When it was first announced that James Gunn would be taking over at DC Studios and helming an entirely new cinematic universe for the brand, one of the more surprising titles on his shortlist of projects was a team-up film,The Authority. Gunn has already described this film as a big movie in his and co-CEO Peter Safran’s overall plan for the “Gods and Monsters” group of projects in their new universe. With conventionalgod-like figures such as Superman, Supergirl, and a refreshed Green Lantern Corps helming projects alongside obvious monstrous figures like Swamp Thing, The Authority is a group that acts to straddle that line depending on how their story is told.
The Authorityis a group of enhanced individuals who go to extremes to fix a broken world through total control. While the group has good intentions behind their work, they are one of the most violent superhero groups in DC’s history. However, that is not what makes the inclusion of an Authority movie so surprising for DC Studios: two primary members of the group, Apollo and Midnighter, have been in a long-term committed relationship for the entirety of their history. Apollo and Midnighter made history as the first queer comic book characters to get married in their books and, in recent history, have been raising a super-powered child together. ShouldJames Gunn’sThe Authorityfollow the trajectory of the source material, this film will be a necessary addition to furthering diversity and representation in comic book media.
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Who is The Authority?
Back in the 1990s, comic book icon Jim Lee founded an independent publishing company named Wildstorm Comics where he launched a plethora of edgy, gritty, anti-hero types. Among this group was a darker hero team named Stormwatch, which petered out in popularity over the years. After DC bought out Wildstorm Comics in 1999, most of Stormwatch was killed off with the surviving members forming The Authority.
Consisting of disillusioned figures like Midnighter (a dark super-soldier type who is as unhinged as he is sincere), Apollo (gay, blonde Superman), Jack Hawksmoor (former alien-abductee-turned-guy-in-trenchcoat), the Doctor (the magic guy), the Engineer (a scientist who gained abilities after experimenting on herself), Swift the Winged Huntress (a Hawkgirl-type character), and led by Jenny Sparks (the 20th century embodied, also with electricity powers),The Authority quickly surpassed its predecessor in popularity. It became a trendsetting book for what was capable in mainstream comics with its grit, its character-driven worldview, and its commitment to diversifying the landscape of 1990s comic books.
How have queer characters been represented in comics?
In mainstream American comics, queer themes and characters have historically been kept out of the pages, as any mention of homosexuality was banned from comic book pages by the Comics Code Authority until 1989. However, the first gay comic book character in mainstream comics was actually introduced a decade prior when Marvel created the hero Northstar (though the CCA banned any reference to Northstar’s sexuality for the next ten years of his publication history). Since then, queer characters seemed to be a hard find until the turn of the next millennium.
Representation in mainstream comic books should be an unspoken goal for these large publishers because the audience reading these books is not solely straight white men. The draw from these stories is how easily these characters can be a way for readers to see themselves in these larger-than-life stories, so there is no argument to be made to restrict the type of characters being created. That being said, comic books and other comic book media have always been susceptible to the same pitfalls that other mediums fall into when including queer characters (stereotyping, the “bury your gays” trope, etc.).
It seems like things are looking up after the 2010s saw the inclusion of queer couples in comic book TV and movies, with characters likeNico and Karolina onMarvel’s RunawaysandDani Moonstar and Wolfsbane inNew Mutants. While Marvel has been putting some effort to include queer characters in their cinematic projects, DC’s LGBT characters have seemingly been kept in animation (as much as we all love Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, any mention of her bisexuality has only been briefly shown in an animated exposition). IfThe Authorityfollows its source material, this could be DC Studios’ time to finally fall in line with the world around them by including not only a gay couple, but two characters who are openly bisexual and have had relationships with other women (Jenny Quantum, the reincarnation of Jenny Sparks, and Swift the Winged Huntress).
WouldThe Authorityreally break any new ground?
The live-action debut of Apollo and Midnighter should mark a significant shift too – even now, superhero films are still afraid to center queerness in their stories. Though things are ever so slowly getting better in that regard, the arrival ofprominent queer characters like Apollo and Midnighterwill push blockbuster filmmaking toward correcting that prior negligence.
In the case of The Authority comic series and its massive success, the timing was everything. The series capitalized on the Y2K wave of anxiety, with Jenny Sparks (girl of the 20th century) dying in the final book of the decade, titled ‘The Spirit of the Twentieth Century.’ The Authority would continue to resonate with comics fans in the early 2000s, as a reflection of the post-9/11 world, where “heroes” with harder edges dogmas were in higher demand. There is a lot more about the world socio-political themes of the times that The Authority either reflected or predicted, all while building a deep mythos.
By taking on The Authority, DC Studios is definitely leaning into its wide library of prestigious, creator-driven content – in this case, giving us something that is miles away from anotherJustice Leaguemisstep.
