Scarecrow plans a prison break in Batman - Fear State Omega #1 preview

Batman: Fear State - Omega #1 excerpt
Batman: Fear State - Omega #1 excerpt (Image credit: DC)

November 16's Batman #117 was billed as the finale of the current 'Fear State' crossover going through DC's Bat-titles, but no one told the Scarecrow - or if he did, he didn't listen.  

November 30's Batman: Fear State - Omega #1 is set one month after the events of 'Fear State,' with Gotham City police transferring the captured Scarecrow (AKA Doctor Jonathan Crane) from the central police precinct to a more permanent prison. But when the police transfer him, the Scarecrow's backup plan comes to light.

Check out this preview of Batman: Fear State - Omega #1 by long-time Batman series writer James Tynion IV with the art team of Riccardo Federici, Christian Duce, Guillem March, Ryan Benjamin, Trevor Hairsine, and Chris Sotomayor:

Getting a bit meta, Batman: Fear State - Omega #1 is the finale of James Tynion IV's run with Batman, which goes back a surprising nine years. Tynion's first published comic book work was co-writing a story in 2012's Batman #18 with his writing instructor Scott Snyder, and he went on to be a reliable co-writer for Snyder during his Batman run. He followed that by taking over Detective Comics during 2016's 'Rebirth' revamp of the DC titles, and he later moved over to write the main Batman title with 2019's Batman #85.

During Tynion's run on the main Batman title, he has made major changes to Batman including losing his fortune and setting up his exit from Gotham, but at the same time he grew the Bat-family with new characters such as Punchline, Ghostmaker, Miracle Molly, and more, and also re-established the supporting Bat-family cast of Nightwing, Batgirl (all three of them), Harley Quinn, and more for a new era coming in 2022.

In Fact, DC has framed Batman: Fear State - Omega #1 as a "new day" dawning on Gotham City without Batman, and with the Bat-Family now the town's main heroes

Batman: Fear State - Omega #1's main cover is drawn by Jamal Campbell, with variants from Simone Bianchi and Jorge Jimenez (a design variant of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn). Check them out here:

Batman: Fear State - Omega #1 goes on sale on November 30.

Keep track of this and all the new Batman comics, graphic novels, and collections in 2021 and beyond.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)

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