Stormwatch 8 - and this is why we can't have nice things

[kirke_novak]

Apollo got abducted by some weird alien vortex thingy to another universe (whateva) and Midnighter is worried. He even has this lovely conversation with Jenny.





Aw, that's sweet, right? And brings back all those memories of the old Authority, where Midnighter, cruel and vicious as he is, would never harm a child. He loves children, he breaks necks of people who endanger children, that one time when he had to kill a child to save an entire planet from destruction and save Jenny, he agonized about it for weeks! That's why so many of us love him; he's bad but no ev....





...oh.

I'm not even angry about it, it's more of the "that is not happening, this is a INDOCTRINATION PROCESS hallucination, they will wake up any minute now and Mindy will be Mindy again. Yay! YAY!!! YAY DAMMIT!!!!!!!

Anyway, Jenny returns on her own because ~Jenny and she tells Mindy this:



Who wants to bet that the decision will be Midnighter becoming her father? You know, not because he want to because he loves kids, but because she made him.

I've changed my mind, I'm actually angry now. /rage/ If you need me, I'll be here, in my little corner on Tumblr, reblogging this forevery:

Comments

[equinox216]

"For example, I made a decision. You're not going to like it."
"What--?"
"BAM YOU'RE STRAIGHT."

wails of thousands of shippers

[kirke_novak]

THIS JOKE IS NOT FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111!!!

[icon_uk]

More or less what I thought the punishment would be.

[joasakura]

Oh god, that's way too on the nose to be even remotely funny. I don't trust that not to happen :(((((

[darkknightjrk]

I don't think she actually changed him in any way--she was just playing mind-games with him, hence the "boo-yah" at the end. She got the mighty Midnighter a little worried.

[protogarrett]

Please tell me that's not what actually happened.

[glprime]

No seriously, who isn't seeing that coming?

[salad_barbarian]

First thing that came to my mind as well.

[tsunamiwombat]

I lold

[blackruzsa]

Actually, I expected it to be more along the lines of
OH BY THE WAY, APOLLO'S STRAIGHT

fuck

now I feel sick.

):

[gerardotejada]

Yeah, now turn Lois Lane gay and you can count yourself dead.

No, really, that would be the most disrespectfull hate crime since the Spiderman Brand New Day holocaust to Quesada

[icon_uk]

Horrifying though it is, I reluctantly have to note that Midnighter sort of has a point.

Can Jenny be truly called a child when her powers are THAT terrifyingly broad? We're talking about a cross between Dark Phoenix and Anthony in "It's a Good life" heading into puberty...

[equinox216]

Yeah, but by the same, Dr. Manhattan-colored token, what on earth possessed him to think he could succeed in knocking her off prematurely?

Alternately, who's to say she hasn't ALREADY blown everything to smithereens several times as an infant, but she's put it back together each time? The 'omnipotent klutz' routine just doesn't work with any kind of close inspection.

[kirke_novak]

Why I may agree on that point, I do not agree Midnighter would do it. The same Midnighter who nearly had a nevrous beakdown when he had to kill Jen's sister? And yes, I know, it's not "the same" Midnighter... hence my rage.

[baihu]

I have no idea about THIS continuity (I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS!) but there's also the possibility that killing Jenny ends the world. At least I think that's what might happen. Back in old Authority, the plan to kill Jenny didn't seem to have been thought through because noone really knew what happens if you kill a Jenny before her time.

Maybe destiny prevents that from happening, who knows.

[arbre_rieur]

This is the Midnighter who, in the very first AUTHORITY story arc, uses the Carrier to ram a swath straight to the heart of a city, a gleeful smile plastered on his face, while saying something along the lines of "I love my job"? A city that, presumably like any other city, was populated with its fair share of children?

Yeah, I don't see the big discrepancy here. Anyone capable of killing that many children for the sake of some perceived greater good is capable of killing one child for the sake of it. If anything, I appreciate that this writer seems to be actually acknowledging that aspect of the character instead of simply eliding it for the sake of making him more palatable to the audience. (The latter method being a common trick for writers who want to have their morally ambiguous cake and eat it too. "Oh, he's a bastard, but let's conveniently never have him being so to characters the audience actually cares about.")

[kirke_novak]

I disagree. There is, and pardon my moral ambiguity here, a difference between aknowleding that "yes, this time, this one child who I already bonded with needs to die for no other reason than the potential threat it may or may not produce in the future" and collateral damange. BIG difference. To put it in perspective - there's a difference between blowing up a building full of terrorists during a war and risking there may be civialians there and putting a gun to a child's head and shooting because "it may grow up to be a terrorist in the future"

[ian_karkull]

Sorry, I'm also not seeing the issue. A nigh omnipotent child already is a terryifing process, but a nigh-omnipotent ten year that (presumably) has had next to no parental guidance and god knows what sort of mental scarring from a difficult upbringing? Dumping her in some sort of parallel dimension is the sensible and humane thing to do.
Not doing so because they've "bonded" -which in this continuity, I don't even think they have- strikes me silly and unfounded.

Also "You like him."..? What is this, high school? One of the few things I actually liked about this reboot was that they where actually hitting on each other like you know, actual adults. This just seems childish.
Also, I'm ever so glad that you apporve of boys liking boys Jenny, but I really don't need a fictional character to tell me that it's okay to do what I do.
Sorry, it just comes off as incredibly condescending in a "someone wrote this and patted himself on the back for being progressive" sort of way.

[kirke_novak]

The fact that he has a point doesn't change the fact that he did it, when it goes against the Midnighter we know. And that's the problem. Who's buying this comic book? Mostly Wildstorm fans, like me, who are used to seeing their favorite characters characterized in a certain way. Midnighter has always love kids, even before Jenny came along, so what they are going for here (Jenny will make him adopt her to have a family) goes against the Midnighter I now and want to read about. This guy here is some sort of emo 90S reject Batman-wannabe that I really stopped caring about.I really think they are shooting themselves in the foot by having a character with a fanbase, and going against what that fanbase expects and likes about this guy. If I wanted to read Batman, I'd read Batman, but I prefer Midnighter. They already too away his marriage and now they are taking away his love of kids. Not to mention, issue 8 and Midnighter has yet to murder someone violently.

This guy here? I don't want to read about him or his quest in learning how to love. They've lost me as a reader.

[blueprintstyles]

This Midnighter never raised Jenny, so this is actually pretty in character. My guess is they'll gain a parent-daughter relationship as the series goes on.

[darkknightjrk]

Oh yeah, even if she was messing with his head a little at the end, I think, whether consciously or not, she decides that he's going to be a sort-of father figure for her.

[grazzt]

Also, hasn't Midnighter already killed an evil Jenny? Specifically, Jenny's evil twin sister, Jenny Fractal. Who was about the same age as a girl when they fought her, although Midnighter killed her as a baby.

[jlroberson]

You know, I think Cornell is a great writer, and yet I haven't really liked anything he's done for DC since the relaunch. DEMON KNIGHTS just bored me after about 4 issues, but this comic--it's like everything i didn't like about the Authority and nothing I did. For instance, Midnighter has always been a bastard. But for the reader he used to have charm. The charm of a bastard but still. This one has none. In fact, he kind of creeps me out, and not in a good way. And I fucking hate the new costume. The old one was PERFECT. Basically, Batman's costume made practical. (I really really hate that horn on his chin)

And also, one thing I never liked about the Authority is a tendency for the characters to all sound like separate parts of the same voice. And to list their traits in dialogue as thought that counts as writing. There's way too much of that here.

It's just not a very interesting book and it threw out what I liked about the old one. I just don't see why the needless changes, either.

[darkknightjrk]

It should be noted that Cornell left the book after #6. These last two issues were written by Paul Jenkins.

[halloweenjack]

Since I refuse to accept The Chinspiker as the same character, this doesn't bother me at all. Whatever, dude, go take lunch with Rob Liefeld.

[jlroberson]

THIS, oh very much so. This ain't the Midnighter. And that jock ain't Apollo either.

The Midnighter would never go out in anything as gaudy and tacky as that. The man had killer taste. (pun intended)

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm this doesn't really bother me. It honestly seems like something he would do. I mean if he had already been seeing her as a daughter then yeah i could see this being an asshat move.... but he isn't. He is batman without all the moral qualms. that said. Jenny seeing that she probably does need some guidance and then having her grow on Midnighter. Here it seems she has grown close to Apollo, and has a respect for Midnighter... i am thinking that all three of them are going to grow and learn from eachother.

[hw221]

You have a valid point, in that the Midnighter we know wouldn't do this. Hell, Wildstorm!Midnighter refused to kill baby Hitler. He loves kids.
But this Midnighter doesn't have the same growth that Wildstorm!Midnighter had. I would bet that, at some point down the line, he's going to have a chance to do this again, maybe with this being a legitimate cause for concern beyond "maybe this will happen" . But he won't, that time, not so easily, because he'll have grown, and he'll have gained at least a little compassion, and he'll love Jenny then. It would hurt him if he had to do it, but he'd do it.
Someone above me compared him to Edward, and that is actually somewhat interesting to me in this case, because I am looking forward to (hopefully) seeing him grow as a character into being almost a real person.
Or it's just shitty writing and I'm being way, way too optimistic. Seriously, if someone did that on *my* team, I'd have his ass out the door in a second. Douchebag.

[hw221]

*acting almost like a real person, not being almost a real person. Hurp.

[filthysize]

Okay, so:

1. To be fair, we don't know if Midnighter would've agonized over what he did for weeks or not, since Jenny pretty much returned immediately before we had a chance to see what his reaction would've been.

2. What Jenny did at the last page was hilarious. She clearly knows that the threat is more powerful than the blow.

3. The idea of them developing a loving father-daughter relationship with the background that the father once tried to kill the daughter is too delicious of a set-up. That's potentially fantastic if Milligan can run with it next.

[kurenai-tenka.livejournal.com]

Whereas I don't think this is *too* ooc for him, it still feels like a dick move on the part of the author when you consider their pre-reboot relationship. =/