|
Warren Ellis The Authority Era (1999-2000) |
 In early 1999,
Warren Ellis
dropped two bombs on the super-hero genre. The first was
Planetary,
a new series that chronicled a small and secret team's
investigations of a super-hero universe. The second was The Authority.
The Authority, though a new series, was actually a revamping of
Stormwatch. It featured the same writer and artists as Stormwatch, as well as a
number of the same characters. But it felt incredibly new. Ellis, Hitch, and Neary had
invented "widescreen" super-heroics -- as it quickly came to be called. The art was impecably
smooth and tight, colored expertly. The transitions between scenes were rapid, and the
transitions between panels were smooth, focusing on the three-dimensionality of each shot
rather than the flat, literary quality of the page. The overall effect was not only cinematic
but felt like a big-budget blockbuster. Super-powered villains flew through major cities
en masse, devastating them. This was a super-hero world turned loose, with no
restrictions keeping villains from simply doing massive damage. The effect was like the
destruction of London in
Alan Moore's
Miracleman,
only in a world where super-heroes
abounded -- creating a "yes, this would happen" effect on the scale of an entire line of
super-hero titles rather than just one. This would be the great strength and a continuing
problem for the series, as the damage inflicted on the world added up and went unreflected in
other Wildstorm titles.
Each story was set at four issues. The stakes were high: whole cities,
millions of lives, and heroes whose powers together seemed the greatest ever assembled.
Pressure built; a reader knew the actual number of pages left to each story and wondered how it
could possibly be resolved. The Authority #4 concluded the conflict by having Midnighter
use the team's ship as a blunt instrument, literally running it through the villain, his entire
island, and all of his seemingly unstoppable technology. It was brilliant.
The next two stories only escallated the stakes. The second storyline
featured the Authority very questionably annihilating an entire global regime on an alternate Earth; the Doctor held
Italy in place while the planet rotated, burying the world capital underwater. Admittedly, the
regime was detestable, unsophisticated, and warmongering -- but a careful reader got the sense
that Jenny Sparks, bitchy psudo-feminist (and appropriately the spirit of the 20th century),
was willing to kill everyone in Italy because the ruling regime had used rape on a wide scale --
a motivation hinted at her comments as she visits her former husband, who she says she only
loved from the waist down (right... as it penetrated her, fucked her, came in her -- facts she
can easily forget as she smokes cooly), and only takes the female members along. The final
storyline had the team fight "God" and had Jenny Sparks die -- predictably but appropriately --
on 31 December 2000.
The entire creative team left with issue #12, unable to trump what he had already done. He
knew to leave the stage when things were high. Still, it felt like a tragedy. From the
opening of a new issue to the final page, had been little breathing room. I would sit and
smoke two cigarettes as I read nervously, my eyes and mind at worst tightly attentive and at
best absolutely reeling. A second reading quickly followed. The month between issues felt
impossibly long. The dialogue was snappy and sparse, the art crisp and beautiful, often
depicting scenes of grand scope with (at least) the mastery of the best Hollywood special
effects company.
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| IMAGE | TITLE | DESCRIPTION | STATUS |
|
|
| The Authority (first series) #1-12, Planetary / The Authority: Ruling the World:
Warren Ellis script |
| The Authority (first series) #1-12: Bryan Hitch pencils, Paul Neary inks |
| The Authority (first series) #1-4: "The Circle" storyline |
wraparound not shown
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #1 | begins with the decimation of Moscow; features Jackson King and Christine; wraparound cover; cover-dated May 1999 | 1 |
|
|
| From the interior of The Authority (first series) #1. |
|
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #2 | the Authority battles in against the decimation of London | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #3 | | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #4 | the Authority shows their incredible power in fighting against the decimation of L.A.; the Midnighter uses the Carrier to destroy Gamorra Island | 1 |
| Authority 1: Baptême du Feu | collects The Authority (first series) #1-4 with
Grant Morrison's introduction from The Authority: Relentless, all translated into French; magazine-size hardcover; published by Soleil; translation by Gérard Guero; includes brief descriptions of the characters, as well as the legacy of Stormwatch on the first page of #1; uses the cover of The Authority: Relentless as its cover, and includes the covers for The Authority (first series) #1-4 | B |
| The Authority (first series) #5-8: "Shiftships" storyline |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #5 | Sliding Albion attacks L.A.; features Christine (without Jackson King) | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #6 | begins with a flashback to Jenny Sparks's past in 1920 and 1953; Jenny Sparks repels the shiftships in L.A., then goes to meet an alien from Sliding Albion | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #7 | Jenny Sparks with the Swift and the Engineer decide, like little girls, to destroy a culture | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #8 | the Authority destroys a world's culture | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| Authority 2: Invasion | collects The Authority (first series) #5-8 in French; magazine-size hardcover; published by Soleil; uses the cover for #8 as its cover; includes the covers for The Authority (first series) #5-7 as well
| Much Needed |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority: Relentless | collects The Authority (first series) #1-8;
Grant Morrison introduction
[REVIEW AND PURCHASE THIS BOOK]
| B |
without titles or indicia
Larger Version Available
| Planetary / The Authority: Ruling the World | 48 pages;
Warren Ellis
script, Phil Jimenez pencils, Andy Lanning inks; published on 21 June of 2000 (between
Planetary #10 and #11);
occurs between The Authority (first series) #8 and #9 (has Jenny Sparks alive, Jakita Wagner of
Planetary refers to the events of The Authority #6-8) | B |
| The Authority #9-12: "The Outer Dark" storyline |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #9 | | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| An unpublished cover originally intended for The Authority (first series) #9.
Bryan Hitch stated (on DC's message boards): "An interseting bit of info is that the published cover of number nine was
actually drawn as a cover for number eight, but when I got the script from Warren (the covers
were drawn so far inadvance) it seemed that number eight needed more of a 'power image' than the
portrait of Angie so we switched them." He continued, explaining that the alternate cover at left "is
probably more story appropriate than either of the others, but Wildstorm were still in their
'must show the heroes in antic pose' frame of mind and asked for a replacment." |
|
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #10 | | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #11 | | 1 |
Larger Version Available
| The Authority (first series) #12 | Jenny Sparks dies; cover-dated April 2000 | 1 |
| Ellis ends his run, after killing his celebrated character Jenny Sparks, with a shot of redemption, or at least of life, like The Authority in Ellis's absence, continuing. The last panel of The Authority (first series) #12. |
|
| Absolute Authority, Volume 1 | collects The Authority (first series) #1-12 in magazine size with a few extras; hardcover
| Much Needed |
