#apollo and Midnighter

[bluebedo]

Apollo and Midnighter

PEAK TIME GUYS ITS MY DADS!!!!! Day 6 yet only drawing 3 of my pride posts - today we have one of, if not THE, most iconic gay couple in comics: MIDPOLLO!!!!

If u hate the rainbow leather blame Jupiter

Oh god where do I even start with these two.

Their very first panel ever, not even just together, had them both naked in an abandoned warehouse

The Authority (1992) #13 - "Apollo and the Midnighter: a look around the carrier with the world's finest couple." They also kiss on panel for the first time in this issue

Apollo sacrificed himself in The Authority (1992) #15 and here's the panel of Midnighter crying over his unconscious (luckily not dead) body!!!

Literally like 10 pages later Midnighter says to a recovered Apollo: "God, I just love you to bits sometimes."

Skipping a little cos I can't keep using the same run: they had the first ever gay marriage in comics in The Authority (1992) #29:

Such a bad outfit btw, someone should have gone to the fitting with Midnighter cos it is not it

Their marriage in that issue also allowed them to adopt the newly born spirit of the 21st century Jenny Quarx/Quantum

Very first issue of The Authority (2003) they're naked in bed together and kiss, and obviously was going to do more if Jenny Q hadn't interrupted

In DC Pride 2025, they were transported to a wish world where Apollo's wish was that Midnighter would never have to kill again, and they were SO CUTE, they kept calling each other "dearest" and "darling" and UGH THEY MAKE ME ILL GO READ IT AND IGNORE THE BLUE SNOWMAN SECTION!!!!!!!

To get a little less specific cos this list is getting LONG 😭: they're constantly checking each other out during battle, they're constantly called goddamn slurs 🙄, and they physically cannot keep their hands off each other

This is literally all from my own reading btw, I haven't been able to read recently so I'm only at Authority (2003) #8, but I'm sure it just gets more romantic from there

Midnighter and Apollo are one of the most influential couples in comics, and I'd argue the most iconic. People who don't even read the Authority or things related to Wildstorm know who they are. It was arguably blasphemous that I didn't do them first however I draw them enough as it is 😭😭

[buds-and-baubles]

(midnighter 2006-2008 issue #9)

midnighter's live reaction

[momachan]

"The two of you... please... you're so smug in your superiority. You joke while I face an uncertain future... with no sure path back to my love. Neither of you know what you truly have together... Because you've never had it taken, as I have. We cannot help who we love."

G'norts Illustrated Swimsuit Edition (2023) #1. "Out There."

[danaclese]

In 2012, on June 20th, Marvel published their first comic depicting a gay wedding.

The June 20th issue of Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #51 depicts the wedding of the hero Northstar, who came out in 1992, becoming the first openly gay superhero in comics.

Jean-Paul Beaubier and his longtime partner Kyle Jinadu stood before their friends and family and took their vows, joining in marriage.

At time of printing, same sex marriage was NOT protected under united states federal law, that did not come until June of 2015. The conversation to depict the matrimonial union of a same sex couple in a marvel comic came out of the New York state ruling on July 24, 2011. (according to former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso who held the office at the time)

Jean-Paul's home country of Canada enacted nationwide legalization on July 20, 2005. Jean-Paul's home province of Quebec had permitted same sex union since March 19, 2004, the third province to do so, only a year before national legalization.

The first country to Legalize same sex marriage was Nederland on the first of April 2001.

As of January 2025, only 38 countries recognize same-sex marriage at all. Today there is still over 70 countries where homosexuality is illegal, and about 5 where if convicted in a court of law, the legal penalty is death (although only 2 or 3 of which where they actually convict).

Extrajudicial killings of the LGBTQ+ by small minded bigots are STILL happening in every country on earth. The gender nonconforming and non-heteronormative are still frequent targets of violence in every country.

Our fight is not over, this history is very much still happening. We have always been here and we WILL ALWAYS BE HERE. We will fight to the end for our right to stay and we will win.

Heroes never stop fighting no matter the odds. At stonewall, when the police came in force to put out their light, a hero picked up a brick from the ground and fought back. And that brick was the first in a new path paved for their future.

So maybe when fighting for the right to survive has you exhausted and the night is dark, if you feel lost in the cold sea, look to the sky and seek the north star, and dream of a future where you can fly too. Northstar, a guiding light, something you find in the darkness to see the place where you are going. A beacon of hope, a promise of a journey.

This is often told as the "first gay wedding in the history of comics" It's NOT. It's not even the first gay superhero wedding, it is MARVEL'S first gay wedding. The wedding of Apollo and Midnighter in The Authority #29 (2002) the Wildstorm comic pre-dated Astonishing X-Men #51 by ten years. The Authority did not sell well, and to be honest it wasn't very good, but when they knew they were getting canceled they used their last issue to publish a gay superhero wedding and history should remember them for that.

here is a list of charities i have not vetted, maybe look into them or maybe donate to your local pride organization.

I'm not going to write about this years pride comics this year. This is about the history of our survival, not capitalism. Remember that.

[blueorchids]

I realized that I like Soap x Ghost so much because they're basically Midnighter x Apollo in a different font.

[yourlocaltransdude]

Superbat

GUYS IF YOU LIKE SUPERBAT PLEASE CHECK OUT APOLLO AND MIDNIGHTER. It’s literally cannon, DC, a edgy black leather wearing superhero that co-founded a superhero team and this godlike being that absorbs solar energy that co-founded the same team going on adventures together and they’re a married couple. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[morsart]

Happy Pride Month!

[br0needh3lp]

Kinda busy nowadays 🥹 ((BTW the first two pictures was Patrick Bateman lol))

[not-gay-batman]

Jack Hawksmoor out of context

[soranatus]

MIDNIGHTER & APOLLO BY DAVID TALASKI

[muchymozzarella]

Vote Midnighter and Apollo and know your history!!! Not only were they the first gay comics marriage, they also had a lovely and healthy relationship and even raised a daughter together!!!! Their entire comic was irreverent and grimdark but their relationship was sacred, tender and good because of how rare good gay rep was at the time, ESPECIALLY couples!!!!

I forgot the particular story, but in one of the stories the entire earth was covered in darkness so Apollo had to live above the atmosphere since he gains power from the sun, and this is how they'd come see each other.

They are such GOOD DADS!!!

And they were written in 1999 to the early 2000s!!!!! Where queer rep was almost non existent!!!!

RESPECT YOUR HISTORY!!!!! YOU LIKELY WOULDN'T HAVE THE QUEER COMICS REP IF NOT FOR THEM PAVING THE WAY!!!

Midnighter and Apollo: The World's Finest Couple tied the knot and formally adopted their daughter in issue #29 of The Authority, making them the first same-sex marriage in a mainstream comic. DC's New52 retcon of their marriage has since been put to rights when they renewed their vows in DC Pride 2023.

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy: Ever since the episode Harley&Ivy in Batman The Animated Series, this couple has been a fan favourite long before they were together in canon. Now, they appear in every Pride anthology, and most of DC's romance anthologies. Together, they had the first same-sex kiss on the cover of a superhero comic.

Tim Drake and Bernard Dowd: Fans have long had theories about all members of the BatFamily, but Tim Drake is the first of them to officially come out as queer, when he began dating former school friend and Bat enthusiast, Bernard Dowd. They were recently featured sharing the first kiss between two men on a superhero comic cover.

[elsannej]

"...The pie and punch are free, right?"

Happy Pride etc. :boosterrific_thumbsup:

[buds-and-baubles]

actually i need to talk about how apollo's devotion to midnighter looks.

he knows where all of midnighter's scars from his experimentation and battles are located with his eyes closed.

he knows the sound of midnighter's voice, his heartbeats, from anywhere in the vast multiverse.

he knows midnighter's favorite drink, alcoholic and not, without even being reminded or told.

he knows how midnighter speaks with his body language when his words cannot come out of his mouth.

he knows all the automatic conclusions midnighter's fight computer reaches before it's even started.

he knows how midnighter loved jenny quantum since he first laid eyes on her, but didn't want to accept it. that he thought wasn't made to be gentle, to raise a child. but apollo knew he could from the beginning.

he knows how midnighter looks when he's trying to make up for lost time, for an error that had deeply scarred both apollo and jenny's hearts. but fuck, he'll make him work for it because it's the least midnighter can do. and midnighter did (offscreen but still vaguely implied)

he knows when midnighter struggles between being midnighter, made by henry bendix, and midnighter, wanting to know what was before.

he knows midnighter inside and out, beginning and end.

but does midnighter know how hard it is sometimes to express those words out loud? truly how much apollo loves him?

he'll shower midnighter with trophies from fights, physical contact like nighttime cuddles, putting on midnighter's favorite movie that he insists he doesn't like, surprising midnighter with a mission where they can work together, kissing midnighter's scarred knuckles and every inch of scarred skin, saying i love you any chance he gets, and so much more.

it's like his heart can't contain it.

he's like the sun following after the moon, endlessly entwined.

[browsethestacks]

Apollo And Midnighter

Art by David Talaski

[peejayee]

find someone that matches your freak pt2

[yourlocaltransdude]

GUYS, GUYS, GUYS!

MY MIDPOLLO FANART IS THE PHOTO FOR THE TAG! Literally screenshotted rn.