Reliable Authority:
Ellis Bids Farewell
If by some strange aversion to quality or disbelief of hype, you have missed Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary's extraordinary 12-issue run on Wildstorm/DC's The Authority, get thee to the nearest comics shop and rectify your error. You're missing the best superhero team book currently being published.
Issue 12 is out now, and it marks a farewell for the creative team that has guided it through its first year of existence. The Authority actually had its genesis in a number of series from Wildstorm all entitled Stormwatch, available in trade paperback and well worth the investment.
Ellis has used the typical icons of superhero team books (the super-man, the dark vigilante, the shaman, etc.) and created what seems very much like a high quality thinking man's action movie on paper. The consistently outstanding artwork of Hitch and Neary adds immensely to the hugeness of Ellis's ideas, bringing the fantastic images and moments of quiet wonder admirably to life.
And now, it's over.
It's a great issue of a great series, but surprisingly low-key. No holofoil covers, no double-size, a variant covers…just a terrific wrap-up to an exciting storyarc in the greatest superhero comic in years. The team takes a Fantastic Voyage through the veins of God and, well…kicks His ass. Royally.
It's a good sign that my favourite character in this book is always whoever is onstage…when the Engineer is at work, I'm in love with her power and enthusiasm, when Jenny Sparks takes command of a situation, I'm in love, period. Every single member of the team is completely thought-out, completely real and wonderfully compelling. They meet and exceed their iconic status, making the originals that inspired them seem, well, uninspired.
Just about every one of them gets a chance to shine here, whether it's the Midnighter's appraisal of an incoming threat, or Jack Hawksmoor's grinning, sarcastic acceptance that this might just be the mission where the Authority gets their asses handed to them.
The Authority will continue, with other, talented creators, and Ellis, Hitch and Neary all have projects on their plates in the near future as well. But for 12 shining issues, man, there stood Camelot. Or something very much like it. The Authority came in promising to kick ass and take names, and they did just that, now breaking our hearts in the final issue as an added bonus.
Yes, someone does something very heroic in the conclusion of Ellis's epic, and a serious price is paid…but it's not entirely unexpected, and it's completely appropriate. I won't spoil it here, but most longtime readers have seen it coming, and it's hinted at pretty seriously throughout this issue and it still…it sucks. Not in the Liefeld sense of sucking--it sucks because Ellis created a wonderfully real character, full of heart and anger and depth, and damn it, damn it…sometimes a price has to be paid for saving the world.
