Midnighter (Wildstorm Universe)

## Midnighter

Gallery

**Midnighter** is a violent vigilante and member of the Authority.

## History

### Origin

Midnighter, alongside his future husband Apollo, was part of a top secret StormWatch team created by the first Weatherman, Henry Bendix. Nobody but Bendix himself knew of the team's existence. Bendix built them as superhuman and, when they donned their costumes and spoke their codenames, their previous identities ceased to exist.

However, this secret team was all but destroyed during their first mission, Apollo and Midnighter being the only survivors. They went rogue and spent the next five years undercover fighting for a finer world in the alleyways of America. One mission took them to Britain, where they thwarted Bendix's attempts at experimenting on children to create superhumans, in the process developing links with MI5. They remained unknown to Stormwatch until Christine Trelane found the files about their team after Bendix's fall.

Jackson King, formerly Battalion, now the new Weatherman, ordered them found, not being sure whether they were heroes or villains. Midnighter and Apollo were after weapons made in the "Nevada Garden", a relic of the first Engineer. He ordered Fahrenheit and Hellstrike to tag them with fetishes so they could be transported into SkyWatch. Midnighter and Apollo first attacked the Stormwatch team, believing them under Bendix's orders. However, they ceased the attack once they were told Bendix was dead. With King's help, they violently retrieved the Garden from the U.S. Army, and King granted them what they asked for: new lives away from Stormwatch.

### The Authority

After Stormwatch was destroyed, Jenny Sparks convinced both Midnighter and Apollo to come out of retirement and join her new group, The Authority. A formidable fighter with a sardonic attitude, Midnighter epitomized the new team's commitment to fighting for a finer world, including against vested interests and world governments. He was the architect of the team's first significant victory, the defeat of autocratic dictator Kaizen Gamorra, which he achieved by dropping the 50-mile-long Carrier on to Gamorra's island base.

Midnighter was the only Authority member to evade capture when the US government had the team attacked and replaced with manipulable substitutes. 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. Shortly thereafter Midnighter and Apollo were married and adopted Jenny.

Midnighter took a central role during the Authority's brief over the United States. A visitation, apparently from a future Apollo, convinced Midnighter that he was on the path to becoming a malign dictator. To avoid this fate Midnighter quit the team, precipitating its break-up, and returned to life fighting solo on the streets. Raised alone by Apollo, Jenny exploited her powers to age herself to young adulthood and reformed the Authority. Having convinced Midnighter to rejoin the team Jenny discovered he was being manipulated by a dimension-hopping Henry Bendix, hitherto assumed dead. Midnighter fought for Bendix before the Engineer was able to break the mind-control; Midnighter then killed Bendix by ripping out his spine.

Circumstances have twice forced Midnighter, very much against his will, to team up with Kev Hawkins, a homophobic former-SAS soldier and eponymous protagonist of the Authority. A relationship made worse by the fact that on their first meeting, Kev killed him, Apollo and the rest of the Authority, though the Carrier resurrected them. On their last meeting they took down MI5's Royal Oak project, an attempt at replicating Bendix's experiments.

### Worldstorm

 *Main article: Captain Atom: Armageddon*

When Captain Atom was displaced into the Wildstorm Universe and posed a treat to the said universe due to possessing a fragment of the Void entity, the Authority initially had tried in helping Captain Atom and forcing Jack Hawksmoor to order Midnighter and Apollo to kill Captain Atom, in which the two killed Grifter who was fighting for Captain Atom, and brought him to the Carrier. However, when Apollo hit Atom with his eyebeams, he inadvertently triggered Atom's imminent destiny causing him to transform into a menacingly glowing form. Apollo is then killed upon touching Captain Atom by being incinerated into a charred skeleton right before Midnighter's eyes. Enraged, and disobeying Hawksmoor's command, Midnighter tried to attack Atom but is then killed too like his husband. Following the reboot of the Wildstorm Universe, Midnighter was among those who were killed in the previous universe (such as Grifter) to relived anew in the newly created Wildstorm universe.

### Solo Adventures

After returning from a mission in war-torn Afghanistan, Midnighter was attacked and kidnapped by unknown agents while passing through the Carrier's teleportation portal. He awoke in a facility in Hamburg, Germany, where a man named Anton Paulus told him that he was disrupting his ability to guess his opponents' moves, and that he had removed his secondary heart and replaced it with a remote-detonated bomb.

Paulus gave Midnighter the choice of either working for him, or dying, showing him a photograph of the person he wanted Midnighter to kill: Adolf Hitler. Time-traveling back to the First World War trenches, Midnighter encountered Hitler as a young corporal in the German army, but was apprehended by 'time police' officers from the 95th century before carrying out his mission. In his struggle to escape, he crashed the officers' time machine at the year 1945 - shortly before Hitler's expected suicide. Eventually he allied himself with them and worked his way back to his own time, where he threatened to erase Paulus from history by killing his kidnapped younger self; it is unclear whether or not he would have executed the child, but ultimately he did not have to. After informing Paulus that he discovered in the past that the real reason he wanted Hitler dead was to allow his father, a Nazi official, to become a more effective ruler than Hitler, Midnighter killed Paulus via decapitation and returned the child to the time police to be sent back to the past. Midnighter then returned to the Carrier, but was apparently just as listless as before, immediately setting himself on another mission in Iraq.

Midnighter's attempts to connect better with humans after the graphic and public disposal of supervillain "Suicide King". Trying to help a girl find her pet cat finds him stumble upon a mad scientist who has been kidnapping pets for his cybernetic experiments. After defeating him, he employs the scientist to experiment on the murderers and dictators he acquires before deciding to adopt the one pet the Doctor could not repair or rehome: a cyborg dog.

Midnighter managed to retrieve all the information about his former life prior to his reprogramming by Henry Bendix given by Jenny Quarx, and discovered that his real name is Lucas Trent, that he was born on July 14, 1967 (making him 40 years old in 2007), and that he hailed from Harmony, Indiana. On visiting the town he found it was the hub of a paramilitary patriotic organization named Anthem, with ambitions to take over the United States and provide the country with the conscience they felt it had lost. While battling Anthem and its superpowered operatives, he discovered that Jenny had falsified the documents she gave him, and that he had never been Trent - but decided to stay on in Harmony nonetheless.

### World's End

 *Main article: World's End*

Following the Number of the Beast incident, Midnighter was one of the last Authority members still able to act in the ruins of London, now called UnLondon. Separated from Apollo, who was confined to the upper atmosphere by sunlight-blocking fog over the planet's surface, Midnighter helps civilians to reach the ruins of the Carrier, now a stronghold for survivors. When former Changer member, The Eidolon posed a threat in UnLondon, Midnighter was the only one to confront him and savagely killed him. However, Eidolon is eternally immortal thus making him the actual victor and Midnighter was subsequently told off by the undead being that for everything that the Authority had ever done was through violence and as an insult to injury, Eidolon *politely* informed Midnighter that he and his forces will not attack the Carrier.

The Carrier later suffered an Incubite outbreak among the refugees, and Apollo was forced to eradicate the infection, but was then infected himself. Midnighter, unknown to this, remained concerned of Apollo's long absence as while his husband attempted to burn his infection in the sun, but only for it to gain sentience and total domination of his body, calling itself "The Burn". The Burn soon fought the Authority and was eventually subdued by being frozen and imprisoned in cold storage until they could find a cure for him.

Midnighter later dreamed a prophetic nightmare about the Warhol infected Apollo, Midnighter was visited by an unidentifiable girl who told him to "go north, heal the land, and heal the wounded king". He decided to followed what the dream told as he believed that what he might discover would cure Apollo, and left the Carrier. Upon arriving the Scottish borders, he discovered a fully vegetated island that is prevented from access by guards. Midnighter fought his way and even encountering a dragon. After infiltrating the island, he witnessed a being calling itself The Green Man murdered a group of refugees who were previously told by the being that it would "heal" them. Deciding himself in killing the being, Midnighter sneaked into the island's castle where it lived, but was then captured by living vines and is brought to the Green Man, and was shocked to discover that the Green Man is the Authority's missing and insane Doctor, Habib bin Hassan. The Doctor, believing that mankind is at fault for Earth's devastation, tortures Midnighter. As he is being tortured, Midnighter finds himself astral projected and meets with the girl from his dreams to be the Century Baby, Gaia Rothstein. Gaia revealed that she was responsible for calling Midnighter as she believed that he could stop the mad Doctor that has been controlling her for his own ends and promise that she have a way in healing Apollo. Upon returning back to his body, Midnighter was about to be executed by the Doctor until the Authority timely arrived thanks to Gaia. After the Authority defeated the Doctor, who he faded away, a freed Gaia gave Midnighter an apple that contains the cure to cleansing Apollo's infection. After returning to the Carrier, Midnighter fed a slice of the apple to Apollo which successfully cured him. Together, the couple embraced again after a longtime of separation.

Following the Carrier's activation and flight to an unknown location, Midnighter and Apollo decided to stay on Earth as the former still has faith for Earth's survival and the latter having to stay near the sun. The couple shortly then participated in Earth's war against the Knights of Khera, in which they succeeded in destroying one of the Knights' terraforming machines at the North Pole. After the Knights' defeat, Midnighter supported Spartan's plan in rebuilding Earth and unifying the planet. When Zealot shared her outright disagreement over this and deciding to leave on her own, along with Maul, in training the survivors of Earth into a planetary defense force, Midnighter was cautious over this and shared his warnings with Zealot if she ever undermines Spartan and the other heroes who supported him.

In the next three months of Earth's reconstruction, Midnighter remained suspicious of Zealot and decided on spying on her before personally telling Apollo of his mission and that he will be absent for some time. He then teleported to Zanzibar where Zealot established the nation as her domain to train her own Coda. Midnighter then confronted and beaten Jeremy Stone, and demanded answers from Stone in which Midnighter learned that he and Zealot are using Kheran technology to impregnate women, who volunteered to the Coda, and then accelerate the growth of their (female) babies and then train them as part of Zealot's army. But, the process was near-fatal for the women as the technology was reserved for Kherubims. Midnighter was disgusted in learning this, and especially from Maul who was willingly to go along with Zealot's plans. Subsequently, Midnighter confronted Zealot and engaged her in single combat. Throughout their fight, the two were evenly matched as they argued back and forth of their flaws in which Zealot struck a chord in Midnighter in being unable to saved his adopted daughter Jenny Quarx. Eventually both combatants were literally grabbing at each others' throats when Maul, who grew tired of the violence and the guilt for cooperating with Zealot's plan, intervened to stop their fight; however, Maul was close to being cut down by Zealot's sword due to her reflex, which forced him to shrunk down to the subatomic level to escape from harm. Everyone, including Midnighter, believed that Maul was disintegrated in which Midnighter chastised Zealot for 'killing' her friend and also losing him to maintain the machines for the pregnancies. But Zealot only tells him that she and her Coda will move elsewhere. Midnighter vowed to follow her wherever she goes, though he was shook over what Zealot said about the loss of Jenny Quarx.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Battle Precognition**: Midnighter has the power to predict how a situation will happen before it starts. This allows him to run through a given situation millions of times in his mind, instantly covering every possible result before the first move is even made. He uses this information to predict the actions and or reactions of others, counteracting their moves almost before they even think to make them. Effectively making Midnighter the greatest tactician in the history of mankind, as he is able to see all possible outcomes of any situation before it even takes place. According to Midnighter, his powers also work by letting him see the outcome of the battle he wants, and working backwards, following the right steps to get there. This ability also works as a super computer, calculator, simulator, and grants Midnighter an even further enhanced intellect, memory, deductive and tactical capabilities.
	+ **Tactical Senses**: Midnighter's senses are incredibly enhance. His senses enables him to see, hear, smell, feel, and taste things imperceptible to humans. He automatically and passively notices, processes and understands any/all details of any situation or environment no matter how small, allowing him to intuitively understand and solve any situation no matter how difficult it may be. It doesn't matter how small the details are, he will automatically know and process them almost instantly. This allows him to detect any modifications or powers in anyone he looks at, as well as how they work, so he can defeat them. He can detect what special abilities a opponent has, he can see the enhancements. He can even detect electrical activity in the brain.
	+ **Telescopic Vision**
	+ **Enhanced Hearing**: Midnighter is able to tune into where exactly he wants to hear.
* **Fight Implants**: Midnighter's abilities were designed by Bendix to give him an all encompassing advantage in close-combat.
	+ **Enhanced Strength**: He has incredible strength, can exert 1000 kg/cm2 of force with each fingertip and toes. He can dismember opponents with his bare hands and feet.
	+ **Enhanced Speed**: Midnighter can move faster than the human eye in a quick speed burst, an effect perhaps created by his always possessing the element of surprise. He normally moves at slightly above human speed but can move so fast that enemies with super speed can't see him, though he can't stay at that speed for long.
	+ **Enhanced Durability**: The structure of his tissues give him a nigh-indestructible and impenetrable anatomy.
	+ **Enhanced Reflexes**: Midnighter's body has been altered to give him faster nerve endings. His body is capable of automatically reacting to any threat or attack without him having to acknowledge about it. He can move, react, and maneuver himself in microseconds as well as process information as quickly.
* **Survival Implants**: Implants used to keep him fighting in the worst of conditions.
	+ **Enhanced Healing**: Midnighter can flawlessly regenerate from any injury in a short period of time. He's fought with, and healed from, a broken neck, broken limbs, holes through his chest, having his whole body set on fire, contracting various viruses (including AIDS), and other things.
	+ **Pain Receptor Control**: He can turn his pain receptors on and off so he can keep fighting when the pain would stop a normal man, and has implants that numb him to most pain - he has undergone major surgery while awake and alert.
	+ **Super-Enhanced Immune System**: Midnighter's immune system has advanced to the point where HIV was defeated in six weeks and the common cold never stays more than a couple of minutes. After The Doctor overdosed himself with heroin, physicians used a shot of Midnighter's blood to jump start his system by deactivating his opiate receptors.
	+ **Environmental Adaptation**: He has the uncanny capacity to live entirely self-sufficiently and without sustenance. He can survive in anaerobic environments indefinite periods of time, even the vacuum of space, can adapt to various environments if needed and desired, and possesses a secondary heart should the first one be rendered unusable. Midnighter has no need to use the bathroom and can go without food or water for an undetermined amount of time. He was able to survive walking on the surface of Mars without equipment for a certain time.

### Abilities

* **Weaponry**: He also speaks German and can apparently operate several types of outdated weaponry, as evidenced by his use of WWI artillery while chronologically displaced.
* **Stealth**: Midnighter is also quite adept at stealth. He is known to only be seen when he wants to be seen.
* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced)**: He is a nearly-unmatched close-quarters killer, having quite effortlessly slaughtered close to 30 super-powered soldiers by himself, without being so much as touched by them.
* **Multilingualism**
* **Tactical Analysis**

### Weaknesses

* **Vulnerability to Psionics**: A sufficiently powered psychic can shut down his mental enhancements making his ability to calculate a fight null and void.
	+ **Nanite Infection**: Midnighter is more susceptible to Nanite infection due to his neural enhancements. On at least one occasion his mind and body has been controlled by Nanites created to disrupt and control his neural enhancements.
* **Design Drawback**: Because Midnighter's superhuman implants were all implemented by Henry Bendix, Team Achilles was once able to use a simple remote controlled switch to temporarily deactivate his powers upon accessing and making use of Bendix's secret files.
* **Inactive Opponent**: It was revealed that his ability can be defeated if his opponent does not make the first move (although this may have been because he was facing a cyborg at the time).
* **Unpredictable Opponent**: If his opponent has no idea what they will do next, neither will Midnighter. During a confrontation with the Joker he was unable to get any sort of readings from him.
* **Competitive Reaction Time**: The efficacy of Midnighter's ability to read and predict the moves of his enemies is dependent of being able to process probabilities faster than his opponents. If his enemies are only a single nanosecond quicker than him, one contingency ahead of him, his enhancements are rendered useless.

## Paraphernalia

### Weapons

* **Nightstick**
* **Telescoping Staff**
* **Throwing Stars**

## Trivia

* Midnighter is also known as the *Night's Bringer of War*.
* The Midnighter is gay and married to Apollo.
* The Midnighter has adopted Jenny Quantum.
* The Midnighter once contracted H.I.V. and defeated it in 6 weeks and the common cold stays in him no more then a couple of minutes.
* Midnighter's hair color differs from issue to issue. The Indiana state driver's license he receives from Jenny Quantum indicates that he has brown hair, but by his own admission, his hair is naturally red.
* In a retcon, it was revealed that the Midnighter's costumed identity was inspired from a heroine called the Midnight Rider, who was a member of a team called the Paladins
* In *DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar*, Midnighter's battle precognition was rendered useless when against the Joker, as he could not figure out what the Joker would do due to the DC villain's insane and unpredictable mindset.

## Recommended Reading

* *Midnighter*  (Volume 1)
* *Grifter and Midnighter*  (Volume 1)
* *StormWatch*  (Volume 2)
* *The Authority*

## Related

* 1 Appearances of Midnighter (Wildstorm Universe)
* 104 Images featuring Midnighter (Wildstorm Universe)
* Quotations by or about Midnighter (Wildstorm Universe)
* Character Gallery: Midnighter (Wildstorm Universe)

### Footnotes

1. ↑ *Midnighter* #4
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Midnighter* #10
3. ↑ *StormWatch* (Volume 2) #6
4. ↑ *Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority* #2
5. ↑ *The Authority* #4
6. ↑ *The Authority* #29
7. ↑ *The Authority: Revolution* #12
8. ↑ *Midnighter* #5
9. ↑ *Midnighter* #8
10. ↑ *Midnighter* #15
11. ↑ *The Authority* (Volume 4) #3
12. ↑ *The Authority* (Volume 4) #12
13. ↑ *The Authority* (Volume 4) #13
14. ↑ *The Authority* (Volume 4) #14
15. ↑ *The Authority* (Volume 4) #15
16. ↑ *The Authority* (Volume 4) #16
17. ↑ *The Authority* (Volume 4) #17
18. ↑ *The Authority* (Volume 4) #18
19. ↑ *Wildcats: World's End* #21
20. ↑ *Wildcats: World's End* #22
21. ↑ *Wildcats: World's End* #23
22. ↑ *Wildcats: World's End* #24
23. ↑ *Wildcats: World's End* #25
24. ↑ *Grifter and Midnighter* #6
25. ↑ *The Authority: Human on the Inside*
26. ↑ *Grifter and Midnighter* #4
27. ↑ *Stormwatch: Team Achilles* #8
28. ↑ *DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar* #5