Do you know what the number 1 fear is? Not death. Death is only #2. #1 is public speaking. Do you know what this means? At a funeral, more people would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy. Do you think the corpse ever looks up and says “At least I’m not that guy?” — An old Jerry Seinfeld joke

As I’m sure you all know, I adopted my pseudonym “Scarecrow” from my favorite villain in the Batman universe. But not a lot of people know about this Scarecrow. Dr. Jonathan Crane was a professor of psychology at Gotham State University. A lot of his colleagues were put off with his unnatural obsession with fear. He would get an almost perverse thrill from making people live out their darkest fears, and then documenting the reactions. It wasn’t long before Dr. Crane developed a fear toxin, making people’s fears come to life in frighteningly-real hallucinations. It wasn’t long before his methods raised the ire of the administration, and he was soon booted off the campus, his funding cut. Not being able to continue with his research, Dr. Crane snapped. He donned the guise of the physical incarnation of complete terror — the Scarecrow — and set about robbing from banks to fund his research, and using the innocent people of Gotham as his subjects. Of course, he soon ran up against Batman. Unlike most villains, who seek to kill Batman, the Scarecrow’s delight would be seeing Batman curled up in the fetal position, scared out of his mind. I bring this up because I’m a person filled with irrational fear.
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