To tell Fortnite: Chapter 3 — Season 2’s story, Epic partnered with Marvel to release the Zero War comics, a 5-issue limited series written by Christos Gage and Donald Mustard that showed tons of things never before seen in-game.
Chapter 3 — Season 2: Resistance had Fortnite’s two main factions, The Seven and the Imagined Order, fight over control of the game’s central energy source, The Zero Point, in an all-out war. The Seven enlisted the help of some iconic Marvel heroes, such as Iron Man and Spider-Man.
After five issues of old characters returning, controversial romances and some of the biggest story surprises in Fortnite’s history, here’s a complete recap of everything revealed in Fortnite x Marvel: Zero War.
Fortnite x Marvel: Zero War Story Recap
Issue 1 – The War Begins
The story began in Marvel’s Madripoor, with Spider-Man and Fortnite’s Jones and Imagined finding Wolverine in a nice bar. He was already annoyed as he went there to escape hero messes, but Imagined kept him interested. She made Spider-Man nervous, as does any redhead, so Wolverine dropped the act and listened to them.
Spider-Man tried to explain what led them to him, the Zero War’s beginning. The Imagined Order (IO) wanted to destroy everyone on Fortnite Island for a clean slate by building a weapon of mass destruction. Marvel’s previous war during Chapter 2 — Season 4 led to Galactus nearly getting the Zero Point, until Thor and others pushed him back to his world — but not without taking a tiny fragment of power with him, the Zero Shard.
That fragment could power a major advantage in the war, a giant Mecha from Fortnite’s past. The Seven tracked the Mecha’s last whereabouts to the Ice Moon orbiting the Island, where its harsh climate was assumed to have torn it to pieces, but they could power and repair it quickly with the Zero Shard. Spider-Man suggested contacting Thor and Storm as they had been to the island in the past and could also control the moon’s weather with their powers.
So a plan was made — access the Zero Point by breaking through the IO’s defenses to contact Marvel’s heroes, and bring the Zero Shard back from their world. Jones previously worked for the IO, so he guided the heroes to the Zero Point. Breaking into his old office swirled up old emotions as he took a photo of his family with him, and after a brief confrontation with Dr. Slone, leader of the IO’s island forces, Spider-Man was successful in bringing Jones and Imagined to Reality 616.
Imagined, the superpowered member of the Seven she is, immediately fought Captain Marvel on arrival. However, Spider-Man broke the two apart and asked for a meeting with every Avenger under the sun. Most of Marvel’s iconic heroes listened to the call, and met with them inside Avengers Mountain.
After Spider-Man’s incredibly lengthy recap, they tell Wolverine they need his skills in tracking things by their scent, useful for pinpointing the Zero Shard. Imagined convinced him to go, which led to the first big reveal of the series — Doctor Doom and the IO’s leader, Geno, had been watching the heroes all this time.
Geno spoke his very first words in Fortnite’s history as the issue ended with him welcoming Doom to the IO’s inner circle.
Issue 2 – Avengers Assemble
As the war raged on, the heroes barely escaped their latest assault on an IO base. Foundation, Scientist, Iron Man, Storm and Thor then formed the Moon Team, while the other Avengers were led by Captain Marvel to stall the IO’s island forces. The quicker they could retrieve the Zero Shard and power the Mecha, the smaller the chance of the IO noticing their plan would be.
Meanwhile, the team attempting to retrieve the Zero Shard from its last known location — Wakanda — are met by Queen Shuri’s royal guards before being identified as her allies. Imagined showed her power by lifting a gigantic panther vehicle in the air, and as Jones lined up a shot for its cockpit, Spider-Man yanked his arm and made the shot go straight through Wolverine. He did eventually heal, but still gross.
Shuri welcomed the heroes into her kingdom, and Imagined mentioned an interference while trying to locate the Zero Shard. Shuri explained it was due to the Vibranium surrounding it, with Wolverine losing the shard’s scent as it went missing. So another expedition was in order, to Wakanda’s Serpent Valley of snakes and other potential thieves.
The heroes were then ambushed by Fortnite’s Hybrids, humanoid lizards stolen from the Ice King during Chapter 1 — Season 8. However, as Wolverine caught a human and lizard scent, Spider-Man said this must be the work of Stegron the Dinosaur Man — one of Marvel’s greatest villains of all time, according to himself.
On the Ice Moon, Thor and Storm controlled the weather long enough for Iron Man, Foundation and Scientist to land with their ship. Shortly after, the gigantic Mecha Team Leader was found crashed into the ice, with a missing arm and tons of damage.
The issue concludes with a big revelation, partially spoiled by Chapter 3 — Season 2’s quests, the fact that The Paradigm is alive, in deep sleep since Chapter 1 — Season 9. It was later revealed by one of the writers, Christos Gage, that the Paradigm’s contact in the game’s quests was actually her subconscious mind speaking through hibernation.
Issue 3 – The Savage Land
Paradigm woke up to the Foundation, ready to end her then and there. She explained the only reason she had sided with the IO was because they had plans for a doomsday machine, if the Devourer messed with the Zero Point. Instead, she convinced them to build the Mecha to defeat the creature, stalling any plans of wiping the island and starting anew with their evil plans.
Even after this threat, Paradigm brought more bad news. The Mecha was too damaged to be repaired by the time of the IO’s next move, let alone actually powered. Iron Man mentioned the Zero Shard as the story returned to the heroes fighting beyond the Serpent Valley — its surrounding Savage Land, home to Marvel’s most primal foes.
Spider-Man, Jones, Shuri, Wolverine and Imagined battled the Hybrids, with Jones wanting to take one for further questioning. Unfortunately, once he did, this specific hissing did not fall into one of the thousands of languages he knew.
They made camp as the line between crossover and canon went wild. Imagined opened up to Wolverine about her past, revealing she is immortal and genetically perfected by her father, Geno — founder and leader of the IO. Wolverine then revealed his real age of 200, similar to hers. They share a tender moment amidst the chaos.
Elsewhere, Shuri was intrigued by Jones’ knowledge of the Omniverse, the term to describe all existence, and invited him to talk more about it in the woods. He decided to sleep instead, reminiscing on the picture he took from his office — a memory of his dead family.
Every IO employee on the island is immortal, but to avoid his family seeing his actions and the burden of immortality, he was the only one with that gift. They passed away peacefully under protection of the IO in their battling world.
The heroes woke up and ventured deeper into the woods, tracking down the Hybrids’ footprints. In their den was a major castle too futuristic for the likes of Stegron, so another Marvel villain then revealed himself — the High Evolutionary.
He had the Zero Shard infused with a special kind of vibranium from the Antarctic, which bonded with metal and had similar properties to the Zero Point. His plan was to use it to engineer a perfect species of what he deemed New Men, as what he witnessed when using the shard’s powers was a threat to all of Earth’s species. This is likely the Chrome, revealed in Chapter 3 — Season 4 as a substance that can consume practically anything organic.
This exposition dump is then interrupted by Doctor Doom stealing the shard and using it to portal to Reality Zero, leaving the heroes in a stalemate with the High Evolutionary as they used their last portal gun charge to chase Doom.
Issue 4 – Deep In The Castle
The heroes arrived at a castle in the Ice Moon, barely recognizable as a structure. Thor and Storm still maintained decent weather conditions, which prevented the others from freezing. Inside the building, they found deadly artifacts encased in ice and an old foe from Fortnite’s history — the Ice King.
Jonesy stepped into a tile that activated a message from the king, which explained he had a council of knights with the responsibility of encasing the Omniverse’s greatest threats and weapons. That is where the Devourer came from, as the Iceberg from Chapter 1 — Season 7 was just a broken piece of the moon with the Ice King’s castle on it. The Prisoner, antagonist of that season, was a knight corrupted by the thought of using the weapons to reshape reality to his will.
The Ice King refused and froze him deep into the island’s ocean. As the message ended, the heroes were informed their finding of the castle proved them as a danger worthy of being imprisoned, giving them an ultimatum.
On the other side of the moon, Foundation, Scientist, Iron Man and Paradigm finished repairing the Mecha but needed the Zero Shard to power it. Imagined made them aware of the Ice King’s threat, but was cut off by Doctor Doom using the weapons that were frozen away. After a long battle, Shuri used a device to counteract the vibranium infused in the shard to take it away from Doom. Spider-Man grabbed it immediately, and went out into the cold to find and power the Mecha.
Doom used every weapon under the sun to obliterate the heroes, with Wolverine’s costume and arm nearly gone. As they were lying on the ground nearly defeated, the new and improved Mecha Team Leader gave Doctor Doom a hand, forcing him to retreat as the heroes returned to the island to finish the Zero War.
Issue 5 – Collision Event
Zero War’s end is a retelling of the Chapter 3 — Season 2 Collision live event, where the Seven went all out against the IO’s doomsday machine, The Collider, and its defending forces. As Zero War is supplementary to the overall Fortnite canon and developed before the in-game visuals, some things diverge from them, like the Mecha Team Leader having her original coat of paint instead of the Mecha Strike Commander blue.
The heroes began united, preparing to take down the IO’s outposts one by one. Order, Imagined’s sister, thanks Wolverine for giving her the first happiness she has had in years. However, Foundation realized the IO was letting their bases go too easily, suggesting an evacuation and possible early firing of the Collider’s deadly power. They had to move fast, so Marvel’s heroes were quickly geared up in Seven-themed outfits — Iron Man Zero being the highlight.
The situation only improved for Fortnite and Marvel’s heroes as the Mecha Team Leader landed onto the island straight from the Ice Moon. Things unraveled mostly the same way as the in-game event did, with the Mecha finally having a shot at the Collider by using the sword, yet unfortunately falling down when the ground is detonated.
However, this prompts Iron Man in his new suit to try and dismantle the Collider himself, being surprised by a blast of energy he could only describe as “Thanos-level power”. Wolverine caught a scent described as one man switching forms constantly. Imagined and her sister Order then realized that Geno, their father, had arrived.
Geno was immediately attacked by his daughters as the whole family’s power was at display, as they were genetically perfect humans with suits capable of giving them power blasts, but not much else. Wolverine, Imagined and Order pushed Geno from a railing as Imagined sacrificed herself to bring her father straight into the Zero Point — which powered the Collider.
Any contact with the uncontrolled Zero Point results in a slow but certain death, as each cell in the person’s body is split and sent to a different reality. Geno slowed this process down by arriving at his reality, filled with technology available to assist him and his dying daughter. Unfortunately, it was too late for the Imagined as she faded away into the Omniverse as a hero. The Seven are now six.
The Seven were given control of the Zero Point and the IO had finally been defeated. At least for the time being, as the threats to the island could scale to a point beyond repair even for them.
The Scientist calibrated the Bifrost to return all Marvel heroes home, and Shuri gave Jones a goodbye for the time being. Order becomes vengeful as her sister’s sacrifice was seen in vain, with Wolverine agreeing to it before it had happened. Iron Man offers assistance in case the Seven ever need it, and Marvel leaves Reality Zero — until its next big outing.
Then, Geno lives. Piece by piece, rebuilt inside a reality never shown before, Reality 35. The IO’s inner circle and its plans for the Omniverse are only beginning, however starting from Chapter 3 — Season 3, the island is really free from their control.
This peace didn’t last long, with Chapter 3 — Season 4, Paradise, showing a brand new threat on the horizon.
Fortnite is free-to-play on PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Android.
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