"World’s End"

Plot: The mighty laid low.

Comments: The Authority, it seems, have had more re-boots than someone running Windows Vista. Ellis’ 21st century super team has had some fits and false starts in the past few years; from the break in Mark Millar’s nutso star making run by Tom Peyer (the excellent “Transfer of Power”) to Grant Morrison’s promising but non-existent story arc, to what counts as a “limited series” from Ed Brubaker and Christos Gage. It’s a bit frustrating because the Authority has always been an interesting and exciting team with an edgier attitude and political perspective. From Wildstorm’s perspective, perhaps it makes more sense to do higher quality Authority stories in spurts than cranking out mediocre monthly stories. Of course the best case scenario would be consistently great stories on a regular basis. Duh.

Hopefully, The Authority is approaching that scenario. It’s off to a pretty darn good start. Wildstorm has turned their entire universe upside down with the “Number of the Beast” event and now the world is a mess; mankind has essentially been blasted back into the stone-age. The Authority’s anarchist political philosophy was all well and good when there was a status-quo to rebel against. Not much of that left around. Besides, as much as I love the team, it seemed a little annoying that they would preach self-reliance and freedom when they owned an orbiting city, didn’t need human basics and were beholden to no-one in the first place. Now that human civilization has fallen apart “anarchy” seems at once both pretty hollow and terrifyingly real. In short, the “better world” the Authority always believed in seems impossible to get now and the team is seriously humbled for it. Chen narrates from her perspective and it appears that, if not blaming themselves outright, the Authority feels as if they dropped the ball and are now ineffective, just re-acting to the dire situations surrounding them. It’s a stunning shift for a team that (even with the chops to back it up) was pretty arrogant. To start off the new series with them taken down a few notches has the feel of a palette cleaning and gives this situation a gravity that hasn’t existed with other challenges they’ve faced.

I guess if you’re going to start again, really start over. The Carrier has crashed and fused with London, creating Un-London (a reference to a fantasy sub-genre?). Midnighter is still the world’s greatest killing machine but his heart is broken because he and Apollo have to stay apart. Angie is stripped of her liquid machinery putting her back to normal human status. Chen has become the goddess of birds but can’t do anything for them (or herself). Jack is a twisted wreck, presumably suffering from the wholesale destruction of civilization and the fusing of London and the carrier. The Doctor is not even mentioned in this issue, which I’m sure is no oversight. The Authority has fallen very far, to the point where none of them think they can climb back up. Gripping stuff and a challenging new direction for the team. The Authority have always played it fast and loose with the rules of being heroes. Now that things are at their darkest do they have what it takes to really be heroes? That seems to be the question being asked by Abnett and Lanning and the journey they are prepared to take the Authority on.

The landscape is fittingly apocalyptic; the world in tatters, mutated freaks running amuck, and a shell shocked humanity. The atmosphere is pretty grim and desperate; no small feat for Simon Coleby’s art. He captures the ruin of post-apocalyptic Un-London with the right mix of detail and haze. Carrie Strachan’s colors reflect the dark and dirty times the Authority are living in, excellent work on the artistic fronts, in fact excellent work all around.

Final Word: Honestly, as good as Burbaker’s and Gage’s and (both) Morrison’s work on The Authority was, there has been something grating against the internal logic of the team since Millar’s departure. Stripping the team of everything shiny and pretentious is a bold move. I’m hoping that Abnett and Lanning are in control of what they are trying to do. It seems that way. What will The Authority be when it rises from the ashes? It remains to be seen, but I’m interested by what I have put before me. “World’s End” can’t possibly be the way things will stay in the Wildstorm universe, so The Authority has a clean slate from here on in. I sincerely love this team, now it looks like they’re going to have to earn their hero status from scratch.

"Who is Crazy Mary?"

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