Character

Joanna Crane || 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖈𝖆𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖜

Variable

Written by Caesarina

“I am capable of what every other human is capable of. This is one of the great lessons of war and life.”

Canon DivergentHumanCis Female; She/Her

Gotham City, NJ, USA
Late Twenties - Early Thirties [Oct 31]
Heterosexual
Ships With Chemistry

Fandoms

DC ComicsDetective ComicsBatmanBatman comicsArkham gamesArkhamversecrossover friendly

10 stories
21 posts
23 followers
Last active 4 hr ago

Bio

JOANNA DOROTHY CRANE - THE SCARECROW

FEAR • OBSESSION • CONTROL

paranoid | vengeful | cynical | patient

"You'll be thinking of me. You may not be thinking good thoughts, but you'll be thinking of me."

— GAVIN DE BECKER

TRAINING WHEELS
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EYEBITE
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[TBA]
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FEARS AND PHOBIAS

Birds / Failure / Being Forgotten
Daddy / Men Like Him / Arkham
Feeling Trapped / The Dark
The Batman

APPEARANCE

BUILD

Tall and slight; 5 ft 11, 140lbs. Give or take some, depending on how well she's taking care of herself. Jacob's clone.

HAIR

Dark brown. Medium-long and letting it get longer. Straight/wavy. Sometimes with blonde highlights.

EYES

Dark Blue; Usually behind thick glasses or contact lenses

HISTORY

When Joanna Crane was a child, her father, Doctor Jacob Crane, was a scientist who studied fear closely. Unable to use a proper test subject for his research, he used his own daughter, Joanna, as a guinea pig. As part of the experiments, Joanna was locked inside a cramped, dark room while her father monitored the effects it had on her psyche both inside and outside the chamber, making note of any changes over time, recording duration, etc.

During one of the experiments, Joanna’s father had a heart attack and died, leaving young Joanna still trapped in the pitch-black chamber alone and afraid. His colleagues noticed his absence at work and called the police for a wellness check, who arrived at the scene to find Dr. Crane dead in his chair. The chamber was fashioned out of a closet, and as such was well hidden in the Crane house. It went almost unnoticed if not for the sound of young Joanna crying. The police were disgusted to find the child trapped there, starving and terrified.

She entered the foster system in Gotham for a time before eventually landing in the care of her maternal aunt, Mary-Helen Keeny, a mild-mannered schoolteacher, who lived on a farm just outside of Gotham. It was thought that her gentle nature and goal-driven parenting style would work well enough to address the issues of her childhood trauma. Unfortunately, Joanna’s situation was unique and difficult to navigate. Joanna excelled in school and was in and out of therapy most of her childhood. Instead of healing, she developed the notion that she could control her fear instead of suffering it. Her father was wrong. Fear was no mere fascinating emotion; it was a tool. Tools could be used. Controlled. And if she could control her fear, she would never have to live in it again.

Developing an obsession with her goal led Joanna to Gotham University, where she earned her doctorate in psychology, with biochemistry as a minor. She wasted little time in putting her degrees to use and quickly established a name for herself in Gotham as an enthusiastic young psychologist specializing in helping patients manage fear and phobias. A little later on in her career, she got a teaching gig at the same university where she studied.

Joanna is known as an eccentric professor, often scaring students and colleagues in studies on their reactions to fear and scares, but so far, it has not been escalated to the point of punishment beyond a scolding. In her free time, in secret, she is developing a project, a chemical substance that would cause a subject to hallucinate their worst fears, believing that if all of society were at once, pushed into a ‘fear state,’ that it could trigger another stage in societal evolution, which she sees only as a benefit.

FAMILY:
Jacob Gerald 'Jerry' Crane - Father
Karen Jarvis (nee Keeny) - Mother
'Charlie' Jarvis - Stepfather
Allison Jarvis - Half-Sister
Mary-Helen Keeny - Maternal Aunt
Robert 'Bobby' Crane - Paternal Uncle

ABILITIES AND EQUIPMENT

ABILITIES

• High Intellect
• "Fear Toxin" Resistance
• "Joker Toxin" Resistance
• Moderately capable of self-defense: hand-to-hand, and some skills with firearms
• Secret Identity

EQUIPMENT

• Gas Mask
• "Fear Toxin"
• Needled glove (right hand)
• Scarecrow costume
• Access to funds and research
• Medical setup
• Poncho or long, ratty raincoat
• Wide-brim straw hat or cloth/floppy hat
• Fully registered, licensed, and legally-owned Beretta M9 (9mm)
• Later iterations will feature the broken noose, symbolic of her previous self being dead

Scarecrow Disguise Design - A cross between Fear State and The New Batman Adventures

Fear State (2022)

New Batman Adventures (1998)

INVOLVEMENT AND META

Doctor Crane is primarily a professor at Gotham City University and a practicing psychologist, capable of diagnosing and prescribing medications to her patients. She has 'normal' patients at a medical arts building in the city, and she occasionally takes on patients who are residents of Arkham Asylum (namely, Edward Tierney/Nygma, AKA The Riddler). She mostly works on temporary contracts, but is considering a more involved position offered to her by Dr. Jeremiah Arkham.

On occasion, Joanna, as part of a group effort with a number of her colleagues in Psychology, cooperates with the GCPD in building criminal profiles and assessing threats, using the PRISM Threat Assessment system developed by Adrian Buckler (a fictionalized version of the real-life MOSAIC system developed by Gavin de Becker et al.) and his associates.

At night, she turns to her experiments. The practice is unlawful, but she only tests the toxins on willing subjects, or criminals who would make her their victim. Gotham is a dangerous, violent city full of desperate people from all walks of life, and Joanna is delusional, determined, and capable. She thinks she is helping people, wants to help people, and will have trouble understanding the scale and depth of the damage she is doing.

Goals:Continue to research fear ; develop and refine the fear toxin so that it can be submitted to the correct organizations and be administered on a city-wide scale ; don't get caught in the meantime ; don't give in to temptation to release it herself before it's ready

META

"The Scarecrow” in this iteration is a modified version of Jonathan Crane of Prime Earth, not initially cruel and very delusional. She is still a professor at Gotham University, developing fear toxin in private and testing it on live subjects. While the practice is unlawful, all subjects are volunteers and are compensated. What makes her most angry is when others steal her toxin and use it without seeking consent, or when her research is used to do harm. Eventually, she will become bitter and resentful of the Batman, and slowly detach from the moral standard she originally set for herself.

Part of her experiments involves wearing a gas mask and various disguises to conceal her identity from her subjects, who are mostly criminals interested in buying, selling, and/or partaking of illicit substances. She so far only approaches specifically violent people, who would be unwilling to go to the police due to their own backgrounds, and who the city wouldn't miss if something happened. Those few that have been caught out by either the police or their criminal bosses (Penguin, Sionis, Falcone, etc.) in possession of small amounts of toxin can only recall the Scarecrow administering chemicals to them and taking note of what happens.

Joanna genuinely believes that her research will pay off and benefit people. Her goal, right now, is to help people. She will later be influenced by interactions with other characters, leaning more towards vengeance and hate.

Currently, she has many jobs. Three to be exact.

1. Personal practice in a medical arts building (5 Patients)

2. Contract with Arkham Asylum (3 Patients: The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, and The Ratcatcher)

3. Gotham University Adjunct Professor of Psychology

One of the factors for Doctor Crane finally 'snapping' is the loss of one or more, which I plan to keep pretty consistent in the main storyline, and over crossovers. Even if she seems to be good and often does do good things for others, she is unstable and will always eventually become the Scarecrow.

Her characterization as a villain and some of her storyline will include bits from Fear State (2022), Arkham Asylum (2009), Arkham Knight (2015), and Legends of the Dark Knight: Terror (2001; iss. # 137-141)

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