Midnighter #12 (final issue)

[laughing_tree]

"The man that never lets you down, that hears you when no one else will, the hero that doesn’t want to be an urban legend, but instead a reality for anyone that hurts others — he got to be gay.

"Midnighter was the one that terrorized the terrorizers. He put fear in the stomachs of those who traffic in fear on a daily basis. He was the ultimate check for people who cross the line — and that competent, strong, unwavering fighter got to be gay. And he got the respect. He got to win the day.

"And I am so happy that got to happen, so proud of it. Because queer people, non-binary people, people of any minority — we can be anything. We can be the heroes, we can win the day, we can be strong, and we don’t have to live to anyone’s expectations but out own.

"And that’s what made MIDNIGHTER special. Yes, if you ask me, we had one of the best damn action books on the shelves. A book that crossed boundaries and brought you moments never before seen in comics. Hell, we killed someone with a porterhouse steak, and stuck Midnighter in a bullet and shot him into space!

"But beneath the blockbuster action, there is an icon that says without question: only you define yourself, no matter who you are, and absolute belief in that is all you need to be strong as hell.

"Thank you so much for reading..." -- Steve Orlando

Comments

[freezer]

Is Midnighter really the queer icon Orlando claims? Even if the pickings for LGBTQ characters were as slim as they were even a decade before, I would think there's choices to grab before Homicidal Gay Batman.

[lucean]

But preferring the character has nothing to do with do if it is an icon or not. Besides, in general the difficulty with pop cultural icons is that they are almost always dependant on the time, so it is a very difficult question to approach to begin with.

However, Midnighter was pretty prominent when Authority was the big title and still has some traction, for example them giving him this title and having him feature on Nightwing the way he did.

[janegray]

Midnighter's extreme badassery does make him stand out even amongst more "important" gay characters.

In a way, I would compare him to Luke Cage. Cage is a black man who is bulletproof, while Midnighter is a gay man who is the toughest machoest combatant whom not even the most homophobic brodude could call a pussy.

[silicondream]

Although Kev did try really hard.

[joetuss]

'Cage is a black man who is bulletproof' How does that make him stand out?

[coldfury]

Think about the era when he was created. Martin Luther King had been killed with a gun. Malcolm X was killed with a gun. So he was a black superhero, one of the few at that point, and his superpower was that he was immune to guns.

That cuts pretty straight to the point, right there.

This article writes it better than I can:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=54868

[joetuss]

Oh, ok, thanks

[locuatico]

In a meta sense, his REAL power is not his indestructible skin, but rather that cops can't kill him.
Some people have linked him getting a Netflix show around the time of the #BlackLivesMatter movement to the fact he had been created just a few years after some very well known shootings against black people.

[wizardru]

Some people are drawing links that I don't think actually exist, honestly. It's a pattern that is easy to find, but Cage was a natural for a TV series for a host of reasons:

1) Very Easy to reproduce his powers on a low-budget
2) Has been one of the most prominent African-American heroes in comics
3) Has been a very prominent character in the MU since at least 2000 (thank you, Brian Bendis)
4) Pretty much all of Marvel's 'Knights' have gotten TV shows or movie roles

The timing is convenient, but it's not a coincidence that Marvel had JUST gotten back the rights to Cage in 2013 after waiting for 10 years for him to get a movie. They already had Iron Fist, so people were speculating on a joint movie even then.

I'm sure it didn't convince them that it was bad idea, mind you, just that I don't think it was anything other than coincidence. If you're already thinking of making a Jessica Jones or Iron Fist TV show, Cage is virtually a given. It's worth noting that Cage was valuable enough to have the rights licensed out, something that didn't happen with Iron Fist.

[locuatico]

Eh. i don't know. it is still interesting that the superhero who happens to have "bullet immunity" as it's biggest sell point and whose origin story is strongly related to police brutality and racism... happens to appear when there is a new wave of protests and new cases of police brutality appear each week. This is the political context in which the show is being produced and in which it is going to premiere, it will be strongly tied to it.
Like sure. it is probably a coincidence. how does that change the fact that a black character who is immune to getting shot and who was wrongly accused will be the hero in a show that has a black man as showrunner in a time and place when black people are being shot and wrongly accused?

[wizardru]

Oh, on that respect I think you're 100% correct. I have no doubt that the show is leaning heavily into that. I just meant that the suggestion that Cage got greenlit most likely had nothing to do with that social media campaign. That it would influence the direction of the show is very likely, I imagine.

[janegray]

What happened to Midny's new boyfriend?

[lucean]

Didn't he turn out to be Prometheus?

[janegray]

Oh.

Well... I suppose that's one of the better options. I did want the guy out of the way because I want Midny to be with Apollo, but I REALLY didn't want him to be fridged. I would have preferred a peaceful break-up, but revealing that he was secretely a villain is okay.

[bruinsfan]

I don't recall that many comics plots where the hero's love interest turns out to have secretly been a villain all along, so it felt like new ground to me. And like you say, much better than said love interest being fridged by a villain. Particularly with a gay hero, where it provides convenient justification for his sexuality to become moot and readers to not be traumatized by the icky thought of men dating. (I'm glaring your way, Nu52 Alan Scott writers!)

[q99]

"Don't raise your voice, Amanda. It doesn't suit you"? Ugh!

'Course, she still lets him spill the info before hurting him.

[junipepper]

Probably not the first misogynistic and/or racist fuck she's had to face down...

[q99]

I imagine she's quite used to rolling her eyes.

[shadur]

She just endures it patiently until it's time to... handle him.

[q99]

Part of what I love about her ^^

[lieut_kettch]

So love is being restored to the DCU as formerly established couples pair up anew after their past was erased by Dr. Manhattan.

[sarahnewlin]

I hate your hair Midnighter. I hate it. lol