Product Description

Meet the New Bosses The hugely acclaimed team of Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan) and Bryan Hitch (JLA) conclude their earth-rattling run on The Authority, just in time for the super-cool team of Mark Millar (Judge Dredd/ JLA) and Frank Quitely (Batman: The Scottish Connection) to come aboard and rock your world. In the first of two, epic story-arcs our heros battle god, who is keen on wiping out the viral infestation (ie. mankind) that has colonised earth. In the second, Millar and Quitely pit the Authority against a seemingly infinite number of superheroes. Essential reading!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131434 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-23
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Under New Management finds The Authority facing two possibly dire losses: the death of their sardonic leader Jenny Sparks, and worse, the departure of the founding creative team of Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. Breathe a sigh of relief as the baton of Wide-Screen Pandemonium is seamlessly passed to newcomers Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. Ellis and Hitch complete their acclaimed run with the superb Outer Dark in which the team face off, to all intents and purposes, "God"- returned to Earth after aeons to reclaim its home and forcibly evict the unexpected human "infestation". God's malevolent reappearance at the dawn of 2000 also coincides with the end of Jenny Spark's role as The Spirit of the 20th century. Ellis crafts a fitting (and supremely subversive) swan-song for Jenny that sees her go out fighting as well as offing Our Maker "US Execution style". The Nativity finds the new creative team grappling with the series' two new intriguing strands: The Authority's new found celebrity and what happens when the Spirit of the 20th century moves in to the 21st. As far as a diabolical super-genius and his legions of super-soldiers are concerned, it's the chance to mould the future. Millar has retained the series' signature cynicism and humour while Quitely sensibly doesn't ape Hitch, his own action-friendly style ensuring the series' hectic pace. So, dispense with the doubts: it's still the best superhero series for quite some time and one that has managed to keep it's promise of being the comic with a $100 million budget every issue. --Danny Graydon

About the Author
Warren Ellis is the acclaimed writer of Transmetropolitan, Hellblazer and Planetary. Bryan Hitch has drawn Stormwatch, Superman, Batman, WildCats and X-Men among many other titles. Mark Millar is the writer of Judge Dredd, Red Razors, Superman Adventures and JLA. Frank Quitely has illustrated Batman: The Scottish Connection, The Kingdom: Offspring and Judge Dredd Megazine.

Customer Reviews

Two great writers and two great artists
Stormwatch was Warren Ellis doing political superhero thrillers extremely well. His follow-up, The Authority goes more for the no-brainer action movie approach, but it does do it extremely well. The concepts are good, and the script is sparce in the extreme - here Warren prefers to sit back and let the art do the job of getting across the scale of the threat. Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary's art is perfect as always - They truly are just about the slickest art team in comics at the moment.

If you've read the first Authority TPB, you'll know exactly what to expect from the first half of this book - which reprints issues 9-12 of the comic.

In the second half of the book, Mark Millar and Frank Quitely take over. I've thought for a long time that Mark Millar hadn't had the success he deserved. This book fixed all of that and he is now one of the hottest writers around. Instead of trying to top the scale of Warren Ellis's work (which would probably require at least a galaxy to be destroyed) Millar goes back to the more political side of things that Ellis did so well in Stormwatch, and I think improves the book with this move.

Frank Quitely is one of the best artist around in comics - and if you want to see proof of this, try to track down the Flex Mentallo miniseries he did with Grant Morrison - or pick up the Earth 2 book which comes a close second. Here his art is not up to his best standard - whether that is his fault or the inkers, I don't know, but it is still a lot better than most of the art you will find in comics.

As an aside - When Mark Millar's first issue came out, there were articles in newspapers saying he had created the first gay superheroes in comics. This is largely hype - they are not the first gay superheroes - though they may well be the first gay superhero couple. Also it's apparrant if you paid attention through Warren Ellis's run that they were an item from the beginning. Millar and Ellis both deserve credit though for doing it without ever drawing attention to it. It's never raised as an issue - just like it wouldn't be if it was a hetrosexual couple.

I've given this book 4 stars - and I feel a bit mean only giving it that, but it jsut doesn't quite match up to the Ellis's later Stormwatch work. Still darn good though

How can you beat this?
This is the first Authority book I've read and I loved it. Recently I've been digesting noble Superman tales, so when the Authority literally started splitting heads, I was a little shocked - surely they're not supposed to be that vicious? In a Batman book you'd get a double page spread lingering remorsefully on the deaths of innocents, but in the Authority 300,000 people can have their faces mashed in a single panel. In addition, the characters I was being introduced to seemed overpowered, for example Apollo blasts the entire Moon as though he does it every day (and even comments on this). I think what makes it great is that they see things from the reader's point of view, mocking cliches, and lusting after the shapely figures they encounter. In particular, Hawksmoor's dauntless confidence was inspiringly impressive, and the unexpected resolution of the story was refreshing. I guess my only fear is that the members of the Authority are just so damn good, I can't imagine them losing a battle, nor caring if they did, which somewhat stunts any yearning to read more about them. You can't beat this!

The Authority vs Stan Lee
As noted above, this comprises two four issue arcs by two different creative teams.

Warren Ellis's Authority swansong was, I felt, always his weakest work on the book - a little too far over the top, and so sparse in terms of dialogue that it's hard to believe he was actually writing it, as opposed to sending Hitch and Neary memos with comments like 'Authority kick God in head!' Still, it's good work by normal standards, the art is as stunning as ever, and it ties up the year's run pretty well, especially for those who have been following the character of Jenny Sparks and the whole century children concept (developed further in Ellis's much superior 'Planetary'.)

But things really pick up with the fourth arc (the second here), and Millar and Quitely's arrival. Millar obviously had a hell of a lot of fun writing this, and Quitely turns the book's visual style inside out, making the Authority's world an ugly, brutal (if beautifully drawn) place. Basically the plot revolves around a struggle for the Jenny Sparks of the 21st century - a mere baby, albeit with nifty powers - between the Authority and a villian who is, to all intents and purposes, Stan Lee.

It's hilarious fun watching Apollo, Midnighter et al kick the crap out of, amongst others, the Avengers, the X-men and countless X-spin off teams. Just for the joy of character-spotting twisted versions of Stan's offspring, this is worth every penny. And the unpredictable and inspired ending does as much to question the traditional values and asumptions of the superhero genre as anything in this very revolutionary series.