As Scarecrow prepares Gotham City’s “Fear State,” Batman discovers that his best line of defense is obsolete in his Free Comic Book Day special.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Fear State Free Comic Book Day Special #1, available now.
Ever since the start of the Infinite Frontier era, Batman and his usual allies have found themselves on the defensive as Gotham City moves closer to its dystopian vision teased during Future State. Largely blamed for the fiery fallout from the crossover event “Joker War,” the police force and city have turned against the Bat-Family, while Scarecrow quietly maneuvers himself into power to plunge the city into what will unfold in the upcoming crossover “Fear State.”
And with the Dark Knight and Scarecrow poised to engage one another in an epic showdown with the fate of Gotham hanging in the balance, the Caped Crusader has just lost his most valuable tool to withstand the Scarecrow ahead of their big battle.
The Batman: Fear State Free Comic Book Day special by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey and Clayton Cowles has Bruce Wayne drugged out of his mind by what he assumes are the Scarecrow’s usual brand of potent psychotropic hallucinogens. As Batman struggles to stay sane, plagued by visions of his worst fears vividly realized, he manages to make it back to the Batmobile where he has a supply of the antitoxin developed specifically to nullify the effects of Scarecrow’s usual fear-generating cocktail. However, after Batman administers the serum, he is horrified to discover that the antidote has no apparent effect on relieving the Scarecrow’s toxins as the supervillain himself appears to taunt him, leaving the Caped Crusader shaken and realizing the full extent of the threat that now faces him.
Historically, whenever the Scarecrow doses his victims with his fear toxins, either in the form of an inhalant or serum administered directly to the bloodstream, Batman and his allies are able to rely on a fast-acting antitoxin that quickly purges the serum’s effects to induce terror-tinged hallucinations. Some variations of Scarecrow toxin are seen to eventually lapse over time, as seen during Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s “Hush,” while others will continue to affect victims for months following the initial dose, as seen in Loeb and Tim Sale’s Dark Victory. This time around, Batman speculates that the antitoxin is ineffective because the Scarecrow is using an experimental mind-control technology rather than his usual toxin-based methodology.
With Batman having nothing to protect him from the Scarecrow’s advanced hallucinogenic tactics, the Dark Knight admits that he is unable to trust anything that he sees. More troublingly, Batman suspects that his very mind has been compromised by the Scarecrow, with all of his secrets now vulnerable to his longtime supervillain. And as Batman races into an uncertain future, it’s clear that the entire Bat-Family is now similarly vulnerable to the Scarecrow’s new technology, unable to trust their instincts as they face a gauntlet of their worst fears brought to life.
With Gotham still picking up the pieces from “Joker War,” the entire city is now at the mercy of Scarecrow and his plot to plunge Gotham and its defenders into uncontrollable terror. And while Batman has usually been able to shrug off the Scarecrow’s greatest weapon with his antidote, making the usual hallucinations as little more than a scary inconvenience, this time he won’t have anything to protect him from the fear this time around, meaning the Bat-Family faces a nightmare with no end in sight as their showdown with Scarecrow truly begins.
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