Name of Character: Jonathan Crane (New Earth)
Date of First Appearance: World’s Finest Comics #3
Jonathan Crane grew up with tall and thin legs and was often teased and mocked by bullies his age in their community. These boys often hurt him by throwing rocks on him while calling him Ichabod or Scarecrow. Although he had long wanted to get even with the boys, his fear had always interfered in his plan of action.
Approximately five years later, Crane had the chance to read a short story entitled ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ and there he learned about Ichabod Crane’s character. He instantly became a fan of Ichabod because of his dancing skill, however, Crane hates Ichabod’s coward character in the story, which he himself exhibit. The thought of the negative attitude made Crane vow that from that day on he will never be mocked again. He mastered his own method of dancing, just like that of Ichabod, which he later called ‘violent dancing’.
Crane’s first revenge took place when he was eighteen years old. At that time he had a crush on Sherry Squires, a high school classmate. Unfortunately, Sherry was already involved with a boy named Bo Griggs who possessed behaviours similar to the bullies that annoyed Crane during his childhood days. During a costume party, Crane managed to asked Sherry to be his date to which Sherry agreed on. Unknown to Crane, Sherry and Bo planned a harsh practical joke on him. Later, Sherry escorted Crane to a dark room where Bo was wearing a Jack-O’Lantern mask. Running after Crane, Bo managed to throw the pumpkin towards Crane hitting his head. Sure enough Crane took his revenge during their Senior Prom. Crane, wearing the ugliest scarecrow costume and holding a gun, attacked Bo and Sherry while on transit which resulted to a vehicular accident which instantly killed Sherry and leaving Bo paralysed. Since then, Crane takes pleasure in scaring people to death.
n school, psychology subject became Crane’s favourite. He excelled in that field specifically anything related to fear. He was saddened upon learning that his mentor Avram Bramowitz does not share mutual concern on ’fear’, but still would want him to be his colleague. However, at that time there was no available position for him in the school. Crane managed to turn his line of interest in the field of chemistry and soon was able to create a toxin, a powerful hallucinogen, when injected the victim will experience his greatest fear in life which may lead to death which is exactly what happened to Crane’s psychology mentor. After Bramowitz death, Crane applied for the open position and was accepted. However, he got fired after he tried to fire a bullet at a flower pot and a shard hit a student in the face. He was actually demonstrating how the body would react in times of fear. Again disappointed, he eliminated the people behind his expulsion from the school and since then was known as ’scarecrow’. If you love your comics, get your favourite issue or character on a themed usb stick.
|
