The Authority: Prime

Updated Saturday 10 May, 2008 12:19 PM | Headlines | Discussion Forum | International Edition

Thanks

To Our

Friends

The Authority: Prime

Maybe Wildstorm does still have it.

I didn’t pick up The Authority; Prime at first, or it’s predecessor, Stormwatch: PHD. This was something of a mistake, although going by the recent post-reboot showing, it was an understandable mistake; half of the new series’ were either cancelled or put on indefinite hold, in both cases systematically screwing the readers. It astonishes me, even though I know that comic books get their man revenue from advertising, that DC could treat their customers like that; who, exactly, is going to look at the ads if they don’t buy the comics?

The basic background is fairly simple. Owing to a complex piece of Deux Ex Machina, the original Stormwatch team (who were only made interesting by Warren Ellis, who then killed most of them off) was brought back to life and, under Jackson King, is working for the US Government as a post-human response team. The Authority, in the meantime, works as a ‘higher authority;’ a near-omnipotent superhero team that intervenes whenever it feels like it. At one point, the team took over the United States…although that fascinating premise was really let down by the poor storylines that followed. Since the reboot, the Authority have been stuck in an alternate world…and this story is set before their departure from their world. (We were promised an explanation, but there wasn't one that I could see, in these issues.) When Stormwatch discovers a bunker belonging to the dead Henry Bendix – the madman who ran Stormwatch for a time – they attempt to recover the contents, only to be confronted by the Authority.

This leads in, at once, to the single greatest flaw in the Authority; they’re too powerful. Apollo points out that they have two members who can literally do anything, therefore reducing Jackson King to pulling an unexpected rabbit out of his hat – and later so does the ‘not-so-surprising’ villain himself – to keep Jenny Quantum and the Doctor busy. The original team might have been composed of superhuman powerhouses, but they weren’t all-powerful; now, they’re just too powerful, like the Spectre, to serve as anything other than a final solution to any problem. Jackson does come up with a neat solution to the problem of taking on an all-powerful foe, but it just makes the point; the team really needs to lose some of it’s power before it just becomes a ‘smash everything’ book.

Fortunately for the continued survival of both teams, their fight – which is actually very well done – is interrupted by the bunker’s defence systems, which engage the enemy. I won’t go into too many details, but this is perhaps Wildstorm’s best moments since Warren Ellis left, matched only by the surprise appearance at the end of a reborn…you guessed it, Henry Bendix. It actually allows Bendix a chance to literally present the teams with a nightmare, and, to be fair to the writer, it doesn’t end with Jenny clicking her fingers and putting everything to rights. In a properly run comic book series, there would be lots of room for new stories coming from this…although I doubt that we’ll see them. Wildstorm has lost my confidence.

Overall, the artwork is pretty good, with the exception of Jack Hawksmore, who looks more like Billy Butcher of the Boys (unsurprising; it’s the same artist) than either of his other incarnations.

I give this eight out of ten…and maybe I will buy the collection when it comes out. Good thing they don’t have any *&%*&%& adverts in them.

Please Comment In The Discussion Forum

Hit Counter