DCnU’s Stormwatch #1 ENDS with the BEGINNING of a beautiful friendship (Apollo meets The Midnighter!!!)
Of all 52 DCnU titles, the one I most eagerly anticipated was Stormwatch #1. The creative team looks great (big fan of Paul Cornell’s writing on Captain Britain and MI13, and Miguel Sepulveda has an impressive list of recent work), but that’s not the reason for my interest…
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What I want to see is what DCnU will do with the relationship between Superman and Batman analogues Apollo and the Midnighter now that its truly part of the DCU proper. Will they fall in love, shack up, marry and adopt lil’ Jenny Quantum all over again? I sure hope so. This is one occasion where I DON’T want to see any creative license. Stretch it out and toss in a few roadblocks, sure – but lets not see any new direction.
They are Stormwatch, a dangerous super human police force whose existence is kept secret from the world Directly following the ominous events of SUPERMAN #1, Adam One leads half the Stormwatch team to recover the [INFORMATION REDACTED] from deep in the Himalayas. Meanwhile, Jack Hawksmoor and the rest of the Stormwatch crew look to recruit two of the deadliest super humans on the planet: Midnighter and Apollo! And if they say no? Perhaps the Martian Manhunter can change their minds…
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Nothing in this issue stands in the way of that future(?) history. Since they are both on the covers, one can assume they will be part of the team… eventually. It may take a few issues as neither seems to be much of a “joiner.” But if Midnighter does his homework as well as Batman (and he DOES) he’d probably already have Apollo’s sexual inclinations analyzed as well as his moral code. So the invitation The Midnighter extends when he introduces himself to Apollo in the last 2 pages (above – after he kicks the asses of Martian Manhunter, Hawksmoor and Projectionist) might be for more than a team up? Who else was waiting for this for the same reason?!? Fess up!
09/09/2011 at 3:54 am
Yeah, this was pretty much the only reason I bothered to read this title. If they retcon their relationship into oblivion that pretty much throws DC’s calls of “modern diversity” into a big fat pile of steaming horse shit. I doubt they’ll do that though, since they know how important Apollo & Midnighter’s relationship is to the already established Authority fanbase.
I think the next question is, will DC introduce MORE LGBT characters into their new universe? Batwoman aside, are there any other characters helming their own book? I read somewhere that Booster Gold is apparently going to be revealed to be Canadian (shocker?)- can we finally get a “Oh yeah and he and Ted Kord were totally doing it” acknowledgement as well?
09/09/2011 at 12:29 pm
even tho Apollo and Midnighter were the impetus for picking up the title, thus far its at the top of my list of the 52 #1 that i really enjoyed. I love the idea of a secret super powered force who consider the JLA amateurs. I was surprised to see all the new characters. I expected to see more characters pulled from DCU. We get the Apollo, The Midnighter, Engineer, Hawksmoor, and Jenny Quantum (11 years too late for Jenny Sparks I guess).
New characters are the immortal Adam One, media maven Projectionist and the Eminence of Blades (aka) Harry Tanner.
But from the DCU – just Martian Manhunter? No one else operating on their level?
09/09/2011 at 3:07 pm
DCU characters I’d love to see pop up in Stormwatch… Adam Strange, Spectre,John Constantine, Kid Eternity, Faust (or other magic heroes – they underpowerd when it comes to mystic threats), an Amazon? Achilles or Donna Troy? (if Stormwatch has been protecting Earth for centuries, why not some mythological charcters and demigods?), Isis, Deadman, Vril Dox, Geo-Force, Gypsy, Tefé Holland, I’m sure I’ll think of more.
09/10/2011 at 2:12 am
On a completely shallow note, am I the only one not loving Midnighter’s new costume? Too blue, not enough black and he needs his coat back.
On the other hand, Apollo looks how with short hair, so I guess that’s the trade off.
09/15/2011 at 4:27 pm
I was waiting for this but not for your reason, really. I wanted to know what happened at the end of The Authority earlier this year, with a new Planet Baby, the Carrier finally getting fixed, Shen becoming the new Doctor and all the rest. So I was hoping to get closure as well as all the good writing from the past (that is, when Authority/Stormwatch was good. it was not perfect 100% of the time). Midnighter and Apollo’s budding romance was a bonus.
But then I read the book and all my hopes were dashed. The art is terrible, the writing was boring and the story was retconned yet still started in the middle of itself. Hopefully after the first arc things will change, I’ll have to avoid it till then.
I also hate Midnighter’s Costume and Apollo’s hair
10/07/2011 at 4:25 pm
I only read The Authority’s first trade from way back when, and it was interesting, but didn’t love it. I picked this book up because of Apollo & Midnighter, and I really like Martian Manhunter.
I don’t think I’ll be continuing. I didn’t enjoy the story really, the art was weird, and it was really confusing at times. Maybe it’ll get better, but with 52 other titles to choose from, I can afford to be a bit picky.
Has anyone read #2? Did it get any better?