan was trapped in a room for days – became obsessed with fear, and was fired from his job for covering an arachnophobic student in spiders
    • Allies with other villains against Bane in the Forever Evil arc, but ends up hanged by Bane as a symbol that he has Gotham under his control
    • Rebirth – Makes some appearances, and then uses a Sinestro Corps power ring to make citizens afraid of Batman
  • Issues (19:25)
    • Obsession with fear
    • Arrested development – many issues stem from childhood, often speaks in nursery rhymes (27:45)
  • Treatment (33:39)
    • In-universe – Use lantern rings to get him to feel other emotions, or call upon heroes/villains he respects
    • Out-of-universe (37:35)
  • Skit (46:07)
  • Ending 

References:


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