Midnighter
Midnighter is a comic book character that first appeared in Stormwatch #4
Midnighter is the tactically advanced close-combat fighter of the Authority, able to see the outcome of any battle before it's begun. He has the personality of a gleeful murderer, but in the service of good. He is now married to his partner Apollo.
Origins
Midnighter was a member of an secret experimental academy team created by the insane former Stormwatch Weatherman, Henry Bendix. Bendix erased the team's memories when he gave them superpowers, but there are some hints that the Midnighter's implant procedure was both painful and dehumanizing, and later that he was originally a sadistic serial killer. He appears to be the Wildstorm Universe's equivalent to Batman, but without the moral restraint.
Midnighter, alongside Apollo,
Lamplight, Crow Jane, Amaze, Impetus, and Stalker, formed the ill-fated team that would be sent to their deaths by Bendix on their first mission. When Midnighter and Apollo sought extraction during this mission, it was only to discover that Bendix has no intention of wasting time or resources to save them when he could so easily replace them with more "supersoldiers." Betrayed, Apollo and Midnighter managed to escape with their lives, but would spend the next six years in hiding on the streets, attempting to remain invisible to the Weatherman's ever-watchful eye from the Stormwatch headquarters orbiting the earth. During this time, both team members fought to better the world on a smaller scale, and came together as lovers. Because of their self imposed exile, both Midnighter and Apollo were ignorant of Stormwatch's battle against Henry Bendix, and of his supposed death at the hands of Jenny Sparks.
Only when Jackson King, the new Weatherman, discovered them on radar and brought them in for questioning (ultimately testing their loyalties by sending them on a mission) did the pair realize they were free to live in the open again as normal human beings. All files related to whom both Midnighter and Apollo were before their introduction into the team were believed to be lost, and since neither man could remember, Jackson King instead gave them new identities with which to retire from the supersoldier business.
The Authority
However, it was not to be. Less than a year after Apollo and Midnighter's retirement, nearly the entire Stormwatch team was slaughtered in an Aliens/Stormwatch Crossover. Jenny Sparks would develop her vision for a new team, known as Authority, The, and she approached Apollo and Midnighter about joining. Reluctantly (and because of Apollo), Midnighter agreed. It was then that he would take his place as "Night's Bringer of War," on a team consisting of Apollo, Swift, Jack Hawksmoor, Engineer, Doctor, and Jenny Sparks. His relationship with Apollo would only be hinted at until the Regis Story Arc, in which it was confirmed they were a couple.
Of the many foes Midnighter faced with Authority, The, perhaps the most life-altering was the very governments they sought to improve. At one point, the political powers of Earth attempted to
overpower Authority, The and replace them with The New Authority, consisting of Surgeon, Teuton, Machine, Last Call, Rush, Street, and Union Jack. Of his team members, only Midnighter (along with baby Jenny Quantum) managed to escape capture and evade detection. His skills would ultimately free and save all the other original members of Authority, The, though it very nearly cost him his life.
Midnighter is notable for being one of the few gay superheroes in print. After his near death at the hands of government creation Seth (where even his backup heart was ripped from his chest), he married his longtime partner, Apollo, in a civil service on the The Carrier. Together, they adopted the reincarnation of Jenny Sparks, Jenny Quantum, as their daughter.
Recently, even this happiness has been short lived. Midnighter was manipulated into believing that an Apollo from the future contacted him to tell him how the Authority, The would ultimately become the very world oppressors they sought to overcome. This information prompted Midnighter to leave the team, as well as his husband and daughter, and to work alone for a time. However, it was discovered he was being controlled by a still-living Henry Bendix, who then set him in battle against his previous team members after getting on board The Carrier. Fortunately, Bendix's control over Midnighter was broken by the combined efforts of Jenny Quantum and Engineer, freeing him to once again join the team and be with Apollo.
Solo Series
Midnighter currently has his own series in which he works apart from The Authority. In the first three issues he was kidnapped and forced to travel back in time to kill Hitler by a man named Paulus who replaced his second heart with a remote controlled bomb. A simple task that got very complicated when time police tried to stop him. He was captured by the time police, but forced their ship to crash in 1945.
The Midnighter became increasingly unhappy with not knowing his original identity or even remembering a normal human life, so Jenny Quantum helped a hacker friend of the Midnighter's discover that his true name was Lucas Trent, born in Harmony, Indiana on July 14, 1967. When the Midnighter tried returning to his hometown and his old identity, he ended up battling paramilitary superhumans who wanted to take over America. But he also became certain he never had been Lucas Trent, because Trent was remembered by everyone as a nice and decent man and the Midnighter knew himself to be a gleeful killer through and through. To Jenny's surprise, however, he wasn't angry with her for the deception; instead, he returned to Harmony to impersonate Trent further and practice being a normal person in a normal daily life.
He also recently teamed up with the hero Grifter.
World's End
Due to the following the events of assault by clones of the High the planet is now in a ruined state. Midnighter along with the rest of the Authority have been stranded in London (now Unlondon) due to the death of the Carrier. He spends his time bringing refugees to the Carrier's corpse as it is the closest thing to a safe location. He has to protect them from several threats such as diseased super beings called Incubites.
Powers
He liked to begin fights by announcing all of this, but got bored enough with the speech to have it printed on business cards, which he can leave for absent opponents (or kill them by throwing the sharp-edged cards).
In the tour-de-force issue Midnighter #7, we see his world view in action as the issue begins at the final scene when he returns from battle to kiss Apollo, and each following page takes us further back in the actions that got him there--ending on the last page with his initial speech:
"See, I'm one of those jerks who always skips ahead to the last page of a book before he reads it. I find a closing scene I love, then work my way back to the beginning to figure out exactly how it all went down. It's the same way my crazy brain processes every possible outcome for a battle before the first punch is even thrown. So let's cut to the chase, shall we? I've already run through a trillion potential versions of this entire day in my head, including the spectacularly banal conversation we're about to have. And I've settled on the finale that leaves your sick operation toppling like a house of cards...and me making love to my husband."
| Super Name: | Midnighter |
| Real Name: | Lucas Trent |
| Aliases: |
Dave Nighter Night's Bringer of War Scary Leather Man |
| Publisher: | Wildstorm |
| Gender: | Male |
| Character Type: | Other |
| 1st Appearance: | Stormwatch #4 |
| Appears in: | 156 issues |
| Birthday: | 07/14/1967 |
| Died: |
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