Midnighter is best known as a member of the rogue rosie the riveter baby costume team the Authority. Malloy, Warren Ellis described Midnighter as “The Shadow by way of John Woo”. Midnighter is rarely seen without his costume and mask.
Recurring themes in Midnighter’s adventures are his love of violence and killing, as well as comments on his sexuality. In 2011, DC chose to integrate the characters from the Wildstorm Universe with its mainstream DC Universe setting. You can help by adding to it. Warren Ellis created and introduced the character in 1998, soon after his appointment as writer on the Stormwatch title.
4 introduced Midnighter and Apollo as former Stormwatch agents from a secret “black ops” team known only to the first Weatherman, Henry Bendix. In 1999 Warren Ellis concluded his run on Stormwatch with the Final Orbit storyline, which saw the team destroyed. Midnighter was one of several Stormwatch characters Ellis retained for his new Wildstorm title, The Authority. A formidable fighter with a sardonic attitude, Midnighter epitomised the new team’s commitment to fighting for a finer world, including against vested interests and world governments. During the Transfer of Power storyline, Midnighter was the only Authority member to evade capture when the U. Presumed dead, Midnighter had in fact escaped the Carrier with baby Jenny Quantum. He returned to overthrow the puppet team and rescue Apollo from imprisonment and abuse at the hands of their replacements.
Midnighter had a central role in Ed Brubaker and Dustin Nguyen’s Revolution maxiseries. A visitation, apparently from a future Apollo, convinced Midnighter that he was on the path to becoming a malign dictator. Midnighter featured in the first three of Garth Ennis’s Kev miniseries, featuring Kev Hawkins, a former SAS soldier. Kev was introduced in the semi-parody The Authority: Kev, in which he killed Midnighter, Apollo and the rest of the Authority, though the Carrier resurrected them. On 1 November 2006, an ongoing Midnighter solo series began, with an initial creative partnership of Garth Ennis and Chris Sprouse. The book was part of the 2006 “Worldstorm” soft reboot of the Wildstorm universe, which saw several books relaunched, but which faltered when flagship titles The Authority and WildC. The first story arc saw Midnighter attacked and kidnapped by agents of a man named Paulus while passing through the Carrier’s teleportation portal.
Paulus told Midnighter that he had replaced Midnighter’s secondary heart with a remote-detonated bomb, and challenged him on pain of death to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This first arc was followed by four single-issue stories. 6 featured an apparent alternate-universe Samurai Midnighter. Vaughan and Darick Robertson, explored the way Midnighter’s brain processes combat by running the story backwards. Midnighter’s attempts to rediscover his life before becoming superhuman. The final storyline, again by Giffen, featured a Midnighter imposter attacking the Carrier and the Authority, and Midnighter’s, fight to defeat him.