Review – Batman: Fear State Alpha #1
Review – Batman: Fear State Alpha #1
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Riccardo Federici
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: September 1, 2021
Variant Cover Artists: Francesco Mattina, Jason Fabok, Jorge Jimenez, Dylan Teague, Natali Sanders, Nathan Szerdy, Kael Ngu, Ejikure, Ivan Tao, Megan Hutchison-Cates
Issue 1
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!?
Writer: James Tynion IV
This is a “Previously on Blossom” style issue, with every few pages jumping from previous or current storylines to allow the readers to get up to date before the event fully begins. Crane and Saint meet in Gotham to plot out the theory and execution of a Fear State, a theoretical model where a population evolve due to controlled fear outcomes.
We then jump through each of the current titles such as Batman, Catwoman etc.. to set up each of the main characters for the main arc. Narration is way too heavy for the comic and the editor seems to have forgotten crib notes allowing readers to find the previous issues mentioned as we go along. This is comics 101, where a previous story or plot is mentioned to help the readers with notes.
Tynion’s reign at Batman has helped turn the title around but like all long games, it’s very hard to see the benefit of joining the issues now when years worth of story and development have led to this. This could either be the most amazing thing to happen to Batman in years or another Crisis style event that annoys readers with useless plots and characters.
Artist: Riccardo Federici
Federici creates a thick and heavy world here and again for the new reader this is a confusing and narrative-heavy issue where some of the artwork is hidden behind Tynion’s narration meaning that some pages are almost lost on the creative front. The Queen Ivy pages are probably the highest point of the issue.
Overall Thoughts
As a setup issue, this issue probably needed its own setup issue to give respect to the myriad of plots, characters and McGuffins that the event will bring into play. This issue will fill casual readers with horror at the complexity in which a relatively simple, “bad guy takes over the town” story occurs.
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