Fortnite's Hot Bat Summer brings bikini Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy — and fans are losing it

Epic Games and DC have teamed up for Hot Bat Summer, a new Fortnite collaboration that puts Gotham's most iconic women in beach gear. The reveal dropped Tuesday and immediately sent the community into a spin — not because it's outrageous by any objective standard, but because Fortnite has spent nearly nine years being unusually conservative about exactly this kind of thing.

The teaser art shows bikini versions of Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn being chased down the beach by Batman in swim trunks, his cowl, and flip-flops. Ace the Bat-Hound is also in the image, confirming a new Sidekick pet is coming alongside the skins. The collaboration draws directly from DC's own recent swimsuit variant cover run — artist Mikel Janín's alternate cover for Batman 126 showed Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle at the beach in almost exactly this vibe, and DC has since released a full wave of swimsuit variants across Batman, Supergirl, Catwoman, and Lobo.

Fortnite is rated T for Teen, and Epic has historically kept its cosmetics notably tame compared to competitors. Fans of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter have complained for years that their characters — Kitana and Cammy specifically — arrived in Fortnite wearing bike shorts and black leggings rather than their usual outfits. Meanwhile Marvel Rivals and Overwatch have leaned into summer skin fan service without much controversy. The community has largely credited — or blamed, depending on who you ask — last year's Kim Kardashian Icon skins for finally cracking Fortnite's conservative cosmetic approach open.

Reaction in the community is split but mostly positive. Some players are hoping Epic uses this as a reason to revisit older skins and make them more faithful to their source material. Others are simply relieved the game is loosening up. A vocal minority is clutching pearls, but they appear to be outnumbered. No release date for the Hot Bat Summer skins has been announced yet.