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A review by unladylike
Midnighter, Vol. 1: Out by Steve Orlando, Stephen Mooney, Hugo Petrus, Alec Morgan, ACO
2.0
All the negative reviews of this one were right, unfortunately. I went in with low expectations, but as a huge fan of Warren Ellis's original run of The Authority, and the significance of the first (to my knowledge) openly gay super-couple, originally parodying Batman and Superman, I wanted this to be good. I don't know anything about Steve Orlando's personal life or affinities, but he really screwed this book up from the first issue and didn't improve it much by the end.
There are so many lines and scenes highlighting Midnighter's gayness, and it's great that they avoid a lot of stereotypes and tropes that older media have almost always focused on, and gay male visibility in superhero comics is a good thing. But almost none of the romances or flirtations in Midnighter's life aroused much emotion or excitement in me. They seemed frequently forced, and mostly unbelievable except as plot devices. It's possible my bias is showing here, though. I'm mostly a lesbian, and when it comes to men I find myself attracted to, macho beefcakes with no sensitivity are last on the list. I would much rather see (or just imagine) Tom Hardy's MMA fighter, Dave Bautista's Drax the Destroyer, or even Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk as violent masculine archetypes who shed powerful tears and might not be straight.
Midnighter worked well in dark contrast to his teammates in The Authority - similarly to Wolverine in X-Men or Deadpool in Uncanny X-Force. As a lone mercenary who insists on re-explaining his powers in every fucking confrontation, he's just not interesting to watch.
I almost tossed the book aside a few issues in, but I glanced at the last page of that chapter and saw Grayson's name, and decided to stick with it to see if he would help improve the chemistry of the book. He does, and it's only because of the team-up between Midnighter and Grayson across the remaining issues of this arc that I'm giving the book 2 stars instead of 1. But it's not enough to make me want more Midnighter comics.
If we could actually see a well-written, extensive face-off between Midnighter and Batman, I would read that. Or if DC brings back Hawskmoor or any number of the other former Authority or Planetary characters and puts them together, that *could* be good. Not this though.
There are so many lines and scenes highlighting Midnighter's gayness, and it's great that they avoid a lot of stereotypes and tropes that older media have almost always focused on, and gay male visibility in superhero comics is a good thing. But almost none of the romances or flirtations in Midnighter's life aroused much emotion or excitement in me. They seemed frequently forced, and mostly unbelievable except as plot devices. It's possible my bias is showing here, though. I'm mostly a lesbian, and when it comes to men I find myself attracted to, macho beefcakes with no sensitivity are last on the list. I would much rather see (or just imagine) Tom Hardy's MMA fighter, Dave Bautista's Drax the Destroyer, or even Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk as violent masculine archetypes who shed powerful tears and might not be straight.
Midnighter worked well in dark contrast to his teammates in The Authority - similarly to Wolverine in X-Men or Deadpool in Uncanny X-Force. As a lone mercenary who insists on re-explaining his powers in every fucking confrontation, he's just not interesting to watch.
I almost tossed the book aside a few issues in, but I glanced at the last page of that chapter and saw Grayson's name, and decided to stick with it to see if he would help improve the chemistry of the book. He does, and it's only because of the team-up between Midnighter and Grayson across the remaining issues of this arc that I'm giving the book 2 stars instead of 1. But it's not enough to make me want more Midnighter comics.
If we could actually see a well-written, extensive face-off between Midnighter and Batman, I would read that. Or if DC brings back Hawskmoor or any number of the other former Authority or Planetary characters and puts them together, that *could* be good. Not this though.