Midnighter #7

[laughing_tree]

"Midnighter is only good at fighting. That sounds like a joke, but that is the emotional heart of the book." -- Steve Orlando

Midnighter's new boyfriend Matt has revealed himself to secretly be JLA villain Prometheus, baiting an elaborate trap long in the making.

Comments

[captainbellman]

Prometheus is kinda like the Damien Hirst of supervillainy, huh. Puts an awful lot of time, effort and money into his pieces while they remain gimmicky and derivative, and subject to constantly diminishing returns.

[captainbellman]

(Also, of course, the name is now associated with a Ridley Scott film that's almost divisive as Marmite [I happen to love both of them], so they must not want to trot him out very often.)

[adustyspectacle]

I've never read this series because I've heard Middy and Polly broke up (which is why, again? Did they address it? I think it's referenced on the 6th page, which is kinda nice), but seeing as the new boyfriend turned out to be a villain I might just give it a chance.

By the way, Apollo with stubble is just... wow. I liked the cropped hair (even if I did miss his long-flowing locks), but the New 52 version's face was drawn kinda weird.

[randyripoff]

To the best of my knowledge, the why's and wherefore's of their breakup have yet to be explained.

[adustyspectacle]

Aaw, that sucks. Here's hoping they'll address it on future issues (how many issues is this series gonna have, btw?)

[randyripoff]

I haven't heard anything about cancellation. I'm pretty sure it's an ongoing. And yes, I'm pretty sure it will be addressed at some point in the future.

[adustyspectacle]

Nice. Time for me to catch up then.

[silverhammerman]

I believe they did actually address the breakup, it was just surprisingly mundane and not particularly dramatic. There was some stuff about Midnighter feeling insecure about having only ever been with Apollo romantically, and Apollo being creeped out by the fact that Midnighter didn't care about remembering his own past, but really it boiled down to Midnighter being bad at emotional intimacy and having a real relationship.

I know a lot of people were put off by the breakup of the Apollo/Midnighter romance, but I'd advise checking out the book anyway if you're a fan of what you see here. Midnighter's sexuality hasn't been downplayed in any way, and I've seen it argued by both the creators and commentators that having him free to date allows for more nuanced exploration of his sexuality than just putting him in a "safe/traditional" marriage. Moreover, the relationship is still a big part of the book and Midnighter's character, and I really wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of reconciliation once Midnighter's worked through his issues.

[adustyspectacle]

didn't care about remembering his own past

Huh. Were they using the Bendix backstory? Or was it the uh... kidnapped by aliens one (I should reread the new Stormwatch...)?

[silverhammerman]

I only know what's been established in this series: That Midnighter was originally enhanced (and had his memories wiped) by a woman called the Gardener, who ran a kind of storehouse for various super artifacts and technologies until it was plundered at the start of the series, and still seems to loosely serve as Midnighter's boss, at least to the extent that he's gathering up what she lost.

So far as I know there's been no mention of Bendix or Stormwatch having involvement in his origin.

[filthysize]

Which is a really good argument, IMO. Midnighter's marriage to Apollo was a groundbreaking thing to see back in the day, and I think this book is also breaking new grounds for current times by portraying his dating life. There aren't many (or any that I can think of) Big Two superhero books where the gay superhero isn't either monogamously coupled or just straight up promiscuous. This book actually shows him flirting and going on dates and trying out different people. It's... nice.

[shadowpsykie]

agreed

The break up was not very exciting.

[7dialsmystery]

Basically 'Apollo' is really some guy named Andrew Pulaski and 'Midnighter' was a Serbian farm boy who was kidnapped and experimented on by aliens (If I'm remembering this correctly). Apollo found out that 'Lucus Trent' wasn't Midnighter's real name and none of his Stormwatch identity was real (he made a deal with Bendix to wipe his memories) and got angry that 'Lucus' had deceived him for months about who he really was. Midnigher predicted their 'fight' would end in a break up anyway so he walked out. Mindy also wanted to date other guys because Apollo was his first gay relationship and thought they had gotten way too serious on very short acquaintance.

Re: The break up was not very exciting.

[shadowpsykie]

might not be exciting... but it works.