The first issue of Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point, a new comic series launched last week, sold so many copies that it was not only the #1 comic for the week, but landed at #5 on Apple’s bestseller list for all fiction. That’s rarefied air for comics, which rarely make it onto the overall fiction bestsellers lists, and when they do it tends to be in the form of collected editions of wildly popular intellectual properties like Watchmen and The Walking Dead. The bestseller list for the week ending on April 25 was released earlier today, and had attention called to it by Christos Gage.
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Gage, a television writer with credits that include Arrow and Daredevil, is responsible for writing the Batman/Fortnite series. Artist Riley Brown joins him on the series, which sees Batman thrown into the world of Fortnite, where he has to not only fight for his life, but contend with the challenge of trying to win in a world where he dies and is reborn every 22 minutes.
According to a recent interview, by the time he finally “beats the game,” Batman will have been in Fortnite for at least a week, which is around 458 deaths, all told. Many will be from the time loop, but some will come from players in the game who want to see the Dark Knight dead.
“For me, the challenge was the same challenge that Batman faces, which is given these obstacles — once he finds himself in the loop and time resets, or his memory resets every 22 minutes — how do you get out of that?” Gage explained elsewhere in the press conference. “It took some creative thinking. But he is Batman and he figures that he’s probably gonna figure out a way out.”
Since Batman/Fortnite is available free to DC Universe subscribers, suggesting that the hardest of hardcore Batman fans likely did not have to buy the digital copy, not only is the comic’s arrival on the best-seller list even bigger news, but it suggests that some of those huge numbers are likely coming from people who do not ordinarily buy comics. Twitter has backed this up anecdotally, and Gage couldn’t be happier.
“Every time I see someone post that Batman/Fortnite has introduced them or someone close to them to comics I feel good,” Gage tweeted. “I realize not all will stick around, but those who will are the future of this medium I love so much.”
Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point #1 is now available for purchase at comic shops and virtual platforms, as well as for free for subscribers of DC Universe Infinite.
