While Batman’s debut in Gotham City coincided with the League of Shadows’ attack in Batman Begins, Scarecrow actually helped the Dark Knight and his legacy. Played by Christian Bale, Bruce Wayne’s legend as Batman started in Gotham after he successfully took down Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) and Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy). However, the idea of a man dressing up as a bat and striking fear into the hearts of criminals might not have worked if not for Doctor Jonathan Crane.
Directed by Christopher Nolan, Batman Begins creates a very real and grounded version of Gotham City, a tone and sense of realism that would continue with The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Likewise, the creation of the Batman symbol and its power needed to be just as grounded. Although the classic Batman line from the comics is that “criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot”, Nolan explored what that actually looked like concerning how the Dark Knight became a figure of superstition to be feared. To that end, a big reason why Batman became so frightening was thanks to Doctor Crane, aka Scarecrow.
Bruce Wayne Created The Batman To Be A Symbol Of Fear
As Bruce Wayne explains in Batman Begins when Alfred (Michael Caine) asks him why he chose bats, Bruce admits that bats have always frightened him, and he wants Gotham’s criminals to feel the same way: “It’s time my enemies shared my dread”. Whether it’s the comics, the Dark Knight trilogy, or any other version of the Caped Crusader, fear has always been Batman’s greatest tool. By keeping criminals scared of him, he can mitigate their motivation to commit more crimes, while also making his job easier when facing them at night in the streets of Gotham.
However, Christian Bale’s Batman didn’t become a figure to be feared simply because he dressed like a bat. Although his resources and training from the League of Shadows helped him employ intimidation tactics and theatrics to make himself appear to be more than a mere man, Nolan went further with Batman’s legend. Thanks to Scarecrow and his fear toxin developed for the League of Shadows’ Ra’s al Ghul, the Dark Knight was transformed into an objectively frightening figure to the vast majority of Gotham’s worst criminals.
Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin Helped Cement Batman As A Legend
After the League dumped Scarecrow’s fear toxin into the water supply and then vaporized it with a microwave emitter, the Narrows and Gotham’s Arkham Asylum were the first parts of the city to be hit by the aerosolized hallucinogenic. Seeking to stop Ra’s and the emitter from reaching Wayne Tower, which would spread the toxin over the whole city, Batman glided over the Narrows and was seen by all of Arkham’s inmates who’d been freed in the chaos. As such, all of Gotham’s worst criminals and psychopaths were affected by the fear toxin and saw the Dark Knight as a literal bat-monster with fangs, glowing eyes, and actual wings.
It stands to reason that rumors and myths of this frightening creature spread among Gotham’s superstitious and cowardly criminals in the aftermath, supporting the legend and symbol Bruce Wayne desired by creating Batman in the first place. While Wayne might have forged the legend on his own over time, Scarecrow’s toxin inadvertently cemented the legacy during Batman’s debut in Gotham, ensuring that the Dark Knight would be a symbol of fear to Gotham’s criminals as well as justice to its innocents following Batman Begins, the first chapter of the Dark Knight trilogy.
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