History
Through intense research in the science of fear, Jonathan Crane developed a powerful hallucinogenic drug he dubbed "fear toxin". When inhaled, the victim hallucinates their own worst fears becoming a reality. Though the length of the effects have been seen to vary, Batman has developed an antidote to neutralize the toxin almost instantly. Similarly, overcoming the fear in question has also been shown to nullify the symptoms.
The first time that Scarecrow used his fear chemical, he used various methods of application such as spray and smoke.[1] Scarecrow then created unique pills that would give him the ability to project fear into the minds of his enemies. Unfortunately, these proved ineffective for a second use, as the effect turned against anyone who consumed the pills.[2]
Later on, he would choose to use gas as his main weapon.
After escaping from Arkham Asylum during the massive breakout orchestrated by Bane, Scarecrow used his fear gas to terrorize one of Joker's henchmen and later he used the gas to make Mayor Krol afraid like never before in order to make him obey his and Joker's commands.[3] When Batman tried to rescue Krol from the villains, Scarecrow used the fear gas on him, which triggered the memory of the death of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker. Batman, instead of being afraid, became mad and started beating the villains wihtout mercy. Eventually, the effects of the gas wear off and Batman focused on rescuing the mayor, while allowing the villains to escape.[4]
Some time later, the fear toxin was used by Two-Face against Nightwing. Two-Face coated some bullets with the toxin and shot them at Nightwing, causing him to have delusions during their confrontation. After this, Nightwing's immune system was reinforced against the fear toxin by Alfred.[5][6]
After Batman's death, Jason Todd stole a sample of the fear gas from the Batcave and later used it against Nightwing during their final confrontation for the mantle of the Bat. However, Nightwing was immune to the drug thanks to his previous encounter with Two-Face.[7]
Variations
- Fear Toxin/Venom Combination: When Bane employed Scarecrow to combine his Fear Toxin with Bane's Venom, the infected person gained great strength and complete fearlessness.[8] The first versions of the formula has the side effect of the subject would bleed out his eyes and being in great pain after it wore off.[9] This was fixed after many tests on the inmates of Arkham Asylum and when Bane took the formula himself.[10]
- Super Toxin 451-A is a specific version of the toxin produced by Scarecrow's father, utilizing the sweat of children under the effects of lesser fear toxin to make it more potent, enough that even Scarecrow himself does not have the antibodies.[11] This version of Fear Toxin can take months to overcome its symptoms, and is far harder to synthesize an antidote for.[12]
- "Cassandra" Strain: A strain of the toxin utilized by Scarecrow following the rise and fall of the Crime Syndicate, first used during the end of Cluemaster's plot to destroy Gotham City.[13] The toxin has a correlation to the mechanism that causes people to wake up when they die in their dreams, and is supposed by Bruce Wayne to be based upon an inversion of that neurochemistry.[14] Even days after being exposed to the strain, he continued to have "daymares" of various death sequences involving various villains.[15]
- Trauma Toxin: Utilized during "Mother"'s assault on the Batfamily, this toxin scars the brain in a manner similar to the effects of a traumatic event, replicating the chemical reaction a body would have to something horrific enough to tear a mind apart, leaving the victim little but a husk of what they were, unable to feel anything but what a controller wanted them to feel. This strain is so powerful that even Scarecrow himself cannot stomach it, as rendering subjects so pliable would negate any effects he could have with his work on fear.[16]
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Capabilities
- Fear Projection: Causes all who are exposed to it to experience their greatest fears.
Notes
- The first fear inducing chemical ever created on the DC Universe, was the "Fear Dust", developed by mad scientist Hugo Strange. It appeared in Detective Comics #46.
- Some individuals have been shown to have immunity to the fear toxin. Ironically, Crane is not always one of them.
- Over the years, Crane has created gas based on specific fears, such as arachnophobia, taphophobia (the fear of being buried alive), the fear of being eaten by cockroaches, etc.[17]
See Also
- Appearances of Scarecrow's Fear Toxin
- Item Gallery: Scarecrow's Fear Toxin
- Images featuring Scarecrow's Fear Toxin
Footnotes
- ↑ Batman #189
- ↑ Batman #200
- ↑ Batman #494
- ↑ Batman #496
- ↑ Nightwing (Volume 2) #148
- ↑ Nightwing (Volume 2) #148
- ↑ Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3
- ↑ Batman: The Dark Knight (Volume 2) #1
- ↑ Batman: The Dark Knight (Volume 2) #2
- ↑ Batman: The Dark Knight (Volume 2) #6
- ↑ Batman: The Dark Knight (Volume 2) #13
- ↑ Batman: The Dark Knight (Volume 2) #15
- ↑ Batman Eternal #50
- ↑ Batman (Volume 2) #35
- ↑ Batman (Volume 2) #36
- ↑ Batman & Robin Eternal #14
- ↑ Batman #456