Somehow, I figured the coming of the lord would be a little more auspicious. 
- —Apollo
History
Apollo is a comic book superhero who first appeared in the Stormwatch series, but is best known for his role in The Authority. While visually distinct, Apollo is cast in the mold of the Superman archetype.
Apollo is notable for being one of the few gay superheroes in print. He's married to fellow The Authority member Midnighter and both have adopted Jenny Quantum.
A solar-powered member of Stormwatch. He is one of the leading members and is extremely powerful. He is also known for his relationship with fellow Stormwatch member, The Midnighter.
Origin[]
Formerly a U.S. soldier, Apollo was a member of a secret experimental academy team created by the insane former Stormwatch Weatherman, Henry Bendix. Bendix's extensive alterations made Apollo almost a Sun God, with flight, superhuman strength and invulnerability, and heat vision. However, he needs frequent exposure to full sunlight to recharge his powers and his health. Unlike his lover, the Midnighter, Apollo may have volunteered willingly for the implant procedures that gave him his powers. Apollo has also lost all memory of who he was before his recruitment into the team. Apollo, alongside Midnighter, Lamplight, Crow Jane, Amaze, Impetus, and Stalker, formed the ill-fated team that would be sent to their deaths by Bendix on their first mission. Apollo served as team leader, but proved ineffective when he witnessed the death of his peers and became paralyzed with traumatic shock, leaving Midnighter to get them both out alive. However, when Midnighter and Apollo sought extraction, it was only to discover that Bendix had no intention of wasting time or resources to save them when he could so easily replace them with more "super soldiers."
Betrayed, Apollo and Midnighter used their abilities to escape with their lives, but would spend the next five years hiding on the streets, attempting to remain invisible to the Weatherman's ever-watchful eye from the Stormwatch headquarters orbiting the Earth. During this time, the team members fought to better the world on a smaller scale, and came together as lovers. Because of their self imposed exile, both Midnighter and Apollo were ignorant of Stormwatch's battle against Henry Bendix, and of his supposed death at the hands of Jenny Sparks. Only when Jackson King, the new Weatherman, discovered them on radar and brought them in for questioning (ultimately testing their loyalties by sending them on a mission) did the pair realize they were free to live in the open again as normal human beings. All files related to whom both Midnighter and Apollo were before their introduction into the team were believed to be lost, and since neither man could remember, Jackson King instead gave them new identities with which to retire from the super soldier business.
Creation[]
Apollo was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch
Character Evolution[]
Wildstorm Universe[]
Apollo Wildstorm
A member of The Authority, Apollo is one of the most powerful metahumans in the Wildstorm Universe.
Apollo is married to Midnighter, and they have adopted Jenny Quantum.
Post-Flashpoint: Earth-0[]
Apollo (Earth-0)
Apollo appears in the New DC Universe. In this universe he appears to have had no previous association with any super-powered team, seeming to be a normal citizen, albeit a super-powered one, with the exception that he has occasionally saved others from dangerous situations. He does not do this frequently though, and he abhors the idea of being called a "superhero". However, some photos of him in action were posted on the internet, and one of the people he saved dubbed him "Apollo." He is approached by Stormwatch as a potential member.
Major Story Arcs[]
Wildstorm Universe[]
The Authority[]
The Authority
Apollo's brief vacation into normalcy was to be short-lived. Less than a year after Apollo and Midnighter's retirement, the majority of the Stormwatch team was slaughtered in an Aliens/Stormwatch Crossover. Jenny Sparks used her vision for a new team, known as The Authority and she approached Apollo and Midnighter about joining. Jenny originally only asked Apollo to join because she knew that Midnighter would reluctantly accompany Apollo anywhere (part of the reason they were nicknamed "Bert" and "Ernie"). Apollo would then take the place of "The Sun God," on a team consisting of Midnighter, Swift, Jack Hawksmoor, Engineer, Doctor, and Jenny Sparks. His relationship with the Midnighter would only be hinted at until the Sliding Albion Story Arc, in which it was confirmed they were a couple.
Violation[]
Apollo and Midnighter
The Authority battled for possession of Baby Jenny, the reincarnation of Jenny Sparks who would eventually grow up to be Jenny Quantum. During this battle, Apollo faces off with a character known as The Commander, an overly-macho testosterone driven meta-human who sexually assaults innocent people in the hospitals that he searches. Apollo is beaten badly by The Commander and his two companions, with the implication that he was also raped. His badly beaten body was left for Midnighter to discover. However, the next time Apollo came face to face with The Commander, his enemy suggested that he wouldn't kill him as he gave Apollo pleasurable feelings. Unfortunately for The Commander, he was next seen with Midnighter standing over his paraplegic body, holding a large jackhammer.
The political powers of Earth attempted to overpower The Authority and replace them with The New Authority (consisting of Surgeon, Teuton, Machine, Last Call, Rush, Street, and Union Jack), they captured Apollo and gave him to Last Call, who kept him chained in a dark lower level of the Carrier. During his time in captivity, Apollo's powers were reduced to that of a regular human being, though he still did not require food or water to survive. Last Call beat him severely, breaking his nose and many of his bones, as well as burning him with cigarettes and drawing blood from his weakened skin. During Apollo's imprisonment, his would-be replacement, Teuton, expressed an interest in exploring his sexuality with Apollo's bound body. He is unable to go through with his contemplation of rape, however, due to the Midnighter's timely arrival and murder of the character. After gaining some strength, Apollo then killed Last Call and Machine. Once the rest of the members were freed, Apollo and Midnighter decided to get married and adopt Jenny.
Soon the Authority would take over the American government after they caused the deaths of an alien group traveling through the Bleed. The team was able to take power without out any trouble. Keeping that power was far more troublesome, however. Enemies such as Stormwatch: Team Achilles did not approve of the takeover and Midnighter and Apollo were sent on a mission to raid their base which ended with them almost losing their lives in the process. They were then given the task of dismantling the American training camp for SPBs. Soon Midnighter was visited by a future Apollo, warning him that he would become a tyrant and he needed to break up the team to stop this from coming to pass. Meanwhile, a group of former heroes called the Sons of Liberty had caused Americans to become upset with the team's rule and decided to riot. This eventually ended with a nuclear explosion in Washington and the team ultimately disbanded. Midnighter left Apollo to raise Jenny on his own. After three years, however, Jenny decided to speed up her age going from 8 to 14. She then rebuilt the team and discovered this was all a plot made by Henry Bendix and a revived Rose Tattoo. Bendix revealed he had secretly taken control of Midnighter using nanites and forced him to attack and beat the team--including Apollo. He was also able to gain slight control of Apollo, asking him to take his life, but Jenny and Engineer were able to free Apollo, who then in revenge killed Bendix himself.
Utopian[]
Along with the rest of the team, he was trapped in an alternate dimension where there were no superheroes or any major power sources. While flying over Afghanistan attempting to recharge, he was shot down. Midnighter showed up and attempted to defeat the soldiers responsible.
World's End[]
Burn Apollo vs the Authority
During the events of World's End, Apollo was separated from Midnighter and the rest of the Authority when a thick layer of smog covered the Earth, preventing sunlight from reaching the surface. Apollo was forced to remain in the photosphere to absorb the radiation he needed to survive, visiting the surface in brief periods to help the team. While on the surface, environmental conditions sapped his powers, giving him a gaunt appearance and limiting his ability to fight.
He was later infected by the Warhol Fever, a super power-inducing virus. He attempted to destroy the infection by residing in the middle of the Sun, but it evolved and became sentient by incubating in his body [1]. Claiming to be "The Burn", the virus overrode his mind and attempted to escape into The Bleed. The Authority was forced to put Apollo in suspended animation, frozen and in an anaerobic room to keep the infection from spreading.[2]
When Kaizen Gamorra and his forces attacked the Carrier and stole its technologies, Apollo was released into Gamorra Tower from the rest of Gamorra island, causing pure havoc. Apollo confronted Kaizen and killed him by incinerating his head. Apollo was sealed inside Gamorra Tower and the entire building was dropped into the Norwegian Trench so The Burn would go dormant in the cold environment.[3]
Apollo was subsequently cured of his infection after Midnighter traveled to Scotland where he stopped a mad Habib Bin Hassan and was given an apple by Gaia Rothstein that cleansed Apollo's infection. The couple finally embraced after a long time.[4] He and his husband later decided to stay on Earth after the Carrier left the planet, subsequently separating from the Authority, as Apollo's life depended on Earth's sun. Both Apollo and Midnighter then helped the heroes of Earth in battling the Knights of Khera, in which Apollo fought the Majestic-level Sebastian and was beaten when the Kheran warlord punched him to a un-sunlit Wales.[5] Fortunately, he was teleported out of Wales by Stormwatch technician Link over five miles above the North Pole where he was fully recharged and able to destroy the Kheran's terraforming machines.[6]
Post-Flashpoint: Earth 0[]
The Dark Side[]
Post-Flashpoint Stormwatch
Following the events of Flashpoint, the Wildstorm universe has been merged with the DC universe, rebooting almost the entirety of Apollo's history. A team of Stormwatch members containing Martian Manhunter, Jack Hawksmoor, and the Projectionist try to convince Apollo to join them and use his powers for good. Apollo had no desire to be part of the superhero community in any way and thus declined their "invitation," which soon turned out to be less voluntary than it had originally seemed. However, Midnighter soon appeared and dispatched the Stormwatch team in an ambush and offered Apollo a partnership, with the latter being surprised and having no knowledge of who the former was. It should also be noted that since Jenny Quantum was already grown up, neither of the two men will have been her adopted parents, with Adam-One being the one that had taken care of Jenny and the previous Century Babies instead.
When the Scourge of Worlds sent meteors to earth's atmosphere, Apollo tried to destroy all of them before they could cause any damage. He was almost completely successful, but one meteor was too big for him to destroy and landed in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Colorado. The meteor turned out to be a monster that then threatened the team. Apollo helped Midnighter deal with the monster after the latter had absorbed most of Stormwatch. Apollo managed to successfully save the team and then the team split into two. Apollo is part of the team that stayed to fight off the monster while the rest of the team followed Jack Hawksmoor into an old city to find a stone with the power of alchemy. Jenny managed to power up the stone and turn the monster into glass, thus defeating it.
Following the defeat of the monster, the team was teleported back to Stormwatch HQ, where they arrived to the sight of a Stormwatch Shadow Cabinet representative. The representative proceeded to kill Adam One, seeing him as unfit to lead the team. The killing was actually to enable Adam to join the representative and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet, where the realm they exist in requires death for entry. While Adam was gone, the representative went through its members one by one to deduce who should lead the team. As he was doing so, Apollo snuck off with Midnighter, who was looking for a way off the ship. Apollo asked Midnighter to convince him why he should go with him. Midnighter proceeded to take off his mask, telling Apollo that they are two of a kind, and to call him Lucas. Together they came across a map of all the alien threats to Earth that Stormwatch had dealt with. Midnighter told Apollo that he has a feeling that they're going to be working together, and that he doesn't feel the same about Stormwatch, unless something about the team changes.
Hearing a proximity alarm, Apollo entered hyperspace to check out what was happening. When he noticed Tanner's explosion tearing apart the Stormwatch HQ, Apollo rescued Midnighter from suffocating in the vacuum of space. Apollo then brought Midnighter back to the area of the ship where the team was. Jack Hawksmoor spoke to the city that was the ship, and convinced it to restore itself, setting the area back to normal. With Midnighter officially joining the team, Apollo agreed to join as well. The team unanimously voted in Engineer as the leader of Stormwatch in Adam's absence and devised a plan to catch the traitor Harry Tanner, who stole many cached copies of data, one of which included a map marking Stormwatch security caches.
Supercritical[]
Now official members of Stormwatch, Apollo and Midnighter spotted an odd energy fluctuation around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor on one of the monitors. Midnighter pointed out that the readings of the subatomic particles were far too exotic to be a product of a standard core meltdown, and decided that maybe they should go take a look, to which Apollo responded that he would go check it out. After touching down in Pripyat, Apollo immediately noticed the weird energy, and was attacked by some sort of alien entity. The entity was incredibly hostile and highly adaptive, which prompted Apollo to ask the Stormwatch team for assistance on getting an escape route. Martian Manhunter and Jenny Quantum came down to help, and saved Apollo's life. Now back onboard the ship, the team made sure that Apollo was okay. Later, a part of the entity that Jenny contained began to be attacked by the ship's A.I., and in response, the entity leapt onto Apollo, vaporizing him, thus making him vanish into thin air.
Human on the Inside[]
The U.S. President ordered an assault on The Authority which resulted in doubts, depression, and human foibles overcoming them. The Midnighter kissed another man, but when he confessed this to Apollo, Apollo became enraged and struck him, sending him through a wall. This is the first time that Apollo and The Midnighter became physically violent with each other.
Coup D'Etat & Revolution[]
Following a deadly mistake by US leaders, Authority team leader Jack Hawksmoor decided that the time had come to remove the US executive branch and run the country their way. The takeover went smoothly, but the occupation did not go as planned. Shadowy forces intervened to destroy the Authority and put corporate interests back in power.
During this Apollo and Midnighter were sent to raid the base of Stormwatch: Team Achilles, but they found it booby-trapped. After narrowly escaping with their lives, their next mission was to eliminate the US military's super-human training camp. Midnighter returned with the declaration that the program was "Not so special."
The Midnighter received a revelation about the future which compelled him to leave The Authority, permanently. He left Apollo and Jenny Quantum without an explanation and returned to the underground. Following a humiliating nuclear incident in Washington, DC, Hawksmoor resigned as President of the US and announced elections. The Authority disbanded. From 2005 to 2008, Apollo raised Jenny alone in San Francisco, under the watchful eye of the US Government.
When Jenny was eight years old, a series of events propelled her to take matters into her own hands and rebuild the team. She caused herself to jump in age to fourteen, precipitating a verbal confrontation with her father, Apollo. With Apollo's support, she set about to round up the surviving members of The Authority, including The Midnighter. In a painful moment between Jenny, Apollo, and Midnighter, Jenny told Midnighter that she was "the product of a broken home."
In the battle that followed, Henry Bendix revealed that he had gained control over The Midnighter through a Trojan Horse strategy which delivered nanites into Midnighter's body. The Midnighter then fought Apollo and Jenny. Midnighter told Apollo that he must kill him if he got the chance, but Apollo refused. Midnighter, with the aid of a device stolen from Dr. Krigstein's laboratory, defeated Apollo in battle, but Jenny was able to engage Midnighter long enough that the Engineer could remove the mind-control implants and restore Midnighter.Attributes
Powers
- Unique Physiology
Apollo using his power
- Solar Absorption: Apollo's abilities are powered by solar energy, which he absorbs from the Sun's UV rays, which he is also able to store in limited quantities inside his body. The way in which Apollo absorbs sunlight is similar to photosynthesis. However, with no exposure to sunlight, he will quickly lose his powers, starting with his ability to fly. Apollo is able to quickly regain this ability with about 20 seconds of sunlight exposure, and will be fully charged in 2 hours. When at full power, Apollo can withstand the molten heat of the Earth's core, destroy entire spaceships by flying through them at imperceptible speeds, and practically level entire city blocks. He is also able to survive in the vacuum of space by simply not breathing, and he does not require food or drink to survive, although he enjoys both. Apollo has also demonstrated that he is capable of circling the globe in approximately sixty seconds. While the full range and extent of his powers are astounding, it is possible for his energy stores to become depleted if kept out of the sun long enough. Apollo's main abilities include:
- Super-Strength
- Superhuman Endurance
- Superhuman Speed
- Flight: Apollo can fly at least fast enough to circle the globe in just under 30 seconds.
- invulnerability: He has been able to enter a lava flow to deactivate a volcano, and has literally walked on the surface of the sun).
- Energy Projection: His eyes are constructed to concentrate solar energy into laser like blasts, literally concentrated sunlight. Apollo can also release his solar energy from other parts of his body (hands, mouth, etc) or in an omni-directional flare, but these moves are taxing.
- Self-Sustenance: He can survive in anaerobic environments indefinitely (he flies in space, even all the way to the moon and into deep space), by the simple method of not breathing, as his body is entirely sustained by his solar energy. He also does not require food or drink, though he apparently enjoys both.
- Interstellar Travel: He can survive in anaerobic environments indefinitely (he flies in space, by the simple method of not breathing).
- Accelerated Healing: Though commonly invulnerable to mostly all attacks, Apollo can be injured by the depletion of his solar energy reserves. While he is still durable, he is susceptible to physical damage.
Abilities
Weaknesses
- Vulnerability to Energy Depletion: Like Superman, Apollo's powers are dependent on the Sun. Unlike Superman however, his powers are far more directly dependent on the sun. Whereas Superman's abilities are somewhat more 'internal', needing only exposure or access to sunlight to activate, Apollo's body behaves much more directly like a battery, which discharges and recharges. His body was altered to store and convert solar energy to fuel his abilities, which disappear or weaken if his solar reserves are low. Conversely, his powers also increase the more energy he has absorbed. Apollo can drain himself through overuse of his powers since living on the Carrier does not provide him with a constant exposure to solar energy. However, even when drained he will be able to fly (barely) after 20 seconds in direct sunlight, though it would take him 2 hours to be at full charge. This can be somewhat circumvented by transporting (using the Carrier's 'Door' system) into close proximity to the sun. Apollo will die if he completely depletes his solar stores, and his strength/resilience drop accordingly when weakened to the point where he's essentially normal.
See Also
Links and References
External links[]
- The Apollo action figure
- Detailed Apollo character writeup
- The Authority team member listings
- Reaction to the "Nativity" storyline
- Interview with Mark Millar on the Apollo rape scene
References
- ↑ The Authority (Volume 4) #11
- ↑ The Authority (Volume 4) #15
- ↑ The Authority (Volume 4) #16
- ↑ The Authority (Volume 4) #17
- ↑ Wildcats: World's End #20
- ↑ Wildcats: World's End #21