With the Rebirth of DC Comics currently taking place, Midnighter and his on again/off again boyfriend Apollo, have been missing, until now. A new mini series with Midnighter and Apollo will be starting in October 2016. This is excellent news. Midnighter’s last series had him as a solo hero discovery and tracking down tech that had clues to his mysterious origin while dating other men but ended with him being reunited with his long time companion. The New York Times reports that series writer, Steve Orlando stated: “They have a firmer idea of who they are, and they’ve become stronger and more confident together.”
For those unaware, Midnighter is a gay comic book superhero that was introduced in 1998 in Wildstorm Comics, which is part of DC Comics. His past includes him being experimented on that gave him superhuman abilities including strength, reflexes, and speed. More so, he also has a type of supercomputer brain that can predict numerous outcomes to scenarios that allows him to formulate the most precise course of action to take. He has appeared in several team based books, including Stormwatch and the Authority. His year long ongoing series was written by Steve Orlando with various artists. This was incredibly well written. His sexuality was up front and perfectly made clear just as any other superheroes’ sexuality has been shown in other books but his story was still focused on an adventurous superhero comic book level. Unfortunately it was cancelled because of low sales. Midnighter dated men and he was shown to be a total badass in every way imaginable. Even teaming up with Agent Dick Grayson briefly to almost tease gay readers into thinking that there was something else that has happened between these characters on panel or in their own past. The year long story did have closure but left it open for new adventures to continue on.
Currently no gay male lead an ongoing mainstream comic book title. This may just be a mini series, but it is something. Fans constantly remark that new characters need to be built up that are representative of the LGBT community rather than to change established characters sexuality. This is a chance for that to happen. Midnighter and Apollo are established, though still relatively unknown outside of comic book fans. In order for characters to be more prominent and shown up front and center, fans have to want to read these comic books and to help them up. Otherwise the characters will be forgotten and the same problem will continue to linger with the lack of any gay characters being present.
Was Midnighter gay in his 1998 version? And Apollo, is he original to the Midnighter series?
He has always been gay.
I am excited for this. I loved the Midnighter series so I’m glad Steve Orlando is writing this. Let’s hope this leads to another ongoing series.