DC Comics reviews 9/7/21 – Batman #112, Infinite Frontier #6

Batman #116

Fear State kicks off in a weird manner this issue with the first nine pages carrying over from Fear State: Alpha #1. That was a curious move as it seems unlikely that most DC Batman readers would have skipped that issue. With the redundant material out of the way writer James Tynion IV gets back to work setting up this new conflict with Simon Saint setting up the Peacekeepers to take out the rogue Peacekeeper-01, Batman trying to recover from Scarecrow’s mental attack and rallying the troops for the next salvo.

Tynion still hasn’t explained how exactly Scarecrow captured Batman in the first place, which feels like a key component of the story that was ignored. It was nice to see some of the new additions like Ghost Maker and The Gardener playing a role although it felt odd that the rest of the Bat Family hadn’t responded. Oracle also spent a decent amount of time explaining the Anti-Oracle. That’s probably the least creative name Tynion has given for a new character so hopefully that’s just the workshop name until the character actually reveals themselves.

Jorge Jimenez’s art continues to be full of vibrant energy and life with dramatic panel layouts and creative perspectives of characters. This issue was light on action, but Jimenez still made it look exciting. Tomeu Morey’s rich colors further accentuated the dynamic artwork.

In a lot of ways this felt like a retread of what Tynion has already established. Fear State is off to a slow start, but there’s enough moving pieces that this should be the final prelude before the mini-event really gets going.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10