Midnighter
Encyclopedia
Midnighter is a fictional comic book
superhero
, best known as a member of the rogue superhero team The Authority. Created by writer Warren Ellis
and artist Bryan Hitch
, he first appeared in Stormwatch
(vol. 2) #4, before appearing in various Authority books and series and his own eponymous ongoing series. He and his husband, Apollo
, have also been interpreted as a parallel of the Batman/Superman
"World's Finest
" partnership. Unlike Batman, Midnighter has superhuman abilities, and generally kills his opponents.
In an interview for Comic Values Annual (1999), edited by Alex G. Malloy, Warren Ellis described Midnighter
as "the Shadow by way of John Woo". Midnighter is rarely seen without his costume and mask. Recurring themes in Midnighter's adventures are his love of violence and killing, as well as comments on his sexuality.
title. Stormwatch volume 2, issue 4, introduced Midnighter and Apollo as former Stormwatch agents from a secret "black ops" team known only to the first Weatherman, Henry Bendix
. In the first issue of the arc, collected in trade paperback as A Finer World, Christine Trelane had cracked the files of the recently-deposed Bendix and discovered Apollo and Midnighter's existence. The new Weatherman, Jackson King, intercepted them on a mission to seize weapons made in the "Nevada Garden", a bioengineering facility created by the first Engineer
. Flashback sequences showed Midnighter and Apollo, the sole survivors of their seven-member team's sinister first mission, escaping Bendix and going rogue to spend five years fighting crime on the streets of America. Midnighter and Apollo initially resisted their capture, believing Stormwatch still to be under Bendix's command; on learning of his death they ended their opposition and accepted a mission from King to destroy the Nevada Garden. To repay their assistance Trelane granted Midnighter and Apollo new civilian identities and lives away from Stormwatch. This story arc introduced Midnighter's trademark enhancements, his superpowered healing and ability to anticipate an opponent's moves so quickly as to win any fight, as the product of bioengineering commissioned by Bendix.
for a new team, The Authority, under her leadership. The new series picked up themes Ellis had explored in Stormwatch, including the political potential of a team more powerful than world governments and the United Nations
.
A formidable fighter with a sardonic attitude, Midnighter epitomized the new team's commitment to fighting for a finer world, including against vested interests and world governments. Midnighter and Apollo's relationship, though hinted in previous issues, was revealed in The Authority #8. Midnighter was the architect of the team's first significant victory, the defeat of autocratic dictator Kaizen Gamorra, which he achieved by dropping the 50-mile-long Carrier on to Gamorra's island base.
During the Transfer of Power storyline, Midnighter was the only Authority member to evade capture when the US government had the team attacked and replaced with manipulable substitutes. Presumed dead, Midnighter had in fact escaped the Carrier with baby Jenny Quantum. He returned to overthrow the puppet team and rescue Apollo from imprisonment and abuse at the hands of their replacements. Shortly thereafter Midnighter and Apollo were married and adopted Jenny.
Midnighter had a central role in Ed Brubaker
and Dustin Nguyen
's Revolution maxiseries. A visitation, apparently from a future Apollo, convinced Midnighter that he was on the path to becoming a malign dictator. To avoid this fate Midnighter quit the team, precipitating its break-up, and returned to life fighting solo on the streets. Raised alone by Apollo, Jenny exploited her powers to age herself to young adulthood and reformed the Authority. Having convinced Midnighter to rejoin the team Jenny discovered he was being manipulated by a dimension-hopping Henry Bendix, hitherto assumed dead. Midnighter fought for Bendix before the Engineer was able to break the mind-control; Midnighter then killed Bendix by ripping out his spine.
's Kev miniseries, featuring Kev Hawkins
, a former SAS
soldier. Kev was introduced in the semi-parody The Authority: Kev, in which he killed Midnighter, Apollo and the rest of the Authority, though the Carrier resurrected them. On their last meeting they took down MI5's Royal Oak project, an attempt to replicate Bendix's experiments. Kev later featured without the Authority in the final book of his series, A Man Called Kev.
and Chris Sprouse
. The book was part of the 2006 "Worldstorm" soft reboot of the Wildstorm universe, which saw several books relaunched, but which faltered when flagship titles The Authority and Wildcats suffered serious delays and were cancelled after two and one issues respectively. The series was originally intended as a six issue mini-series but ran for 20 issues and was cancelled in June 2008.
The first story arc saw Midnighter attacked and kidnapped by agents of a man named Paulus while passing through the Carrier's teleportation
portal. Paulus told Midnighter that he had replaced Midnighter's secondary heart with a remote-detonated bomb, and challenged him on pain of death to assassinate Adolf Hitler
.
Time-travelling back to the First World War
trenches, Midnighter encountered Hitler as a young corporal in the German army, but was apprehended by 'time police' officers from the 95th century before carrying out his mission. In his struggle to escape, he crashed the officers' time machine at the year 1945, shortly before Hitler's expected suicide. Eventually Midnighter allied himself with the police and returned to his own time, where he threatened to erase Paulus from history by killing his kidnapped younger self; he secured Paulus's surrender without having to kill the child. Midnighter then returned to the Carrier, but was apparently just as listless as before, immediately sending himself on another mission in Iraq
.
This first arc was followed by four single-issue stories. Midnighter #6 featured an apparent alternate-universe Samurai Midnighter. Midnighter #7, by Brian K. Vaughan
and Darick Robertson
, explored the way Midnighter's brain processes combat by running the story backwards. Midnighter #8, by Christos Gage
and John Paul Leon
, dealt with Midnighter's attempts to connect better with humans after a graphic and public battle with the Suicide King.
A second story arc (issues #10-16), under new creative team Keith Giffen
and Jon Landry (with ChrisCross
pencilling later issues), detailed Midnighter's attempts to rediscover his life before becoming superhuman. Files given to him by Jenny Quantum identified him as Lucas Trent, born July 14, 1967 (making him 40 years old in 2007), a native of Harmony, Indiana
. On visiting the town he found it was the hub of a paramilitary
patriotic organization named Anthem, with ambitions to take over the United States and provide the country with the conscience they felt it had lost. While battling Anthem and its superpowered operatives, including Dawn (a reference to the phrase "dawn's early light" in the "Star-Spangled Banner"), and Rosie (patterned after Rosie the Riveter
), he discovered that Jenny had falsified the documents she gave him, and that he had never been Trent - but decided to stay on in Harmony nonetheless.
The final storyline, again by Giffen, featured a Midnighter imposter attacking the Carrier and the Authority, and Midnighter's fight to defeat him.
mini-series Grifter & Midnighter charted a team-up between Midnighter and Grifter of WildC.A.T.s. It was written by Chuck Dixon
with art by Ryan Benjamin
.
Wildstorm limited series described the devastation of Earth, and set the scene for a new Authority ongoing series, by Dan Abnett
and Andy Lanning
, part of the World's End
storyline. In this series Midnighter appears as one of the last Authority members still able to act in the ruins of London, now called Unlondon. Separated from Apollo, who is confined to the upper atmosphere by sunlight-blocking fog over the planet's surface, Midnighter helps civilians to reach the ruins of the Carrier, now a stronghold for survivors. Midnighter is able to contact Apollo via balloons which he releases high up in the atmosphere.
Following the resolution of the World's End storyline, the Authority's Carrier is called back to its creators. Jack Hawksmoor, Swift, and the Engineer go with it, but Midnighter remains on Earth to be with Apollo who needs to be close to the sun.
Typically, Midnighter is presented as superhumanly strong, quick, and resilient. He is shown moving faster than the human and even superhuman eye, and with a healing factor that allows him rapidly to recover from injury and illness. Storylines have shown him surviving a broken neck, broken limbs, holes through his chest, and burning; he also claims to have "[beaten] AIDS
in six weeks". He can survive in anaerobic environments for short periods and possesses a secondary heart should the first one be rendered unusable.
Many writers have referenced Midnighter's trademark ability to predict the unfolding of a battle before it starts. Early in Ellis's run on The Authority, the character was described as having a mental combat computer, with neural-inductive implants, which he uses to run through a given combat situation millions of times in his mind, almost instantly covering nearly every possible result before the first punch is even thrown. This allows for the perfect response and counter attack, such that if Midnighter can possibly win a battle, he will. Ellis portrayed the Midnighter delivering a monologue on this ability in order to intimidate opponents; Keith Giffen later had the character distribute a business card to this effect, in order to save time. Issue #7 of the Midnighter solo series, written by Brian K. Vaughan, showed the character using this ability regressively, to visualise the desired outcome of a battle and work backwards logically to achieve it. The stand-alone Authority graphic novel Human on the Inside, by John Ridley, suggested the ability was reactive, and required an opponent to make a first move to define the possibilities for a response. Though this is contradicted by numerous earlier, and later comics. Midnighter was also unable to use this ability against the Joker due to the latter's extreme insanity.
counterparts, but later learned that they were a former couple and had broken up.
Issue #6 of Midnighter's solo series starred a nameless, super-skilled swordsman from feudal Japan who fell in love with a peace-seeking Chinese warrior much like Apollo. This swordsman had powers similar to the Midnighter's future-sight and super-strength.
In Gen¹³
(volume 4) #11, a teenage version of Midnighter is a part of a team called "The Authori-teens" named Daybreaker. While he and the Apollo analogue Kid Apollo would not appear to be openly gay, their feelings for one another are apparent; Kid Apollo is said to be "overly protective" of Daybreaker.
Other collections:
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
, best known as a member of the rogue superhero team The Authority. Created by writer Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
and artist Bryan Hitch
Bryan Hitch
Bryan Hitch is a British comic book artist. Hitch began his career in the United Kingdom for Marvel UK, working on titles such as Action Force and Death's Head, before gaining prominence on American titles such as Wildstorm's Stormwatch and The Authority, DC Comics titles such as JLA, and Marvel...
, he first appeared in Stormwatch
Stormwatch (comics)
Stormwatch is a fictional United Nations-sponsored superhero team that originated in the Wildstorm Universe and has since been revived as part of the DC Universe. The original version of Stormwatch first appeared in Stormwatch Stormwatch is a fictional United Nations-sponsored superhero team that...
(vol. 2) #4, before appearing in various Authority books and series and his own eponymous ongoing series. He and his husband, Apollo
Apollo (comics)
Apollo is a fictional character, a comic book superhero who first appeared in the Stormwatch series, but is best known for his role in The Authority. While visually distinct, Apollo is cast in the mold of the Superman archetype....
, have also been interpreted as a parallel of the Batman/Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
"World's Finest
World's Finest Team
The World's Finest Team was a fictional DC Comics superhero team who first appeared in the DC Comics Dollar Comics format series in World's Finest Comics #244 , created by Gerry Conway, with art by Jim Aparo and George Tuska...
" partnership. Unlike Batman, Midnighter has superhuman abilities, and generally kills his opponents.
In an interview for Comic Values Annual (1999), edited by Alex G. Malloy, Warren Ellis described Midnighter
as "the Shadow by way of John Woo". Midnighter is rarely seen without his costume and mask. Recurring themes in Midnighter's adventures are his love of violence and killing, as well as comments on his sexuality.
Stormwatch
Warren Ellis created and introduced the character in 1998, soon after his appointment as writer on the StormwatchStormwatch (comics)
Stormwatch is a fictional United Nations-sponsored superhero team that originated in the Wildstorm Universe and has since been revived as part of the DC Universe. The original version of Stormwatch first appeared in Stormwatch Stormwatch is a fictional United Nations-sponsored superhero team that...
title. Stormwatch volume 2, issue 4, introduced Midnighter and Apollo as former Stormwatch agents from a secret "black ops" team known only to the first Weatherman, Henry Bendix
Henry Bendix
Henry Bendix, also known as Weatherman, is a fictional character in the Wildstorm universe. He first appeared in the Stormwatch series.-Early life:...
. In the first issue of the arc, collected in trade paperback as A Finer World, Christine Trelane had cracked the files of the recently-deposed Bendix and discovered Apollo and Midnighter's existence. The new Weatherman, Jackson King, intercepted them on a mission to seize weapons made in the "Nevada Garden", a bioengineering facility created by the first Engineer
Engineer (comics)
The Engineer is the name of two fictional characters in the . The current Engineer, Angela Spica, is a member of the Authority, first appears in The Authority #1 and was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch.-The First Engineer:...
. Flashback sequences showed Midnighter and Apollo, the sole survivors of their seven-member team's sinister first mission, escaping Bendix and going rogue to spend five years fighting crime on the streets of America. Midnighter and Apollo initially resisted their capture, believing Stormwatch still to be under Bendix's command; on learning of his death they ended their opposition and accepted a mission from King to destroy the Nevada Garden. To repay their assistance Trelane granted Midnighter and Apollo new civilian identities and lives away from Stormwatch. This story arc introduced Midnighter's trademark enhancements, his superpowered healing and ability to anticipate an opponent's moves so quickly as to win any fight, as the product of bioengineering commissioned by Bendix.
The Authority
In 1999 Warren Ellis concluded his run on Stormwatch with the Final Orbit storyline, which saw the team destroyed. Midnighter was one of several Stormwatch characters Ellis retained for his new Wildstorm title, The Authority. In it, Midnighter (along with Apollo) was recruited by Jenny SparksJenny Sparks
Jenny Sparks, also known as "The Spirit of the 20th century", is a fictional character in the Wildstorm comic book universe created by Warren Ellis during his 1997 revamp of the dwindling Stormwatch series...
for a new team, The Authority, under her leadership. The new series picked up themes Ellis had explored in Stormwatch, including the political potential of a team more powerful than world governments and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
A formidable fighter with a sardonic attitude, Midnighter epitomized the new team's commitment to fighting for a finer world, including against vested interests and world governments. Midnighter and Apollo's relationship, though hinted in previous issues, was revealed in The Authority #8. Midnighter was the architect of the team's first significant victory, the defeat of autocratic dictator Kaizen Gamorra, which he achieved by dropping the 50-mile-long Carrier on to Gamorra's island base.
During the Transfer of Power storyline, Midnighter was the only Authority member to evade capture when the US government had the team attacked and replaced with manipulable substitutes. Presumed dead, Midnighter had in fact escaped the Carrier with baby Jenny Quantum. He returned to overthrow the puppet team and rescue Apollo from imprisonment and abuse at the hands of their replacements. Shortly thereafter Midnighter and Apollo were married and adopted Jenny.
Midnighter had a central role in Ed Brubaker
Ed Brubaker
Ed Brubaker is an Eisner Award-winning comic book writer and cartoonist. Brubaker first early comics work was primarily in the crime fiction genre with works such as Lowlife, The Fall, Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives and Scene of the Crime...
and Dustin Nguyen
Dustin Nguyen (artist)
Dustin Nguyen is a comic book artist who has worked for DC Comics and WildStorm since 2000.Outside of comics, Dustin is also known as a conceptual artist for toys, games, and animation.-Career:...
's Revolution maxiseries. A visitation, apparently from a future Apollo, convinced Midnighter that he was on the path to becoming a malign dictator. To avoid this fate Midnighter quit the team, precipitating its break-up, and returned to life fighting solo on the streets. Raised alone by Apollo, Jenny exploited her powers to age herself to young adulthood and reformed the Authority. Having convinced Midnighter to rejoin the team Jenny discovered he was being manipulated by a dimension-hopping Henry Bendix, hitherto assumed dead. Midnighter fought for Bendix before the Engineer was able to break the mind-control; Midnighter then killed Bendix by ripping out his spine.
Kev
Midnighter featured in the first three of Garth EnnisGarth Ennis
Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...
's Kev miniseries, featuring Kev Hawkins
Kev Hawkins
Kev Hawkins is a comic book anti-hero who first appeared in an Authority one-shot in 2002.Kev was created by Garth Ennis and Glenn Fabry and is a SAS operative who is forever down on his luck...
, a former SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
soldier. Kev was introduced in the semi-parody The Authority: Kev, in which he killed Midnighter, Apollo and the rest of the Authority, though the Carrier resurrected them. On their last meeting they took down MI5's Royal Oak project, an attempt to replicate Bendix's experiments. Kev later featured without the Authority in the final book of his series, A Man Called Kev.
Midnighter (series)
On November 1, 2006, an ongoing Midnighter solo series began, with an initial creative partnership of Garth EnnisGarth Ennis
Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...
and Chris Sprouse
Chris Sprouse
Chris Sprouse is an American comic book artist.-Biography:Chris Sprouse was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the age of 3 he moved with his family to New Delhi, India where he first discovered comics as he was unable to play outside due to the dangerous amount of snakes in the house yard...
. The book was part of the 2006 "Worldstorm" soft reboot of the Wildstorm universe, which saw several books relaunched, but which faltered when flagship titles The Authority and Wildcats suffered serious delays and were cancelled after two and one issues respectively. The series was originally intended as a six issue mini-series but ran for 20 issues and was cancelled in June 2008.
The first story arc saw Midnighter attacked and kidnapped by agents of a man named Paulus while passing through the Carrier's teleportation
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
portal. Paulus told Midnighter that he had replaced Midnighter's secondary heart with a remote-detonated bomb, and challenged him on pain of death to assassinate Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
.
Time-travelling back to the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
trenches, Midnighter encountered Hitler as a young corporal in the German army, but was apprehended by 'time police' officers from the 95th century before carrying out his mission. In his struggle to escape, he crashed the officers' time machine at the year 1945, shortly before Hitler's expected suicide. Eventually Midnighter allied himself with the police and returned to his own time, where he threatened to erase Paulus from history by killing his kidnapped younger self; he secured Paulus's surrender without having to kill the child. Midnighter then returned to the Carrier, but was apparently just as listless as before, immediately sending himself on another mission in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
.
This first arc was followed by four single-issue stories. Midnighter #6 featured an apparent alternate-universe Samurai Midnighter. Midnighter #7, by Brian K. Vaughan
Brian K. Vaughan
Brian Keller Vaughan is an American comic book and television writer. He is best known for the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, and Pride of Baghdad, and was one of the principal writers of the television series Lost, during seasons three through five...
and Darick Robertson
Darick Robertson
Darick W. Robertson is an American artist best known for his work as a comic book illustrator. Highly prolific, Robertson has illustrated hundreds of comics in his twenty plus years in the industry. His body of work ranges from science fiction characters of his own creation to headlining on...
, explored the way Midnighter's brain processes combat by running the story backwards. Midnighter #8, by Christos Gage
Christos Gage
Christos N. "Chris" Gage is an American comic book writer and screenwriter.-Early life:Gage is the son of author and journalist Nicholas Gage. He was born in New York, and grew up in Athens, Greece, and then North Grafton, Massachusetts...
and John Paul Leon
John Paul Leon
John Paul Leon is an American comic book artist, known for his work on the Milestone Comics series Static, and the Marvel Comics limited series Earth X.-Career:...
, dealt with Midnighter's attempts to connect better with humans after a graphic and public battle with the Suicide King.
A second story arc (issues #10-16), under new creative team Keith Giffen
Keith Giffen
Keith Ian Giffen is an American comic book illustrator and writer.-Biography:Giffen was born in Queens, New York City....
and Jon Landry (with ChrisCross
ChrisCross
ChrisCross is a comic book illustrator, known mostly for his stints pencilling Milestone Comics' Blood Syndicate and Heroes, Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel and Slingers, and DC Comics' Firestorm....
pencilling later issues), detailed Midnighter's attempts to rediscover his life before becoming superhuman. Files given to him by Jenny Quantum identified him as Lucas Trent, born July 14, 1967 (making him 40 years old in 2007), a native of Harmony, Indiana
Harmony, Indiana
For the utopian settlement formerly known as Harmony, see New Harmony, IndianaHarmony is a town in Van Buren Township, Clay County, Indiana, United States. The population was 656 at the 2010 census...
. On visiting the town he found it was the hub of a paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
patriotic organization named Anthem, with ambitions to take over the United States and provide the country with the conscience they felt it had lost. While battling Anthem and its superpowered operatives, including Dawn (a reference to the phrase "dawn's early light" in the "Star-Spangled Banner"), and Rosie (patterned after Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military...
), he discovered that Jenny had falsified the documents she gave him, and that he had never been Trent - but decided to stay on in Harmony nonetheless.
The final storyline, again by Giffen, featured a Midnighter imposter attacking the Carrier and the Authority, and Midnighter's fight to defeat him.
Grifter & Midnighter
The 20072007 in comics
-January:*January 10: Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator released.*January 24: The Boys is canceled with issue #6.-February:*February 2: Newsarama reports that The Boys has been picked up by Dynamite Entertainment....
mini-series Grifter & Midnighter charted a team-up between Midnighter and Grifter of WildC.A.T.s. It was written by Chuck Dixon
Chuck Dixon
Charles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, best known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.-Biography:Dixon grew up in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, reading comics of all genres...
with art by Ryan Benjamin
Ryan Benjamin
Ryan Arthur Benjamin is a former American football long snapper of the National Football League. He was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent in 2001...
.
World's End
The 2008 Number of the BeastNumber of the Beast (comics)
Number of the Beast is a comic book limited series, written by Scott Beatty, with art by Chris Sprouse.Number of the Beast was the second of a number bi-weekly series, it was preceded by Wildstorm: Revelations, which resulted in the relaunch of a number of Wildstorm titles.-Characters:As well as...
Wildstorm limited series described the devastation of Earth, and set the scene for a new Authority ongoing series, by Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett is a British comic book writer and novelist. He is a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and is known for his work on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since the 1990s, including 2000 AD...
and Andy Lanning
Andy Lanning
Andy Lanning is a British comic book writer and inker, known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and for his collaboration with Dan Abnett.-Career:Lanning works primarily at Marvel Comics and DC Comics as an inker...
, part of the World's End
World's End (comics)
"World's End" is a 2008-2009 comic book crossover storyline published by Wildstorm and taking place in the Wildstorm Universe. The event takes place in the issues of all of Wildstorm's Wildstorm Universe ongoing series.-Publication history:...
storyline. In this series Midnighter appears as one of the last Authority members still able to act in the ruins of London, now called Unlondon. Separated from Apollo, who is confined to the upper atmosphere by sunlight-blocking fog over the planet's surface, Midnighter helps civilians to reach the ruins of the Carrier, now a stronghold for survivors. Midnighter is able to contact Apollo via balloons which he releases high up in the atmosphere.
Following the resolution of the World's End storyline, the Authority's Carrier is called back to its creators. Jack Hawksmoor, Swift, and the Engineer go with it, but Midnighter remains on Earth to be with Apollo who needs to be close to the sun.
DC Universe
In Fall of 2011 DC relaunched their production into 52 brand new titles. Stormwatch, written by Paul Cornell and drawn by Miguel Sepulveda, included. The team consists of Jack Hawksmoor, Apollo, Midnighter, the Martian Manhunter, Jenny Quantum, the Engineer, and three new characters named Adam One, the Projectionist, and the Eminence of Blades. Jack Hawksmoor, Martian Manhunter and the rest of the crew look to recruit Midnighter and Apollo, but have their jobs cut out for them.Powers
Midnighter's abilities are presented from his first appearance, in Stormwatch volume 2 issue 4, as the product of bioengineerined enhancements commissioned by Henry Bendix. It is implied (as in the Midnighter solo series issues 10-16) that he was a normal human before enlisting with Stormwatch Black; several storylines have featured the deactivation, overriding, or removal of his enhancements to reduce his abilities to those of a normal man. The abortive Team Achilles series suggested that Bendix had 'designed' Midnighter and Apollo in childhood.Typically, Midnighter is presented as superhumanly strong, quick, and resilient. He is shown moving faster than the human and even superhuman eye, and with a healing factor that allows him rapidly to recover from injury and illness. Storylines have shown him surviving a broken neck, broken limbs, holes through his chest, and burning; he also claims to have "[beaten] AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in six weeks". He can survive in anaerobic environments for short periods and possesses a secondary heart should the first one be rendered unusable.
Many writers have referenced Midnighter's trademark ability to predict the unfolding of a battle before it starts. Early in Ellis's run on The Authority, the character was described as having a mental combat computer, with neural-inductive implants, which he uses to run through a given combat situation millions of times in his mind, almost instantly covering nearly every possible result before the first punch is even thrown. This allows for the perfect response and counter attack, such that if Midnighter can possibly win a battle, he will. Ellis portrayed the Midnighter delivering a monologue on this ability in order to intimidate opponents; Keith Giffen later had the character distribute a business card to this effect, in order to save time. Issue #7 of the Midnighter solo series, written by Brian K. Vaughan, showed the character using this ability regressively, to visualise the desired outcome of a battle and work backwards logically to achieve it. The stand-alone Authority graphic novel Human on the Inside, by John Ridley, suggested the ability was reactive, and required an opponent to make a first move to define the possibilities for a response. Though this is contradicted by numerous earlier, and later comics. Midnighter was also unable to use this ability against the Joker due to the latter's extreme insanity.
Alternate versions
In Wildstorm Winter Special 2005, a story called Apollo & Midnighter: Two Dangerous Ideas features their alternate reality analogues, Pluto and Daylighter, with inverted color schemes to match. At first the real Apollo and Midnighter believed that they were their homophobicHomophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
counterparts, but later learned that they were a former couple and had broken up.
Issue #6 of Midnighter's solo series starred a nameless, super-skilled swordsman from feudal Japan who fell in love with a peace-seeking Chinese warrior much like Apollo. This swordsman had powers similar to the Midnighter's future-sight and super-strength.
In Gen¹³
Gen¹³
Gen¹³ is a fictional superhero team and comic book series originally written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell. It was originally published by Image Comics under the banner Wildstorm, which went on to become an imprint for DC Comics, who continued publishing the Gen¹³...
(volume 4) #11, a teenage version of Midnighter is a part of a team called "The Authori-teens" named Daybreaker. While he and the Apollo analogue Kid Apollo would not appear to be openly gay, their feelings for one another are apparent; Kid Apollo is said to be "overly protective" of Daybreaker.
Collections
Midnighter solo series:- Midnighter: Killing Machine (collects Midnighter #1-6; 144 pages, November 2007, ISBN 1401214770)
- Midnighter: Anthem (collects Midnighter #7, 10-15; 160 pages, August 2008, ISBN 1401214770)
- Midnighter: Assassin8 (168 pages, December 2008, ISBN 1-4012-2001-0)
Other collections:
- Grifter & Midnighter (144 pages, January 2008, ISBN 1401216276)
External links
- Midnighter #7 preview, NewsaramaNewsaramaNewsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry.-History:Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared...
,, May 7, 2007 - "DC Relaunch: Martian Manhunter in Stormwatch, Wildstorm, Westerns, Loose Cannons Announced" Comic Book News, June 9, 2011
Interviews
- Talking Grifter & Midnighter with Chuck Dixon, NewsaramaNewsaramaNewsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry.-History:Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared...
, January 5, 2007 - Talking Midnighter, Four Horsemen with Giffen, NewsaramaNewsaramaNewsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry.-History:Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared...
, May 22, 2007
Reviews
- Review of Midnighter #1 Comics BulletinComics BulletinComics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...
, November 6, 2006.