BOOSTERRIFIC! BLOG: On Whose Authority

Friday, June 26, 2020

On Whose Authority?

Not so long ago, Booster booster Fin called my attention to a comic I had long overlooked. It wasn't a missed Booster Gold appearance. Not quite, anyway.

Just see if this banter doesn't sound familiar:

Those panels are from The Authority: The Lost Year, a series in which the Authority bounced from one alternate universe to another. (This was back in 2010, before the New 52 folded the Wildstorm Universe into the mainstream DCnU.)

Issues #8 and #9 were written by Grant Morrison, Keith Giffen, and J.M. DeMatteis and featured an alternate universe in which the local Authority looked and acted a lot like a particular, best-selling DC Comics team of the late 1980s.

The meta-textural take on the Justice League International by the JLI's original writing team is delightful, especially as contrasted with the modern, no-nonsense Authority concept (itself strongly reminiscent of the extreme 1990s love affair with "mature" sex and violence content).

As you can see, that's Blue Beetle in the role of the Authority's Midnighter (a Batman-like vigilante) and Booster Gold as Apollo (whose character is a riff on Superman — so fitting!) In their original continuity, Apollo and Midnighter are a homosexual couple, allowing the issue's writers to directly tackle the longstanding Boostle phenomenon 'shipping Blue and Gold into a romantic relationship.

I'm sorry I hadn't realized this book existed sooner. Thanks, Fin.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: apollo authority blue beetle david williams fin grant morrison j.m. dematteis justice league international keith giffen kelsey shannon midnighter wildstorm

The Authority(tm) authority posted on Feb. 24, 2022 at 11:18 AM
Hi, I'm a queer person that loves Booster Gold, and adores the Authority, which is how I ended up on this article of yours.

The comic you talk about is The Authority: Lost Year #8. Which, without reading into the lines, does appear to just be some guys being dudes. Polly and Middy (the alternate version of Apollo and Midnighter in that universe) are a very funny take on Booster and Beetle. They have business ventures when the rest of the team is off planet for 6 hours, and Middy claims they are dead, selling the Carrier as apartments. They have some funny lines teasing at how readers interpret them as queer, and even some really important lines about how speculating about their sexuality and really weirding them out and messing with them. (Which is not dissimilar to how current day real people heavily dislike RPF and even just fics about the characters they play being in relationships that they are not.)

However, I believe you left out a very essential part to the article. There's a follow up comic, #9.

It follows up with the Authority's villains (with even more obvious references to the JLI, see: The Narcissist, who looks just like Booster, just recolored, Dung Beetle, who is very literally a beetle, as well as fire and ice themed women). At the end of that comic, Polly asks his alternate Jenny if she thinks Middy and him are "y'know", gay.

She replies with, "What I think doesn't matter. What do you think?"

Polly responds with: "Well, after seeing the other Apollo and Midnighter, I... I'm not sure."

Which pretty much ends openly with whether or not they are or aren't. But, seeing as every other iteration of Apollo and Midnighter are canonically queer, it's extremely likely that they are as well.

I know you've written about how Booster and Beetle are just super close before, but as this set is Apollo and Midnighter, I think they may just be gay here. As they are in every other comic Apollo and Midnighter happily appear in. I don't know if it's supposed to be a direct likeness to Booster and Beetle at that point, but I do know that Midnighter and Apollo (before being brought to DC) were never shy about being queer on the pages of a comic, so it's likely just a closetted take on them as characters.

Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Feb. 26, 2022 at 12:57 AM
Thanks for dropping by! You make a good case. I'm certainly willing to accept your interpretation.

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