Batman: Fear State: Alpha #1

Batman: Fear State: Alpha #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by James Tynion IV

Illustrated by Riccardo Federici

Coloured by Chris Sotomayor

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

The event over a year in the making begins Fear State settles upon Gotham City, and no one is safe! Overwhelmed by the dual threat of the Scarecrow and Peacekeeper-01, Batman and his allies have been one step behind since the events of Infinite Frontier #0 and with the arrival of a mysterious anti-Oracle and the return of Poison Ivy, Batman might have more than he can handle!

Working with DC has allowed me to read a lot more books from them than I’d be able to on my own. Now it is no secret that Fear State: Gotham is one of those titles that I fell in love with and that seems to get its start with this right here. With James The Fourth writing this, and his imminent departure on the horizon, I knew I had to give this a thorough once over, or twice heck even thrice over. I still don’t agree with the new syringes for fingers on the Scarecrow that seemed like the most arbitrary thing to have happened, now Dr. Crane is one of the most underrated of all Batman’s villains in my humble opinion so it’s way past time for this kind of event to happen. Side note: the Super Friends used him in the Legion of Doom for a reason.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented flawlessly. Now this Magistrate who we know the likes of all too well has plans for the Scarecrow and his plans are set in motion here with the Anti-Oracle, whom I’m guessing is the Calculator. This is the beginning of one of the more devastating upheavals to Gotham City we’ll ever see, hopefully.

The way that this is being structured and how we see the layers emerge, grow and evolve is really magnificent to see. It is within these layers that we see various avenues open up and while some will be explored and others will not, what they all do is add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

I am in love with the interior artwork and I'm even more impressed with the fact that one artistic team has done the entire book. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised throughout the book to shine a spotlight on the attention to detail that we see is mindbogglingly brilliant. We do get some really nice backgrounds being utilised throughout as well. They enhance and expand the moments as well as work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a brilliant eye for how colour works and how to maximise their effects.

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I know that the events we see are the machinations of the Magistrate, whom Montoya distrusts immensely, but without the Scarecrow none of this would be able to happen. I was really hoping that we’d get a chance to see him unleash his mad scientist brilliance upon Batman and the denizens of Gotham in a way that made even the rogues gallery tremble in fear. What this issue does is engage the readers’ minds in such a way that is fresh, exciting and full of what if moments. Thanks to the sensational writing and utterly zestful characterisation wrapped up in the sublime interiors really show that Bats has the DC Spotlight for a reason, his rogues gallery is unparalleled in comics.