Welcome to another special edition of Adventure(s) Time, where we look back on animated heroes of the past. This week, I'll address a question posed by a few readers. Why couldn't the Scarecrow keep a consistent look on Batman: The Animated Series? And is there a lost story behind his most drastic makeover?

Let's Go Back To...The Super Friends?

Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Scarecrow debuted all the way back in World's Finest Comics #3 (Fall 1941). Although he never appeared in the famous Adam West television series, he was included in the popular Superfriends cartoon. In fact, the Superfriends spinoff, Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians has Scarecrow at the center of a memorable episode. "The Fear" was the first outside media retelling of Batman's origin. Its writer, Alan Burnett, hoped the episode might lead to a more mature Batman series, more true to the comics. This didn't happen, unfortunately. (But years later, the episode played a part in Burnett joining Batman: The Animated Series.)

Production on Batman began with the producers determined to use as many classic villains as possible. Scarecrow was one of the first selected, debuting in the episode "Nothing to Fear."

What distinction does "Nothing to Fear" hold? For featuring an utterly bland, not frightening in any way rendition of the Scarecrow. Producer Bruce Timm reportedly hated the look so much, he immediately went back to his drawing board to redesign Scarecrow. This made Scarecrow the only character to become redesigned during the initial Batman run.

Now Scarier...With Straw!

The result of Timm's tinkering debuted in "Fear of Victory." This Scarecrow dropped the impossibly mangled anatomy of the original design, in addition to the simple sack covering his face. The new Scarecrow bulked up a bit, with added detail on his mask and a mane of straw-hair. A more distinctive look, animated quite well by Japanese studio TMS in his debut. But...was he that frightening?

After going off the air for two years, the fledgling WB! Network revived the show as The New Batman Adventures in 1997. Every character received a redesign for the show. (Largely to make the show consistent with its sister series, Superman: The Animated Series.) Many models stayed essentially the same, only with more angular lines and simplified looks. The Scarecrow, however, underwent what could've been the most drastic redesign of the series.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Scarecrow%27s%20Texas%20Chainsaw%20Massacre%20Phase']

The "ReAnimated" Scarecrow

Initially voiced by character actor Henry Polic II with a timorous British accent, the producers brought in horror film vet Jeffrey Combs to give Scarecrow a creepier tone. Matching that voice was a horrific design. (One Timm acknowledges bears some resemblance to Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies.) As producer Paul Dini has jokingly described in the past, the original Scarecrow was "always something not too quite scary." The new Scarecrow's creepy makeover includes a shadowy, deformed face, western preacher ensemble, and hangman's noose necktie. And this look has enjoyed great influence. Most renditions of Scarecrow borrow at least something from it. That noose-necktie has become rather popular with artists.

The revamped Batman wasn't concerned with providing origins for the new looks of its cast, leaving tie-in comics with a perfect opportunity to fill the gap. Ty Templeton, who wrote around a third of the Adventures canon, had a story in mind for how the Scarecrow so radically changed. He was gracious enough to explain the following:

Basically, my Scarecrow bit was that Crane had been found guilty of a murder and was sentenced to be hanged (by some state that still had hanging on its books as a method of capital punishment, even though, yes, there were not any states left doing that...). During the execution, the rope snapped, and Crane survived. He escaped shortly after the botched attempt, and from that moment forward, wore the noose around his neck as a symbol of his (nutty) belief that he couldn't be killed.

Unfortunately, Ty left the Gotham Adventures comic before he could address this mystery. Would fans ever experience the lost origin of Scarecrow's new look?  Well, decades later, an answer was given...

The World's Most Fearsome Merchandising Machine

In 2016, DC and IDW joined forces to publish Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. The miniseries, by Matthew K. Manning and Jon Sommariva, was intended for five issues. Ultimately, six were ordered. Manning had the inspiration to set the final issue years after the previous five, taking advantage of the New Adventures era of Batman.

In previous issues, the Scarecrow found himself traveling to the Turtles' dimension. On his way home, he encountered Dimension X and the fearsome aliens of the Kraang. Returning to Arkham Asylum, the villain had a new resolve -- a scarier look that could protect him from these alien invaders. So, the final page of #5 brings us...

As Manning explained in an interview with the Dark Knight News website:

But since our original story had concluded, we needed another starting point. That’s why we jump to the The New Batman Adventures style with issue #6. It was to set it apart from the rest of the series and make it special at the same time. I went back to issue #5 and added the Scarecrow epilogue to help tease issue #6, so the readers would know there was more to come and that we might just get to see these Kraang aliens after all…

So, nearly twenty years later, in the pages of an intercompany crossover, fans finally received their answer. Who could've guessed it involved a successfully rebranded Ninja Turtles franchise?

That’s all for now. If you have any episodes of an animated series you’d like to see covered, just leave a comment or contact me on Twitter.