Fear State

"Fear State"
Publisher	DC Comics
Publication date	August – October 2021
Genre	Superhero
Main character(s)	Batman Scarecrow Dick Grayson Harley Quinn
Creative team
Writer(s)	James Tynion IV
Artist(s)	Jorge Jimenez, Ricardo Federici
Penciller(s)	Greg Capullo
Inker(s)	Danny Miki
Letterer(s)	Steve Wands
Colorist(s)	FCO Plascencia
Editor(s)	Mark Doyle

"Fear State" is a comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics in late 2021, featuring Batman and his family. Primarily written by James Tynion IV, the arc is his second major arc on Batman in DC Rebirth. The main story was from Batman (vol. 3) #112–117, also including multiple tie-in issues.

The story involves Scarecrow wanting to control Gotham City using fear, and Mayor Christopher Nakano’s mission to protect the city with his ground-breaking deal with the Magistrate (similar to an alternate future in Future State). This story introduces new characters Miracle Molly and Ghost-Maker and debuts Jace Fox as Batman.

Publication history

In May 2021, DC Comics announced to release "Fear State" to bridge the gap between "Future State" and Infinite Frontier. In this story, the new Gotham City mayor Christopher Nakano has made a deal with the devil to enact a draconian anti-vigilante law enforcement agenda with a shadowy organization known as The Magistrate. This story also features the introduction of Jace Fox as the Next Batman.

Plot

Prologue

After the events of Dark Nights: Death Metal, Wonder Woman meets up with the Quintessence (Ganthet, Hera, Highfather, Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, The Wizard) for an open position. While observing, she sees Bane killed by Joker toxin, and Barbara Gordon being Oracle again due to her spine implant while letting Cassandra Cain, Huntress, and Stephanie Brown take her role as Batgirl. A police officer name Sean Mahoney is gravely injured after saving a couple of nurses, Grifter needs Jace Fox (the brother of Batwing)'s help and it is revealed that there is a new villain name Simon Saint who is working with Scarecrow to negotiate with the new Gotham City Mayor Christopher Nakano.

Batman, Ghostmaker, and Harley Quinn take down criminals who are a part of a group called the Unsanity Collective but it results in collateral damage. Simon Saint meets up with the Mayor Nakano to advertise him The Magistrate (Peacekeepers who will stop crime before it happens as seen in Future State). After a few days, Scarecrows was presumed dead in the Arkham attack and Gotham City are being afraid due to multiple events that have happened in this city. Barbara Gordon tells him that the Unsanity Criminals have a leader name Master Wyze who wants to reboot Gotham City to get rid of their trauma and create a better future. Batman decides to meet up with the leader of the Unsanity by using a disguise.

During a ceremony to honor Sean Mahoney's heroics, Oracle spots Scarecrow. Meanwhile, Batman meets up with Miracle Molly, the leader of the Unsanity Collective, where she tells Batman she believes that the current society is a broken system and wants a society where people can help each other using tehcnology, revealing that everyone in the Collective had their memory wiped. Miracle Molly reveals she knows that she's talking to Batman, and tells him that Simon Saint was the one who hired Unsanity to attack. Simon Saint convinces Sean Mahoney to be part of the Magistrate after showing his assistant Ricardo has cybernetic augmentation to compensate his missing limbs. Ghostmaker and Harley Quinn bond while sparring when they are interrupted by Bella Garten, a roommate of Poison Ivy who wants to know where Poison Ivy is. Batman confronts Simon Saint but he is attacked by Peacekeeper-01 (Sean Mahoney in a cybernetic body).

Mayor Nakano finally agrees to leak the idea of the Magistrate to the public, and communications are down so Oracle calls in the rest of the Bat-Family to help. While fighting, Mahoney reveals that Gotham City is afraid because everyone knows about the Multiverse and the evil versions of superheroes, as well as people disliking how Batman continuously partners with Catwoman and Harley Quinn. Batman successfully escapes Mahoney and is saved by Harley and Ghostmaker. Harley reveals that Mahoney was an abusive Arkham guard who needs to be stopped, and Peacekeeper finds Miracle Molly. Batman, Harley Quinn and Ghostmaker save Miracle Molly, with Batman putting a tracking device on Peacekeeper-01's armor realizing he's heading toward Arkham Aslyum. Mayor Nakano allows the Magistrate to operate in Gotham, but Scarecrow renegades on his deal with Simon Saint and infects Peacekeeper-01 with his fear toxin before capturing Batman.

Issues involved

Title	Issues	Release date	Writer	Artist(s)	Colorist
Batman: Fear State Alpha	#1	August 2021	James Tynion IV	Riccardo Federici	TBA
Batman: Fear State Omega	#1	November 2021			TBA
Batman (vol. 3)	#112–117	September 2021–November 2021		Jorge Jimenez	TBA
Arkham City: The Order of the World	#1–2	October 2021–November 2021	Dan Watters	Dani	TBA
Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01	#1	October 2021–November 2021	James Tynion IV Ed Brisson	Joshua Hixson	TBA
Batman Secret Files: The Gardener	#1	November 2021	James Tynion IV	Christian Ward	TBA
Batman: Urban Legends	#8–9	October 2021–November 2021	Alyssa Wong Brandon Thomas	Vasco Georgiev Cian Tormey	TBA
Catwoman (vol. 5)	#34–37	August 2021–November 2021	Ram V	Fernando Blanco Nina Vakueva	Jordie Bellaire
Detective Comics (vol. 5)	#1043–1045	September 2021–November 2021	Mariko Tamaki	Dan Mora
Harley Quinn (vol. 4)	#6–9	August 2021–November 2021	Stephanie Phillips	Laura Braga	Ivan Plascencia
I Am Batman	#0–3	August 2021-November 2021	John Ridley	Travel Foreman	Rex Lokus
Nightwing (vol. 4)	#84–86	September 2021–November 2021	Tom Taylor	Robbi Rodriguez	TBA
Task Force Z	#1–2	October 2021–November 2021	Matthew Rosenberg	Eddy Barrows	TBA