SCARECROW

 

SCARECROW

Real Name: Ebenezer Laughton

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense (Vol. 1) #51, March 1964

Powers: Ebenezer Laughton incessantly trained himself during his adolescence to have the agility of a professional contortionist, to be able to escape from conventional locks and chains, and to perform a complicated series of various acrobatic stunts. He is also masterfully adept at training and handling birds. He has trained a murder of crows to respond to his physical and verbal commands. The crows would attack, herd, steal, defend, or whatever, depending on how he points, the tone of his voice, pre-trained responses to certain situations, among other signals.

Laughton was later impaled on his pitchfork weapon by the Ghost Rider and then agents of the bio-tech company, the Firm, obtained his body. Doctors employed by the Firm gave Laughton surgical implants which granted him superhuman powers. From then on, his body produced a mutated pheromone that affected the adrenal glands of people and higher animals (even crows) within 20 feet of him. This caused a sensory overload which triggered panic attacks.

The same pheromone affects the Scarecrow's own adrenal system, giving superhuman stamina and strength (Class 10). Through the same means, the Scarecrow can survive and recover from various injuries that would be fatal to non-human beings.

During his time as a disembodied spirit, Scarecrow could resurrect the dead and possess the living bodies of others, the latter apparently on if first rendered unconscious. A body possessed was resistant to possession by other spirits. He could sense what his targets feared the most and could make them hallucinate that fear.

The Scarecrow is a dangerous sociopath and a sadistic killer. He is guided by fear, often trying to frighten others and then release their fear by tearing them open; he sometimes sees people's bodies as packages to unwrap. In some of his mental states, he's been virtually fearless and highly resistant to pain, while in others he's been afraid of being harmed, causing him to lapse back to memories of childhood beatings. While in his former state, he proved immune to the Ghost Rider's Penance Stare, as he felt neither guilt for his actions nor minded the pain he had inflicted on his victims.

The Scarecrow generally wields a pitchfork, his "trusty rusty", which he likes best when it's coated in bodily fluids, like blood. He's used a variety of pitchforks over the years, both commercial and handmade. He previously used a virtually indestructible pitchfork composed of unspecified materials that proved capable of damaging the Ghost Rider's spiritual form. He's occasionally kept prisoners, building them into his "Scared House" base of operations, using their fear to constantly bolster his powers. He once used scarecrow-costumed agents.