The Authority Comic?

[JoeGKushner]

Guardians of Order just came out with a new super hero game based on the comic, the Authority.

Now I admit I'm out of it when it comes to comics. So I decided to pick up and read a few of the collected tradepaperbacks.

I thought it done rather poorly. It reminded me of the Justice League of America but done in an "Image" style with all of those failings. In any comic series where the heroes ruthrlessly kill and when they are beaten, are not killed in turn, is in my mind, not true to its own internal consistancy.

Am I just getting too old for these new comics? I thought Watchmen was great and Dark Knight Returns fantastic (although I thought the sequel to that terrible).

 

[WizarDru]

I thought it done rather poorly. It reminded me of the Justice League of America but done in an "Image" style with all of those failings. In any comic series where the heroes ruthrlessly kill and when they are beaten, are not killed in turn, is in my mind, not true to its own internal consistancy.

Am I just getting too old for these new comics? I thought Watchmen was great and Dark Knight Returns fantastic (although I thought the sequel to that terrible).

The sequel was terrible.

What collections of the The Authority did you pick up? I can't imagine you read the original Warren Ellis issues, with that kind of review.

To summarize quickly (and realize, I'm not an image fan, at all).

Originally, Image had a title called Stormwatch. It sucked, IMHO, being the classic Image archetype. Ellis changed all that. Originally, there were two stormwatch teams. Red and Blue, I think. Ellis added a third team, Black...for Black Ops. Fatalties increased, more 'real world' consequences entered the picture, and Ellis carried things out to their logical conclusion.

While a tad uneven, it made for some great reading. When Stormwatch went away (and realize I post this, having only read the collection of Stormwatch after it had done so), a few of its remnants became the Authority...featuring only the characters Ellis had introduced on Stormwatch. The premise being that the most powerful superheroes on Earth decide to flex their muscles, and basically end up putting the world's governments on notice.

Then Ellis left after issue #12, and it wasn't nearly as good. The Authority did get killed, of course, but then came back. Or something. While I think Mark Millar's "Wanted" is very, very good...I think he's not very good when touching other people's characters. The Authority rapidly has become everything it was supposed to be a commentary on, IMHO. But the core idea is pretty interesting, at least when executed by the right people.

 

[Teflon Billy]

The sequel was terrible.

Roger that.

...To summarize quickly (and realize, I'm not an image fan, at all)...

Roger that

...Then Ellis left after issue #12, and it wasn't nearly as good...

His summary is a good one. those first twelve issues are The Authority's best...and are the focus of the Guardians of Orcer game.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

To add a little bit more, though admitting I've never been a big fan of the series, it's on its third volume now and the quality has gone down hill every since the first volume...

I imagine it's a probably a nearly dead comic that won't be able to recover...

Some corrections:

1] Wildstorm is the publisher being a division of DC comics and not image.

2] The original Stormwatch comic didn’t suck. (j/k Though I did like it when I was a kid, or at least liked the first 10 issues or so.)

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Wildstorm used to be part of Image and Stormwatch was one of the titles they had while with Image.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Wildstorm used to be part of Image and Stormwatch was one of the titles they had while with Image.

Quite right Stormwatch Vol 1 and 2 where printed under Image, with the current volume, 3, being printed under DC, but the Authority, and the reason for my above correction, has always been printed under DC.

At least as far as I have been able to tell. My source for this is the small print on Authority Vol 1 Issue 3, the oldest issue I have, so maybe you have a better source than me?

 

[s/LaSH]

And for trivia fans: Most of Stormwatch got eaten by aliens. You know, Aliens aliens, xenomorphs, facehuggers, acid blood and all. It happened in a WildCATS miniseries, largely off-camera.

Interesting, no?

 

[John Crichton]

I really enjoyed the Ellis run. It felt like a summer blockbuster. I didn't mind the follow-up either. I almost bought the HC at GenCon but I figured I could get a better price online...

 

[Viking Bastard]

The Complete Stormwatch & Spinoffs :\

:\ Stormwatch #1-36 by Choi & others
Stormwatch: Force of Nature by Ellis & Raney
Stormwatch: Lightning Strikes by Ellis & Raney
Stormwatch: Change or Die by Ellis & Raney
Stormwatch: A Finer World by Ellis & Hitch
Stormwatch: A Finer World by Ellis & Various

Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority by Millar & McCrea
The Authority: Relentless by Ellis & Hitch
The Authority/Planetary (oneshot) by Ellis & Ordway
The Authority: Under New Management by Ellis & Hitch/Millar & Quitely
:\ The Authority: Earth Inferno and Other Stories by Millar & Quitely
The Authority: Transfer of Power by Millar & Quitely/Peyer & Nguyen
The Authority: Scorched Earth (oneshot) by Morrison & Irving
The Authority: Kev (oneshot) by Ennis & Fabry
The Authority: Harsh Realities by Morrison & Turner
The Authority/Lobo: Jingle Hell by Giffen/Grant & Bisley
:\ The Authority: Coup D´Etat by Various
The Authority #6-14 by Morrison & Turner
The Authority: More Kev #1-3 by Ennis & Fabry

:\ The Monarchy: Bullets Over Babylon by Young & McCrea
:\ The Monarchy #5-13 by Young & McCrea

Stormwatch: Team Achilles Volume 1 by Wright & Portacio
Stormwatch: Team Achilles Volume 2 by Wright & Portacio
Stormwatch: Team Achilles #12-24 by Wright & Smith

.

If I'm forgetting something, let me know and I'll update.

 

[Cor Azer]

If I'm forgetting something, let me know and I'll update.

Technically, Backlash also spun-off from StormWatch, and then WildCORE from Backlash.

There's also been a StormWatch: Team One mini-series I believe.