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So You Think You Know... SCARECROW

Image by Jakob Owens
Image by Sajjad Ahmadi
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First appearing in World’s Finest Comics #3 in 1941, “the Scarecrow” – criminal alias for Dr. Jonathan Crane, professor specializing in the psychology of fear – is one of Batman’s oldest villains. Though he appeared only a few times in his first three decades, his presence grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By the 1990s, he was a regularly recurring member of Batman’s “Rogues Gallery,” thanks in part to animated Batman television series. He achieved stardom in the 2000s and 2010s as the only villain to appear in all three films of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, as a central villain in the Arkham video game series, as one of the earliest featured villains in the Gotham television series, and as a playable character in the Injustice 2 video game – not to mention his presence in the LEGO Batman franchise and multiple crossover appearances in the Scooby-Doo! franchise. Prominent in many seminal DC relaunches and events and in multiple celebrated series and story arcs - including “Crisis on Infinite Earths” (1986), The Long Halloween (1996), “No Man’s Land” (1999), Hush (2002), War Games (2004), “Blackest Night” (2009), “Brightest Day” (2010), “Flashpoint” (2011), The New 52 (2011), Arkham Knight (2015), Rebirth (2016), and Infinite Frontier (2021) – the Scarecrow is one of Batman’s most enduring enemies. Scarecrow is, however, much more than a merely memorable malefactor; he is also a menacing manifestation of Batman’s own methods. Superheroes depend on villains to externalize their internal struggles with responsibilities, to characterize the other (darker) half of their social identity, to push the boundaries of their abilities and values, and to represent a threat to, or critique of, the civic, pro-social, ideals that superheroes embody. Scarecrow, because of childhood trauma, uses fear to commit crime, just as Batman, because of childhood trauma, uses fear to combat crime. In this, the Scarecrow epitomizes the popular “one bad day” interpretation of the distinction between a hero and a villain – an idea that is particularly prominent within the Batman Universe, having originated in Batman: The Killing Joke (1988) and now being titularly featured in a comics series focused on Batman villains. While superheroes are often perceived as civic models of right feeling and action and embodiments of national identities, their nemeses are thought to be a threat to those ideals, a representation of deviance from society, or a criticism of social norms. The supervillain is the individual threat to the superhero’s collective good. The Scarecrow, whose expertise in psychology represents sociological problems and whose personal vendettas challenge communal welfare, characterizes this relationship. As such, this book will explore and highlight the ways in which Scarecrow, and thus the figure of the supervillain, is more than a plot device or foil for the advancement of the hero’s story. He is a representation of individual and collective anxieties, cultural histories, and social attitudes.

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Related Publications

  • Knopf, C.M. (2024, Sep 16). “We are no longer connected, Jean”: The alienation of X-women ’97. In Media Res, X-Men ’97 Week. 

  • Knopf, C.M. (2024). The true meaning of fearless: Feminism in Fearless and the Marvel Universe. In D. Brode (Ed.), Analyzing the Marvel Universe: Critical essays on the comics and film adaptations, pp. 100-108. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2023). Militant earth mother: Viewing Poison Ivy as an ecofeminist rather than as an ecoterrorist.  In J. Martin & M. Favaro (Eds.), Batman’s villains and villainesses: Multidisciplinary perspectives on Arkham’s souls, pp. 201-214. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2023, Apr 10). Anger and fear and feminism. In Media Res, Quantumania, the Multiverse, and the State of the MCU Week.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2022). “Fear of faith” and faith over fear: Scarecrow as emblem of a purgatorial Gotham. In M.W. Brake & C.K. Robertson (Eds.), Theology and Batman: Examining the religious world of the Dark Knight, pp. 69-79. Lanham, MD: Lexington.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2022). Caped crusaders and cartoon crossovers: A nostalgic look“Beyond” DC superheroes. In D. Brode (Ed.), The DC comics universe: Critical essays, pp. 349-362. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2022). Heterotopia and horror at Show’s End. In J. Darowski  & F.G.P. Berns (Eds.), Critical approaches to horror comic books: Red ink in the gutter, pp. 223-234. New York: Routledge.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2022, Feb 14). Jokers, jesters, and gender: Subverting social standards. In Media Res, Transmedia Joker Week.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2021). Politics in the gutters: American politicians & elections in comic book media. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2021). Superman, a super freak: Returning the Man of Steel to the circus in the DC Bombshells. In J. Darowski (Ed.), Adapting Superman: Essays on the transmedia Man of Steel, pp. 207-215. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2020, Apr 15). Menacing and maternal: The limits of motherhood in Spider-Man. In Media Res, Spider-Man Week.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2019, Sep 16). Queer female Superheroes: DC Comics Bombshells tell their own story. FLOW: A Critical Forum on Media and Culture, 26(1) “New Faces, New Voices, New Bodies.”

  • Knopf, C.M. (2019). Politics as “the sum of everything you fear”: Scarecrow as phobia entrepreneur. In D. Picariello (Ed.), Politics in Gotham: The Batman universe and political thought, pp. 159-176. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2019). War is hell: The (super)nature of war in the works of Mike Mignola. In S.G. Hammond (Ed.), The Mignolaverse: Hellboy and the comics art of Mike Mignola, pp. 144-155. Edwardsville, IL: Sequart Organization.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2018). Queen of burlesque: The subtle (as a hammer) satire of Bomb Queen. In M. Goodrum, T. Prescott, & P. Smith (Eds.), Gender and the superhero narrative, pp. 101-123. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2018). Marvel’s Shamrock: Haunted heroine, working woman, guardian of the galaxy. In M. DiPaolo (Ed.), Working class comic book heroes: Class conflict and populist politics in comics, pp. 206-225. Jackson MS: University Press of Mississippi.

  • Knopf, C.M. (2017). “Hey, soldier! - Your slip is showing!”: Militarism vs. femininity in WWII comic pages and books. In J. Kimble & T. Goodnow (Eds.), The 10 cent war: Comic books, propaganda, and World War II, pp. 26-45. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.

  • Knopf, C.M. & Doran, C.M. (2016). PTXD: Gendered narratives of combat, trauma, and the civil-military divide. In C. Bucciferro (Ed.), The X-Men films: A cultural analysis, pp. 61-73. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

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