At worst, crossovers are a cheap cash grab to draw fans to a series from opposite parties. At best, you find a great idea embedded within the crossover that makes sense for both series. Case in point, Batman/Fortnite, which has its second issue comes out this week. The first issue is a book we didn’t know we needed, but can it sustain the fun and intrigue? In a word, yes.
The second issue opens with Batman trying to figure where he is and what is going. You can see in the preview — he’s scrawled notes to himself which help him piece together the puzzle of his situation. Each day he forgets what happened the day before save for clues he leaves himself on his clothes or in the world. We seem to have entered the story around when he’s figuring things out, but soon he’s quickly zipping across the world of Fortnite using his detective skills to find a weakness in his cage.
Using a plot not far from Memento meets Groundhog Day, writer Christos Gage makes each attempt to figure out what is going on from Batman interesting. From cross-cutting further into his few minutes of memory to developing a relationship with Catwoman, the story continues to add something page by page.
Most importantly, Gage understands the voice of Batman quite well, and while he can’t speak while in this Fortnite world, he can think. The captions do well to show his focus, his familiarity with things even with his mind wiped, and the ease at which he fights. We’ve basically got a version of Batman with amnesia and it’s interesting to see how he thinks his way through this puzzle.
Cool avatar, Batman!
Credit: DC Comics
Fortnite fans will enjoy the concept of Batman being in the game and being limited to only 20 minutes per life. There are also lots of familiar Fortnite avatars running about that Batman must fight through. It remains to be seen if this story will go deeper into Fortnite storytelling — there are four more issues after all — but at this stage, one might assume this is solely about Batman.
The art by Reilly Brown with inks by Nelson Faro DeCastro and colors by John Kalisz is detailed with an ink style that gives the book a heavier feel. That suits the pressure Batman is under to find a way out of the Fortnite world. It’s a brighter world thanks to the purple clouds and the purple storm cloud that engulfs Batman each day. That said, it maintains a heightened sense of realism with environments not seen in the games. That helps set the stakes a bit higher since he’s not in some kind of cartoon world.
Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point continues to be an entertaining thrill ride as Batman attempts to escape a cage he can barely decipher. It may have a familiar feel to films with a similar premise, but it’s decidedly a Batman story within a wacky concept of Fortnite come to comics.
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