The Magistrate’s latest plan has also gone awry and their response may have pushed Gotham City past the point of no return here in future state.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Batman #114 on sale now from DC Comics.
The fear state has only just begun and already massive destruction has come to Gotham City. Simon Saint’s desperation to regain control of Peacekeeper-01 led to a battle between cybernetic titans that ended with a massive explosion consuming at least a block of the city and almost certainly guaranteeing civilian deaths. With this act, Gotham may be pushed fully into the terror that Scarecrow has been driving everyone towards for the better part of a year and completes the cycles of devastating attacks that usually rock the city before throwing it headlong to yet another major attack.
With Peacekeeper-01 compromised due to the Scarecrow’s fear toxin in Batman #114 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey and Clayton Cowles, Simon Saint rashly authorized the use of Peacekeeper-X, a secret failsafe program in the even that a Peacekeeper went rogue. His assistant, Ricardo, was outfitted with even more advanced tech, fit or a warzone and not an urban setting. Saint believed this would be enough to bring in Peacekeeper-01, but he was merely making the same mistake, but this time taking it to its utmost extreme.
The battle between the two peacekeepers resulted in Ricardo being authorized to use his full arsenal. While Batman was battling the Magistrate’s army of robots, he got a glimpse of the destructive power Peacekeeper-X had at his disposal when he used a weapon known as a light cannon that easily punched a hole through a building.
But that same weapon would prove to be Ricardo’s undoing. Peacekeeper-01, in a frenzy, destroyed the cannon before proceeding to beat Ricardo to death. With no failsafe, Saint authorized the detonation of not only Ricardo’s armor, but all the robots fighting Batman. The resulting explosion leveled a city block and undoubtedly triggered the fear state to go into full swing.
This act of destruction is only the opening salvo, but it ensures that what the city has been afraid of for months is about to come true: another major villain attack has begun. Before, Gotham was only descending into chaos, but it was coming from its citizens who were beginning to panic. Scarecrow’s machinations had pushed them to the point of frenzy over their fear of an attack. But a massive explosion like this will only confirm that their fears are valid and that they should continue to do whatever they deem necessary to survive.
It also completes the cycle of the opening event of each major villain attack like “City of Bane” or the “Joker War.” Heavy damage is inflicted upon the city and Gotham is turned into a warzone as villains and heroes alike clash for the soul of Gotham. Only in this scenario, it seems that Scarecrow has already won the war before the battle even started. It will be Gotham’s people, the ordinary citizens, who cause the majority of the chaos in the wake of this attack. And it might be the final nail in the coffin, sealing the city’s future state.
If the citizens go into a frenzy because they are so scared for their lives that they’d disobey, then they’d be in the perfect position for the Magistrate to strike in the aftermath. Assuming the organization can somehow avoid their dirty laundry being aired by Batman and retain some legal authority once the fear state passes, Gotham might be so traumatized in the aftermath that they may very well beg for the Magistrate to take full control of the city.
Right now it is absolute chaos. Gotham has no way of calling for help from the outside world or even keeping in touch with each other. Batman is two steps behind and the Magistrate has been abusing Gotham’s trust right under their noses long before Mayor Nakano authorized them. But if they feel scared enough, they may trade their freedom for the absolute order that the Magistrate could potentially bring years from now.
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