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Wednesday, 4:53 pm in Books & Comics

Much to my dismay, the other day I realised I was running out of Authority to read.  After a few weeks of binging I’d ripped through the parts of the main series available in trades, as well as the one-shot everyone loves to hate, Human on the Inside.  Neither of my local comic shops had either Jenny Sparks or the fourth book of Stormwatch, but my fingers were twitching in withdrawal and so I bit the bullet and picked up a copy of The Authority: Kev.

Almost everything I’d heard about Kev was negative.  Most of it focused on people not liking the titular character, who was generally considered to be borish and obnoxious, or Glenn Fabry’s artwork.  Those of you who’ve ever walked past the comic shelf in your local bookstore may recognise Fabry’s work from popular Garth Ennis books like Preacher.  Ennis also wrote Kev, which I guess makes sense, and to be honest I had to agree with most of the negative visual assessments.  Fabry’s art ‘worked’ when dealing with the human characters but failed hard when it came to anyone in a costume.  But fugly fucking art in Authority unfortunately isn’t new, and all-in-all I didn’t mind Ennis’ writing.  Yeah, Kev is unlikeable and obnoxious but, like hello, he’s supposed to be.  A lot of the comic is done for shock value (including an actual, gasp, sex scene), but overall it was some good, trashy fun.

At the end of the “More Kev” story, Midnighter gets the shits with everyone on the Carrier and goes to talk to Kev in a bar where he gives the following speech:

And that got me thinking (uh-oh, says the audience).  Thing is, quite a lot of idle banter in Kev is devoted to said character’s apparent homophobia.  It’s true that he has a habit of name-calling, but after I put the book down it occurred to me that maybe Kev’s attitude reflected more on the readers (and Ennis) than it did on the character himself.  See, thing is; I don’t really think Kev is homophobic.  Sure, he’s obviously uncomfortable with the idea to a certain degree, but it’s not like he’s out indulging in violent gaybashing.  Actually it’s almost the opposite; at the end of “Kev” he winds up in the hospital when Jack (I think) says something along the lines of, “Leave Midnighter to Apollo.  He knows how to handle him.”  To which Kev laughs and says, “What are you, poofs or something?”  In “More Kev” he accuses Midnighter of only being tough when hiding behind his boyfriend, and challenges him to a ‘proper’ fight.  This lasts roughly half a panel (it’s not clear what happens, but Kev winds up on his ass some distance away), and the issue is more-or-less dropped until Midnighter’s speech at the end.  Arguably, this scene isn’t even about Midnighter being gay; had Apollo been female one gets the impression this scene would have still happened.

See, here’s the thing; I know a lot of people like Kev.  To a certain degree, I am like Kev; it’s fairly common when a bunch of us get together to start saying things like, “That’s so fucking gay; and not in the good way.”  When qualification is required, the ‘good way’ refers to the “part where you actually have sex with men.”; the implication is that the ‘bad way’ then refers to the various negative stereotypes (true or not) associated with the word.  To those of you who are cringing in PC horror – and a couple of years ago I would have been with you – I should point out that we say similar things about nerds, and I constantly accuse a (male) friend of being a “big girl” in a similar context.  Because here’s the thing; I am a girl, I am a nerd, I am a faghag, I am a fangirl, I am a feminist and the fact that my current partner is male is more coincidental than not.  I don’t believe that any of these things are sacred cows, but only within their own communities.  We’re all proud of being nerds, but we’re also not above mocking ourselves for it.  Don’t get me wrong, if anyone else used the words against us in derogatory fashion we’d be totally bitching about it, but when it comes from us, it’s okay.  Similarly, we don’t use issues like race as a slur on account of the fact that we are all middle-class whiteys.

I also think there’s probably a bit of a distinction between what I guess you could call ‘hot’ discrimination and ‘cold’ discrimination.  Hot discrimination implies that there is some active, negative action that is occurring; from hate crimes to those fucks with their “God Hates Fags!” placards to the employer who won’t hire someone because he’s a Muslim.  Cold discrimination, on the other hand, is much less conscious; the man who won’t swear “because there are ladies present” sort of example.  I agree the distinction is pretty fuzzy, and probably shifts with power relationships (the same person who wouldn’t hire a Muslim would still sell one a coffee), but nevertheless I think it exists.  And sure, cold discrimination is still bad to a certain degree, but (as it’s pointed out) most people have this attitude because they’ve been bought up to assume that this is how to world works and they’ve never questioned it.  When they are forced to, most people gloss over it, happy with the internal contradiction so long as it means they don’t have to think too much (the classic example is of the guy at work who completely ignores the fact that I have a mouth like a sailor and won’t swear in front of me because I am ‘a lady’).

And this is where I think Kev’s at.  Like Midnighter points out, he’s got this kind of latent homophobia but there’s no real enthusiasm behind it; he only makes the remarks that he does because he feels that’s what big tough S.A.S guys ‘do’.  Asides from making the odd “A-hur hur fags” kind of comments – and after the macho pecking order has been established – Kev seems happy enough to work with both Midnighter and Apollo.  He doesn’t necessarily want to know about their relationship in intimate detail, but the fact that he tells Midnighter the full Tiger Story sort of implies he respects the guy.  And this is where I think you get a separation between interpretations of characters and authorial intent, because Ennis, and most readers, seem to make a much bigger deal out of Kev’s alleged homophobia than it probably warrants.  It comes across almost forced, sort of like the book is screaming, “Look!  Look at how tolerant we are of alternate lifestyles!  Boo to homophobia!  Boo!”  And I’m just thinking, who are you trying to convince, exactly?

This pops up elsewhere in the series, too; words like ‘fag’ and ‘queer’ are almost never mentioned.  In fact, I can think of exactly two occasions; Apollo teases Angie for being a ‘faghag’ in one issue, and either Midnighter or Apollo calls Apollo or Midnighter (I don’t remember the exact circumstance; I think it’s the latter) an “old queen” when he’s dying in another.  It feels like the writers are far too self-conscious to throw these words around; compare this to the language used in something like Queer As Folk or, hell, go hang out at your local gay club/bar/Myer/whatever.

It’s also somewhat interesting that the Apollo/Midnighter relationship is the most ‘traditional’ – it’s long term, monogamous and they have a kid – compared to the other relationships in the series.  Jack and Angie have an ‘open relationship’ (though it’s pretty strongly implied that this is at Jack’s behest and though Angie longs for something more committed she doesn’t have the self-confidence to demand it).  Shen has multiple, short-term partners of both genders.  The first Doctor was involved in a celebrity trophy-wife marriage that winded up in high-profile divorce.  Jenny Sparks had something like four marriages (one to an alien), was bisexual and had a fling with Hitler (no, seriously).  And despite the fact that technically she’s only eight (or possibly fourteen… or maybe eight again… look, it involves super powers), Jenny Quantum has shown a tendency towards crushing on older women.  So compared to who they live with, Apollo and Midnighter are the poster boys for traditional marriage; their relationship even survived Midnighter walking out for three years (for typically self-sacrificing – though ultimately pointless – superhero-esque reasons).  That kind of commitment would bring a tear to the eye of even the staunchest conservative.

It’s very telling that the most ‘alternative’ relationship in mainstream comics¹ is so non-threatening.

It’s also pretty telling how each character is treated, especially with regard to their sexuality.  In the earlier Authority arcs it barely comes up, but as the writers change it becomes more and more apparent that no-one knows how to ‘handle’ gay male characters (hint: don’t ‘handle’ them at all).  Apollo pretty much gets ignored, and is possibly the second least developed member of the Authority after Shen.  When he does get an independent personality (read: not simply reacting to Midnighter dying/rescuing him/kissing other men/etc.) he’s usually shown as being flirty, slightly ditzy, dirty-minded and foul mouthed.  Ironically, it’s almost the kind of stereotypical persona that shows up in female characters which may explain a bit why many of the (male) writers have trouble applying this to someone who is physically so hyper-masculine.  It also doesn’t fit into one of the neat personality ‘boxes’ that the vast majority of male superheroes seem to occupy; the brooding anti-hero, the geek-with-powers or the boy-scout.

Midnighter, lucky for him, does; he’s squarely in the first camp, cut from the same personality-cloth as characters like Wolverine and Frank Castle.  In some respects he’s the absolute, undiluted essence of this kind of character since he has pretty much no personal history whatsoever²; he is so devoid of loose ends that writers actively have had to bring old enemies back from the dead (coughBendixcough) in order to find a reason for things to “get personal”.  Asides from being a pinko-commie idealist – like all members of the Authority – he seems to have no real specific agenda or vendetta, and in the series is usually just pointed at people who have been deemed by others as needing to die and left to do his thing.  Ironically, this potential for conflict – how someone reconciles with the fact that their sole purpose for existence is as a weapon – is rarely touched upon during the Authority run; I think it crops up a little bit in his solo-title, but I haven’t read that since I’m waiting for the trade (I have an ideological objection to buying individual issues).  Either way, like his conceptual peers, Midnighter is a little dark, a little cynical, a little wisecraking and a lot of pwn, making him instantly popular.  Again, he’s also hyper-masculine; a trait that most amusingly pops up in artists giving him a stereotypical tough-guy 5-o’clock shadow, despite the fact that his hair is supposedly red.

And this is where he gets shafted (and not in the good way), because again your average comic writer seems unable to reconcile the image of “badass killing machine” with “married gay man with child”.  Here’s the thing; Midnighter is the only member of the Authority who has ever been shown as doing anything domestic (ironing) or maternal.  He is almost always shown as being the primary caregiver for baby Jenny.  I admit that this is probably due to cheap visual gags rather than deliberate character development (Midnighter bottle-feeding a baby wrapped up in a fluffy pink blanket is funnier than Apollo doing the same), but nevertheless anyone reading this stuff would be excused from getting the impression that he wouldn’t be totally adverse to being a stay-at-home dad.  Midnighter is probably the only character in the history of comics who’s had to appear in civvies solely because his costume was currently covered in milk vomit, and has then proceeded to bitch that said milk vomit is impossible to get out of leather and then shown concern that he’s being crankier than usual due to being constantly woken up at night by his baby.  He has also deliberately stormed out of ‘work’ duties with the stated intent of spending time with his daughter.  As far as parental interaction goes, Midnighter is always shown as performing the sorts of things traditionally associated with mothers, while Apollo gets ‘dad stuff’ like taking his daughter out flying in space³.  In the Morrison-written “Fractured Worlds” arc, Midnighter also gets what is arguably the most ‘maternal’ job of all; going back in time in order to identify which out of a set of identical twins is his daughter.  He gets it right, and what he then has to do with that knowledge is pretty much the embodiment of the ‘dark mother’ concept.

It’s interesting that this incident more-or-less marks the start of the subsequent rejection of the Midnighter-as-father characterisation.  As mentioned above, in “Revolution” (penned by Brubaker) he walks out on his family for three years and after he returns his earlier father-persona never quite seems to resurface.  In a scene that IIRC comes from the Grifter crossover (under Dixon), he even has a freak-out over not wanting to be seen as the ‘wife’ in the relationship.  The reaction from Apollo and fans alike was pretty much “… buh?”.⁴  In fact, it seems that the more emphasis any one writer places on Midnighter-as-badass-bio-engineered-killing-machine, the more every other aspect of his character is rejected or sidelined (he’s a cock to Apollo⁵, cold to his friends, and almost completely retconned as a father).

And here’s where I think we get to a problem which is endemic in mainstream comics; hell, while we’re pointing fingers, it’s endemic to mainstream Western media.  It’s the idea about how to portray vulnerability in ‘tough-guy’ male characters.

The thing I always liked about both Midnighter and Apollo at the start of their run was that both seemed completely confident in their own masculinity.  And with good reason; one can walk on the sun, the other can single-handedly take down whole armies in mêlée combat.  I mean, what have either of them got to prove?  And to whom?  This attitude is more-or-less conveyed, too, and neither character shies away from showing emotional vulnerability or affection as the situation warrants; and not solely in that clichéd, stoic action-hero way, either (Midnighter is totally a mother hen, and fusses constantly over Apollo who takes it with a kind of weary eye-rolling).  I think “Kev” is probably in some ways the beginning of the end of this because it’s the first time either character is shown as visibly reacting to a taunt against their sexuality.  During the “High Stakes” one-shot (Morrison again) Midnighter has his first-of-many combats against a character who specifically taunts him for being gay – including asking if he doesn’t gamble because it’s “too heterosexual” in what has got to be the dumbest line ever – though he doesn’t seem to be particularly phased.  These incidents almost seem to open up a kind of Pandora’s Box in the series where suddenly the characters’ sexuality/masculinity becomes fair game, and the more attention is paid to it, the more extreme the in-character reactions are.

Here you start walking a fine line between what attitudes belong to the author and what attitudes belong to the character.  Sure, you can easily mount an argument that Midnighter might very well be starting to get sick of “lol ur a fag!” comments, hence some of his attitude changes.  Nevertheless, this is still something that certain writers have chosen to portray at the expense of past writers who haven’t.  I wouldn’t dream of being so inflammatory as to suggest that certain writers are projecting their own reactions to having their masculinity threatened, but, well.

See the thing is, no matter how often they like to remind us of it, I think there’s something that a lot of these writers don’t get.  And it is this:

Midnighter loves the cock.

While he is throwing people out windows, he is also loving the cock.  While he is performing stealth infiltration into enemy territory he still loves the cock.  Remember that time he crashed the fighter jet into Seth?  Yeah, well while he was doing that he was thinking about how much he loved the cock.  Or that time he was breathing on Mars?  Loved the cock then, too.  When bad guys are all like, “A-hur you love the cock!”  Midnighter is all, “Do I ever!” before removing their spleen with a Biro.  No matter where Midnighter is, or what badass feats of hardness he is performing, he is loving the cock.  Because he is fucking gay and if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be.  Seriously; it’s not rocket science.

And see here’s the other thing; Midnighter’s great love of the cock does not in any way, shape or form influence the fact that he is a bio-engineered killing machine who kicks more ass than Batman.  Unlike what I suspect some people subconsciously think, it certainly doesn’t make the fact that he is a badass any more impressive; like gayness is some kind of handicap to be overcome in the badassitude stakes.  Like many people with a similar opinion (roughly half of the world’s total population), Midnighter’s love of the cock has little-to-no bearing on the physical or mental skills he may or may not possess⁶.  It does affect his relationship with Apollo (positively; they have a common interest) and with other people whose opinions may (Jenny) or may not (most everyone else, including you) matter to him.

So this is kinda why I maybe sorta suspect that some authors might just possibly be projecting their own insecurities a little.  Maybe.  And it’s also why I suspect we’ve seen a steady decline in both the presence of Apollo and the inclusion of Daddy Midnight.  Because things like taking it up the ass or cleaning milk vomit off your clothes aren’t traditionally ‘badass’.  Traditionally these things are a challenge to the stereotypical image of badassness, and the overall decline in the risks that are being taken in the Wildstorm universe as a whole are reflected here in miniature.  Everyone likes comics about badass dudes, and while it’s okay for badass dudes to go rescue cats occasionally, it is 100% less badass for them to fret like teenage girls over the welfare of their boyfriends.  While you can get some lulz over fag jokes, and then you can pretend to vicariously denounce homophobia by having those people killed, it’s much harder to actually challenge the all-consuming stereotype of aggressive hyper-masculinity (which, let’s not forget, is the root cause of homophobia) in any meaningful way.

That’s an awful lot of words but to be honest I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, exactly.  Maybe it’s just another general lament to add into the growing sea of lamentation over the steady and obvious decline in the quality of the Authority and the entire Wildstorm universe.  Maybe I’m just annoyed that the parts I like from characters I like are slowly being excised.  Maybe I’m just projecting my annoyance at the treatment of women in comic books onto a couple of gay characters who encounter similar bad writing.  Maybe I’m outraged on behalf of all men at the lack of a non-simplistic, fully-formed representation of masculinity that doesn’t solely involve violence and angst.

Or maybe I’m just wasting time at work.  Any will do.

1. The Wildstorm universe was recently (as of 52, week 52) ‘officially’ absorbed into the DC Multiverse as Earth-50, which makes them pretty mainstream in my book.  This sort of thing happens reasonably regularly in Marvel and DC, but for those of you who don’t read comics; the big-name DC heroes like Superman and Batman currently live in Earth-52 (‘New Earth’) which is the ‘main’ universe upon which the existence of all other universes relies (though, confusingly, recognisable versions of the characters also live on Earth-1 and Earth-2 from the ‘old’ multiverse, which still exists, as well as all the variou– you see why I don’t read superhero comics?).  Anyway, when looked at this way, Apollo and Midnighter aren’t just a pastiche of Superman and Batman, they are their universe’s Superman and Batman. ^
2. It’s generally assumed that, like team-mate Apollo, he doesn’t remember much or anything about his past prior to being turned into a posthuman.  It’s stated a couple of times he was ex-black-ops military (in “More Kev” he says his special forces unit was called the “Gay Squad”), but until recently writers have generally avoided dredging any of this up. ^
3. C’mon, you can’t try and tell me that this isn’t the most quintessentially dad-activity ever. ^
4. It can be semi-justified in context since he’s just been rescued from a traumatic experience involving tentacled ass-monsters (no, seriously), but the fact that it has to be justified is telling in itself.  No similar speech has ever come from Apollo; who has been the victim of one implied rape and one attempted rape, the second of which he was directly saved from by Midnighter.  Nor has this ever seemed to bother Midnighter previously when a similar taunt cropped up in “More Kev” or when he, you know, wore a white version of his costume to his own goddamn wedding.  Seriously. ^
5. And not in the good way. ^
6. Technically, fellatio is a physical skill. ^

• Tags » comics, gender politics, the authority, writing
• Comments By » Jack