Fear State
"Fear State" is a comic book crossover storyline published by the comic book publishing company DC Comics in late 2021, featuring Batman and his family. Primarily written by James Tynion IV, the arc is his second and final major arc on Batman in DC Rebirth. The main story was from Batman #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. This story introduces new characters Miracle Molly and Ghost-Maker and debuts Jace Fox as Batman. The crossover event received positive reviews from critics, with critics praising the action, art, and tie-ins, but the main story received criticism for its sluggish pacing.
Publication history
In May 2021, DC Comics announced "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 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 '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, Ghost-maker, 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. After a few days, Scarecrow was presumed dead in the Arkham attack and Gotham City citizens become 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 technology, 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.
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 Asylum. Mayor Nakano allows the Magistrate to operate in Gotham, but Scarecrow reneges on his deal with Simon Saint and infects Peacekeeper-01 with his fear toxin before capturing Batman.
Main plot
In the past, it is revealed that Simon Saint met up with Scarecrow because Scarecrow developed a Fear State Theory, where society can evolve by exposing it to tremendous fear so it can be better. Simon Saint helps free Scarecrow so Simon Saint can control Gotham City's societal evolution and make it better. In the present, Mayor Nakano allows the Magistrate Program full permission to perform police activities in Gotham City, and the recent bombings has made Gotham Citizens nervous. Renee Montoya is not pleased about this, and someone called the Anti-Oracle hijacked Barbara Gordon's computer to spread even more terror and locked Barbara out. Harley Quinn, Miracle Molly, the Unsanity Collective and Ghostmaker follow The Gardener to where Poison Ivy is, where it is revealed that Poison Ivy is feral because a strain of the original Mother Plant has taken control of her and Harley Quinn needs to find Poison Ivy's missing part. Batman escapes from Scarecrow and creates an antidote while Catwoman and Jace Fox observe how the Magistrate is taking over Gotham City. Cassandra Cain subdues Batman while he's distracted from his antidote to Scarecrow's Fear Toxin and he meets up with Barbara Gordon and Stephanie Brown where they bring him up to speed on what is happening. Batman also talks to Ghostmaker and Harley Quinn on what they are doing and realizes that Scarecrow is the true mastermind behind this. Seeing that Sean Mahoney is out of control due to the Fear Toxin, Simon Saint outfits his bodyguard Ricardo Huertas with a new Peacekeeper armor to apprehend Sean Mahoney. Batman tells Renee Montoya about Simon Saint and Scarecrows plans, and takes down Magistrate robots. Batman meets with Ghostmaker and they get a device to get rid of the rest of Scarecrow's fear toxin in Batman's head, with Ghostmaker revealing he met Scarecrow in the past and Scarecrow's plan to make Gotham City better by enacting his Fear State plan. Ricardo Huertas meets with Sean Mahoney and plans to take him down. Ricardo Huertas tries to calm down Sean Mahoney, but it is unsuccessful and Sean Mahoney attacks while under the influence of Scarecrow's Fear Toxin. Batman tries to intervene, but Sean Mahoney causes collateral damage and Ricardo is presumed to be dead. Miracle Molly realizes what Scarecrow is trying to do and goes to Batman to come with her.Poison Ivy heals one of the Unsanity Members, and Master Wyze reveals that before he wiped his memory he was Dormiouse and worked with the Mad Hatter to remove people's trauma by wiping away their memories. Master Wyze wants to use Poison Ivy's powers to remove everyone's memory. While traveling to her hidden bases, Miracle Molly asks Batman why is he not scared, and Batman reveals that he is scared but he stays calm because he knows his allies are capable of saving Gotham City. Miracle Molly tells Batman that the machine used to wipe away people's memories also stores them, and Scarecrow may use her machine to gather a hundred people's trauma, and weaponize it on Gotham City. One of Simon Saint's workers tells Simon Saint that there is plant growth underneath Gotham City, and if Poison Ivy uses her abilities to full extent then Gotham City would be destroyed.
Simon Saint orders his robots to kill Poison Ivy, but Ghostmaker destroys the robots which causes Poison Ivy to freak out and unleash her powers on Gotham City. However, Harley Quinn and the Gardener arrive with another version of Poison Ivy. Batman and Miracle Molly confront Scarecrow, but Scarecrow uses the Unsanity Collective's technology to harm Miracle Molly. Scarecrow reveals he amplified Sean Mahoney's trauma to create a Fear Bomb on Gotham City. Batman tries to destroy the monitors, but Sean Mahoney shoots Scarecrow in the back. Sean Mahoney declares himself as the true hero Gotham City needs since Simon Saint just wants to control Gotham City through Power and Order, while Batman and Scarecrow's fear tactics makes them weak. Batman and Sean Mahoney fight once again, while Miracle Molly tries to get Scarecrow to disarm the fear bomb.
Harley Quinn reveals that after Poison Ivy was sent to the Sanctuary, the Gardener had a feeling that Poison Ivy would die soon so she took a part of Poison Ivy's soul and put it in a seed. The Magistrate tried to take control of the Poison Ivy duplicate, but Catwoman and her group saved the clone of Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy merges with her clone to be fully revived and cured of her feral state, and uses her pheromones to calm the city down and revive one of the Unsanity members before kissing Harley Quinn.
Nightwing, Tim Drake, Spoiler, Barbara Gordon, and Cassandra Cain arrive on the Magistrate's base to confront Simon Saint while Ghostmaker deals with the rest of Simon's robots. After a brutal battle, Batman manages to defeat Peacekeeper-01, but Scarecrow convinces Miracle Molly of her original goal to wipe out Gotham City's memories so they can overcome trauma. Batman manages to convince Miracle Molly to not release the fear toxin by stating that humans are inherently good because when politicians, media and corporations are removed, humans have the ability to overcome anything. Miracle Molly agrees to disarm the bomb, and the Bat Family and Harley Quinn look up at the Bat Signal in the sky as Gotham City slowly recovers.