Batman. Always. Wins. It’s a fundamental principle in the DC Universe and what all of Gotham’s villains have come to realize as the Dark Knight defeats them night after night. But what happens when Batman himself is the bad guy? If no one can stop Batman, then how do you stop him when he strays from his code? That’s the chilling, challenging message which the Batman Who Laughs, a Joker-corrupted Batman from the Dark Multiverse, broadcasts to the world by his very presence. And now, with the just-released one-shot Batman/Fortnite: Foundation, it’s one you can send yourself every time you drop in to the world of Fortnite.
Every purchase of the physical Batman/Fortnite: Foundation comic grants users a bundle which includes the new Batman Who Laughs skin, the Robin’s Perch Back Bling inspired by the Batman Who Laughs’ twisted Jokerized Robins, and the Dark Days loading screen featuring the spooky, October-appropriate visage of the Batman Who Laughs himself. But Batman/Fortnite: Foundation doesn’t just grant free swag. It further unfolds the enigma of Fortnite’s island setting, continuing from this year’s hit limited series Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point. After all, the true nature of Fortnite’s ever-changing and evolving world, and the forces behind it, is a mystery which has continued to vex the game’s millions of players since 2017—and it’s one which only the World’s Greatest Detective can solve.
In Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point (now available to read in full on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE), Batman discovers what many may have suspected for some time: Fortnite’s changing island exists in a nexus between realities, drawing icons in from a multitude of worlds to compete for their lives, robbing them of their speech, their memory, and any unique abilities they possess in the process to even the playing field. What no one saw coming, however, was the revelation that alongside the engineers of Fortnite’s own clandestine “Imagined Order,” the Dark Multiverse’s Batman Who Laughs may be playing a role in the operation.
But hang on—didn’t Wonder Woman put down the Batman Who Laughs once and for all in Dark Nights: Death Metal? No, we’re not ignoring those ramifications. The villain’s surprising return is the first of many mysteries the Justice League contends with in Batman/Fortnite: Foundation. But for devoted followers of Fortnite’s lore, there’s a mystery afoot even more compelling than the Batman Who Laughs: that of the figure of “Foundation” himself.
The Foundation is a super soldier of sorts who in the game’s world once worked for the Imagined Order, but appears to have betrayed them in order to stabilize the Zero Point, the nexus of all realities at the heart of Fortnite’s Island. As part of an equally mysterious group of Imagined Order resistors who call themselves “The Seven,” the Foundation sealed himself inside the Zero Point, sacrificing his freedom in an effort to save all realities.
But just as Batman always wins in the world of the DC Universe, nothing ever remains static in the world of Fortnite. An invasion by a faction branded as the Last Reality in the following “season” of Fortnite (the term used for each period of world-changing events within the game) destabilized the Zero Point once more, ejecting the Foundation into the reality with which the Island had most recently overlapped: a world designated by the world of Fortnite as Reality NF-1935. Or, as we call it, “Prime Earth,” or “Earth-0”—the home of the DC Universe.
As the Foundation himself washes up on Gotham Harbor for a confrontation with Batman himself, what can we learn about him, and his role in both the worlds of Fortnite and DC Comics? How does Lex Luthor, Deathstroke and the Batman Who Laughs figure into it all? What’s the story with the Foundation’s armor? Is it true, as many players suspect, that he’s being voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? What exactly is the Zero Point, and what are the Imagined Order’s plans for it? What compels the Island’s arrivals to fight each other to the death in a grand battle royale, over and over again, only to rise once more at the finish of each contest—and to what end? Are we simply overthinking all of this? (Never.)
Most of the answers to these questions await you in Batman/Fortnite: Foundation, as revealed in a talent crossover for the ages by Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point’s Christos Gage, Fortnite lead designer Donald Mustard, and the Batman Who Laughs’ co-creator Scott Snyder, as well as the combined art talents of Joshua Hixson and Roman Stevens, who accomplish the impossible by making the story feel just as much a must-read DC comic as it does a new chapter in the ongoing Fortnite saga. Copies drop this week, in both physical and digital storefronts wherever fine DC comics are sold. Take us with Foundation to Fortnite today; we can go to Moisty Mire, but not Loot Lake.
Batman/Fortnite: Foundation #1 by Christos Gage, Scott Snyder, Donald Mustard, Joshua Hixson and Roman Stevens is now available in print and as a digital comic book. Please note, the Fortnite Batman Who Laughs bundle is only available with the physical edition.
Alex Jaffe has ten kills on the board right now and just wiped out Tomato Town. He’s also the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DCComics.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Community as HubCityQuestion.
