Batman: Fear State Ending Proves DC’s Future State Was Just a Gimmick

DC Comics’ Future State teased the possibility of a new and different future, but Batman’s Fear State event proved that future is not happening.

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Warning! Spoilers for Batman: Fear State ahead!

While DC Comics’ massive Future State event teased a vastly different future for Gotham City, the conclusion of Batman’s recent Fear State event proves that that’s all it was: a tease. In early 2021, DC’s entire line was replaced for two months with titles under the “Future State” banner. These stories offered glimpses into potential futures of DC’s heroes, with a vast timeline that stretched from five years in the future to a millennia from the present day. Fans got to see new heroes step up to take on the mantles of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in tales that offered the hope of a big shake-up to the DC Universe.

The Batman line of Future State stories saw Gotham City under the control of a paramilitary organization known as the Magistrate. As part of Mayor Christopher Nakano’s anti-mask crusade, the Magistrate was tasked with ridding the city of vigilantes by any means necessary. The Magistrate accomplished this task through the use of advanced surveillance technology and its heavily armored squadron of armored Peacekeepers who hunted vigilantes with lethal force. Batman is believed to be dead, leading Lucius Fox’s son Tim to step in to the role of Gotham’s protector as the Next Batman. Meanwhile, the Bat-Family leads a resistance against the Magistrate’s police state and Red Hood goes undercover, seemingly working for the Magistrate but secretly still taking orders from Batman.

The seeds for the events of Future State were planted in March’s Infinite Frontier #0, which included a Batman story by writer James Tynion IV and artist Jorge Jimenez that sees Arkham Asylum attacked by Joker gas. This event is the catalyst for Nakano to reach out to the Magistrate’s founder, Simon Saint, in order to put a stop to the madness plaguing the city. Unbeknownst to Nakano, Saint is working with Scarecrow, who wants to push Gotham into such an intense state of fear that it is forced to evolve. This year’s Batman comics and the giant Fear State event that took up most of the fall dangled the possibility that this evolution might actually happen. But that hope is dashed in Batman: Fear State Omega, the event’s concluding issue written by Tynion with art by Riccardo Federici, Christian Duce, Ryan Benjamin, Guillem March and Trevor Hairsine. While the Fear State event itself was an entertaining crossover with fun and interesting story beats and gorgeous artwork, it does feel like a little bit of a letdown that the Batman line of comics will not be undergoing as significant and lasting a change as fans might have thought.

Generation Five

Comic book storytelling at DC and Marvel is driven by a concept called the “illusion of change,” where character and titles almost always revert back to their status quo. In early 2020 rumors were swirling about something known as Generation Five, also called the 5G Initiative. Some believed that the initiative was to be a complete relaunch of the entire DC Comics line, one that would see a new generation of heroes take over the classic mantles. While this turned out to be nothing more than rumors, it was an intriguing idea. It raised the possibility that DC would do the unthinkable and actually evolve its line of superhero comics after 80 years of focusing on the same heroes.

Ultimately, what readers got was Future State, which took all of the stories and changes that they could have seen in 5G and told them over the course of two months. Infinite Frontier #0 promised that these stories were not just a one-off. This year’s DC Comics stories have inched the publisher’s titles closer to the events seen in Future State. While the flashforward saw Superman’s son Jonathan Kent take on the mantle of his father, this year’s Superman comics have shown Jonathan starting out on that journey as his father leaves the planet. The Wonder Woman of the future, Yara Flor, has traveled to Brazil and begun training to take on the role of the Amazon warrior. Tim “Jace” Fox has been preparing for his new role as the Next Batman. In addition, the manga-inspired series Future State: Gotham continued the stories first began in Future State.

The Rise of the Magistrate

As DC’s comics returned to the present day in March, the main Batman series by Tynion and Jimenez began to lay the groundwork for the Magistrate to rise to the level of power it enjoyed in Future State. Supplemented with stories taking place across Detective Comics, Batman: Urban Legends, The Next Batman: Second Son as well as Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Nightwing, readers got to see Simon Saint take more control of the city’s security. More was revealed about Scarecrow’s plans, while the corrupt Arkham Asylum guard Sean Mahoney was given cybernetic enhancements to become the deadly Peacekeeper-01 seen leading the boots on the ground against the Bat-Family in Future State. It was the promise of seeing how Future State came to be, which led readers to question: was the future they had glimpsed just a POSSIBLE future, or the ACTUAL future that lay in store for their favorite characters.

Everything really kicked into gear with the start of Fear State in the fall. Crossing over across multiple titles, the event saw the Bat-Family fighting against the Magistrate on multiple fronts. It was here that everything began to unravel. Simon Saint was seen losing control of the Magistrate. Scarecrow’s involvement was exposed. Peacekeeper-01 went off the rails after being exposed to a new form of Fear Toxin. While this was all going on, marketing material from DC Comics promised new stories that would take place after the defeat of Saint and the Magistrate, putting the final nail in the coffin for any hope that this story might actually lead to the grim fate for Gotham glimpsed in Future State.

Cliffhangers and Missed Opportunities

Future State ended on a sort of cliffhanger, with Bruce Wayne seemingly being killed in an explosion while fighting the forces of the Magistrate. There was hope that Fear State would conclude the prologue to events seen in Future State, and that fans might see resolution to this story. However, Fear State instead ends with the Magistrate defeated, Scarecrow and Simon Saint behind bars, Peacekeeper-01 on the loose as a full villain rather than a law enforcement official, and the city’s faith in Batman restored. All possibility of Future State being an actual look at things to come has been removed, and the story is now relegated to being another Elseworlds tale.

Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity is the treatment of Fox’s Batman. Future State held him up as a hero worthy of stepping into the role of Batman. His stories saw him taking an approach different from Bruce Wayne’s and making the role his own, while the Bat-Family and other allies begin to accept his as a legitimate Batman. And while Fear State did see him don a Bat costume and call himself Batman, he has become more like the DC Comics version of Miles Morales’ Spider-Man. He might wear the costume and call himself Batman, but he’s not the REAL Batman. He’s not replacing Bruce Wayne anytime soon. And while his adventures will continue in I Am Batman, solicitation materials reveal that Fox will be leaving Gotham City behind and heading to New York.

Fear State was by no means a poorly-written story, but the possibility of Future State gave it the potential to stand apart from other massive crossover events. After the city was brought to its knees by both Bane and Joker in separate events over the last two years, this could have been different and truly led to actual changes in DC Comics continuity. Instead it was a reminder that the more things change in comics, the more they stay the same. Jace Fox is not going to be the new Batman. Clark Kent will return from space and take the mantle of Superman back from his son. And if Yara Flor does become Wonder Woman at one point, it will be short-lived before Diana resumes the role. Future State raised readers’ hopes that Batman’s comic universe could actually evolve and change, but the reality exemplified by Fear State brought those hopes crashing down again.

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