Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point #1 – Donald Mustard, Christos Gage, Writers; Reilly Brown, Penciller; Nelson Faro DeCastro, Inker; John Kalisz, Colorist
Ray – 7.5/10
Ray: DC has put out a lot of odd books over the years, and they’ve put out a lot of unique crossovers over the years. But they may have topped themselves with this one, a crossover between the relatively down-to-earth vigilante Batman, one of the least cosmic heroes in the DCU, and the gleefully surreal and wildly popular multiplayer game Fortnite. They’re oddly not the first comic company to cross over—the competition briefly had Thor in the world of Fortnite as well—but this six-issue miniseries scripted by veteran DC writer Christos Gage is the most in-depth crossover yet. It starts in a relatively routine way for the DCU, with Batman investigating a massive disturbance in the form of a glowing purple portal in the middle of Gotham. He tries to keep Harley Quinn from jumping in (because why wouldn’t she? Fun is fun), only to then be ambushed himself and fall in. And that’s when things get surreal.
Batman wakes up in a bizarre landscape where he immediately comes under attack by armored enemies, some looking futuristic and others looking like Vikings. He discovers he can’t talk—I assume because characters in the game can’t communicate with each other? I’m an old man and don’t really know what a Fortnite is. Much of the second half of the issue is just a bizarre scrum of fighting, but things get interesting when Catwoman shows up. Batman’s narration as he and Catwoman use body language to discover what they mean to each other despite their memories being scrambled is by far the best part of the issue. But it doesn’t last, as there’s one more chaotic twist before the end. I only understood half of this, but it was a fast-paced and chaotic comic that had some fun moments. I’m struggling to figure out how it can last six issues, but maybe it’ll make a bit more sense to a Bat-fan on future issues.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
