WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point #3, by Christos Gage, Reilly Brown, Nelson Faro DeCastro, John Kalisz and AndWorld Design, on sale now.
The Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point crossover comics series is proving to be much more than anyone may have expected. While it's full of fighting, action, martial arts and mayhem, it also features a story that requires Batman to use his intelligence to uncover a conspiracy that's both dark and disturbing.
Unlike many other crossovers which can often feel overinflated and unnecessary, this series showcases Batman's skills as the World's Greatest Detective while simultaneously revealing previously undiscovered secrets of the world of Fortnite.
In recent interviews, Gage has divulged the name of the mysterious organization that's bringing characters from across time and multiple dimensions as IO, or Imagined Order. In Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point #3, in an attempt to stop Batman from getting too close to the truth, IO sets the Dark Knight against a man who is at least his equal, G.I. Joe's silent warrior, Snake Eyes.
Issues #1 and #2 of Batman/Fortnite were mainly told from Batman's perspective, but the third issue shakes things up by presenting the viewpoint of the executives at IO for the first time. The background captions in the issue are set as email/IM chats from the people behind the scenes. The puppet masters have clearly drawn Batman, Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Snake Eyes - plus dozens of other hot intellectual properties from a myriad of other publishers/games - from across time and multiple dimensions, to set them up in a cataclysmic battle royale. Each combatant fights to the death in a 22-minute cycle, before time resets and they start all over again.
If the premise of people being used as guinea pigs by a scary conglomerate sounds familiar, a similar setup was used in the 2012 horror-comedy The Cabin In The Woods. In the film, various innocents were put through trials similar to those seen in Fortnite and killed off one by one by zombies, werewolves and other fright flick favorites. A lonely, derelict cabin is a common location used in scary movies, such as Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise. In this film, by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, that cliché, the innocents and the monsters, are present as a love letter to the genre.
The puppet masters in The Cabin In The Woods used human beings as test subjects to combat an ancient threat, with surprising results. This appears to be exactly what IO is doing, although their reason for pitting the Dark Knight, Snake Eyes and all the other kidnapped combatants against each other haven't been revealed. Their plan appears to be cruel, bordering on evil at first inspection, although there is no conclusive evidence that this is indeed the case.
The messages that go back and forth between the IO board members clearly demonstrate that there is a plan, but Batman's keen mind and fighting prowess are causing the organization concern. They seem to have an endgame, but the Dark Knight seems to be figuring things out too quickly for their tastes. The series has now reached its mid-point, and with only three issues remaining, the answers are sure to be both forthcoming and surprising.