Fortnite Just Became Marvel Canon

Marvel Comics has a proud tradition of big, bombastic crossovers between its characters. The comic books have featured such game-changing events as Secret Wars and The Infinity Gauntlet. The Marvel Cinematic Universe brought about Avengers: Endgame, the most ambitious crossover event in movie history. However, the comics may have just pulled off the strangest mash-up ever, as Thor has found himself in the middle of a popular battle royale game — one that is currently doing its own Marvel Comics crossover.

That's right; the God of Thunder has officially invaded the world of Fortnite. And here's the even weirder part: it's actually a part of official Marvel Comics canon. 

As explained in an announcement from Marvel, the unlikely crossover spun out of the ongoing Thor series from writer Donny Cates and artist Nic Klein. In this series, Thor has become the reluctant herald of the world-eating deity Galactus. In an attempt to stop the entity called the Black Winter, Thor aids Galactus in finding certain worlds for him to consume and to regain his strength. In other words, it's a pretty dark storyline, and not at all what you would expect to tie into the normally bright and colorful world of Fortnite. However, in the in-canon special issue Thor: Nexus War #1, Galactus' search leads himself and Thor to a world inhabited by many familiar faces from Fortnite.

Season 4 of Fortnite: Chapter 2 picks up where the comic leaves off, detailing a team-up between the heroes of that world and various Marvel Comics characters as they battle against Galactus. Confirmed characters for the crossover event include Iron Man, Storm, Mystique, Doctor Doom, Groot, and She-Hulk, Wolverine, and of course, Thor.

"One of the most exciting things about the crossover is how naturally it keeps a foot both in Fortnite and the Marvel Universe," explained Marvel Comics editor Mark Basso. "We had a lot of great creative discussions between Marvel and Epic Games about where our storylines could cross over naturally, and seeing how prime a target the Fortnite Island would be for Galactus, who Donny Cates had already been exploring in his Thor series, set the whole thing into motion."

While it's highly unlikely that Fortnite elements will continue to make prominent appearances in the pages of Marvel Comics, the properties will be crossing over again very soon. Many of Marvel's September and October comic issues will feature variant covers depicting some of Marvel's biggest characters teaming up with recognizable Fortnite elements. If you've ever wanted to see Venom and Ghost Rider racing to tear into a Llama Piñata, then there is a cover just for you.

Of course, the very existence of this crossover raises so many questions. If Fortnite is part of Marvel continuity, then that means that all of the bonkers tie-ins that have occurred in Fortnite may have also occurred in the Marvel Universe. That means that DC Comics characters like Aquaman and Harley Quinn have regularly invaded the Marvel Universe (via Fortnite) without the Avengers knowing about it. That also means that there's a giant Travis Scott wandering the cosmos in the Marvel U, and just like Galactus, he's searching for a new world to visit. 

While this crossover seems like the craziest thing ever, there have been a few instances in the past of video game characters meeting comic book characters. For instance, one of the most bizarre crossovers occurred way back in 1998 in Sonic Super Special #7, which saw Sonic the Hedgehog meeting up with the likes of Image Comics' Spawn and Savage Dragon. That crossover managed to utilize more cutesy iterations of the characters that Sonic encountered (and considering the fact that Spawn is literally a zombie from Hell, that's probably for the best). However, Nexus War kind of takes the opposite tactic. Considering the stakes have never been quite so high for Thor Odinson, it feels extra weird for him to take such a silly detour. The God of Thunder has been made into a slave of the world-devourer and he's still having to deal with the likes of Slippy the Banana.

Again, Fortnite has seen plenty of media tie-ins over the years, but they've rarely been as fully fleshed out as this one. Marvel went so far as to produce an in-canon one-shot that elevated Fortnite into being a part of a huge ongoing storyline. For fans of both properties, that's a really cool move. It also raises the bar for what fans can expect from Fortnite's next big crossover event, whatever it may be.