I'm really interested in joining this fest, I love Apollo and Midnighter so much! The only thing is, I don't really get the difference between the themes. Thanks for your answer, I'm sorry if it's a silly question 😅💕
Hello Anon!
We’re really glad to have you with us to celebrate the relationship between Apollo and The Midnighter! This is definitely not a silly question, and deserves some clarification for those who may not have had an opportunity to read every book the characters have appeared in (a difficult task these days, with some books having been out of print for over a decade). To recap, this year’s themes for Midpollo Week are:
Days 1, 2 and 3 - Wildstorm
Days 4, 5 and 6 - DC Comics
Day 7 - The Wild Storm
The above themes are based on the different “versions” of Apollo and The Midnighter that have existed since their creation. Here is a quick summary of how they differ:
Wildstorm
Wildstorm Days refer to Apollo and Mid’s original design and creation by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch under the company, Wildstorm Publishing. In 1999, the characters were introduced into the Wildstorm Universe as members of Stormwatch (and later, The Authority). In this universe, Midpollo are a married and out couple with a daughter. A example of this version of Apollo & Midnighter can be found HERE and HERE.
DC Comics
DC Comics Days represent a blend of a few different iterations of Midpollo. In 2010, Wildstorm was officially bought/acquired by DC Comics, and all the storylines and versions of the characters from that universe were “rebooted” to better fit within the DC Universe. This resulted in a complete retconn to Apollo and Midnighter, both visually and in their stories. Their depictions continued to be tweaked through New52 and Rebirth eras of DC Comics, and can be (roughly) broken down as such: Stormwatch Vol 2 (the now infamous chinspike era), Midnighter Vol 2 (the standalone comic by Steve Orlando), and Midnighter and Apollo (A continuation of Orlando’s vision for Midpollo). An Example of the latter can be found HERE and HERE.
The Wild Storm
The day dedicated to The Wild Storm is specifically focused on the most recent reinvention of The Midnighter and Apollo, which can be found in the comic series by the same name. In this book (written by original creator, Warren Ellis), many characters from the Wildstorm Universe’s Stormwatch and The Authority have been re-imagined with all new backstories and visuals. This iteration of Midpollo actually bears more similarity to their original story concept than they do to their DC Comics counterparts. Perhaps the most noticeable difference is their visual representation. In The Wild Storm, Apollo and Midnighter are BIPOC. You can see an example of this version of the couple HERE and HERE
I hope all this helps you better understand the intention of the Midpollo Week themed days! Thank you again for your excitement and involvement, we can’t wait to see what everyone produces to celebrate our favorite couple!
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Okay, so I asked the wonderful Stevie ( @youusedme ) for a super late commission piece for @midpolloweek 2018. The Prompt I chose was:
Day 6: “Coming Home.”
For those who have read Wildstorm’s The Authority comics, you may remember that The Authority: Revolution featured a plotline wherein the evil genius that actually created both Apollo and Midnighter (and whom they thought long dead), Henry Bendix, comes back in disguise. He manages to trick Midnighter (by disguising himself as Apollo from the future, NOT OKAY) into believing that if the team remained together and continued down the path they were on, it would lead to the domination of the world and the oppression/murder of millions. So Midnighter quits the team and leaves, both Apollo and their daughter, without any explanation. It took over 3 years for Mid and the team to realize that Bendix was still alive and confront him, which is when the truth comes out about why Midnighter left.
Now, it has always been my opinion (see here and here) that the writers did a pitiful job of addressing the aftermath of this storyline, particularly for Apollo. It is just assumed that Apollo and Midnighter get back together after everything in the comic concludes, ignoring the trauma/damage done to their family unit and the trust bonds between the two men.
This is lazy storytelling, in my opinion. Not only do I not consider the path back to "happily ever after" for Mid and Apollo came quite so immediately or easily, I also am convinced that Apollo made his husband work for that forgiveness/acceptance. He broke trust with the one person he was meant to always confide in, who would always be on his side. That wound doesn’t just heal like it never existed. It becomes a scar that never fades.
So I asked Stevie for something impossible, a piece of artwork that was both heartbreaking and filled with hopeful warmth. Something that could project the long history of love and loss between Midnighter and Apollo, while also acknowledging that they are (in some ways) strangers again. I asked for a moment in time when Midnighter is truly, really, coming home... and so is Apollo.
Because home isn’t a place for them. It never was. Home is radiant heat in the circle of Apollo’s arms, the soft brush of Midnighter’s eyelashes against a bared face and questing fingertips. Home is each other, and the trust that lives in that unbreakable (broken) bond.
Needless to say, they delivered!! And I love it so much!!!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Midpollo week 2018 Day 6: Soulmate au
Apollo
The first thing he saw was white. The white of the walls, white of the coats around him, white of the bed he laid on and the sheets that covered him. Chatter filled the air around him, slowly coming into focus like breaking through water. He wondered where that thought came from, he can't remember ever being in the water.
They told him that his code name was Apollo, that he had chosen to leave his life behind to fight for a better future. He had abilities now, he could fly, punch through walls, shoot lasers from his eyes. He didn't feel any stronger, but he supposed that he didn't really have anything else to compare it to.
Flying was amazing, feeling the wind through his hair, the sun on his skin. It was indescribable. The longer he stayed out there the stronger he felt and the more he could do. He knew that his past self had made the right choice, though he longed for the knowledge of who that man had been.
Midnighter
There was a voice inside his head. A voice that analysed the sounds the people surrounding him made as he regained consciousness, perhaps for the first time. He couldn't remember any other time.
The voice urged him to move, to strike while they thought he was still helpless, even whilst his sight was not fully restored. The man he grabbed screamed, high-pitched and annoying. His head is so full of overlapping knowledge. The room in front of him played out in different scenes, then reset and repeated. Over and over again in the fraction of a second. His head throbbed, and the scream reverberated through the room. The voice told him to snap his neck, to stop the sound, and he nearly did, but another, outside voice interrupts him.
The man called himself Bendix and told him his name was Midnighter. Then he touched his shoulder and where his hand lay, an ugly bruised green print unfurled across Midnighter's skin. He tells him that it was a soulmark. That anytime someone who has an impact on their lives touches them for the first time it leaves a mark, and that the vibrancy of that mark indicates how powerful their effect will be.
The mark Bendix left was unmistakably vivid.
Midnighter wonders if this is a good thing.
Apollo
He met the rest of his team nearly a month after he woke up. It seemed that none of the others had ever met each other before either. All of them had the same story though, no memories but they were assured that they had known what they were signing up for. It was also the first time he put on his uniform, white and gold with a red triangle and eye in the centre. The Stormwatch symbol.
Later on, he remembers feeling proud and shudders.
He watched as they took turns sparring, just to get to know each other's abilities and how they interacted with their own. He watched as a man all in black except for the matching red triangle and eye blazoned on his chest fought against a woman possibly stronger than he was. And won.
Apollo fought his own matches, waiting patiently for the time to come that he could verse the seemingly unbeatable man. Midnighter.
Midnighter
The first time he saw him, he could think of little else. The rest of their team faded away into the background as he regarded the man in front of him, the man who was to lead him. The voice in his head, the computer that had been put there, didn't know what to do with the man, with Apollo. The Sun God. Throughout his other fights the man was a distraction, one that the computer yearned to destroy.
He grinned as he took his position across from Apollo, who returned it with a matching one of his own. Still undecided on his strategy, they circled each other. Neither of them wanting to make the first move.
Then Midnighter struck.
Apollo
He could feel the blood surging through his veins. He was so light on his feet, he was surprised that he wasn't floating. He dodged the first punch thrown his way, feeling the force of it rush past his cheek. He attempted to counter it with his own, but Midnighter had already danced out of reach.
Apollo settled into defence, willing to watch the graceful movement of Midnighter as he whirls around him. And in a moment of distraction, too focused on the bunching of muscles visible even under the black coat, Midnighter lands the first fit.
Apollo swore that the area he touched, his upper arm, tingled. He knew by now of the soulmarks, his body littered with pale, multicoloured fingerprints left by the scientists that worked with him. No doubt they had more effect on his life than others, but not enough to make a hard mark.
In the showers afterwards, he searches the whole area and is bitterly disappointed when no mark has appeared on his skin.
Midnighter
It didn't take them long to realise that the mission had gone to hell. The first sign they had of it was the poor bastard Amaze killed, with his deformed face. Crow Jane had raged that something was wrong but Apollo, in his calm way of his that drove Midnighter insane, determined that they needed to go on. After all Bendix had said that this was a 'proving' mission that was supposed to test them in the worst-case scenario.
The computer wasn't happy.
Still he stuck to Apollo's side, the unofficial second in command that he had appointed himself.
Amaze died first, a bullet to her brain.
Apollo shouted commands, but Stalker quickly followed her in hail fire. Midnighter pulled Apollo out of the way just in time to avoid the blast that killed Lamplight and Impetus. The thing they had seen in that room was monstrous and it was then that Midnighter realised that Bendix hadn't intended for any of them to make it back from that mission alive.
He and Apollo made it out, just barely, with him clinging onto Apollo's back as they flew. But Crow Jane didn't.
Apollo
He scrubbed at the mark on his arm, the skin around it turned pink from the force. Earlier he had tried branding it away, with the last of his reserves of sunlight for the day, but when the skin cleared, the hand-print remained. A yellowish-green reminiscent of a bruise, ironic really that Bendix would be such a colour. Admitting defeat, he leaves the river he was washing in.
For the past few days, he and Midnighter had been on the run, dodging Bendix's attempts to hunt them down and kill them. They decided it would be best for the time being to stay away from civilization, from the technology it brought and the civilians they would be putting in danger. They hadn't eaten or barely slept in that time either, but it barely bothered him, neither of them needed to really.
But he had missed being clean and so convinced Midnighter that near the stream was where they should camp for the night.
Midnighter
He didn't dare make a fire. It would be like a beacon daring Bendix to find them and while Midnighter couldn't wait to but a fist through the fucker's face, he knew that it wouldn't be Bendix that he and Apollo would be facing.
Apollo joins him in the small clearing, uniform stripped to the waist with the arms tied around his torso to keep it from dangling. Midnighter had eschewed his coat and gloves to give them time to air a little.
He didn't need the computer to tell him that something was wrong. He approached Apollo, a question in his eyes.
"They're going to find us." Apollo said hollowly. He looks at the mark on Midnighter's shoulder, "We can't escape him."
"We can."
Apollo shook his head.
"We're going to hide and we're going to plan and then we're going to kill that bastard." Midnighter cupped Apollo's cheek with his hand. "Do you trust me?"
"Yes." Came the reply, barely louder than a whisper but they both heard it perfectly.
He gave into the urge, pulling Apollo into a kiss.
Apollo
It was anything but gentle and all Apollo had wanted it to be. He poured his desperation and longing through it and into Midnighter, feeling the same pushed back at him. He reached up to grab Midnighter's neck, drawing him closer still.
Midnighter responded in kind, pushing himself up to cover the small distance between their heights.
Midnighter
Finally, Midnighter pulled back. His hand slipped from Apollo's cheek. A deep blue imprint left in its place. Apollo laughed, breathy and delighted.
Apollo
There was a hand print wrapped around the side of Midnighter's neck, a bright, brazen yellow.
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