Queer Superhero History: Apollo and Midnighter

It’s time for another installment of Queer Superhero History, where we look back at queer characters in mainstream superhero comics, in (roughly) chronological order, to see how the landscape of LGBTQ+ rep in the genre has changed over time. Today: Apollo and Midnighter!

I began my John Constantine article with a mea culpa, and I’m afraid I’ll have to do it again this time: Apollo and Midnighter are long-running, fan favorite characters, and I am by no means an expert on them. I’m also going to come right out and say that I don’t have any desire to become an expert on them; their particular brand of edgy violence will never be my cup of tea, nor will a number of the earlier creators strongly associated with them. That said, they are beloved and historically significant characters who, among other things, had the first same-sex wedding in mainstream superhero comics, and no history of queer rep in comics would be complete without them. So let’s give it a shot!

Subtlety, thy name is not and has never been Apollo and Midnighter. Or WildStorm in general. [Stormwatch #4 (February 1998), art by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary.]

Apollo and Midnighter are DC characters now, but they had their start at WildStorm, an independent imprint of Image Comics. In late 1998, DC purchased WildStorm, which they maintained as a separate imprint and universe until 2011. Then, much like with Vertigo and John Constantine, they shut down the imprint and folded some of the shared universe WildStorm characters into the main DCU as part of their New 52 initiative.

Apollo and Midnighter both debuted about a year before the sale to DC, in Stormwatch #4 (February 1998) by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. I’ll note here that Ellis, like Neil Gaiman and Gerard Jones, is one of the unfortunately numerous comic book creators associated with sexual misconduct; in 2020 over 100 women came forward with allegations of sexual coercion and manipulation. As with Gaiman and Jones, my spotlighting of characters Ellis created is in no way an endorsement of or apologia for his behavior.

Apollo and Midnighter are rogue former agents of Stormwatch, “the United Nations Special Crisis Intervention Team,” who are introduced hanging out together, completely naked. Apollo has sun-based super strength, flight, and heat vision; Midnighter wears a lot of leather and is closer to baseline human (but still enhanced). Oh, and Midnighter describes Apollo as “mild-mannered,” and the cover of Stormwatch #4 is an obvious homage to The Dark Knight Returns, with Midnighter mimicking Batman’s pose.

In case the premise is not totally clear: what if Superman and Batman totally killed people?! Wouldn’t that be hardcore?! And wouldn’t it be funny if they were also maybe gay?!!!

I use that “maybe” a little dubiously. I personally can’t think of many platonic reasons for a couple of dudes to be naked together, and no explanation is given to avert the obvious implication. Still, GayLeague.com states that their sexuality was unconfirmed at first, which just goes to show how rare queer characters still were in 1998, if a significant portion of the audience thought there might have been plausible deniability.

In any event, said deniability only lasted until The Authority #8 (December 1999), also by Ellis and Hitch, when Apollo kisses Midnighter on the cheek before heading off on a risky mission. When he survives, the two embrace in a way that doesn’t quite show what their faces are doing; another character tells them to get a room.

Turns out they’re not just platonic naked friends. [The Authority #8 (December 1999), art by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary.]

By issue #13 (May 2000) by new creative team Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, Apollo and Midnighter are shown on the cover of a tabloid that describes them as “the world’s finest couple” (another blatant Superman and Batman reference). This issue also begins with a man’s head being graphically crushed by a cinder block. I feel like these two facts kind of sum up the whole Apollo and Midnighter…thing, at least pre-DCU.

In the final issue of The Authority (#29, July 2002, by Millar and Gary Erskine) Apollo and Midnighter got married. This was the first same-sex marriage in mainstream comics (if we don’t count our friends Duoro and Mulano, of course).

I don’t want to take away from how groundbreaking this was. Same-sex marriage wasn’t legal in any US state until Massachusetts legalized it two years later; it wouldn’t become legal nation-wide until 2015. In the world of comics, DC (who by 2002 owned WildStorm and all its characters) had only had its first on-page gay kiss in 1998. Marvel’s was in 2001 and the incredibly obscure superhero involved (Bloke) died immediately afterwards; they wouldn’t have another on-page gay kiss until 2009 (Rictor and Shatterstar), or their first gay wedding for another decade, in 2012. And what would have been the first lesbian wedding in mainstream comics, the second for DC as a company, and the first for their mainstream universe, was extremely controversially canceled in 2013, a full eleven years after Apollo and Midnighter, causing the creators to walk off the book in protest. (Not for nothing, but Apollo and Midnighter also had their marriage erased when the New 52 ported them into the main DCU.)

Apollo and Midnighter at their wedding, where they don’t get any dialogue, but Grunge from Gen13 gets to cameo for this important contribution. It’s funny because men kissing is disgusting, get it??? I do like the boys’ little palette-swapped outfits, though. [The Authority #29 (July 2002), art by Gary Erskine.]

At the same time, the comic itself feels less about pushing boundaries for the sake of queer representation, and more about pushing boundaries for the sake of…well, pushing boundaries. The first 20 or so pages of the issue feature rape, murder, incest, bestiality, racist and homophobic jokes, wretchedly hateful Appalachian stereotypes, one character just carrying around a couple of severed heads for some reason, and a random and painfully unfunny swipe at Al Gore. The wedding is contained to the last two pages and only one panel actually focuses on Apollo and Midnighter, who at least do get a full-on kiss to celebrate (albeit zero dialogue). This is followed immediately by a panel where a character from another WildStorm comic makes a grossed-out face at the sight of two men kissing. The overall effect is less celebratory than…well, juvenile and repulsive, honestly, and the wedding itself ends up being just another element of Millar’s general “look how shocking and edgy I am” attitude.

Love the haircut, Apollo. [Midnighter and Apollo #1 (December 2016), art by ACO.]

As I mentioned earlier, the WildStorm characters were folded into the DCU in 2011. Apollo and Midnighter’s history was erased, then restored minus their marriage. Then they broke up.

Their fortunes changed in 2015, when Midnighter got a short-lived solo series by Steve Orlando and ACO, which ended with him and Apollo reuniting. This was followed by a six-issue miniseries, Midnighter and Apollo, in which Midnighter had to rescue Apollo’s soul from Hell, Orpheus and Eurydice-style. I looked at the bare minimum of WildStorm issues necessary to research this article, so I can’t say how consistent their characterization was across publishers, but DC’s Apollo and Midnighter remain extremely violent and untroubled by killing, especially Midnighter. But boy oh boy, does it make a difference to have creators who are trying to tell a character-driven story and not just scandalize people. Midnighter is a ton of fun, Midnighter and Apollo is genuinely lovely, and both comics won GLAAD Awards in 2017.

Apollo and Midnighter seem like they’re remaining in the DCU for the foreseeable future. It’s an awkward fit, even with the over-the-top edginess toned down, because at the end of the day they’re basically Batman and Superman, and the DCU, you know. Already has those.

But they remain groundbreaking characters, even if the creators who broke that ground maybe didn’t care so much about why, and a good reminder that characters who have perhaps not always been treated with care or sensitivity can always get a comic that changes that. So happy 24th anniversary, Apollo and Midnighter, and many happy returns.

Absolutely self-indulgent of me to end with this image, but please enjoy this scene from the last issue of Midnighter and Apollo, where our heroes hang out with Extraño, DC’s first gay superhero, and his husband Tasmanian Devil, DC’s third gay superhero. This makes my heart so happy. [Midnighter and Apollo #6 (May 2017), art by Fernando Blanco.]