History:  (The Authority I #1, 2) - Jenny Sparks and Stormwatch Black were in hiding when most of Stormwatch died at the hand of the insane Henry Bendix. Jenny recruited new versions of the Engineer and the Doctor, and along with Swift, Jack Hawksmoor, Midnigher and Apollo they formed the Authority to take the place of Stormwatch as the world's first defense against superhuman menaces. They discovered the Carrier, a sentient ship that could travel the Bleed, the space between worlds in the multiverse, and used it as their headquarters. Terrorist Kaizen Gamorra attacked Moscow, causing untold loss of life, and Jenny contacted her old handlers Jackson King and Christine Trelane for information on him. The Authority had already done their research, but she wanted her ex-handlers, who were still connected with the UN, to feel important. Jack visited Moscow, and realized the Children of Gamorra used teleporters with a unique energy signature. The signature appeared next in London, and the Authority arrived to defend Jenny's home. The Authority violently murdered a number of the Children of Gamorra, forcing the rest to teleport away. Apollo had wrecked the teleportation gear of one of the Children, who was forced to fly back to Gamorra Island, with Apollo in pursuit. Kaizen put up his island's force field to rethink his strategy, and the Doctor saved Apollo from splattering himself on the forcefield. The Doctor reminded him that although he was new to superheroics his mind was as old as human existence. Jenny split her team to offer emergency aid to Moscow and London. Jack thought that the more responsibility Jenny got the more yelley and horrible she became, but he still supported her. Jenny told Apollo that she was uncomfortable with leadership, and haunted by past mistakes, but she'd resolved that there had to be people ready to save the world and then change it.

(The Authority I #3, 4) - Apollo kept nagging Jenny about how they were going to get past Gamorra's forcefield, and Engineer had been working with the Carrier, which showed her it could open a gate directly to the island. Jenny told Midnighter to do recon on the island, while the rest of the team traveled to L.A., where they predicted Gamorra's next attack would come. Jack noted that they were resembling a team even though they knew virtually nothing about each other. Jenny contacted the UN to alert them to the danger to L.A., but before she could make any more preparations the Children of Gamorra arrived. The Doctor felt out of his element, but his predecessor spoke to him, reminding him that the world was his village, and he had every Doctor in his corner to help him realize his potential. The Doctor turned half of the attacking Children into trees, but the strain of such powerful magic left him unconscious, and he was returned to the Carrier. Engineer reminded her teammates she wasn't a soldier, but Jack convinced her she had to learn to fight, and she created a web of knives that cut a number of the Children to shreds. Midnighter made his way to Gamorra Tower, and discovered the bioreactor Gamorra was using to pump out more and more superhuman soldiers. Midnighter was trained to beat problems until they were dead, but he realized that strategy would not work against two miles of machinery. He returned to the Carrier, and plowed it into Gamorra Tower, destroying it. Jenny alerted the UN to send inspectors to Gamorra so they could recover Kaizen's technology, and she told the world they would make it better.

(The Authority I #5, 6) - The Engineer admitted to the Doctor that she missed her ordinary life and her experiments, but she felt a duty as a member of the Authority, and lived for the views, such as the Carrier taking them over the Mind Barrier reef, where the minds of latent telepaths grew as a colony. Christine Trelane contacted the Authority when a rip in spacetime opened and fighter jets emerged, devastating L.A. Apollo and the Doctor destroyed a number of the crafts, and Jenny Sparks recognized them. She said they were under attack from the parallell world of Sliding Albion. Jenny Sparks created a gigantic electric avatar, short-circuiting the ships, and reminding them that her Earth was still under her protection, before the remaining ships returned to Avalon. Jenny filled in the crew on her previous encounter battling a Sliding Avalon invasion in 1920, and reached out to her old contacts to get entry to R.A.F. Rendelsham's holding facility. She introduced the Authority to her ex-husband Lorenzo Antonio Slzfi.

(The Authority I #7, 8) - Lorenzo said Sliding Avalon's civil war led to low birth rates due to biowarfare, so his father Regis was most likely invading her Earth to continue his bloodline, and gain more living space for his people. Regis sent his second wave aboard the Carrier, and Apollo killed most of them, but drained his solar powers in the process. Midnighter, not used to seeing him helpless, embraced his love. The Engineer and Swift both told Jenny they needed to do more than defeat Sliding Avalon, they needed to fix their totalatarian, imperialistic culture. Sliding Avalon attacked Northern Europe, and Jenny came up with a plan to repower Apollo long enough for him to save the continent. Midnighter feared for Apollo's safety, and he assured his friend he was the only one who could do the job, and he intended to return alive. Apollo single-handedly destroyed the Avalon invasion fleet, and Jenny took the Carrier to Avalon itself. She destroyed Westminster Abbey, the base of Regis' power, and Jack Hawksmoor reached into the city, which was sick of Regis' crimes, and ripped him in two. The Carrier took them to Sicily, the other seat of the Blue's power, and the Doctor held it still while their Earth rotated around it, drowning the country. Jenny announced to the world that the imperialism and rape culture of the Blue's was now gone, but if asked to they'd be back to make sure it didn't return, and urged the people of Avalon to make a better world. Engineer thought it was scary that they'd changed an entire world based on what they thought best, and Jenny reminded her that that was the Authority's mission.

(The Authority I #9, 10) - As the New Year approached Jenny noticed that she was looking tired, and reflected that her century long life had been a great strange ride. Jack visited Rome, but couldn't stay away from NYC for too long. He visited the Engineer, and her nanotech detected a disturbance in the environment. The Doctor was in the Garden of Ancestral Memory, and felt something ancient stirring that was once on Earth. His predecessors revealed that humanity had only inherited Earth, and that the planet's original owner had woken up. The heralds took over the moon, and some of them landed in Africa. Doctor told Sparks, and nearly collapsed in her arms. Jenny was somewhat suspicious of the Doctor's word because of the massive amount of drugs he took as a shaman. Midnighter and Apollo fought the heralds that were destroying Tokyo, and feared Jenny would have to sterilize the entire city if they failed. Jack Hawksmoor arrived as backup, and they prevailed, if barely. Engineer was in Africa, where a herald was terraforming the environment into a poisonous wasteland, and after victory she created machines to heal the landscape. Jenny sent Apollo to sterilize the moon, the source of the heralds. Doctor's predecessors told him they called Earth's creator God because it had formed the Earth as a home for its spore and a retirement home. The Earth's environment was inhospitable to native life forming until a stray planet hit Earth, blasting a great chunk of the planet into space. The moon that formed from the impact was the home of God's spore until Apollo destroyed them, and the impact also pushed Earth away from the sun, enough so that native life could arise. God had returned, and was unhappy with the state of the planet, and Engineer spotted it in the sky.

(The Authority I #11, 12) - God was near the moon, so Engineer created a spacesuit and flew there to meet Apollo. They were both exhilarated at the beauty of the satellite, and Engineer was overjoyed to be the first woman on the moon. They investigated God, and it was unaware of their presence. Jenny told them to return home, and she had a plan, but they'd need to convince the Carrier to leave Earth's orbit. Engineer talked to the Carrier, who preferred to stay near Earth because that's where he was abandoned by his previous owners, but she reasoned with the ship, and they flew toward God, entering the organism through one of its' pores. The Doctor sensed that the end of the century signaled the end of Jenny's life, but she warned him not to tell his teammates. Jenny was willing to blow up the Carrier with the Authority inside as a last resort, but hoped it wouldn't come to that. They were confronted by a sentient civilization of parasites, and Swift didn't want to destroy them, so she convinced them that they were shutting down the higher functions of the parasites' host, but were not a threat to them. The Carrier fought through antibodies until they reached God's brain. Jenny told God the planet belonged to her and the Authority, not it anymore, and used her electrical powers to fry God's brain, killing it. Her time as Earth's immune system had ended, and she passed away.

(The Authority I #13, 14, 21) - The Authority took down a Southeast Asian dictatorship, throwing the dictator to the survivors of a village he'd sent a death squad to. The Authority became worldwide celebrities, and Jack told the Doctor that was always part of Jenny's plan, knowing they could get away with far more if they were beloved. The Doctor learned that Jenny had been reborn as the Spirit of the 21st Century, but could only narrow down he location to the Pacific Rim, although he knew other interests were also searching for her. The Authority started throwing after-hours parties on the Carrier for the world's superhuman community. President Clinton called Jack telling him the Authority were out of line in involving themselves in politics, and Jack said since they saved the planet when it needed saving they wanted to insure that Earth was worth the effort. Clinton told him to watch his step, and Jack responded that he could say the same. Jackson King got in a physical confrontation with Jack Hawksmoor, telling him that if the Authority kept pushing the world would push back. The Doctor located the newborn Jenny Quark in Singapore, and rescued her just before the Americans, a military group under the command of Jacob Krigstein, slaughtered the maternity ward. The Americans cut the Doctor off from the Carrier, and ambushed him. Commander to make their deaths messy, and said he wanted to see some civilian casualties too. Titan grabbed a jet and hurled it at the Doctor and Jenny, but her powers kicked in, shielding them, and blowing off Titan's legs. Krigstein was amazed to see her powers manifest, and changed his plans, he wanted Jenny alive so he could manipulate the next century to be what he wanted it to be. The Authority arrived, killing Titan and several other members of the Americans. The Doctor fled to the Carrier, but the American's android member defeated him, abducted Jenny, and the Americans returned to the Hangar.

(The Authority I #15, 16) - The U.S. blamed the carnage in Singapore on insurgents from the Asian dictatorship overthrown by the Authority. Jack knew they were covering their own, and made a worldwide broadcast naming the perpetrators as a rogue U.S. military branch. He threatened to expose the affairs of every politician in Washington, and soon after Christine Trelane called with the location of the U.S. records of Krigstein and the Americans. Apollo was recovering from the beating the Commander gave him when he was drained of power, and had some very violent ideas about what he was going to do to the Americans. Midnighter liked it when Apollo talked like him. The Authority located one of Krigstein's secret bases in Manhattan after Jack talked to the city, and Krigstein retaliated by launching attacks on the world's capitals. He unleashed his newest superhero creations on the Authority, and they split up to deal with these armies. Apollo led the defense of Washington and crippled the Commander and the Storm God, but allowed Midnighter to have his fun and take them out in his own gruesome way. Jenny Quark allowed Swift to enter the Hanger, and Swift told Krigstein that his escalation with the Authority was costing countless lives. He pleaded that the Bush administration was going to turn America into a totalitarian state, and he was only trying to save the world. She extended an offer to join the Authority if he called back his troops and backed down, and he accepted. She wanted him to put his genius to better use, solving the world's problems instead of trying to conquer the world. Jenny bonded with the Doctor, and he showed her the baby universe powering the Carrier.

(The Authority I #17, 18) - The Authority, with Swift taking command, forced occupying Russian troops in Chechnya and Chinese troops in Tibet to evacuate or face annihilation. A supernatural storm destroyed the Vatican, and Christine Trelane asked them to investigate. Their magic expert the Doctor was incommunicado because he'd gotten married to a rock star and was on honeymoon with his wife. Midnighter was wondering if the Doctor understood the commitment he'd made to the Authority, and Midnighter got intel that the U.S. was angered by their international action, and had photos of the Doctor shooting up heroin. Midnighter and Apollo traveled to Sydney to check in on the Doctor, only to find that he'd ODed. Weather patterns continued to cause destruction, and a massive tsunami hit NYC. The Authority, Trelane and King organized a rescue effort, with survivors brought to the Authority's Carrier. The Doctor was in a coma, and Midnighter gave him a blood transfusion to save him from brain damage. Engineer said if he hadn't overdosed he could have saved every New Yorker, and she wanted him off the team when he was awake. The tectonic plates under California ripped apart, and volcanic activity caused death and destruction. Apollo traveled to Earth's mantle to divert the lava flow, while his teammates organized another rescue of survivors. Midnighter suspected that the Renegade Doctor, a villain who was defeated by a team-up of all Earth's superheroes after he caused a genocide in 1967, was responsible. The Renegade was in a temporal prison built by Before Christ, Ltd located 20 MYA, and Midnighter interrogated him. The Renegade claimed he was not responsible, and said Earth itself was killing humanity.

(The Authority I #19, 20) - Midnighter unnecessarily tortured the Renegade Doctor until he told him that the Earth had been in panic mode ever since "God" tried to terraform it, and blamed its' dominant specie for its' current state. Within 24 hours the Earth was going to reverse its' magnetic poles, ending human life on Earth. The Doctor was released from the hospital, and world opinion turned against the Authority, not trusting their lives to a team with an unbelievably powerful drug addict on staff. The Authority decided to evacuate Earth's population to nearby parallel realities, and met their gender-swapped equivalents on Alternative 838, the Meritocracy. The Doctor realized that the Renegade Doctor was the one influencing the Earth, and he promised to stop if the Doctor gave him back his power for one hour. The Authority agreed, and stood off against the Renegade in a desert. The Renegade engaged in a battle where he tried to traumatize the Authority, going so far as to go back in time and assault Engineer when she was young. Midnighter recruited the heroes of Alternative-838 to fight the Renegade, but he vaporized them. The Doctors of the Garden of Ancestral Memory were quite cross with the Doctor. They doubted he was the person for the job after he ODed, and they thought he was mad for giving the disgraced Renegade his powers back, but the Doctor assured them he had a plan. The Renegade achieved enlightenment, and realized what a horrible person he was and how awful his actions were. He broke down sobbing, and Apollo blasted him with heat-vision, turning him to ash. The Authority threw a huge party aboard the Carrier that turned into an orgy. Engineer spent the night with the Doctor, telling him that his saving the world was an aphrodisiac.

(The Authority I #22) - Apollo and Midnighter got married and put through papers to adopt Jenny Quantum. The G7 nations had had enough of the Authority throwing their weight around, and sent their superhuman troubleshooter Seth to take care of them. He ran through the Authority, and the Midnighter managed to save Jenny Quantum, using the Carrier to open a door and bring her to safety. He teleported aboard an airbase and rammed a jet into Seth, exploding the Carrier, which crashed to Earth. Seth was unharmed, and there was no sign of the Midnighter. The G7 had hand-picked a replacement Authority, and after taking over the Carrier they announced to the world that they were in charge.

(The Authority I #27-29) - The G7 acted as a tool for the system, and they kept depowered Apollo a prisoner so their homophobic member Last Call could beat him on a regular basis. Engineer's nano-blood had been stolen by Machine, and both she and Swift were mindwiped, living miserable lives in abusive relationships. The Surgeon was stealing the Doctor's powers, and using his Garden of Ancestral Memory as development and commercial space, desecrating the world's spiritual heritage, and Jack Hawksmoor had been brain damaged, living as a mentally ill homeless man. Midnighter and Jenny had survived the destruction of the Carrier, and he was ready to enact his revenge. The Carrier hated the new Authority, and took them through some of the most diseased universes, such as the Megalosalmon Shaols, as protest. The Surgeon showed off his new creation Religimon, a pop culture created god to unite the teeming masses. The Colonel got bored, and started sexually harassing and bullying Rush. Midnighter broke into the Carrier, and ran over Street with his motorcycle, killing him. The Colonel panicked, and said to call their bosses and get Seth to help them. Teuton tried to assault Apollo, and Midnighter caved in his head with a bolt pistol. Apollo wept tears of joy to see his husband alive and well. The remaining G7 argued about who was going to fight Midnighter, and they all tried to back off, but Seth arrived and told them not to worry about it. Apollo fried Last Call and Engineer's heads with his heat vision, and Midnighter shot the Surgeon. Seth ripped out Midnighter's heart and took Jenny Quantum hostage. The Carrier's crash had ripped a hole in the Bleed, rapidly attracting the nearby parallel worlds, which had the capacity to subsume Earth-50. Apollo opened a door to the Arctic circle, and dragged Seth through, but despite a pitched battle he was defeated. With the Machine's death the false memories she implanted in Swift and Engineer stopped working, and Swift was at a G7 meeting, and overheard how to deactivate Seth. She beheaded her "boyfriend" and killed the software mogul who designed Seth so the government couldn't make another one. She rescued Engineer and killed her "husband." Jack's brain damage was undone, and the trio returned to the Carrier. The Surgeon's death allowed the Doctors to undue the damage, and the Doctor's predecessor said his pantheon needed him. Seth tore through the Authority again, and they couldn't speak his deactivation phrase because he froze their larynxes. Jenny Quantum spoke her first worlds, "Welcome to the Oval Office, President Gore," and Seth was depowered. The Doctor turned him into seven chickens and sent him back to his backwoods uncles. The Doctor saved Midnighter's life and Jack refused to help the G7 governments stop the Bleed from subsuming Earth. He said they got themselves into this mess by attacking the Authority, and they could get themselves out of it. The G7 came through, and to teach the President a lesson about messing with them again, the Authority dumped him in an Iraq war zone. Apollo and Midnighter had their marriage ceremony aboard the carrier, and Jenny Quantum was now officially their daughter. Jack was pleased that the Authority had indeed changed the world, and said there was no going back.

(Grifter & Midnighter #1-3, 5) - Midnighter was kidnapped by a mysterious group, brought to a lab, and forced to replay an endless VR scenario in his head. n the scenario the Authority were attacked by alien beings, and he was unable to save them from dying one by one until he himself died. The Authority freed him, taking one of the doctors present to interrogate, and returned to the Carrier. Midnighter was furious at himself for being captured, and angry that Apollo had to save him, telling his husband that he didn't like being the little wife. Midnighter kept seeing the VR scenario, and experienced hallucinations, so Jenny took him off active duty. She found an alien like the one's from the VR scenario in Doctor Argot's head, and it scuttled off, disappearing through a portal. Midnighter was in Paris protecting Prince Ydar Ibn Mahoud, who turned out to be a shapeshifter named Zee who claimed he'd been kidnapped so the group that was after them both could test his limits. They'd run into Grifter, and the trio fought the aliens from Midnighter's visions, fending them off. The Authority arrived to see the aftermath, discovering the holes the creatures had emerged from in Paris. Jenny scoured extraterrestrial literature, but only found brief writings about the creatures in Daemonite records. Midnighter handed the invasion himself, not wanting his teammates aid.

Comments: Created by Warren Ellis.

The Authority had a cameo in The Authority I #23, 25.

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