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As Scarecrow draws first blood in Fear State, he turns the tables on Oracle through her own connection to Gotham, putting the Bats on the back foot
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Fear State – Alpha #1, on sale now from DC.
After the cataclysmic crossover event “Joker War,” Barbara Gordon opted to step down from her usual superhero role as Batgirl and instead reclaimed the mantle of Oracle. Providing support to Batman and his allies through her vast surveillance network and aptitude for cyber warfare, Oracle is a vital part of the Bat-Family and the never-ending war on crime. However, as Scarecrow kicks off his ambitious plot to break down the Dark Knight and seize control of Gotham City in “Fear State,” he starts by targeting Oracle and using her greatest weapons against her.
Oracle monitors the situation from her usual headquarters in the Clock Tower, overlooking much of Gotham. As the Magistrate takes out all communication in the city, effectively isolating Gotham from the outside world, Oracle decides to use her own communications network to relay to the city’s populace that the Bat-Family is on the case and offer them a measure of reassurance. However, when Oracle taps into the city’s communications systems, Scarecrow reveals the comm blackout was all a feint to gain access to Oracle’s network through Trojan and take over it for himself in Batman: Fear State – Alpha #1 — by James Tynion IV, Riccardo Federici, Chris Sotomayor and Clayton Cowles.
Locked out of her own system, Oracle and her friends can only watch in horror as Scarecrow transits a message across the city through her communications network, tied into the city’s screens, home televisions and mobile phone network. Posing as Oracle, Scarecrow announces that he is on the loose, Batman is dead, and that the very air and water they’ve been consuming for weeks has been laced with fear toxin. As the denizens reel from this series of announcements, the hijacked Oracle network informs them to only trust themselves and their loved ones and get ready to go to war, closing out his broadcast by self-destructing Oracle’s supercomputer so she can’t undo his message.
With Oracle effectively taken off the board so early, the Bat Family’s resident tech expert is largely without her signature tech, leaving the heroes cut off from one another and without Oracle’s eye in the sky support. Worse than that, the city now stands in complete panic, ready to turn on each other and take on the Magistrate system that Scarecrow’s benefactor Simon Saint intended to use to steer the course of the city. And while Scarecrow may be bluffing about lacing the water supply and air systems with fear toxin instead of his new mind control tech, his message through Oracle’s network may be more than enough for him to succeed.
Future State teased a world where Gotham had become a cyberpunk police state, with a vast surveillance network overseen by the Magistrate ruling over the city with an iron fist. “Fear State” suggests the foundation of this surveillance system was Oracle’s own network, seized and twisted towards nefarious ends against the very people that created it. Oracle is now without her greatest weapon but remains determined as ever to defuse the situation before it gets worse. As it currently stands though, Scarecrow remains in complete command of the situation as “Fear State” unfolds.
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