Midnighter

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Warren Ellis created and introduced the character in 1998, soon after his appointment as writer on the Stormwatch title. Stormwatch volume 2, issue 4, introduced Midnighter and Apollo as former Stormwatch agents from a secret "black ops" team known only to the first Weatherman, Henry Bendix. In the first issue of the arc, collected in trade paperback as A Finer World, Christine Trelane had cracked the files of the recently deposed Bendix and discovered Apollo and Midnighter's existence. The new Weatherman, Jackson King, intercepted them on a mission to seize weapons made in the "Nevada Garden", a bioengineering facility created by the first Engineer. Flashback sequences showed Midnighter and Apollo, the sole survivors of their seven-member team's sinister first mission, escaping Bendix and going rogue to spend five years fighting crime on the streets of America. Midnighter and Apollo initially resisted their capture, believing Stormwatch still to be under Bendix's command; on learning of his death they ended their opposition and accepted a mission from King to destroy the Nevada Garden. To repay their assistance Trelane granted Midnighter and Apollo new civilian identities and lives away from Stormwatch. This story arc introduced Midnighter's trademark enhancements, his superpowered healing and ability to anticipate an opponent's moves so quickly as to win any fight, as the product of bioengineering commissioned by Bendix.