Customer Reviews

The Authority Vol. 3: Earth Inferno and Other Stories

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The third reprint collection of "The Authority" arrives with the super-hero team fighting Earth itself. This collection features one extended storyline from "The Authority" comic series and three short stories from other sources.

The main storyline in the book is the "Earth Inferno" storyline from issues 17 to 20 of the ongoing series. Issues 17 and 18 are by writer Mark Millar and artist Chris Weston and issues 19 and 20 are by Millar and artist Frank Quitely. The story begins with the team's investigation of strange and devestating natural disasters worldwide. It turns out the Earth itself is wreaking havoc on its human population and the team must align themselves with a notorious super villian to stop the destruction. This story doesn't have the same type of frenzied outrageousness of the prior storylines and the writing is muddled at times. Still the appeal of the individual characters along with an intriguing evacuation plan for the Earth's population help turn the tale into one worth checking out. Quitely's work in particular is something to be admired.

The other three stories are weak in comparison. "Devil's Night" from the 2000 Annual by writer Joe Casey and Artist Cully Hamner is a mess. It's just page after page of explosions and people punching each other with nothing of substance to bind everything together. "Isolation" by writer Paul Jenkins and artist Georges Jeanty and "Orbital" by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hamner from the 2001 Wildstorm Summer Special fare better as character studies of the Engineer and Jack Hawksmoor respectively. "Isolation" is noteworthy in a wickedly fun way due to its exploration of a side of super heroines that you don't see much in mainstream comics. Yet, both stories feel like filler material. All in all, volume 3 is a mixed bag. Not as good as the prior two volumes but still an ok way to pass to time due to the strength of the "Earth Inferno" storyline.

After Warren Ellis left "The Authority", Mark Millar arrived on the scene. Millar was the batman of his friend Grant Morrison throughout the 90s, working with him on such properties as Marvel's cult "Skrull Kill Krew" and DC's "JLA" and "Aztek: The Ultimate Man"; being exposed to Morrison's brand of high-octane weirdness is certainly a winning apprenticeship for following Ellis, and Millar gets his shot at the big-time here. For fans of his future Marvel work, the political themes and satirical characterization that would later mark "The Ultimates" and the like can clearly be seen. Ellis mostly left the characters' politics unsaid, but Millar puts it centre-stage through the course of his run (though this is the story arc where it is least-apparent).

Millar's first arc on "The Authority" dealt with the fallout of the death of Jenny Sparks in Ellis' final arc, leaving the team to be led by Jack Hawksmoor (the "god of cities", a man modified by aliens to exist in an urban environment), the rest of the team being Swift (basically DC's Hawkgirl, though Asian), Apollo (Superman analogue), and Midnighter (Batman analogue) (the two are also gay, which is handled as a background detail), members of previous groups, return; they are joined by two new characters, the Doctor (an incredibly powerful magician) and the Engineer (a woman with nine pints of nanotechnology in lieu of blood, which she extends over her nude body to form a metal skin and weaponry in battle); the gap in the roster was filled, in a sense, by the discovery of baby Jenny Quantum, the Spirit of the 21st Century, although it will be some time until she's old enough to take part in the group's adventures. Millar's second arc, "Earth Inferno", is also follow-up to Ellis' final arc, using "God"'s attempt to remake the Earth as its starting point: the Earth was frightened by this, and a rogue former Doctor who used his powers for evil takes advantage of this to convince the Earth to try and exterminate humanity. All this is part of his design to get out of prison, where, restored to his old powerset (which allows him to do essentially anything he can think of, including uncreating the universe), he faces off with the Authority in battle. The Evil Doctor is one of the series' best villains, a dry-humoured fat Englishman with a small penis who is aroused by destruction. There's nothing deep here, but then, if you're reading "The Authority", that isn't what you're looking for.

Bundled in this collection (the "Other Stories" of the title) are some random Authority-related material from a couple of one-shots released around the same time, by different authors; the most substantial is a Joe Casey-written segment from "Authority Annual 2000" that is part of their participation in Wildstorm's "Devil's Night" crossover; without context, it's a decent, though unexplained (the characters even call attention to this), action story about the Authority fighting some undead warriors from the Cold War. There are also two stories from the "Wildstorm Summer Special", the first a Jack Hawksmoor-focussed story written by Warren Ellis; this is an effective character piece, as Ellis reflects through Hawksmoor on the events on his run on the title, and on what motivates Hawksmoor to work as a hero (also commenting on the frequently high body counts the series depicts even when the heroes win); the second, written by Paul Jenkins and focussed on the Engineer, is more middling. Angie has always been a favourite of mine, but Jenkins' core premise, that her post-human nature prevents her from having a satisfactory sex life, simply doesn't jibe with any other story ever told about the character (it's flatly contradicted by Millar's own story *in this volume*). The art, by Georges Jeanty, is lovely, though.

Overall, recommended, for Millar's strong main story, though it is also nice to see Ellis return to the team, however briefly.

I am one of the newly-converted fans of THE AUTHORITY, having recently read Vols 1 & 2 of AUTHORITY along with the first two volumes of Warren Ellis' STORMWATCH, so I am still learning these characters. But based on what I've read so far, Vol. 3--Earth Inferno comes off as an okay book, but definitely not on the level of Vols 1 & 2. The main story by Millar is okay, and the climactic battle with the story's villian is exciting and very imaginative, but I feel it somehow lacks the power and majesty of the earlier AUTHORITY epics. The last three stories in this volume all had the feel of 'fillers.' The one focusing on Hawksmore was interesting, but way too short to really mean anything. Overall, this volume makes for mostly interesting reading, and is worth having for completists, but it did not make as much of an impression on me as the earlier Warren Ellis material.

"Earth Inferno" follows a series of global catastrophes - Rome broken up by an earthquake, New York drowned by a massive tidal wave, San Francisco burned down by a volcano - ravaging the planet as part of a nefarious plot by a former doctor trying to get his powers back. It's up to The Authority to stop him but they underestimated his abilities and they now have a real fight on their hands!

This is an interesting book to follow up the first two excellent books in the series. Mark Millar does a fine job of writing the mini-series while Frank Quitely does a fantastic job of making a pudgy 50-something wearing a dinner jacket seem menacing.

The other stories here are more character development ones. Angie the Engineer wants to get laid by a stubby Mexican chap while Jack Hawksmoor talks about running across the cities of the world to let off steam.

It's a fun book with some great writing and great art, fans of The Authority will love it. If you're new though you'll want to start where it all began with "Relentless".

It's difficult to decide whether I like or hate this volume - hence the 3-Star rating. Undoubtedly the most shocking and outrageous volume of The Authority out of the first four.

When a series of planet-wide natural disasters take place, the Authority soon discovers that their new enemy is the Earth who wants to rid herself of the entire human race. And the only one who can communicate with the earth and stop the impending disaster is a corrupt and thoroughly evil formor Doctor imprisoned in a facility located millions of years in the past. His price for stopping the coming apocalypse? A single hour of freedom with the ability to resume the mantle of Doctor during those 60 minutes. What ensues is a massive battle on a disurbing and shocking scale. This is the main story of the volume.

While the first two volumes of The Authority were good ready and had some interesting things to say about superheroes and their place in the world, volume 3 just seems to want to shock the reader and doesn't really seem to care if it offends them in the process. It is a good story, but shock for shock's sake just doesn't cut it. On the upside, Frank Quitely's unsettling artistic style suits this strange story to a "T".

There are some amusing parts to this, for sure. The best part of the trade is clearly when the old now psychotic Earth shaman cuts a deal with the Authority to help them out, in return for being released and returned to power.

Running interference, they allow the Doctor time to show the poor old bloke how to destroy himself.

Mark Millar's middlegame for the Authority. Nothing short of spectacular work here, and it was nice to see a more consistent use of Frank Quietly's art.

This volume is perfect for any fan of Millar's work. Of course, the three stand-alone issues that are included here are nothing great, though the solo-adventure of the Engineer will definitely raise eyebrows. Not for kids.

What can I say about this book? I think that it's great to see super-heroes buck the "status-quo" and that The Authority are like no other super-heroes out there. Also, I like how The Authority solved problems with methods that no other super-hero would even consider and that they would take risks that no one else would.

I think that the story and art are excellent, the fight scenes are among the best in comic-book history and that the characters are great(especially Apollo and The Midnighter).

I definitely recommend this book for anyone who is a fan of comic books.

Just when I thought that fighting God and changing the world was the furthest any super hero could go, they go a bit further. Now the very earth we live in is trying to kill us. But thanks to the heroic efforts of the Authority who is now lead by Jack Hawksmoore, humanity has a chance to survive.
This book brings the ultimate superhero team together one more time to shocking twist and new turns. This coupled with the last chapter coming in October finish off one of the best superhero stories of all time. Get it and you will not be disappointed.

These guys are so violent and fun at the same time that villians have to be the worst [ones] we ever saw. The destruction of New York under a big tidal wave is like a prophetic vision; but in the real world, we didn't have the Authority. Somehow, the dialogue is ironic and full of comments against the government and the people that supports its policies. Liberal bastards, I would call them.

Nice moments of enjoyable reading. But don't be shocked for what you see. Reality is way worse.