WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Future State: Dark Detective #2 by Mariko Tamaki, Dan Mora, Jordie Bellaire, and Aditya Bidikar, on sale now.
The Gotham City introduced in "Future State" is incredibly different from the one in the main DC Universe. In this dark alternate timeline, the Magistrate is policing the city, hunting down any superhero still willing to wear a mask. Most of the Bat-family is no more and Bruce Wayne himself is believed dead. But of course, we know that is not the truth. Indeed, Bruce is secretly alive, and he has suited up as a Dark Detective to try and take out the Magistrate. But as far as anyone else in Gotham is concerned, the billionaire is dead, and so is Batman.
Now, in Future State: Dark Detective #2, Bruce reveals how he managed to escape death after his confrontation with Peacekeeper-01 -- and the grim role Gotham itself played in deceiving the Magistrate.
In Dark Detective #1, we see how Bruce Wayne was cornered by the mysterious Peacekeeper-01 in an alley and shot in the chest. Bruce then ran away and shortly after found a man who was able to patch him up -- for a price. However, we had yet to learn how exactly Bruce had been able to get away from his assailant. The answer arrives in Future State: Dark Detective #2, which once again flashes back to the events of that fateful night.
As the issue begins, the action once again shifts back to the past, moments after Peacekeeper-01 shoots Bruce. The Magistrate enforcer catches up to his target at the docks, and it's there that the vigilante fights back. Since he is severely wounded, Bruce doesn't have a whole lot of fight left in him -- instead, he's simply doing what he must to get away, and to hopefully survive.
He throws a few batarangs at his pursuer before jumping into the water. Peacekeeper-01 then opens fire into the water, and bullets zip across Bruce. But this is where he runs into a bit of luck: at that very moment, there is another body floating in the water -- the body of a man, similar in build to Bruce. He is just another casualty of Gotham, the victim of a senseless crime in this dark and violent city. The serendipitous appearance of this body fools Peacekeeper-01 for a few seconds. And before the officer can see past this charade, the batarangs Bruce previously threw explode, sending Peacekeeper-01 flying. With his pursuer blasted away, Bruce avoids assured death, and he swims away.
Therefore, it appears as if, in Future State, Bruce Wayne would never have survived were it not for the dark spectre of Gotham itself. The city has always been ridden with crime and it's because of its numerous victims that Bruce was able to fake his own death. Now that he's believed dead, he can work from the shadows to dismantle the organization that has outlawed masks in his city. But while everyone may think he is dead, there is someone who appears to know the truth: Peacekeeper-01. And he's coming to finish the job.