WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Future State: The Next Batman#4, by John Ridley, Laura Braga, Nick Derington, Arif Prianto and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
In DC's Future State, the Fox family feud is reaching a fever pitch. Lucius Fox has turned Wayne Enterprises into a plaything for the Magistrate to create weapons to rule a broken Gotham with an iron fist, with Luke (the former Batwing) betraying and turning in vigilantes. To top if off, his mom, Tanya's working with the vigilante-hating Mayor Nakano .as they've all gone from people backing heroes to wanting masks put behind bars.
However, in Future State: The Next Batman #4, it gets even deadlier and more dangerous as Tim, the new Dark Knight, runs afoul of the Fox family and a violent clash ensues which results in blood being drawn.
Tim's taken on the new identity of Jace, not wanting to be as close to the family anymore. It's created a lot of tension between him and Luke, but ultimately, no one knows Tim is the new Bat, working with the Resistance to save the city. In this particular adventure, the Caped Crusader has to get Eric and Sara to Detective Chubb, his own Jim Gordon-esque ally in the police department, not knowing he'll fight a family member soon.
Things get complicated, though, since Eric tried to strangle the new Batman to avoid the potential death penalty for killing an alleged criminal. However, Jace eventually overpowers the man and lets him know that he's getting a second chance as Chubb will help them avoid capital punishment. Jace doesn't care who killed the crook, as long as Eric and his wife are both turned in alive, and not dead at the hands of the Peacekeepers.
As they head out, the Peacekeepers attack in a chase straight out of Fast and the Furious, which sadly results in Eric blowing himself up to save his wife. It gets further out of hand when Jace has to swerve to avoid hitting a civilian, which leads to him and Tanya staring down in the streets. But just as soon as Tanya reaches for her gun, Jace throws a Batarang into his mom's shoulder, badly wounding her. He then takes the rage out on some Peacekeepers before making the drop at City Hall and heading to meet his family.
While things are tense at the hospital, they have no idea he's the hero who saved Sara, and his mom says family must stick together. It leaves Jace feeling guilty as he could have hurt her even worse if he was off with his aim, not to mention the psychological toll of living this lie. And there's no telling how much more damage he could do to his family if they ever found out the truth about his nocturnal activities.