The first issue of Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point is officially out into the world, and it definitely seems like fans are enjoying it. As the first installment in a six-issue comic miniseries — one that is expected to profoundly impact both the lore of Fortnite and the DC Comics universe — there’s definitely a lot of hype surrounding the events of the series. While tie-in crossover comics usually fall on the side of superfluous fun, it’s clear that Zero Point is going to leave an impact — and according to the series’ creative team, Epic Games Chief Creative Officer Donald Mustard had a major role in bringing that to life. ComicBook.com recently got to attend a press event with Zero Point writer Christos Gage and artist Reilly Brown, who briefly touched on Mustard’s involvement with the series, which ranges from crafting its original storyline to even drawing a series of variant covers.
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“Oh, he was tremendously involved,” Gage revealed. “He brought the basic storyline to us, as far as ‘Here’s what happens. A rift opens above Gotham. Batman is drawn into it, finds himself on Fortnite Island and he can’t remember anything, and he’s got to figure out how to escape the loop. And we’re going to reveal a bunch of really cool, interesting things.’ So that was very cool. He’s a long-time comic book fan, so he was very into making calls, like when we would ask about things that maybe hadn’t necessarily been decided yet. I can’t really mention any without major spoilers, actually. One of them would be what I referenced, which is ‘How do emotions carry over and to what extent?’ and that was something that led to fairly involved discussions over zoom between me and Donald and Katie, our editor. He’s been tremendously, tremendously involved. He’s even drawing variant covers for every issue. He could not be more involved or passionate about this.”
That passion also seems to extend to the very ethos of the series itself, with Mustard reportedly reiterating to the team how impactful the series is going to be to the Fortnite universe.
“I’ve worked on tie-ins with outside IPS before and usually, it’s a fun sort of thing where, ‘Hey, let’s have these characters fight these characters and do something fun,’” Gage said later on in the conference. “But in this case, from the start, Donald was like, ‘No, this is going to have a lasting impact on Fortnite right now.’”
“That’s the cool part about it is that it doesn’t feel like a lot of crossovers,” Brown added. “This is literally a huge part of the Fortnite mythos going forward — I mean, at least from what Donald says is going to be, with what Batman does in this storyline. This is really part of the continuity, and that’s awesome because that’s not something you see all the time. This story is really going to be part of the DNA of Fortnite going forward. And I think we do a lot of cool things with the Batman mythos and stuff too. I really love his relationship with Catwoman and some of the things we do there, and I think we really do a great service to those characters.”
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.
