The Four Color Media Monitor

What Culture listed 10 of the nastiest moments seen in past comics, like a villainess called Heavy Flo from The Savage Dragon, and maybe the most horrific of all is a story from The Authority involving a villain called the Commander:

Early on in Millar’s run, the Authority face a thinly veiled parody of the Avengers who are led by the Commander, a Captain America substitute. As this is a Millar comic, the Commander is of course a serial rapist who sexually assaults Midnighter’s lover Apollo. In revenge, Midnighter appears with a jackhammer and sodomizes the Commander. With a jackhammer.

Rape in any circumstance is unsettling to read about, but while it may be understandable that Midnighter would want vengeance for his lover, sexually assaulting the Commander with a jackhammer is not the ideal way to go about it. In a series full of disgusting and shocking moments, Midnighter’s revenge has to be up there with the worst.

Even if Midnighter hadn't gone that route, the Commander's assault on Apollo was already repugnant and uncalled for. As a "fate worse than death", it's right down there alongside all the nerve-wracking nihilism the book was built on too. I'm glad if the Authority ended publication several years ago; it was quite honestly one of various shock-tactic tales the medium could do without.

Labels: dc comics, golden calf of death, indie publishers, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, politics, violence