Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point is a crossover graphic novel, written by Christos Gage, in which the caped crusader is sucked through an inter-dimensional vortex and dropped into the popular battle royale game.
The six-issue arc depicts Bruce Wayne's attempts to escape from the Fortnite island, where he is forced into never-ending combat at the behest of a shadowy organization.
Much like in the game itself, Batman starts each loop without any equipment and must scavenge resources in an effort to be the last-man-standing. Meanwhile, an encroaching storm gradually overtakes the landscape, nudging contestants closer together until they have no choice but to take each other out in a violent showdown. Again, just like in the video game.
Every time the dark knight loses a "match," the board is completely reset, and his memory is wiped clean. He must then figure out the rules of the contest all over again and have another go at surviving the loop. This will repeat over and over again, Groundhog Day style, until he finally prevails.
In a plot device that was inspired by the film Memento, Batman eventually deduces that he can leave notes for his future self to accelerate the learning process, and he subsequently teams up with Catwoman (as well as a squad of original Fortnite characters) so that they can bust out of their prison together.
Speaking to Newsweek at a round table interview, writer Christos Gage said: "That was, to me, the exciting hook from a character standpoint. You take the world's greatest detective and put him in a situation where he loses his memory every 20 minutes. That's like the ultimate challenge. Can [Batman] solve a case when he can't remember the answers he found 25 minutes ago?"
How Does Batman Escape the 'Fortnite' Island?
In the fifth issue of the comic, Batman and his allies discover a hidden underground bunker that is used to transport people in and out of the Fortnite island. The implication is that this facility is under the control of the Imagined Order (IO), a secretive organization that observes the battle royale loop and periodically sends in guards to make sure that no one escapes.
While exploring the bunker, Bruce locates the titular "Zero Point," a cosmic power source that allows people to travel between different worlds. In the Fortnite canon, this strange phenomenon is what allows characters from different films, TV shows and video games to cross over with one another. For example, Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty was just added to the roster for Season 7, as was Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Inferring that the team can use the zero point to return home, Batman recalibrates a nearby control terminal and opens up the dimensional gateway. Everyone is sent back to their respective worlds, except for Batman and Catwoman, who are betrayed at the last minute by the treacherous mercenary Deathstroke.
The DC villain reveals that he has been working for IO the whole time and sabotages the portal on his way out. Issue 5 then ends on a cliff-hanger, with the Gotham vigilantes now stranded in Fortnite.
Issue 6 picks up right where we left off, as Batman and Catwoman venture back into the island loop to recruit Harley Quinn. The supervillain is unwilling to leave the battle royale (as she is in her element) and tries to kill our heroes, but they manage to overpower her in the end.
They then return to the bunker where, as a trio, they are able to supply enough "dimensional energy" to reactivate the zero point. Harley Quinn chooses to stay behind, while Batman and Catwoman head through the portal to Gotham.
Who Is Lex Luthor Talking to at the End of 'Batman/Fortnite #6'?
The final panels of Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point #6 tease the potential for further crossovers between DC comics and Fortnite. Here, we see Superman archnemesis Lex Luthor conversing with Deathstroke about how their plan on the island "worked perfectly."
Also joining them in the room is "The Batman Who Laughs," an alternate-universe version of Bruce Wayne who was disfigured by the same ACE chemicals that created the Joker. Resembling a hybrid of Batman and the clown prince of crime, this inter-dimensional villain has no ethical boundaries and is incredibly powerful, having completely taken over his own world.
It is unclear exactly what the villains are planning, although they do mention that Batman was successful in "tethering" Gotham to the Fortnite island. As such, it would seem that they somehow orchestrated the events of the whole comic to manipulate Batman into creating a stronger link between worlds.
Why they would want to do this remains unclear, but the final page contains a shock-twist that these criminals have been working for Doctor Slone (a mysterious IO operative from the Fortnite game) all along.
Doctor Slone is a character that Fortnite fans have been speculating about for a long time, as very little information is revealed about her in the game itself. In fact, her appearance in this Batman comic is probably her most substantial one to date.
Speaking about the implications of this ending, Gage said: "I do know that what is happening in the comic is canon for the game's story [...] Dr Slone is part of the Imagined Order, which is this mysterious group that basically seems to be running Fortnite island and at the end she is seen negotiating with Lex Luthor [and] the Batman Who Laughs.
"Nothing good can possibly come of this [...] What's cool is that these are all characters who are used to being the mastermind and they all have their own agendas [with] Fortnite island and its unique properties."
While the Batman/Fortnite storyline has now drawn to a close, the crossover does end on a tantalizing cliff-hanger, so it's safe to assume that more is on the way. It also potentially sets up new in-game events for the near future, as Batman has now permanently "tethered' the DC and Fortnite universes together.
With Superman coming to the Fortnite battle pass in just over a month's time, Kal-El will presumably be taking centre stage for the next batch of comics. When asked about this, Gage was a little evasive, but he did say that fans shouldn't rule out the idea of Batman returning to Fortnite.
Speaking about this, he said: "Batman and Superman are the world's finest team, and they hang out together. They know each other. So, you know, Batman could be done with [Zero Point] or we could just be changing focus of who is the primary character."
His answer would seem to indicate that a Superman/Fortnite crossover is on the way, which will hopefully resolve some of the unanswered questions from this bombshell revelation.
In related news, Epic Games has recently been updating Fortnite with plenty of alien-themed content, so that could tie in quite nicely with a Kryptonian storyline.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
