'Fear State' channels Batman Begins in Batman #113 preview

Man, there's a lot of moving parts in the Batman Family of titles right now.

DC is aggressively expanding the family tree with titles like Robin & Batman, Robins, Batgirls, I Am Batman, and Batman Beyond in the coming months, Batman Unlimited has become a somewhat under-the-radar yet essential Bat-title. And of course, we know James Tynion IV is leaving his post as the monthly Batman series writer, to be replaced by Joshua Williamson in December for an undetermined length of time that'll be no less than a four-issue story arc with artist Jorge Molina.

In the midst of all that is 'Fear State,' the current big crossover event storyline that'll be Tynion's swan song (or his bat song) on the title.

The storyline continues in September 21's Batman #113, by Tynion and artist Jorge Jimenez.

In the issue, readers learn something about Batman's new rival-ally Ghost-Maker that gives him a past connection to Jonathan Crane AKA Scarecrow AKA 'Fear State's co-chief protagonist.

Batman figures out Scarecrow's master plan: he wants to detonate a "Fear Bomb" in Gotham City (which sounds a little like Batman Begins, but that movie's awesome, so no problems here) using Unsanity Collective tech.

The issue features variant covers by Ben Oliver and the aforementioned Jorge Molina, plus a backup story by Brandon Thomas and Max Dunbar featuring Clownhunter, who's been dosed by Scarecrow's fear toxin and is living his greatest fears in the streets of Gotham.

So as our early contribution to Batman Day, check out a preview of the main story in our gallery.

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And as always, Newsarama keeps track of ALL the upcoming new Batman comic books, graphic novels, and collections.

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.