Chris “Diagnostik80” from the Full Force Podcast had a unique opportunity to chat with the writer, Christos Gage and artist, Reilly Brown of DC Comics series Batman/Fortnite Zero Point. The third issue should be a real attention grabber to Joe fans, and when DC Comics gave Chris the opportunity to participate in a group interview, he jumped at the chance.

DC Comics Batman/Fortnite Zero Point issue #3

Interview with writer, Christos Gage and artist, Reilly Brown

Article by: Christopher McLeod AKA Diagnostik80, The Full Force Podcast

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Last week, we were approached by DC Comics to take part in a group interview with writer, Christos Gage and artist, Reilly Brown, who are the creators behind the Batman/Fortnite comic series Zero Point and more specifically, issue #3, which introduces the battle of the century between Batman and our very own Snake Eyes!! I took part in the online video call and got to ask a number of questions, which we have transcribed for you today. If you haven’t read the Zero Point series yet and you want to, then just know there are a number of spoilers in this interview, so come back here after you’ve read issue #3. Still here? Okay then, let’s begin…

D80: First off guys, thank you so much for doing this with me today, I’ve really enjoyed the first three issues so far and I’m already looking forward to issue #4!! Starting with the overall story and this one is for Christos, now the premise of the comic is that Batman has found himself inside this constant loop where he can’t talk or remember who he is and that keeps refreshing after 22 minutes, which puts him in a difficult situation to say the least. How hard was it to craft a story within those strict parameters or did you find that it helped to guide you?

Christos: Actually, that was sort of the hook that Donald [Mustard] brought to us that made me so excited about this story because Batman is the world’s greatest detective and this is the ultimate challenge for the world’s greatest detective because if he can’t remember things in less than 22 minutes, how can he deduce anything? So it challenged me as a writer to think about ways for him to do that and I think it challenges the character in a lot of cool ways. Then of course there was the question of how exactly does he do it? When Catwoman was there it made a lot of sense to have Batman’s internal monologue because he figures things out like well I sort of feel like I know this person and I trust this person to a degree. But then with the third issue I thought it would be a fun switch to almost see Batman as a little bit more of an enigmatic figure and almost scary. Like if you’re going up against Batman, if you’re trying to foil Batman, what’s it like?

Reilly: One of my favourite parts of issue #3 actually is the beginning before Snake Eyes shows up because, just going on what Christos said, there’s this intensity to Batman where he’s, they say it in the captions, that he’s like a man on a mission. There’s this one shot that I love where it’s him staring at the camera as the storm washes over him and disintegrates him or whatever. That’s pretty bada$$!!

D80: For Reilly, the artwork is sublime in the series so far, how much fun was it drawing all of these crazy characters from the Fortnite universe mixed in with some really iconic heroes and villains?

Reilly: Oh, it’s a lot of fun. The Fortnite characters, they all have such awesome and cool designs. They just create such unique characters and one of the things I’m thinking as I’m drawing them is that we don’t have much backstory for any of them. Some of them we have a little bit, there are certain characters we know are like smugglers or whatever but it just makes me think like what’s this person like on their own world? What’s the world that they’re actually from, like? Drawing them interacting with Snake Eyes and Batman and Catwoman and Harley Quinn, that was a lot of fun also.

D80: Christos, Did you experiment at all with multiple outcomes in regards to Batman vs Snake Eyes? Like having Snake Eyes win or Batman win, etc.?
Christos: I thought about it to a degree but at the same time I sort of had an idea from a story standpoint of where we needed to go next and, obviously without spoiling the ending, the way it ended was in my head fairly early. I wanted to give fans of each character moments of their favourite character being totally bada$$, which hopefully we got and part of the fun of having a loop where things reboot every 22 minutes is that can happen without ending the fight. There was some degree of do we want to have a thing where there’s one loop where Batman totally defeats Snake Eyes and there’s another one where Snake Eyes totally defeats Batman and I felt like that was a bit of a copout. At the end of the day I was guided by what I felt would be the best story and hopefully people like that. I’m sure there are going to be some people who are huge fans of one or the other and say oh, this is ridiculous, that character would’ve destroyed the other character. You know what? That’s part of the fun!!

D80: Reilly, Had you ever drawn Batman vs Snake Eyes prior to this issue? Was this something that you had ever given thought to in the past?

Reilly: I hadn’t and honestly I’m kinda surprised I haven’t. I guess it just isn’t something that’s come into my mind before. I’ve seen other toy properties team up with DC Superheroes like He-man has teamed up with the Justice League a few times and Thundercats have and Power Rangers have. It just never crossed my mind to put G.I. Joe and them together, which when you think about it, it’s just such a natural thing because they both have such long comic book histories and toy histories and everything. And so, when they told me okay we’re gonna have Snake Eyes in issue #3, it just struck me like, wow!! That’s really cool!! It’s been a whole lot of fun and I’m glad that’s what they decided on.

D80: This is for both of you. How important is it for the comic industry as a whole to have a huge franchise like Fortnite on board and excited to do comics based on their IP?

Reilly: There’s a lot of franchises that make comic book versions and a lot of it goes under the radar, so I really think that the big opportunity here is just how much Epic Games is diving into the crossover and this particular crossover because there’s been a lot of crossovers that Fortnite has had as well. To really do this cross-platform team-up is, I think personally, a big deal and it feels more like a big deal than other cross-company things I’ve been a part of. I don’t know how important it is to the comic industry, like I said before, I just think it’s a big opportunity and how important it turns out to be, that’s yet to be seen but I really think that in ten years I think there’s gonna be a lot of kids that say the first comic book I read was Batman/Fortnite and that’s where I learned where my comic book store is and I came back every couple weeks, eventually I got into whatever the next comic is, you know, came back for Free Comic Book Day and just got on the comic book train at that point. So, cross our fingers, it’ll be huge!!

Christos: I mean I think it’s great. There have been a lot of outside franchises that have had comics based on their IP’s but this is the first time I can remember where literally the important lore of how the world works is being revealed in the comic book medium. When I was a kid I loved the Godzilla comic, the Shogun Warriors comic and any property I liked, the adaptations I enjoyed but you would never find out something like Darth Vader is Luke’s father in the comic, it was always going to be in the movie. And in this, we are literally revealing it all in the comic, so I think that is really incredible and it shows that Epic [Games] and Donald [Mustard] are prepared to turn on its end how things have always been done in the past. You know, break the rules that everyone’s used to playing by, I think it’s amazing. It’s our hope that the collected edition of this mini series will continue to sell to people who are into Fortnite so they can find out what this backstory is and what the lore is and hopefully they read the story and are excited about that as well.

Reilly: Yeah, that’s one of the things working on it, it doesn’t feel like it’s being treated like just another piece of Fortnite merchandise, it feels like it’s part of the larger Fortnite thing. 

BATMAN/FORTNITE: ZERO POINT #3

Batman versus Snake Eyes. That’s it. That’s the solicit. You heard us, BATMAN VERSUS SNAKE EYES! Yes, THAT Snake Eyes! Worlds collide on the Island as G.I. Joe’s unstoppable ninja clashes with the Dark Knight! Can either of them win, when neither can escape? Will Batman remember he’s got to find a way back to Catwoman, all while trying to get back to Gotham City? And what the heck is Harley Quinn doing here?! Oh, and in case we forgot to mention it: Batman. Fighting. Snake Eyes. Do not miss it! Please note: This digital comic purchase DOES NOT include any redeemable code for Fortnite in-game bonus rewards.