Midnighter #4 - Midnighter and Dick strip naked, take a bath and beat each other with branches

[icon_uk]

I'm not even entirely sure I'm joking there....

Midnighter #4 had a preview up now (Well, it's out today) and hitflix has an interview with writer Steve Orlando

Here's a snippet!

HF: Can we talk a little about the art style? Because as a lady I am very grateful for the sequence that is happening as the preview ends. It seems like with Grayson and Midnighter (among other characters), DC is starting to realize you can't just have cheesecake, but beefcake is also very welcome. Is that something you guys you specifically add in visually because of Midnighter's sexual orientation or is it just a natural outcropping of his personality?

STEVE: I think it's part of his personality. If you try to do it too much 'on purpose' it's not going to come off right. But yes, there are some fascinating things for fans of that type of content in MIDNIGHTER #4! But you know, we were also in Russia and it's a classic cultural thing that happens there. So the opportunity was there and I thought 'Why not do it?' Midnighter is a guy that doesn't care who he makes uncomfortable, he's going to say exactly what he thinks and exactly what he's feeling. 

You're right though. There are plenty of books that have a certain type of male gaze and it's exciting to update that. Tim Seeley and Tom King started it in Grayson and it's something I think is great. It's bold and unapologetic but it's fun. And it's an exciting friendly competition as Tim, Tom, and I try to outdo each other with flirtation and innuendo between Midnighter and Grayson!

Yay! :)



Well, Dick's propensity to elicit protective feelings in brooding older men has been noted too many times to even be coincidence any more.



Midnighter #3 ended with a scene of a Spyral operation with Matron and Agent 37 dealing with it, better known as Helena Bertinelli and Dick Grayson respectively, when all of a sudden, who should pop up but... well, it's not really a surprise is it since it's his comic, but...



I suspect chocolates and a movie aren't on the cards....


And so in #4 we have this lovely little scene...





Followed by this LOVELIER little scene!



Am I a bad person for wanting to see a towel fight here?

Yeah, thought as much...

Comments

[bradygirl_12]

Dick loves taking orders from Men in Black!

[thanekos]

Ah yes, the one-night stand that ended in a neuralyzer-ing.

[tugrul]

What is that outline on Dick's towel? :o That's not subtle.

[icon_uk]

That would be past "not subtle" and into the "slightly monstrous", and this is ME saying that!

[sarahnewlin]

Hopefully hes not just pandering in a bad way....

[icon_uk]

Agreed, though a little pandering in a GOOD way... I could sort of live with that.

I know that the Grayson title has been spurned by some longer term fans of Dick Grayson due to some of it's not exactly subtle way of presenting what MIdnighter refers to elsewhere in this issue as "my addomnally gifted friend"'s more aesthetic assets.

Me, I'm older, more jaded and longer term than that, I've seen Dick come and I've seen Dick go (and I suspect I'm going to wish I'd proofread that when I wake up tomorrow) and I'm enjoying the fact that they ARE prepared to go a little overboard, and keep it an entertaining spy thriller at the same time.

[sarahnewlin]

I appreciate that the new Midnighter series acknowledges that gay sex is actually something that happens as opposed to censoring it. So much m/f sex in comics and everybody panics when its m/m.

That being said I wonder if Dick will try a new sexual experience with him?

[rainspirit]

I was always very sad that Red Hood and Red Arrow never went that way. Would've made the Outsiders series so much more entertaining.

[icon_uk]

I kinda thought that the subtext was so ridicukously strong that everyone worked on the premise that they were at like bunnys on viagra, just never on panel.

[icon_uk]

New?

Oh right, you mean canonically new. ;) (Sorry, I've been on this comm a LONG time... )

[zapbiffpow]

Me, I think they should probably tone it down on the butt gag, if only for 'familiarity breeds contempt' purposes. I just had to get that out of my chest.

[icon_uk]

Have to say I am inclined to agree with you.

I'm sort of hoping that last months "Grayson" where Dick see's his identical imposter from behind and notes "You know, from this angle I don't really see what all the fuss is about" might put a cap on it, so to speak, for a while.

But(t) probably not

[kenn_el]

Mandering.

[thenicochan]

So we're shipping Midnighter with Dick now, right?

Grayson. Yeah. I just...yeah.

[icon_uk]

Well, not me personally, no.

Though I can see why people might be happy to finally indulge such fancies they might have about Bruce and Dick, but without the somewhat squicky (well, to me at least) father/son aspects of their relationship, and at least on of them being openly gay. Midnighter is, rather weirdly, the "safe" Batman alternative in this context.

[lieut_kettch]

The UST is strong in this one.

Still can't help but feel that it's cheating on Apollo and Babs/Kory/Clancy/Bruce/Roy/Wally/Tim.

[kurenai_tenka]

Whhhhy have so many male character been redesigned with a fauxhawk?

[bruinsfan]

At least this artist makes it look halfway decent. I suspect if somebody with a less realistic style draws the character we'll get 90s extremism with the hairdo, like Atom Smasher from Infinity Inc.

[kurenai_tenka]

True enough!