DC Comics and Batman: Fear State Alpha #1 Spoilers and Review follows.
It Has ALL Been Building To THIS!
The book has a few more variant covers below on top of the above.
Plus the main cover.
Months ago, Simon Saint head of the Magistrate Program met with Dr. Jonathan Crane aka the Scarecrow in Arkham Asylum intrigued by his ideas on how to evolve society through fear.
Looks like the aftereffects of the Joker War…
…provided the perfect time to establish the Fear State…
…the Scarecrow will need more than his usual gas, but the technology of the Mad Hatter and full credit for what happens next.
We then pivot to modern day where…
…the Scarecrow holds Batman captive as he lights the match on Fear State.
We then get a recap for readers on who Gotham City believes the Magistrate Program’s Peacekeeper-01 is…
…while he struggles with Scarecrow fear gas and…
…Scarecrow’s ship hovers above Gotham City?!
Elsewhere, Simon Saint, despite kicking of these events with or for the Scarecrow, perhaps as a way to make his Magistrate Program peacekeeping effort more vital to Gotham City, has plans to takeout both the Scarecrow and Peacekeeper-01?!
We also hear Simon Saint talk about needing the Magistrate Program for the Future State as Gotham City Police Commissioner Renee Montoya aka a one-time Question chooses not to support Mayor Nakano’s directive to cooperate with Simon Saint.
Elsewhere, the Batman Family is connected by Barbara Gordan aka Oracle and a one-time Batgirl as…
…as here Oracle persona is co-opted to…
…to help incite the Fear State by in part telling Gotham City that Batman is dead…
…all initiated by an “anti-Oracle” rumored to be called the Seer.
We also see some of the recent new additions to Gotham City, e.g. Ghost-Maker and Gardener, alongside Harley Queen plead with Queen Ivy for help, who will only offer asylum, but…
…who then is the Poison Ivy that Catwoman is helping if not Queen Ivy?!
Looks like Jace Fox aka Next Batman from the I Am Batman series will also take part in the efforts to stop the Fear State.
The book ends with Batman escaping Scarecrow as Fear State kicks off.
The Pulse:
Great art and compelling story. I hate multi-part events nowadays, but will read by regular Barman Family series and the Alpha and Omega issues and that’s it. Hopefully it will still all make sense. A lot going on in this issue. 8 out of 10.
