In this story, the new Gotham City Mayor Christopher Nakano has made a deal with the devil to enact a draconian anti-vigilante law enforcement agenda with a shadowy organization known as The Magistrate.
[2] After the events of Dark Nights: Death Metal, Wonder Woman meets up with the Quintessence (Ganthet, Hera, Highfather, Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, The Wizard) for an open position.
While observing, she sees Bane killed by Joker toxin, and Barbara Gordon being Oracle again due to her spine implant while letting Cassandra Cain, Huntress, and Stephanie Brown take her role as Batgirl.
A police officer name Sean Mahoney is gravely injured after saving a couple of nurses, Grifter needs Jace Fox (the brother of Batwing)'s help and it is revealed that there is a new villain name Simon Saint who is working with Scarecrow to negotiate with the new Gotham City Mayor Christopher Nakano.
[3] Batman, Ghost-maker, and Harley Quinn take down criminals who are a part of a group called the Unsanity Collective but it results in collateral damage.
Simon Saint meets up with the Mayor Nakano to advertise him The Magistrate (Peacekeepers who will stop crime before it happens as seen in "Future State").
Barbara Gordon tells him that the Unsanity Criminals have a leader name Master Wyze who wants to reboot Gotham City to get rid of their trauma and create a better future.
Simon Saint convinces Sean Mahoney to be part of the Magistrate after showing his assistant Ricardo has cybernetic augmentation to compensate his missing limbs.
[7] Mayor Nakano finally agrees to leak the idea of the Magistrate to the public, and communications are down so Oracle calls in the rest of the Bat-Family to help.
While fighting, Mahoney reveals that Gotham City is afraid because everyone knows about the Multiverse and the evil versions of superheroes, as well as people disliking how Batman continuously partners with Catwoman and Harley Quinn.
Mayor Nakano allows the Magistrate to operate in Gotham, but Scarecrow reneges on his deal with Simon Saint and infects Peacekeeper-01 with his fear toxin before capturing Batman.
[10] Batman escapes from Scarecrow and creates an antidote while Catwoman and Jace Fox observe how the Magistrate is taking over Gotham City.
Cassandra Cain subdues Batman while he's distracted from his antidote to Scarecrow's Fear Toxin and he meets up with Barbara Gordon and Stephanie Brown where they bring him up to speed on what is happening.
After a brutal battle, Batman manages to defeat Peacekeeper-01, but Scarecrow convinces Miracle Molly of her original goal to wipe out Gotham City's memories so they can overcome trauma.
Miracle Molly agrees to disarm the bomb, and the Bat Family (Nightwing, Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, Spoiler, Tim Drake, Duke Thomas, Jace Fox, Batwoman) and Harley Quinn look up at the Bat Signal in the sky as Gotham City slowly recovers.
[17] Scarecrow tries to escape from the authorities, but Batman prevents this and takes him to Arkham Asylum to meet Chase Meridian.
Miracle Molly testifies how Simon Saint used the Unsanity Collective to manipulate the media in order to use the Magistrate Program.
[18] In Batman: Urban Legends #8, Batwoman is helping rehabilitate Beth Kane when Renee Montoya arrives and tells her that there is a viral video of Cassandra Cain murdering innocent people.
Future Black Lightning explains that a man named Jonah Winfield was a normal boy until he met Scarecrow and was exposed to a high dose of fear toxin and became disfigured.
After Simon Saint leaves, the Red Crown terrorist group, led by a man known as Nero XIX, reveal themselves as having been disguised as Nakano's security team and kidnap him.
Batman saves Mayor Nakano and they head into a sewer where they see red eggs featuring centipedes.
[27] In issue #84, Nightwing is out patrolling in Bludhaven when he gets an encrypted audio from Barbara Gordon to go back to Gotham City.
When they go to Seer's hideout, both of them are dosed with Fear Toxin, and Barbara has a vision where Dick Grayson was shot in the head similar to KG Beast.
[32] Joshua McDonald from Batman News wrote: "After months of dragging its feet, James Tynion's "Fear State" finally moves the plot forward.
[33] Max Byrne from Dark Knight News wrote: "Batman #117 brings everything nicely to a well crafted close.