After a week of superhero teases, Epic Games revealed Fortnite’s Chapter 2 – Season 4, which adds a cast of Marvel characters to the game.
The event, titled Nexus War, is a play on Marvel’s Infinity War. The fourth season trailer shows iconic Marvel heroes and villains, including Iron Man, Wolverine, Groot, Storm, Mystique, Doctor Doom, and She-Hulk, being teleported to Fortnite’s island. After a brief face-off with the game’s characters, Thor flies in to reveal this season’s big bad: Galactus.
The new characters aren’t introduced solely for the creation of cosmetic skins, they also offer unique powers. Wolverine slashes enemies with his claws and Groot turns into a giant wooden ball. The battle pass is also filled with Marvel-themed sprays and cosmetics, like a Baby Groot backpack or a Mark 85 energy blade.
There are plenty of themed map challenges packed into Season Four. Players can earn 50,000 XP for “Eliminating Doctor Doom at Doom’s Domain,” an event that’s recommended for teams of four. In another challenge, players will need to destroy Stark robots hidden around Quinjet patrol landing sites. Players can “experiment” on the island to discover S.H.I.E.L.D punch cards, which gets a new menu in the game.
Season Four seems to be one of Fortnite’s most narrative-driven updates yet. The battle pass trailer sets up a high-stakes drama, with Thor saying that the heroes have been called together to “defend reality.” Other Marvel Easter eggs, like the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, which serves as the season’s lobby, also make an appearance.
The update features an original digital comic book that can be opened in the lobby, which gives more detail about the plot. It also, bizarrely, shows Thor punching Fortnite’s banana skin in the face.
This isn’t the first time Marvel and Fortnite have crossed paths. Some of the heroes have appeared in the game before, and an Infinity War-themed event made Thanos into a playable villain. The new update takes that relationship even further with a full-on, comic-book style event.
Shortly after Season Four began, outages happened across Fortnite, which affected login and matchmaking. According to the Fortnite Status Twitter account, those issues have been resolved and players can now play the new update.
