Authority, The: The Magnificent Kevin [Paperback]

Garth Ennis (Author), Carlos Ezquerra (Author)

Book Description

Series: Authority | Publication Date: May 1, 2006

Down-on-his-luck Special Air Service Corporal Kev Hawkins's life has been an interesting mix of surprises and disappointments. When the death of a close friend is revealed, Kev begins to entertain ideas of the futility and horror of the life he leads--until he gets a call from his boss. She's got another lethal mission for him that involves his least-favorite allies, The Authority, a super hero team dedicated to protecting Earth against threats of a global scale. This mission will lead Kev down the darkest path of his life and the outcome will have unexpected consequences!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Garth Ennis is the award-winning writer of Preacher, Hellblazer, Hitman and War Stories. He is much in demand for his hard-edged, wickedly humorous style. Glenn Fabry began his comics career drawing Slaine for 2000 AD. In recent years he has provided cover art for Hellblazer and the complete run of Preacher. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: WildStorm (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401209904
• ISBN-13: 978-1401209902
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.2 x 10.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #752,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Garth Ennis is the award-winning writer of Hellblazer, Hitman, Punisher, Preacher, Pride and Joy and War Stories. He is much in demand for his hard-edged, wickedly humorous style.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Third Book in the Series, February 7, 2008

By 

Brit C Power (CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Authority, The: The Magnificent Kevin (Paperback)

I really enjoyed the previous two books in the Kev series. I found them to be laugh out loud funny and although much of the material could be viewed as offensive it really seemed to work in the context it was used. The third book is probably the weakest in the series and has less funny moments but it is still definitely worth a read.
What this book does is flesh out the Kev story and bring it to a satisfying close. The story keeps your attention and has satisfying plot twists and suprises. It continues the very anti-establishment focus of the first two novels but concentrates more on the bad treatment of the SAS. The artwork by Carlos Ezquerra is great as usual and the "Alien" based dream Kev has at the beginning of the book has a very "Strontim Dog" look to it. I think the bad language might be a little overdone but this is a minor criticism.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very dark humor., August 1, 2006

By 

Birger Johansson (Umeå, Sweden) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Authority, The: The Magnificent Kevin (Paperback)

Garth Ennis is good at combining serious topics with satire. Here, he is using Kev as a kind of symbol for every sucker who has volunteered to become cannon fodder in wars whose causes he knows nothing about. Kev is the absolute antithesis of the glamorous James Bond -type agent, and despite his unappealing nature it is hard not to feel sympathy for him.
In this episode of the Authority, Kev is finally confronted with a task so awful that not even he is willing to obey orders, and faces betrayal from the only family he has had since growing up -his teammates in the regiment.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Another Weird Tale, July 12, 2006

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Authority, The: The Magnificent Kevin (Paperback)

I was not too fond of the first Kevin stories (collected in KEV) but decided to give this one a chance. I don't think I made the right decision. In this volume, Kevin once again finds himself working with The Authority. The Authority has been attacked by a goofy, pin-headed creature that claims it is a vagina. It then throws a pie and the superhero is out of action (nice Alien parallels here). When Midnighter becomes the only Authority member to escape, he enlists the help of Kev.

Kev, as we know, is an extreme homophobe and has difficulty relating to Midnighter and Apollo. This has not changed. As the two work together, we learn a little more about Kev and the factors that have helped to shape his life. But eventually the crisis is solved and Kev goes his own way.

While it was sort of nice getting the Kev character fleshed out a little more, it is just more flesh I don't like. What little humor the earlier Kev stories had they seem missing from this volume. The goofiness of the story and the unlikeable Kevin combine to once again create a story where I have to wonder why it was written in the first place. The Kev stories seem more like a parody from the pages of Mad or Cracked than actual canonical Authority tales. My advice is to avoid this one unless you liked the earlier Kev stories.