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The Authority The Authority is one of those comic book gems that has found its way to the audience by carefully dropping clues and telling a big story over a period of years, letting the pieces unravel slowly building up to a certain climax. And that is what makes this series such a good read over and over again (and the random absurd violence is also a plus). You see, The Authority wasn't always The Authority, and to explain that we have to go back in time a bit...
In the early nineties, the comic book industry was booming. It was probably the most financially profitable period of the last 25 years and it created superstar artists who made millions of dollars on sales and came into a position where they could write (or draw in this case) their own ticket. During that period, 7 of Marvel Comics' most popular artists broke away and formed Image Comics, so they could do whatever they wanted, and more importantly, they'd keep the rights to the characters they create. Jim Lee, one of the above mentioned artists started Wildstorm comics, his own pocket comic universe. Quickly Wildstorm became a prolific studio, pumping out comics by the dozen. One of these comics was Stormwatch, which had an interesting premise: Stormwatch is a United Nations sanctioned team of super humans (top notch space station orbiting the earth included) that does what the U.N. dictates them and fight the evil-doers of the world. But it stayed with that premise. The comic was basically yet another excuse to publish more spandex, and after the hype died, sales started slipping dramatically. Instead of canceling the book, Jim Lee hired British writer Warren Ellis. Ellis already had a solid reputation as a writer, writing off-beat, weird and engaging stories, and he had already worked on some of Wildstorm's properties. Ellis demanded a certain level of carte blanche, the opportunity to hand-pick the artist he was going to work with and got credited for whatever character he invented. And thats where The Authority was born.
Quickly Ellis transformed the spandex heavy Stormwatch into a paranoid ultra violent sci-fi thriller. The Weatherman, the Stormwatch commander (imagine Jean-Luc Picard on speed with cybernetic implants) transforms from a slightly frustrated U.N. puppet to a power-hungry, scheming madman, writing his own laws and splitting the team in separate units, each with a unique speciality (demolition, black ops, etc...). At this point Ellis starts introducing his own characters and stuffs them into Stormwatch Black (the, yes, black ops. unit) consisting of Jenny Sparks, a British woman from London who is almost a century old (but still looks 25) and is living electricity; Jack Hawksmoor, a man who has been abducted by aliens during his childhood and systematically has been rebuilt by them to specifically exist in cities (he feeds on pollution, can "talk" to buildings, etc...); and Chen Li-Min, a Tibetan girl who has wings and all the characteristics and talents of a bird of prey. To make a long story short, Ellis lets Stormwatch go out with a bang, but not before introducing 2 more characters: Apollo and The Midnighter, two rogue experiments from Stormwatch's sordid past. Apollo is a living solar battery and The Midnighter is a human fighting machine with surgical enhancements.
Now the stage is set for Ellis' true goal: The Authority. Teaming up with British artist Brian Hitch, The Authority gets unleashed on an unsuspecting audience. This series sees Ellis adding two more characters: The Engineer, a female scientist who exchanged her blood for 9 pints of liquid machinery; and The Doctor, the shaman of the earth and a hopeless drug addict. It quickly becomes evident that Ellis's goal with The Authority is to turn the classic superhero team on its ear. Yes, you still have the pantheon of heroes who group together to fight evil, but they do it on their own terms and answer to no one, don't take "I'm sorry I blew shit up" as an excuse and when the evil guy hits, they hit back so hard people are actually wondering if they're the good guys or a group of psychopaths.
Where Stormwatch took place in the shadowy, dark part of the world, The Authority's canvas is the whole world (and the universe). Instead of Skywatch, The Authority's base of operations is the carrier, a living "shift ship", powered by a caged baby universe, and physically stranded in orbit around earth. Its over 50 miles across (so Hawksmoor's organs perceive it as a city), and can tap into the Bleed; which is a sort of "membrane" between separate universes and realities (a concept Ellis also explores in Planetary). Because the carrier is basically everywhere at once (it constantly shifts you see), The Authority can transport themselves instantly wherever they want on earth through special doors.
During his 12 issue run on The Authority Ellis keeps upping the ante, and to say that his stories are outrageous is a mild understatement. Led by Jenny Sparks, who is revealed to be the spirit of the 20th century, The Authority was quickly dubbed a "widescreen comicbook". Ellis' stories leap off the page thanks to the super detailed, realistic and cinematic art by Brian Hitch.
Aside from the obvious larger than life stories, Ellis leaves enough room for decent character interaction, and a healthy dose of humor gets injected when the characters interact between saving the world.
Neatly divided in 4-5 issue story arcs the Authority fights a power mad despot who, through an army of clones, tries to carve his family crest onto the world by obliterating key cities of the world; fights off a global invasion by a parallel earth where aliens landed in the 15th century and have been breeding with humans since; and lets the creator of earth return, only to see that all is not what he/she/it left behind and decides to cleanse it. Cue Authority.
When Warren Ellis announced he was going to leave the book, panic arose. But Ellis had already selected a successor: the Scottish writer Mark Millar; who had proven throughout his career that he was able to play off chaos and mayhem without losing track of the story and the characters. With Millar came Frank Quitely, a Scottish artist to insure that the series would continue in the right fashion. Whereas Ellis' stories focused on larger than life situations, Millar starts his run with The Authority going after dictators, corrupt politicians and throwing huge hedonistic parties in between to blow off steam. Jenny Sparks becomes Jenny Quantum (explaining this would give to much away), and Jack Hawksmoor steps up to the leader chair. The Authority becomes a much more public phenomenon, with the members appearing on talk shows, doing interviews and commercials, make merchandising deals etc... all in a move to make the world accept and trust them more. By doing so they royally start pissing off the leaders of the free world and Millar starts creating an atmosphere that while doing good, The Authority is pushing themselves in a corner.
Intertwined with these sub plots, Millar doesn't forget that blood must flow and The Authority isn't the Authority without some huge threat to justify their wild lifestyle. So they battle a series of twisted super teams (which bear an uncanny resemblance to well known properties such as The Avengers and X-Men), conceived by a (hold it, hooold it...) frustrated genius, which result in some excellent smart-ass dialogue and action sequences.
When they later can avert the world from destroying mankind and a rogue Doctor (in case they wouldn't win they transport the entire population of the earth to alternate earths, "except those 8 million Belgians which nobody seems to want"), the leaders of the free world decide that enough is enough and sic Seth on The Authority, the 8 billion dollar hillbilly. The Authority get defeated in a big way, and are replaced with a bunch of "heroes" hand-picked by the world leaders to do their bidding.
It is at this point that the series loses its momentum, Millar, who is getting tied up in other projects outlines the stories with another writer fleshing it out. This results in a rather forced effort of keeping up the energy, and while good concepts are brought up, it doesn't have the same impact, both written and visually (with the interim writer came an interim artist) and it looked like the series was slipping away. Luckily Millar returned in the nick of time, with a good artist (by that time Frank Quitely had been head hunted by Marvel and was drawing the New X-Men) to bring back the original Authority with a vengeance and close a run that started off great, then slipped, almost fell on its face, and ended on its knees, even with his closing efforts.
Its was by now evident that Millar would discontinue his writing tenure on The Authority and speculation ran rampant on fan forums as to which writer/artist team would be a worthy successor. The tag team that would eventually get the job was crime writer Brian Azzarello (famous for his hardcore crime fiction series 100 Bullets), and Steve Dillon (who, together with Garth Ennis, gave us Preacher). This looked like an excellent combination, and Azzarello had said he already had 2 story arcs planned.
But then the real world caught up with the comics on 9/11.
Azzarello's story would center around a huge terrorist attack on US soil, but seeing that reality came scarily close to what he had planned he stepped down, and rather than writing a different story, he felt it inappropriate to write a series where its protagonists and stories are over the top violent. This meant that the series went on hiatus for an undetermined time until it was felt appropriate to publish a book like The Authority.
July 2003 saw the resurrection of the title, with a brand new creative team, and a "bold new direction". Sadly, that direction isn't as bold as it should be. The present creative team deliver solid entertainment, but it is nowhere near the level of Ellis and later Millar. Yes, there still are bigger than life threats for The Authority to battle, but what started as a superhero book with its tongue firmly in the cheek has become just another superhero book. Now published under the "Eye of the storm" imprint of Wildstorm geared towards "mature readers", it allows the characters to say the occasional four letter word, which might be controversial or cool for the average American teenager, but it doesn't compare to the notion of the Midnighter buggering a Captain America wannabee with a jackhammer drill.
Since the series started, it quickly became a cult favorite, praised by pros and fans alike for its risky and no holds barred approach towards the traditional superhero team book. It gave the various creators the ability to write their own ticket in turn. In addition to his indie comics, Ellis still works with Wildstorm, under the Homage Comics imprint on creator-owned books, Quitely has had a highly successful run on the X-Men machine; and Millar and Hitch are the team behind The Ultimates, which is basically the Marvel Comics' Avengers version of The Authority.
If you want to give comics a try, or are simply looking for a different type of spandex, The Authority will be what you're looking for. If you really want to dig in (and have the cash to spare) I'd recommend Ellis' run on Stormwatch to see where it all began. The Authority has in its way paved the way for comics to become more ballsy again. They are no dark and emotionally dysfunctional heroes like you saw emerge in the eighties, these are characters who whilst sometimes hoping for a normal life, enjoy what they do, and if you've done something wrong, will hunt you down and kick your ass. In the words of Jenny Sparks: "Don't piss us off".
Buy The Authority
Vol. 1 Relentless
Vol. 2 Under New Management
Vol. 3 Earth Inferno
Vol. 4 Transfer of Power
Jenny Sparks: The secret history of The Authority
Buy Stormwatch
Vol. 1 Force of Nature
Vol. 2 Lightning Strikes
Vol. 3 Change or Die
Vol. 4 A Finer World
Vol. 5 Final Orbit
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