Its books like this which are the reason publishers started posting creators names on books. Most comic fans should be able to look at the names of the people who have worked on the Authority and show interest, regardless of what their thoughts on the WildStorm universe are. When you look at the list of people who have worked on the book it looks like a breeding ground for the best of today’s writers and artists.
I know that there are a lot of people who (like I used to) will not pick up a book unless it is branded DC or marvel. However I would hope that the names series creators Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch would allow them to look past any label.
First off take note that WildStorm is a division of DC. Not some small name group trying to make it on their own. Still, it shouldn’t matter. If you’re a fan of either DC or Marvel you should be familiar with the names Ellis and Hitch. More importantly you should be aware of why they are two of the most respected creators in the Business and for good reason.
Ellis’s work on The Authority is set in the WildStorm universe along side landmark series such as Planetary. It takes place after his run on Storm Watch and follows the group on their first two adventures. Starting in StormWatch, Ellis began to create a team of rag-tag Superheroes all his own, by destroying most of the original team and replacing it with characters of his own design. What was left of the team went on to become the founders of the Authority. The group's founder and leader Jenny Sparks “the Spirit of the Twentieth Century” a cigarette smoking bad-ass Brit, who has been alive for over 100 years; Jack Hawksmore “King of Cities" an alien enhanced American who can communicate with cities; Apollo and The Midnighter one of comics first and most colorful openly gay couples; The Doctor a troubled shaman; the Engineer a mentally troubled robot; and Swift a winged woman whois what the X-Men’s Angel should have been. The team is a group of heroes forced to come together in world which needs saving and protection on a regular basis due to the fall of the government funded StormWatch.
However what really makes the characters shine is the work of Brian Hitch. Most Marvel fans will probably recognize his work from the recreation of the cast of Avengers in the original Ultimates series. While I’m not I huge fan of the Ultimate universe I won’t deny the quality he brought to it. I can honestly say that Hitch is one of my favorite artists and helps to make the Authority one of my favorite teams. Throughout the book Hitch provides layers of depth to each of the team’s characters making them just as intriguing as any Marvel or DC character. Along with inker Paul Neary he also brings incredible detail to two of the coolest looking villains around; including a crazed East Asian Terrorist seeking revenge, as well as a devilish looking alien from a parallel universe seeking war. Both of which (along with the team) are given some of the best attention to detail I’ve ever seen in a character. On top of that, He also brings the team to some of the best depictions of, Moscow, London, LA, and Asia ever seen in comics. Each of which brings out what has to be the best work of the artisit atached
The group of heroes travels around in “the Carrier”, some sort of spaceship, shaped like a dog’s nose which serves as their base and drifts around outside time and space granting them access to any place on the planet at anytime via the “door”. This is where Hitch along with inker Paul Neary and colorist Lauren Depuyreally really get a chance to shine, by bringing to life the areas created in the depths of Ellis’s imagination. While Big Ben and the streets of LA are beautiful to look at the unreal subspace in which the characters live is equally impressive. It’s memorably obscure locations such as the “Outer Oceans of Ideaspace” during the spawning season of obsession fish, or the depths of the mind of the doctor which stand out in the book. It is also these ideas such as these in which Ellis is free to do what he does what he does best; by taking reality and warping and twisting it as much as possible while still keeping the characters human.
Let’s be serious though, this is book centered on action. Action which it delivers like few other books out there can even attempt match. Action scenes with one on one fights which the Midnighter has planed out in his head; action scenes with thousands of flying villains being changed to shards of glass and roses by the Doctor; action involving hundreds of fighter plains fighting spacecraft from another universe, action with Apollo flying at the speed of sound; action with men from the 1950’s fighting on horseback; action which lets you feel the rumbles occurring on board the ship. But most importantly action scenes put together so they never miss a beat.
In short the creative minds and ideas behind this book did such a great job of creating their own team that by the time I was through reading it thoughts of Marvel and DC groups and characters appeared secondary. Jenny Sparks the team’s leader is given the title Sparks “the Spirit of the Twentieth Century” and I seriously believe this is a book which can showcase and represent some of the best work in comics at the turn of the century. Now that the team has made its way into this century I am very eager to see what writers such as Bryan Hitch, Mark Millar, Ed Brubanker along with top artists have done with the team and if they’ve been able to reach the bar Ellis and Hitch set so high.
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