Batman: Fear State

DC Comics is once again doing a mega-crossover event.

This time, it is “Fear State”.

Fear State is a horror-themed Gotham City event that unifies plot threads started in DC’s 2021 publishing events, DC Future State and Infinite Frontier. Fear State not only continues the Scarecrow’s vision of a fear-controlled Gotham, but also Mayor Christopher Nakano’s mission to protect the city with his ground-breaking deal with the Magistrate.

Personally, I hated “Future State”.

The Joker War was just the prelude.

Crossover titles include:

• Batman
• Detective Comics
• Nightwing
• Catwoman
• Harley Quinn
• I am Batman
• Batman Urban Legends
• Task Force Z

And the one-shots:

• Batman Fear State Alpha
• Batman Secret Files: Miracle Molly
• Arkham City the Order of the World
• Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01
• Batman Secret Files: The Gardener
• Batman Fear State Omega

#35 Comics in total.

But this turning Gotham City into not just a police state, but a private military-style enforcement zone fully sanctioned by those in authority.

A special fear toxin in the air making everyone fearful that was artificially created and released deliberately… (sounds too familiar to real life right now).

While this taking of a previous super-villain and pushing their levels up exponentially to make a scary super-villain (just like they did with Eclipso in 1992’s mini-series “Darkness Within”).  I liked how they used the Annuals as the means of doing the crossovers that effected every DC superhero.

So this move to make The Scarecrow at the apex of his power to finally get the knowledge he has been after since his beginning, while not original, does bring another super-villain up a notch in power/influence.

But this having to get some titles I have no interest in getting (especially at retail price), is not something I like at all.  Never have.

So while I enjoy the Scarecrow angle, I HATE the Magistrate part.

I just think DC Comics has gone over board with the mega-crossovers recently, and are pushing them too often.

And their rebooting too!

The New 52 = Rebirth = Infinite Frontiers… has been too often too quickly.

I hate the 5G initiative (I dropped the superboy(man) son of kal-el, I dropped the Aquaman The Becoming, I won’t touch Yara Flor Wonder Woman, etc.)

And the cost of the comics don’t help either.

And that is before the Black Label “More mature/adult” content.

I fear for the state of the Comic Book Industry.

They want new/more readers, but their new target audience does not care for comic books.

They are alienating their long term customers.

Their parent corporate owners don’t like publishing something with the lowest return on investments of their divisions/portfolios.