Customer Reviews

The Authority Book 2: Under New Management

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This volume is made up of two stories, "the Outer Dark" representing the end of the Warren Ellis/Bryan Hitch first year run of the book, and "the Nativity" the start of the controversial Mark Millar/Frank Quitely run on the title.

While it isn't quite the breathless trip that the first two Authority story arcs were (collected in the see "the Authority: Relentless" trade paperback), it represents a fine ending to the Ellis/Hitch run and features the last bow of a memorable character, one after my own ex-leftie heart. (By the way, they take on God, but not the diety you're thinking of,...)

"The Nativity" starts off with the Authority lashing out against the government of Indonesia, which had hired "irregulars" to brutalize East Timorese into sanctioning their abusive regime in an upcoming election, and sending a message to the governments of the world: "we will not tolerate the human rights abuses by anyone, be they invaders from other worlds, "supervillains" or even, soveriegn states",... and this triggers the first of a series of counter strikes, this one launched by the ultimate cold warrior, a creative genius with his own plans for humanity. Both a satire of the conventions of the comic book superhero genre; the culture of celebrity in the this country; and an indirect indictment of abusive governments everywhere; "The Nativity" made both Mark Millar and Frank Quitely's careers in the US, and both rapidly moved onward and upward to far more lucrative assignments; but to date this remains some of thier finest work for American publishers, and its well worth a read.

When the creator and writer of a comic leaves the book, the product is usually not as good. This book is an exception to the rule. There is enough difference between Warren Ellis and Mark Millar's style to know right off after a few pages of reading, but both are superb in their wit and ambition of storytelling. Combined with crisp and concise art from Hitch and Quitely, this commentary/parody of the classic superhero team is entertaining and funny. Oh, and it is full of dirty jokes, inuendos, blood and decapitation....BONUS!

When I first read AUTHORITY, I was blown away but just......how darn cool everything in it seemed. Its a masterpiece of style and force. And Frank Quietly is a suberp artist.

I dunno, its not for everybody. It really could be, this book is so close to be a masterpiece it hurts. But it really doesn't seem to want to dig beneath the surface. Its just about action and truly incredible violence. But thats really about it. We dont get much of an idea of the characters, or really that the Authority does much else than wreack havoc on anyone that steps out of line.

But jeez, if the story would just slow down, add some more details, really let us into its world, you'd be hard pressed to do better. Seriously, this book is ready to explode, there is so much there. It just feels like its content to burn out quickly.

The second collection of Wildstorm/DC's "Authority" title is an important turning point for the series as a whole, since original creators Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch depart and are replaced by up-and-comers Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. It's rare to see two different creatives teams in one collection like this, and it's nice to be able to see two differing interpretations of the world's premiere proactive super-team. Ellis and Hitch's final story-arc, entitled "Outer Dark," sees our heroes fighting... well, God. The tension and suspense is excellently built-up, but the climax of the story is a bit lacking, action-wise. Character-wise, however, "The Authority" remains one of the most richly textured titles out there. Ellis is able to take a routine comic-book moment (stepping foot on the moon) and make it sublimely human. All in all, "Outer Dark" is a great wrap-up to a great run. (The rest of Ellis and Hitch's "Authority" run can be found in "Relentless," another fine book.) The series overall really starts to pick up steam in Millar and Quitely's first story, "The Nativity," wherein a criminal genius possessing "the most powerful imagination in the world" plots to kidnap the infant Jenny Quantum, "the spirit of the 21st Century." Millar throws in dozens of characters based on Marvel Comics' heroes, and has the Authority slaughter the lot of them. While this story occasionally relies too heavily on comic book in-jokes and silly self-referential humor ("I always feel like a comic book character when I do this"), it provides high-octane action in spades. "The Nativity's" rapid action and high stakes demonstrate that Millar is more than capable of filling Ellis' scripting shoes. And while Hitch's art on Authority was the peak of his career thus far, Quitely's art is highly unique and immediately engaging. I can't wait until the next collection comes out, since the next storyline, "Earth Inferno," is the best Authority tale to date. And if Millar and Quitely can keep up the pace, it won't be the last.

Authority: Under New Management reprints Authority vol. 1 #9-16, easily my favorite issues of this series, and among my favorite comics of all time. In the last volume, Authority: Relentless, Ellis introduced the team and became comfortable with the characters. It was all leading up to this.

In "Outer Dark" (#9-12) the team faces their strangest, strongest threat yet. At first a few alien creatures appear that are nearly invincible, taking the entire team to defeat. Then the horror of the situation is revealed. The threat is nothing more or less than `god'- the creator of the world who wants the planet back. The worst thing about the planet in `god's' eyes is annoying humans are all over it, so they need to be removed. To make matters worse, the leader of the Authority- Jenny Sparks- is not at her best. Not the best of times to say the least. This is easily Hitch's and Ellis's best work together. It has the feel to it the creators had fun with this book, and that fun feeling is highly contagious. I just can't sing enough praises about this arch.

"The Nativity" has a lot of changes, both on the creative staff and the characters in the book. The story revolves around a baby of immeasurable power. With Jenny Sparks gone from the team, Jack steps up as leader. However, Authority is not the only ones looking for the baby. A fleet of superheroes are also after the child. The main ones featured are a lot like a twisted version of Ultimates. Keep in mind, this is written by the Ultimates scribe, Mark Millar. There's also twisted versions of almost every Marvel hero here, and in the background of the Carrier, look for Gen 13 cameos. Though a lot of people think the Millar and Quietly combo was worse than Ellis and Hitch, I don't think so. Yes, the book changed, but it is still the outrageous, irreverent book we all know and love.

This is a bloody brilliant graphic and WELL worth the money. It's mature readers, that's my only caution. Other than that, get a copy for you, a copy for your friends and enjoy!

The first half of this book finishes up Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's run on the book and in their final storyarc we can really see why they made the Authority great. After this the new team of Millar (also a good writer but not as good as Ellis) and Quitely take over. Quitely is a good artist, I just feels that he draws his people too chunky. Overall still a great read and though I was sad to see Ellis and Hitch leave the book, Millar and Quitely do an excellent job.

This volume is made up of two stories, "the Outer Dark" representing the end of the Warren Ellis/Bryan Hitch first year run of the book, and "the Nativity" the start of the controversial Mark Millar/Frank Quitely run on the title. When i first read the authority in high school i thought it was awesome i was blown away by the comic

Personally, though I didn't like this book as much as I did the first one, it was still a great read. Ellis and Hitch ended their run and Mark Millar and Frank Quietly start theirs. There are more characters from the Wildstorm universe, though their appearances are brief. The transition is cleverly made through the change dealing with Jenny Sparks. Everything is tackled so logically that while there are events taking place that are in the realm of the fantastic, they seem fairly possible. A deeper development of characters than the first book, which is good and a somewhat new direction. Hard to beat the first book, though.

This is it, this is, in my opinion the best comic ever made. It seems nowadays that all comics wanna be 'heartfelt' and 'deep meaning'. Now don't get me wrong, those 'deep meaning' stories are often times very good...but c'mon, it gets old.

But The Authority proves that no matter how many comics out there wanna be moving and different; there's always room for a good ol' fashioned slugfest. The Authority has, in my opinion, the greatest action scenes to ever be produced in a comic. I'm talkin' hard hitting, high impact, in-your-face action. And the characters are great too. These are some of the most original, realistic characters in comics. You really start to like the characters and relate to them. I love this comic, end of story.

So if you're looking for some comic that will move you and change your perspective on life, go read sandman, or preacher, or maus or somethin'. But if you wanna read a really fun book that'll change the way you look at superheroes, you have to pick this up.

The final story by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch was ok, but the story that really made the book worth the price was The Nativity. Buy the Book for this story alone, the art is awesome (Although overall Frank Quitely is so radically differnet from other comic artists that I am not sure if I like him or not), the story is near perfect and the characterization is dead on. One of the reasons why the Authority run of Millar and Quitely is one of the best comics ever.