They killed him...
Feb. 13th, 2002 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aribThey actually fucking killed him!
Okay, there's this comic I absolutely love called "The Authority," published by Wildstorm Comics, a subsidiary of DC Comics (the Superman-Batman guys) who are in turn owned by uber-conglomerate AOL/Time Warner. It presents a wonderful take on today's society, and answers the what-if question of how superheroes would react in the "real world" other than beating up supervillains. In one issue, they kicked the Chinese out of Tibet, and kicked out the tin-pot dictators in Southeast Asia.
and the team has Apollo and The Midnighter.
Apollo is a bio-engineered superhuman, who can process sunlight, and use it to give himself super strength, flight, invulnerability, and laser-vision. Kind of like Superman, but with more of a take-no-prisoners attitude. compared to The Midnighter, he's much more laid back.
The Midnighter, also a bio-engineered superhuman, is a living combat machine. technology wired into his head allow him to calculate millions of possible hand-to-hand combat moves a second. You lose a fight with him before the first punch is even thrown. he's a much more violent, kickass version of Batman, he's sometimes referred to himself as "the meanest bastard alive."
Did I mention that the two of them are gay? As far as I know, Apollo and the Midnighter are the only two main characters in a book that are gay. Other comics have some supporting characters who are gay, ("The Flash's" Piper and "Superman's" Police Lt. Maggie Sawyer) but they're minor characters.
Overall, the creative teams in The Authority handle the interaction between A&M really well. The two are obviously very committed to one another, unlike the rest of the team, who often have a "screw anything that moves" mentality.
Apparently, The Powers That Be at DC Comics don't feel too comfortable about having a gay couple comprised of Superman and Batman analogues, so they've constantly kept a tight reign on the Authority's creative team. The two have only kissed twice. Once was a fairly casual peck on the cheek, that figured relatively prominently in a panel.
The second time was supposed to be a revolutionary event. The creative team proudly announced that Apollo and Midnighter would have a "real" kiss in issue #13 of the book. The eagerly awaited issue arrived, and the much touted kiss was crammed down into the corner of a very busy panel at the bottom of a page.
Again, DC's higher ups didn't feel comfortable with it, so they made the artist redraw the panel, hiding the kiss.
It got worse today...
After a spate of issues featuring a very homophobic group of supervillains, who abducted, and tortured the rest of the team, The Midnighter finally charges in to the rescue...
and gets killed.
Really, truly, no-backsies killed. Unlike the usual comic-book death, you see the body, and hear his last words, and everything. (I'll spare you the gore, but there's no way he's getting past this.) He has just enough time to see his lover for one last time, say "Save the world so bastards like me don't have to... you look beautiful." and die.
I almost cried. I've been following these characters for years, and this is how it ends. Feh.
See,yet again, the powers that be weren't happy that one of the twenty best-selling comics they produce is just too controvercial, so they're cancelling it.
Cancelling it, and making it as difficult as possible to bring it back.
I'm pissed, and I'm not gonna take it lying down.
Okay, there's this comic I absolutely love called "The Authority," published by Wildstorm Comics, a subsidiary of DC Comics (the Superman-Batman guys) who are in turn owned by uber-conglomerate AOL/Time Warner. It presents a wonderful take on today's society, and answers the what-if question of how superheroes would react in the "real world" other than beating up supervillains. In one issue, they kicked the Chinese out of Tibet, and kicked out the tin-pot dictators in Southeast Asia.
and the team has Apollo and The Midnighter.
Apollo is a bio-engineered superhuman, who can process sunlight, and use it to give himself super strength, flight, invulnerability, and laser-vision. Kind of like Superman, but with more of a take-no-prisoners attitude. compared to The Midnighter, he's much more laid back.
The Midnighter, also a bio-engineered superhuman, is a living combat machine. technology wired into his head allow him to calculate millions of possible hand-to-hand combat moves a second. You lose a fight with him before the first punch is even thrown. he's a much more violent, kickass version of Batman, he's sometimes referred to himself as "the meanest bastard alive."
Did I mention that the two of them are gay? As far as I know, Apollo and the Midnighter are the only two main characters in a book that are gay. Other comics have some supporting characters who are gay, ("The Flash's" Piper and "Superman's" Police Lt. Maggie Sawyer) but they're minor characters.
Overall, the creative teams in The Authority handle the interaction between A&M really well. The two are obviously very committed to one another, unlike the rest of the team, who often have a "screw anything that moves" mentality.
Apparently, The Powers That Be at DC Comics don't feel too comfortable about having a gay couple comprised of Superman and Batman analogues, so they've constantly kept a tight reign on the Authority's creative team. The two have only kissed twice. Once was a fairly casual peck on the cheek, that figured relatively prominently in a panel.
The second time was supposed to be a revolutionary event. The creative team proudly announced that Apollo and Midnighter would have a "real" kiss in issue #13 of the book. The eagerly awaited issue arrived, and the much touted kiss was crammed down into the corner of a very busy panel at the bottom of a page.
Again, DC's higher ups didn't feel comfortable with it, so they made the artist redraw the panel, hiding the kiss.
It got worse today...
After a spate of issues featuring a very homophobic group of supervillains, who abducted, and tortured the rest of the team, The Midnighter finally charges in to the rescue...
and gets killed.
Really, truly, no-backsies killed. Unlike the usual comic-book death, you see the body, and hear his last words, and everything. (I'll spare you the gore, but there's no way he's getting past this.) He has just enough time to see his lover for one last time, say "Save the world so bastards like me don't have to... you look beautiful." and die.
I almost cried. I've been following these characters for years, and this is how it ends. Feh.
See,yet again, the powers that be weren't happy that one of the twenty best-selling comics they produce is just too controvercial, so they're cancelling it.
Cancelling it, and making it as difficult as possible to bring it back.
I'm pissed, and I'm not gonna take it lying down.
