By [ad_1]
Batman just saw one of his newest enemies usurp a longstanding threat to become Gotham’s newest possible destroyer.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman #116, on sale now
Batman’s rogue’s gallery features some of the most iconic villains in superhero comics, bar none. Even outside of the top tier villains that make up the more iconic figures from across DC, there are compelling and complex bad guys who’ve all tried to bring about the end of the Dark Knight and Gotham City. But one of Batman’s most consistent enemies may have gotten himself killed in his latest attempt to take it to another level.
Batman #116 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles sees the Scarecrow’s plans upended by a surprising player from the course of Fear State — and it might end up costing the Scarecrow his life.
Fear State has been a major attempt by Scarecrow to finally break Gotham City once and for all. Jonathan Crane has long sought to force Gotham to transform itself through the power of fear, making so terrified of the current situation in the city that they’d embrace the Magistrate — at which point he overtook got loose of Simon Saint and transformed the Magistrate into a force of chaos. Since then, Gotham has increasingly become a battlefield: Peacekeeper-01 has been revealed to be incredibly violent and unstable due to Scarecrow’s influence, Seer is manipulating the city in disguise as Oracle, and the Bat-Family and their allies are left scrambling to stay ahead of the chaos.
Luckily, Batman has some new allies in this conflict, including Miracle Molly of the Unsanity Collective. A brilliant inventor, she’s one of the major figures with the group and is smart enough to contend with the creations of Crane. Although her technology is easy for Scarecrow to crack and target her, she’s also intelligent enough to counter his own when she gets close enough. Batman and Miracle Molly just need an opening to cut in before Scarecrow can use his Mad Hatter modified technology to attack their minds directly before he can further activate it. But mid-speech, Scarecrow’s plans come crumbling down due to the intervention of Sean Mahoney — Peacekeeper-01, who shoots Scarecrow blank in the chest and leaves him bleeding out on the ground.
Horrifically scarred mentally due to Scarecrow, Peacekeeper-01 has seemingly committed to his cruel outlook on life and decided he’s going to save Gotham his way. This includes bringing lethal intent to the fight and quickly turns his attention to Batman while Miracle Molly rushes over to the severely wounded villain in an attempt to stop Scarecrow’s plans from entering their endgame. It’s a brutal moment and seems to wholly catch the Scarecrow by complete surprise. Despite being a major Bat-Foe, Scarecrow has never truly been on the level of someone like the Joker or even the Riddler, who had previously terrorized all of Gotham in events like Joker War and Zero Year. Fear State was a serious chance for Scarecrow to cement his place in the Bat-Pantheon, and he’s certainly been a huge impact on the city.
But it’s also kind of fitting that the frail Crane, who often targets the mind but has little response in the firmly physical world, could be upended so completely by his enemies. He even specifically mentions this is one time Batman won’t just pummel him into defeat this time, only to be brought low by an even more ruthless figure. Just like that, Peacekeeper-01 has set himself up as the ultimate antagonist of Fear State, moving into the spotlight just before the event of the event promises to leave behind a radically different Gotham City.
About The Author
[ad_2]
