What are some essential Apollo readings if any?

>>94907018
Just the Authority and whatever Orlando's written. You won't really find anything centered around Apollo, Midnighter's usually the main focus and Apollo's just kinda there.

>>94907018
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/apolloph.htm

This is a shit format but I've used similar sites to find essential stories.

There was an actual website but for the life of me I can't remember what it was

>>94907018
>if any
Nope, none.

>>94907018
There's none. He's always just been an extension of Midnighter and a plot device for his stories.

How do we make him more interesting, /co/?

>>94907376
Take away his blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin. Bam! 50k comics sold.

>reading about a gay

>>94907018
he's been assigned damsel-in-distress status by some bizarre permutation of Batwank. so nothing

>>94907516
Which is the reson why shipping Trinity in any form is cancer.

>>94907018
His origin in StormWatch and Ellis' run on Authority is pretty great but he really hasn't been great in anything else.

>>94907516
imo I can't tell if that's better than making him a Supes clone or not.

>>94907018
He's a more violent Superman expy, that is too strongly associated with a more violent Batman expy and therefore always the damsel in distress.
There are no good stories.

>>94907018
He's pretty much Midnighter's love interest so he doesn't have any interesting stories of his own.

Stormwatch/The Authority by Ellis, Millar, Brubaker and Midnighter/Midnighter & Apollo by Orlando are all fun. I don't know anyone who reads these comics specifically for Apollo though, he's always been pretty boring and writers don't care about him. Everyone just wants to write about Midnighter so Apollo gets the short end of the stick.

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>>94908305
One of my biggest problems with Apollo is that Midnighter in the past has had insecurities about Apollo being too good for him and being too good as a person/hero for someone as fucked up as him, which might make sense under the parameters of the whole 'what if Batman and Superman were gay' allegory, but doesn't actually match up at all with their actual behavior. Apollo is only very slightly less brutal and murderous than Midnighter. Plus they were a part of the same experiments and got their powers in pretty much the same way. Clark on the other hand is much more friendly, positive and personable than Bruce, he's also much less brutal, hard-laced, grim and fear-inducing in his crime methods compared to Bruce. So if Bruce and Clark were together and Bruce felt insecure about the fact that he felt too broken, dark and messed up for someone like Clark, that'd make sense.

Not to mention that one Grifter/Midnighter miniseries where Midnighter's pissed because he feels like a liability and like a 'damsel in distress' compared to Apollo and the rest of the team despite never being one and, unlike Bruce, having powers.

Yeah, I'm getting pretty fed up with the allegory, if that's what you'd call it.

Midnighter has managed to shed it somewhat and become his own character outside of gay Batman (most of the time) but it doesn't seem like Apollo will escape that mold any time soon, unfortunately.

>>94908458
Midnighter feeling like a liability never made sense because he's also crazy OP just like the rest of the Authority. Maybe not The Doctor-tier OP, but he's still instrumental to pretty much all of their missions. Hell, if anything Apollo is the jobber of the team because he conveniently always has no solar polar whenever shit hits the fan. The Doctor also does jack shit a lot of the time because he's a fuckup druggie. It always felt like Jenny Sparks and Midnighter did most of the heavy lifting in the team (probably because they are the general favorites of whoever is in charge of writing the comic).

One of the things I never got though was everyone saying Midnighter is just gay Batman, because from the start I never saw it. The only similarity is the costume and being somewhat more street level (I guess? he's actually superhuman unlike Bruce). Personality, powers, methods of dealing with crime are all different, unlike Apollo who from the start was pretty much just a more boring Superman. I think that's why all writers struggle to deal with him, they really don't know what personality he should have. Midnighter is crazy easy and more fun to write because of his "in your face" personality. At this point I don't know who would be able to make Apollo interesting, or if anyone would even care to take on the challenge. It's much easier to just write him as Midnighter's Lois Lane.

>>94908554
>One of the things I never got though was everyone saying Midnighter is just gay Batman

I was always under the impression that they were created with the intention of being gay Superman/Batman. I remember in the issue of Wildstorm where they were introduced they had a flashback to where they were in a team of a whole bunch of JLA rip offs, there was a blue lantern and everything.

>>94909463
I don't doubt that was the intention, but I think Midnighter became his own character from the start and there are very, very superficial similarities between him and Batman. Might as well call him gay Punisher or gay Wolverine instead.

Apollo unfortunately didn't manage to escape the Superman thing and I don't know if he'll ever do. Hell, even I don't know what I would do with his character if I were a writer. He's kind of a blank canvas which might be good for someone who really wants to do something with him. Is there anyone from the comic world who does though?

>>94908458
>One of my biggest problems with Apollo is that Midnighter in the past has had insecurities about Apollo being too good for him and being too good as a person/hero for someone as fucked up as him,
I would like to see this played up. Orlando seemed like he wanted to go there, but then again it's Orlando so it all went back to Midnigther.

Make him someone who likes to help people and really wants to see the good in them, but when it comes down to it he still snaps necks because the world can be dark and awful.

Also, show him having a more sucessful civilian life than midnighter, down to having mundane interests like watching trash tv so that midnigther's fear of apollo leaving him behind is more justified - give him friends, maybe show flashbacks of apollo dating someone not crazy.

>>94908458
I don't think the allegory is the problem.
There were always many interpretations of Batman and Superman, and there are a lot of characters that are based on either of them. The problem is, that Midnighter is allowed to be his own character, while Apollo isn't. He is Midnighter's love-interest with superpowers, that he is conveniently not able to use, when he has to be rescued, because of course the love-interest has to be rescued.
It could easily be the other way around, but as Batman is the more popular character than Superman is, Midnighter is also the more popular character, so Apollo is the one hurting.

>>94907475
I know you meant to suggest changing his race, but my mind first jumped to the idea of him having no skin, eyes or hair. That'd be pretty cool, actually.

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>>94910863
> make him WW apollo

>>94908458
>Plus they were a part of the same experiments and got their powers in pretty much the same way

Not in the current timeline.

>Apollo is Superman expy
>Midnight is Batman expy
>This pairing is just a slashfic came to life
I don't know what took me so long to make this connection

>>94907376
Yeah he never evolved past "what if superman were edgy and gay."

>>94912083
The problem is:
His look doesn't work with edgy in my opinion.
At least give him other clothes.

>>94912083
>>94912920
Apollo isn't edgy. He's basically Wonder Woman-tier.