Warning: The following article contains spoilers for recent issues of Batman and Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01, both on sale now from DC Comics.

DC's Bat-Family has had their collective hands full recently with the advent of "Fear State," a crossover affecting the majority of comics associated with Gotham City. The story revolves around the Batman villain Scarecrow using an upgraded version of his fear toxin to sow chaos throughout Gotham. Scarecrow is secretly working with a private police force called the Magistrate that imposes martial law against all costumed figures operating within the city. The Magistrate is targeting the Dark Knight and his associates, among others. However, Scarecrow eventually betrays the force, captures their powerful soldier Peacekeeper-01, and injects him with a strong dose of fear toxin before setting him loose on Gotham.

Veteran comic book writer Ed Brisson (Dead Man Logan, Secret Avengers) sat down with CBR to discuss his story in Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 and delved into the complex origin of the Magistrate soldier. Along the way, Brisson discussed his experience working with James Tynion IV on this project, his favorite new character in the Batman universe, and what fans should know about Peacekeeper-01 and his role in "Fear State."

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CBR: Your story in Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 delves into the origin of Sean Mahoney. What made now the right time to tell his story?

Ed Brisson: Sean Mahoney/Peacekeeper-01 is fairly new and still mostly a blank slate of a character. Since he plays a large role in "Fear State," it felt necessary to spend time letting the reader know who he is, where he came from, and how deeply entrenched he and his family are within Gotham's history. The better we understand him, the better the audience can, on some level, sympathize with him.

Like all great Batman baddies, you can hate them all you want, but there’s always a level of sympathy and understanding about how they got to where they are. Peacekeeper-01 is no different.

How was the idea conceived to connect Mahoney with the Mad Hatter?

Originally, we knew that Sean Mahoney, in his position as a guard at Arkham Asylum, was going to have a history of cruelty towards inmates. When scripting, I wanted to focus on one inmate and dig into Sean's past with them. I could have easily leaned into Sean simply being a bully, picking on those weaker than him, those unable to fight back, but that approach felt a little too easy. While he absolutely is a bully, his targeting of Mad Hatter goes beyond that.

This whole issue is largely about the control, or lack of control, that Sean seems to have over his own destiny. There's the pressure from his father to follow the long line of Mahoney's on the GCPD. There's Simon Saint's manipulation of Sean's perceived status of hero to launch the Peacekeeper program. There's Scarecrow's control over Sean through the Fear Toxin. And then there's a childhood incident with the Mad Hatter, where Sean was manipulated into committing a crime. Sean has been a pawn of others for his entire life.

However, as a guard in Arkham Asylum, he had a taste of power, an opportunity to exert his will for the first time in his life. And, now that he has a similar modicum of power, he's going to use it against those he believes have taken it from him in the past.

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Do you personally see Peacekeeper-01 as more of a hero or a villain?

Peacekeeper-01 absolutely sees himself as a hero, but there is no doubt that he's a villain. Maybe there's a chance for him to turn it around, but right now, he's filled with too much resentment and too much anger. He believes he's been denied what's owed to him because of his family's history with the city and that eats away at him, rots him at his core. He lacks any real sense of empathy, and I don't believe you can have a hero without empathy.

Although this is largely an origin tale, the story also goes into what Peacekeeper-01 is experiencing presently in "Fear State." What should fans know about this character prior to reading this story?

Sean's a perfect candidate for Scarecrow's Fear Toxin -- he's full of resentment and anger, feeling as though his failings are due to others, never himself, nor his family. The city of Gotham has failed him and everyone in his family down to his great-great-grandfather in his eyes. Now that he's amped up on Fear Toxin, his target is the entire city and everyone who has stymied his access to power.

What was it like working with James Tynion IV on this, and how much influence did he have on the story?

It was great working with James again. We had previously worked together on Batman and Robin Eternal back in 2015/2016 (along with a boatload of other writers) and I've always appreciated the amount of preparation and world-building that he puts into his stories. This case was no different.

I worked off of a fairly dense four-page document that laid out the Mahoney family history within Gotham and how that history shaped and molded Sean into what he is today. James went in-depth into each Mahoney going back to the 1800s, but there just wasn’t room to fit all of that information. I tried! That document is full of great story threads. What you see in the book is the tip of the iceberg. You could spill an entire mini-series out of everything that was in that document.

Taking that document as a guide, I laid out an outline for the issue, making minor changes to a couple of things here and there or building off things James had hinted at. We emailed back and forth about it and he was great through the whole process. It felt like he and I were both on the same page consistently.

What is one moment in your story that you can't wait for fans to see?

I don't know that there's one specific moment. While there are plenty of big action sequences, I think that the heart of the book is in the smaller, more personal scenes involving Sean's father attempting to guide his son to follow in the footsteps of generations of Mahoneys. It's not often that I get to tell a story of this scope -- something that spans more than 100 years in Gotham. We get to see what his family gave to help build the city, and how they felt disrespected and thus set out to establish themselves within the GCPD.

Beyond the work James and I did, I think I'm mostly excited for readers to see what Josh Hixson and Roman Stevens did. Josh is an artist I've wanted to work with for several years now and I couldn't be more pleased with how the collaboration went. His style, with Roman's colors, is a perfect fit for this story.

There are a number of great new characters involved in "Fear State" (Peacekeeper-01, Clownhunter, Ghostmaker, Miracle Molly, etc.). Out of these relatively new arrivals, who is your favorite?

Right now? Peacekeeper-01, partially because he's the one I’ve spent the most time with recently, but also because I think that he's a great mirror to Batman. Peacekeeper-01 is the logical outcome of militarization in the fight against criminals pioneered by the Dark Knight.

Who is one character that you would love to write?

I don't know. I always dread this question. The easy out is Batman, right? Everyone wants to write Batman. I'm probably no different.

But, beyond the obvious, I've always had a fondness for Red Hood. I know he's less bloodthirsty lately, but still, he's willing to go to extremes that Batman isn't. I think there's a lot of really interesting story fodder in Batman's adopted son breaking away from the family code.

Vigilante is another I've always wanted to sink my teeth into. I grew up reading the character in the 80s and 90s and feel like there's a lot of room, with the multiple incarnations, to write some really solid, feet-on-the-ground, stripped-down, street-level stories.

Oh, and Jonah Hex. I love Jonah Hex like nobody's business. I'm a big fan of westerns and wish that there was more audience for western books. It's a shame how few there are.

Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 #1 is by Ed Brisson, James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixson, Roman Stevens, and Travis Lanham, and is on sale now from DC Comics.

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