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Authority Vol 1
Main Page: The Authority Series Index
Overview
"Pay Allegiance. Or get your head kicked in."
Why do super-people never go after the real villains? Why do beings of such unimaginable power defend the Earth from external threats but hardly ever team up to address the real problems happening around them? For decades super-teams have fought costumed super-criminals, but they always seem to refrain from doing anything beyond maintaining the status quo. Until now.
Resource
The Authority
Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch Era
In 1999, Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch introduced readers to the Authority, a team of superheroes who promised to get the job done by whatever means necessary. They were: Jenny Sparks, the Spirit of the 20th Century; Jack Hawksmoor, the king of cities; Swift, a Tibetan woman with wings and sharp talons; Apollo, a bio-engineered gay Superman pastiche; The Midnighter, a Batman pastiche who was the lover of Apollo and possessed the ability to foresee his opponents' moves in combat; The Engineer, a scientist who replaced her blood with nine pints of nano-technology; and the Doctor, a Dutch junkie with the combined powers of hundreds of shamans who had come before him.
The Ellis/Hitch run of The Authority lasted 12 issues, divided in three story-arcs: The Circle, Shiftships, and The Outer Dark. They showed an increasingly dangerous enemy: an international terrorist (previously seen in Stormwatch), an invasion from an alternative Earth, and "God," the hostile alien creator of the Solar system, with corresponding high scale violence and property destruction. The usage of a narrative tool called decompression, taken mainly from manga and novel in American super-hero comic-books, was distinctive: big, panoramic panels were used to examine action in deep detail, with a slower rhythm and lighter plotting per issue.
The run was hugely successful with readers, providing a form of large scale superhero action which was (at the time) not common in comics. Ellis never obviously delved into the politics of his characters; he left that to the reader to decide. This was soon to change after Ellis and Hitch finished their run on the series.
Mark Millar & Frank Quitely era
Replacing Ellis and Hitch were Mark Millar and the pseudonymous Frank Quitely. The Millar/Quitely run kept the widescreen narrative and violence of its predecessor, and added an irreverent and somehow revolutionary attitude to the characters, who fought social injustice and, if needed, the status quo, not minding crossing some lines to pursue their own agenda of making a finer world. This interesting and polemic analysis of the role of the super-hero in society was extremely popular with fans and critics alike.
During Millar's run, the Authority, now under Jack Hawksmoor's leadership following Jenny Sparks' death at the end of the 20th Century, faced such foes as a thinly-veiled Marvel Universe, the Earth itself, and the US government, who had grown tired of the Authority's interference with the activities of the world's governments, and replaced them with a duplicate team of superheroes backed by the G7 group of nations. Also, Jenny Sparks' successor, Jenny Quantum, was adopted by a now-married Apollo and Midnighter, and the Doctor overcame his drug addiction after feeling guilty for not being around for one of the Authority's biggest challenges after suffering an overdose of heroin.
This run proved to be highly controversial and led into the title suffering from censorship by DC. The first instance of this censorship was a removal of a kiss between Apollo and Midnighter due to DC's concern that it would lead to negative media reports. The matter would come to a head after the events of the September 11 attacks during Millar's final story arc, "Brave New World". This happened in issue #22, which proved to be Quitely's last issue as artist. Issue #23 was delayed after the 9/11 attacks, and a one-shot special (written and drawn by Bryan Hitch) entitled The Authority: Widescreen was cancelled outright due to concerns about the violence in that issue.
To allow Quitely's replacement to catch up, a four issue fill-in storyline called "Transfer Of Power" written by Tom Peyer and illustrated by Dustin Nguyen, was published featuring the G7 Authority team. The final Millar arc began with issue #27, and it was in this issue where the most serious censorship of story and art would occur in the series. Scenes of necrophilia, violence set in New York, and scenes of the Authority's members being humiliated and degraded were changed from what was originally drawn by Quitely's replacement, Art Adams.
Also altered were panels clearly showing George W. Bush being portrayed as a cowardly figure. This was felt to be unpatriotic after 9/11 hence the editing of the panels, replacing Bush with a fictional president (seemingly President Merkin Muffley from Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove). Further editing occurred in issue 28 which caused this issue to be delayed. These delays in shipping were now affecting the titles sales, causing them to drop. Millar's final issue was drawn by Gary Erskine after Adams had left the title, unhappy with how his art had been censored.
Awards:
Categories:
Overview
"Pay Allegiance. Or get your head kicked in."
Why do super-people never go after the real villains? Why do beings of such unimaginable power defend the Earth from external threats but hardly ever team up to address the real problems happening around them? For decades super-teams have fought costumed super-criminals, but they always seem to refrain from doing anything beyond maintaining the status quo. Until now.
Resource
The Authority
 The Authority #1 The Circle 1 of 4 |  The Authority #2 The Circle 2 of 4 |  The Authority #3 The Circle 3 of 4 |  The Authority #4 The Circle 4 of 4 |
 The Authority #5 Shiftships 1 of 4 |  The Authority #6 Shiftships 2 of 4 |  The Authority #7 Shiftships 3 of 4 |  The Authority #8 Shiftships 4 of 4 |
 Planetary/The Authority: Ruling the World |  The Authority #9 Outer Dark 1 Of 4 |  The Authority #10 Outer Dark 2 Of 4 |  The Authority #11 Outer Dark 3 Of 4 |
 The Authority #12 Outer Dark 4 Of 4 |  The Authority #13 The Nativity 1 of 4 |  The Authority #14 The Nativity 2 of 4 |  The Authority #15 The Nativity 3 of 4 |
 The Authority #16 The Nativity 4 of 4 |  The Authority #17 Earth Inferno 1 of 4 |  The Authority #18 Earth Inferno 2 of 4 |  The Authority #19 Earth Inferno 3 of 4 |
 The Authority #20 Earth Inferno 4 of 4 |  The Authority #21 All Tomorrow's Parties |  The Authority #22 Brave New World 1 of 4 |  The Authority #23 Transfer of Power 1 of 4 |
 The Authority #24 Transfer of Power 2 of 4 |  The Authority #25 Transfer of Power 3 of 4 |  The Authority #26 Transfer of Power 4 of 4 |  The Authority #27 Brave New World 2 of 4 |
 The Authority #28 Brave New World 3 of 4 |  The Authority #29 Brave New World 4 of 4 |  The Authority Annual 2000 The Breaks |
Volume 1 Collections
 The Authority Vol. 1: Relentless |  The Authority Vol. 2: Under New Management |  The Authority Vol. 3: Earth Inferno and Other Stories |  The Authority Vol. 4: Transfer of Power |
Publishing History
The Authority ran from March 1999 to May 2002. #1-12 were written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Bryan Hitch. #13-20, 22, 27-29 were written by Mark Millar, and illustrated by Frank Quitely, Chris Weston, Arthur Adams, and Gary Erskine. #20 was written by Doselle Young and illustrated by John McCrea and served as a prelude to the Monarchy series. The Authority Annual 2000 was written by Joe Casey and illustrated by Cully Hamner and was part of the Devil's Night crossover.Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch Era
In 1999, Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch introduced readers to the Authority, a team of superheroes who promised to get the job done by whatever means necessary. They were: Jenny Sparks, the Spirit of the 20th Century; Jack Hawksmoor, the king of cities; Swift, a Tibetan woman with wings and sharp talons; Apollo, a bio-engineered gay Superman pastiche; The Midnighter, a Batman pastiche who was the lover of Apollo and possessed the ability to foresee his opponents' moves in combat; The Engineer, a scientist who replaced her blood with nine pints of nano-technology; and the Doctor, a Dutch junkie with the combined powers of hundreds of shamans who had come before him.
The Ellis/Hitch run of The Authority lasted 12 issues, divided in three story-arcs: The Circle, Shiftships, and The Outer Dark. They showed an increasingly dangerous enemy: an international terrorist (previously seen in Stormwatch), an invasion from an alternative Earth, and "God," the hostile alien creator of the Solar system, with corresponding high scale violence and property destruction. The usage of a narrative tool called decompression, taken mainly from manga and novel in American super-hero comic-books, was distinctive: big, panoramic panels were used to examine action in deep detail, with a slower rhythm and lighter plotting per issue.
The run was hugely successful with readers, providing a form of large scale superhero action which was (at the time) not common in comics. Ellis never obviously delved into the politics of his characters; he left that to the reader to decide. This was soon to change after Ellis and Hitch finished their run on the series.
Mark Millar & Frank Quitely era
Replacing Ellis and Hitch were Mark Millar and the pseudonymous Frank Quitely. The Millar/Quitely run kept the widescreen narrative and violence of its predecessor, and added an irreverent and somehow revolutionary attitude to the characters, who fought social injustice and, if needed, the status quo, not minding crossing some lines to pursue their own agenda of making a finer world. This interesting and polemic analysis of the role of the super-hero in society was extremely popular with fans and critics alike.
During Millar's run, the Authority, now under Jack Hawksmoor's leadership following Jenny Sparks' death at the end of the 20th Century, faced such foes as a thinly-veiled Marvel Universe, the Earth itself, and the US government, who had grown tired of the Authority's interference with the activities of the world's governments, and replaced them with a duplicate team of superheroes backed by the G7 group of nations. Also, Jenny Sparks' successor, Jenny Quantum, was adopted by a now-married Apollo and Midnighter, and the Doctor overcame his drug addiction after feeling guilty for not being around for one of the Authority's biggest challenges after suffering an overdose of heroin.
This run proved to be highly controversial and led into the title suffering from censorship by DC. The first instance of this censorship was a removal of a kiss between Apollo and Midnighter due to DC's concern that it would lead to negative media reports. The matter would come to a head after the events of the September 11 attacks during Millar's final story arc, "Brave New World". This happened in issue #22, which proved to be Quitely's last issue as artist. Issue #23 was delayed after the 9/11 attacks, and a one-shot special (written and drawn by Bryan Hitch) entitled The Authority: Widescreen was cancelled outright due to concerns about the violence in that issue.
Also altered were panels clearly showing George W. Bush being portrayed as a cowardly figure. This was felt to be unpatriotic after 9/11 hence the editing of the panels, replacing Bush with a fictional president (seemingly President Merkin Muffley from Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove). Further editing occurred in issue 28 which caused this issue to be delayed. These delays in shipping were now affecting the titles sales, causing them to drop. Millar's final issue was drawn by Gary Erskine after Adams had left the title, unhappy with how his art had been censored.
Awards:
- 2001 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards - Nominee - Best Serialized Story: (#13-16 "The Nativity")
Categories:
| The Authority | The Authority Series Index |
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Latest page update: made by WildStormResource
, Jul 10 2009, 2:40 PM EDT
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Bryan Hitch
Dustin Nguyen
Frank Quitely
Mark Millar
The Authority
Tom Peyer
Warren Ellis
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