In Batman: Fear State – Alpha, a new force has taken control of Gotham City and is using the Joker’s best tactic to increase their power.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Fear State – Alpha #1, on sale now from DC.
One of Batman’s major Future State villains, the Magistrate, is working with Scarecrow to drive Gotham into a state of widespread fear, and they are using a classic Joker tactic to pull it off. The Magistrate is a private paramilitary police force founded by billionaire tech industrialist Simon Saint. While they are a fairly new organization, Saint’s Magistrate are quickly becoming one of the most terrifyingly powerful groups in Gotham.
Now, Saint is using one of the Joker’s oldest tricks to gain even more power. He is making the people of Gotham afraid for their safety so they will turn to him to save them, even as he causes the very problems they fear. And all he needs is control of the media, as seen in Batman: Fear State – Alpha #1 (by James Tynion IV, Riccardo Federici, Chris Sotomayor and Clayton Cowles).
Saint is a Silicon Valley billionaire who made his fortune in technology. He visited Scarecrow in Arkham Asylum and spoke to the psychologist-turned-supervillain about his graduate thesis on the concept of a “fear state,” or as the comic describes it, “a way to help a society evolve by delivering a tremendous shock to its system.” However, there is a serious problem the two are both aware of: implementing such widespread shock is no easy matter.
The two take advantage of the events of the recent Joker War, in which Gotham’s Clown Prince stole Batman’s family fortune and his entire arsenal of paramilitary hardware and used them to cause havoc in the city. In the wake of the widespread terror, Simon Saint used his wealth to fund a massive media campaign that exploited people’s trauma. With the help of major news outlets, he stoked people’s fears and caused them to distrust the city’s police even more than they already did. In response, they looked elsewhere for security and protection, turning to his newly-formed paramilitary police, the Magistrate.
The irony here is that the Joker not only caused the circumstances that Saint took advantage of, but he has also used the exact same tactic. When he first appeared in Batman #1 (by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson), Joker hijacked the radio waves to announce his plans to kill a rich man named Henry Coleridge and steal his prized diamond. From the very beginning, Joker spread fear by broadcasting his threats, then taking advantage of the chaos caused when he carried them out. He would continue to use this same tactic over and over again throughout the years.
One of the most famous examples of this is in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Christmas with the Joker,” in which he takes over a TV network, holds three high-profile people hostage, then broadcasts a live program onto all the TV networks where he vows to kill the hostages if Batman does not stop him before midnight. More recently, the 2019 film Joker climaxed with the villain appearing on a popular talk show hosted by Murray Franklin, who Joker murdered on live TV. This attack came after a powerful monologue, which combined to stoke citywide riots.
Admittedly, there is a difference between the Joker taking over a media network by force and Simon Saint using his money to strong-arm them into spreading his message. However, both villains are still using a type of force to get their way, as using vast sums of wealth and power to push out a message is still coercive. However, Saint does not stop there. He actively seizes control of all communications in Gotham by brute force, hacking into the systems and shutting out both the government and the police. Even as Saint is advocating for the Magistrate to protect Gotham, he is replicating the attacks carried out by its deadliest killer.
About The Author
For all the latest Comics News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
