The Scarecrow first appeared way back in Fall 1941, in the third issue of WORLD’S FINEST COMICS, in “Riddle of the Human Scarecrow” by writer Bill Finger and artists Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson.

Curiously, the Scarecrow didn’t seem to catch on during the Golden Age, only appearing twice in the 1940s. However, in his first appearance most of the character’s refining traits are in evidence, with only one or two minor differences. In a surprising amount of backstory for a Golden Age villain, the readers are introduced to Jonathan Crane, a university professor of psychology specializing in the study of fears, who’s not afraid to do a little unorthodox classroom demonstrations with his students, such as pulling a gun and shooting stuff up in class to make them a little jumpy. On his way home, the spindly, shoddily dresses Dr. Crane overhears his contemporaries talk some smack about him, making fun of his shabby clothes and calling him a “scarecrow.”

Crane, who refuses to spend any money on clothes so that he can continue to buy new books (a rationale that, sadly, might sound a little familiar here at COMICS 101 HQ), rationalizes to himself that if he had more money, he’d be better respected, and have more money to buy more books (although it seems like a trip to the Men’s Wearhouse would at least take care of the “respect” part). Taking his cue from the “protection racket” he’s currently teaching his students about – Gotham University apparently offering a class in Elementary Crime – Crane decides to adopt a costumed identity that will use fear to intimidate, and in so doing garner him the respect and monetary gain he craves. The identity? What else – The Scarecrow.

However, this earliest version of the Scarecrow instilled fear in his victims the old-fashioned way: by shooting them:

Granted, that would make me afraid of being shot again, but it’s not exactly “master criminal” territory…

Here the Scarecrow is also a little more comfortable with fisticuffs, pistolwhipping Batman and clobbering Robin with a garbage can. After Dr. Crane is fired by the university for the aforementioned classroom gunplay, the Scarecrow throws himself into his new career with a vengeance, going on a big-time crime spree. Bruce Wayne’s casual conversation with one of Dr. Crane’s ex-associates gives him a lead to follow, while the Scarecrow’s theft of some rare books confirms Batman’s suspicions. In one of Batman’ less intricate (but still effective, mind you) plans, he goes to Dr. Crane’s house in disguise and asks some nosy questions, then lest himself be seen changing back to Batman outside Crane’s window. Naturally, this prompts Crane to suit up as the Scarecrow and head off to start killing witnesses, but the Dynamic Duo are lying in wait, and after another bruising fistfight –this time with Batman nearly being shot in the face – Batman and Robin manage to put down the Scarecrow for good.

The Scarecrow’s Silver Age return came in BATMAN #189 (February 1967), in “Fright of the Scarecrow,” by writer Gardner Fox and artists Bob Kane and Joe Giella.

With the character not having appeared for a couple of decades, Fox and Kane quickly adapt Jonathan Crane’s origin from his first appearance in 1941. However, this time the Scarecrow’s modus operandi is considerably more intricate and subtle – rather than instilling fear in people by just busting a cap into them, the Scarecrow now puts his education to work for him, utilizing specially formulated hallucinogenic gases to create irrational fears in the minds of his victims, such as here, where Batman and Robin suffer from a paralyzing fear of falling while hanging from a tree branch mere inches from the ground.

One of my favorite Scarecrow stories came along in February of 1987 in issue #571 of DETECTIVE COMICS, in “Fear for Sale,” by the excellent team of writer Mike W. Barr and artists Alan Davis and Paul Neary. Here Batman and the new Robin Jason Todd contend with the Scarecrow’s latest scheme, in which he offers a drug treatment to athletes that will remove their fears, allowing them to take more chances than ever in pursuit of victory, then blackmails them once they realize that the drug has also eliminated their common sense, holding them up for exorbitant amounts for the antidote. When an overconfident Robin attempts to collar the Scarecrow by himself, he receives a faceful of Scarecrow’s fear gas, revealing his worst fear: failing his partner.

Inspired, Scarecrow decides to use Robin as bait after dosing Batman with his anti-fear drug, unleashing a completely fearless, devil-may-care, overconfident Caped Crusader on Gotham. The drugged-goofy Batman runs the gauntlet of Scarecrow’s traps, then fakes his own watery death, allowing him to take the Scarecrow unawares. When Robin asks Batman how he overcame the Scarecrow’s gas, Batman will only admit to replacing the fears nullified by the gas with a different fear, “the most terrible [he] could conceive.” What fear is that? One he’s not ready to admit…

The other villain making his debut in BATMAN BEGINS first appeared in June 1971, in BATMAN #232, “Daughter of the Demon,” by writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams, which saw the introduction of the immortal ecofanatic Ra’s al Ghul. The story opened with Bruce Wayne receiving a disturbing letter, containing a photo of a kidnapped Robin. Before he can begin his own investigation, Batman is surprised in the Batcave by Ra’s al Ghul (meaning “the Demon’s head” in Arabic, by the way) and his manservant Ubu, who are seeking Batman’s help with their own investigation, into the kidnapping of Ra’s’ daughter Talia, a beautiful and intriguing adventurer whom Batman had earlier encountered.

(Ra’s explains that he had deduced Batman’s identity by correlating the materials needed to support a crimefighting career with the men of wealth who had purchased or procured such items…) Ra’s and Batman embark on a globetrotting journey in pursuit of the kidnappers of Talia and Robin, with Ra’s’ servant Ubu repeatedly pushing Batman aside for perceived slights to his master.

Along the way, Batman and Ra’s encounter various assassins and deathtraps, including a leopard, which Batman has to wrestle into submission.

The trail leads then to a snowy retreat in the Himalayas, where Batman winds up forging ahead by himself, defeating numerous assassins and guards as he makes his way into the compound, where he finds Robin, under guard but unharmed. There, Batman, in classic “Agatha Christie” style announces that he’s known who the culprit was all along, revealing that Ra’s al Ghul was behind the kidnappings, with everything from the timing of the kidnappings to Ubu’s suspicious behavior when danger was afoot. The only question remaining was why.

The answer comes as a shock: the entire escapade was merely a test to see of Batman was worthy of Ra’s’ daughter, Talia.

Not only was Talia in love with Batman, but Ra’s had to be certain that Batman would make a worthy heir to his empire and would carry out his goal. That goal? “To restore harmony to our sad planet.”

While Batman was himself in love with Talia (as much he often refused to admit it, even to himself) he often found himself at odds with Ra’s, whose intended methods of restoring the planet to a more natural harmony frequently seemed to involve the deaths of countless innocents. Making things more difficult was Ra’s ace in the hole, his knowledge of the Lazarus Pits, a group of naturally occurring chemical springs located in various places around the world, which hold the power to restore youth and vitality to the aged and dying.

This was a power often taken advantage of by Ra’s, who had lived for over six hundred years. Despite what seemed like Ra’s repeated defeats and demises, thanks to a dip in the Lazarus Pit, Ra’s would always return to bedevil Batman once more.

While the first Ra’s al Ghul story is still the best, particularly the big finale straight out of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, with Batman and Ra’s’ bare-chested swordfight in the desert, a close second for me would have to be the 1987 graphic novel BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON, by writer Mike W. Barr and artist Jerry Bingham. Here we get more of Ra’s al Ghul’s backstory, as Batman and Ra’s team up to track down Qayin, a terrorist who plans to use a stolen weather-control satellite to rain Armageddon down on mankind, and who also happens to be the man who, as a child caused the death of Ra’s’ wife (and Talia’s mother) Melisande. Not only does Batman finally take his place as Ra’s al Ghul’s second-in-command in these pages, but Bruce Wayne finally accepts his love for Talia, and the two live together as husband and wife (having been married against Bruce’s will in an earlier encounter with Ra’s al Ghul).

The story is notable not only for the handsomely sketchy art by Bingham but also for the novelty of Batman and Ra’s working so closely toward a common goal – making it clearer than ever that the two are far more alike than Batman would ever like to admit.

Even more surprising is how happy Batman, the ultimate loner, becomes at the prospect of a family, especially after Talia announces that she’s pregnant.

So happy, in fact, that he refuses to help Ra’s further in tracking down Qayin, asserting that the happiness of his family comes first. It’s no coincidence then, that when faced with Batman’s sudden refusal to help track down the murderer of her mother, Talia suddenly “miscarries,” prompting Batman to return to action and help Ra’s al Ghul vanquish Qayin.

With Qayin defeated, Batman and Talia go their separate ways once more, with the loss of the child seemingly driving a wedge between them. By the way, this book has been declared “out of continuity” by today’s DC editors, most likely due to this epilogue, which shows an abandoned baby at an orphanage sporting a familiar-looking strand of jewels…

THEY OUGHTTA BE IN PICTURES

While BATMAN BEGINS marks the big-screen debut of both the Scarecrow and Ra’s al Ghul, the more attentive Bat-fan has most likely encountered them in one of a few television appearances. While neither appeared in the 1966 ABC television series (Scarecrow being both too minor a character at the time and not really suited for the show’s more comedic bent, and Ra’s having not even been created for another three years), the two have reared their villainous head in a few of Batman’s animated adventures over the years. Let’s take a look, beginning with the Scarecrow.

With thirteen villain chairs to fill, producers of the 1978 Saturday-morning cartoon series CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS didn’t hesitate to go to Batman’s Rogues Gallery to flesh out the membership of the Legion of Doom, recruiting not only the Riddler but also the Scarecrow, in what I believe is his first appearance outside comic books.

The Scarecrow didn’t have much to do here, usually just being used as a second or third gun-toting lackey behind one of Gorilla Grodd or Brainiac’s plots. At least he did have a suitably spooky voice, courtesy of veteran voice actor Don Messick.

The Scarecrow received better treatment in his next appearance in 1985, in the final season of SUPERFRIENDS, exhaustingly titled THE SUPER POWERS TEAM: GALACTIC GUARDIANS. In a surprisingly comic-book-accurate episode entitled “The Fear,” the Scarecrow uses his hallucination-generating “fearskulls” to torment Batman, particularly when Batman accidentally wanders into Crime Alley, where as a boy he witnessed his parents’ murder.

Not only is this the only discussion in any of the SUPERFRIENDS seasons of Batman’s origin, it’s also the only time that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson (and Professor Jonathan Crane, for that matter) make an appearance in a SUPERFRIENDS episode. While the decidedly kid-friendly constraints of the SUPERFRIENDS series made it hard for the Scarecrow to be too scary, the character certainly had more of an edge here than in his earlier CHALLENGE appearances, thanks to the smart script by Alan Burnett, who would be instrumental in the series where Dr. Crane would next appear…

The 1992 BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES gave a breath of fresh air to all the Batman villains, and the Scarecrow was no exception. However, the BTAS producers never seemed to get the same handle on Scarecrow that they did with so many of the other villains, with a character design that seemed to shift from episode to episode, and without the strong compelling origin that so many of the other Bat-Villains received. The Scarecrow made his BTAS debut in “Nothing to Fear,” written by Sean Catherine Derek and Henry T. Gilroy and directed by Boyd Kirkland. The story, which details Professor Crane’s vendetta against the university that fired him, does a perfunctory pass over Scarecrow’s origin, and mostly busies itself with Batman’s struggle with the Scarecrow’s hallucinogenic gas, which has unleashed his fears of disappointing his father’s memory.

As for the Scarecrow himself, his initial design is kinda weak, with little more than a burlap sack over his head and a big floppy hat. Looking back, it’s clear this was one of the first episodes produced, as the production staff was clearly still finding their way with the series.

The Scarecrow’s design improved in his second outing, “Fear of Victory,” written by Samuel Warren Joseph and directed by Dick Sebast. Here the Scarecrow was given white spindly hair, jagged teeth and pupils in his mask’s eyelets, giving the character more expression and allowing him to appear much more menacing.

The plotline is only a little more interesting than last time, with the Scarecrow using his fear gas to dose professional and collegiate athletes so as to make big money betting against them. When Dick Grayson’s roommate at Gotham State receives one of Scarecrow’s contaminated telegrams, Dick is affected as well, resulting in a crippling case of acrophobia for Robin.

A far superior Scarecrow BTAS episode, no question, was “Dreams in Darkness,” written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and directed by Dick Sebast.

The episode opens with a straightjacket-bound Batman locked in a cell at Arkham Asylum, looking back at what led him to this ignominious fate. Receiving a faceful of the Scarecrow’s gas while investigating a break-in at a Gotham spa, Batman races the clock to stop Scarecrow from contaminating Gotham’s water supply with the hallucinogenic drug before completely succumbing to the drug’s effects. Heading to Arkham to try to track down the presumably imprisoned Professor Crane, Batman is instead taken in by Arkham’s medical staff, who don’t believe his story and think Batman has finally cracked. While the episode’s climax, with Batman facing off against the Scarecrow in the subterranean river tributary that just happens to be just below Arkham, what really makes the episode creepy are Batman’s hallucinations, the most shocking of which includes a scene in which Bruce Wayne’s parents disappear down a circular tunnel, which morphs into the barrel of a gun, which begins to drip blood from the mouth of the gun before firing, waking Batman from the hallucination.

I don’t know how they got away with that one.

In all these appearances, the Scarecrow was voiced by Henry Polic, who brought a nice stentorian, professorial feel to the character. However, it wasn’t really all that scary. The Scarecrow appeared a couple more times in cameos in BTAS (including a hilarious bit part in “Harley’s Holiday”), but his best appearance wouldn’t come until the second iteration of the series, THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES, in which the character was redesigned from top to bottom, with a far scarier look involving a death’s-head face, tattered clothes and hat, a scythe and a hangman’s noose around his neck.

Along with the much creepier look came a much creepier voice, thanks to Jeffrey Coombs, best known for the horror classic RE-ANIMATOR. The episode, “Never Fear,” written by Stan Berkowitz and directed by Kenji Hachizaki, brought a fresh spin to a familiar Scarecrow story, in which Professor Crane is testing out his new anti-fear drug on hapless Gothamites. When Batman is exposed to the drug while investigating the motivational seminars that Crane is using to find “volunteers,” he becomes completely devoid of fear, including any fear of hurting others, leaving the new Robin, Tim Drake, in the unfortunate position of having to stop his mentor, and prevent the Scarecrow from letting his anti-fear gas loose in a rush-hour subway tunnel. Strong, creepy stuff here.

Ra’s al Ghul had a much stronger start in animation, making his debut in BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES in “The Demon’s Quest, Parts I and II,” written by Denny O’Neil and Len Wein and directed by Kevin Altieri, which stands as one of the most faithful and successful direct translations of a comic book to animation, well, ever.

All of the dramatic beats from the comic story are here and executed brilliantly, from Robin’s kidnapping to Batman’s fight with the panther to the duel in the desert between Batman and Ra’s.

As for the acting, Helen Slater does a great job as the tough but lovestruck Talia and David Warner gives one of the best performances of the series as Ra’s al Ghul, blending a regal dignity with an occasionally manic villainous flair.

Ra’s al Ghul’s next appearance on BTAS didn’t quite meet the same standards, with “Avatar,” written by Michael Reaves and directed by Kevin Altieri, some fairly routine business with Batman and Talia tracking down Ra’s, who’s on the trail of an ancient Egyptian mummy.

The episode ends, naturally, with a big mummy fight, which admittedly looks cool but doesn’t have the class and gravitas of Batman and Ra’s’ earlier encounter.

Ra’s had a smaller part in “Showdown,” written by Altieri, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and Joe Lansdale, and directed by Kevin Altieri, in which a kidnapping at a Gotham old folks’ home leads Batman and Robin to discover the story of one of Ra’s’ adventures a hundred years ago in the Old West, in which Ra’s al Ghul finds himself at odds with the legendary DC gunslinger Jonah Hex.

It’s a fantastic change of pace for the series, an excellent Western adventure, and at the end, a touching note of humanity for Ra’s al Ghul. It’s one of my favorite episodes, and it’s on the newest DVD collection of BTAS episodes, so check it out.

Ra’s al Ghul and Talia sat out THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES, but made their next appearance in SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, in the episode “The Demon Reborn,” written by Rich Fogel and directed by Dan Riba. Here it’s shown that Ra’s al Ghul’s many rebirths in the Lazarus Pit have caught up to him, and the ancient, dessicated Ra’s has only one chance at continued life: siphoning off Superman’s strength with a mystical artifact. Suckering in Superman with a pretend attempt on Lois Lane’s life (and I have to admit, Talia looks pretty good in Lois’s outfit), Talia and Ra’s manage to drain Superman of much of his strength, transferring it to a now freakishly pumped Ra’s, before Batman arrives and puts the kibosh on the experiment.

Talia made her swan song in the Batman animated universe in an episode of the futuristic BATMAN BEYOND series, “Out of the Past,” written by Paul Dini and directed by James Tucker. For those who may have missed out on this underrated show, BATMAN BEYOND featured an 80-year-old Bruce Wayne serving as mentor to Terry McGinness, Gotham’s new Batman. However, in this episode a still young and vital Talia returns and offers Bruce his lost youth back via a dip in the Lazarus Pit, a prospect which doesn’t thrill young Terry, who fears that a once-more youthful Bruce Wayne may wish to reclaim his mantle as the Batman.

It’s very cool to see a once-more-young Bruce fighting alongside Terry for the first time, and the long-dead Ra’s al Ghul even makes his presence felt, in a most disturbing and unsettling fashion. And as if all this wasn’t enough, the story opens with a hilarious sequence in which Terry drags Bruce to the smash “Batman” Broadway musical – the scene in which "Batman" and "Commissioner Gordon" sing the duet “A Superstitious, Cowardly Lot” has to be seen to be believed.

The Batman animated universe set a pretty high standard for using these characters – I’m looking forward to seeing if writer David Goyer and director Chris Nolan manage to meet it, or even better, exceed it. Here’s hoping. See you at the multiplex.

Here’s a scary fact: at one point the word was that Howard Stern would be playing the Scarecrow. Ay caramba. If you have questions about Scarecrow, Ra’s al Ghul, Bat-villains or comics in general send them to stipton99x@comics101.com.

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