The Authority comic series
Will to power

// Synopsis: After the dismantling of the UN super-hero police Stormwatch was dismantled, Jenny Sparks forms a team of super humans self-appointed to protect the world.

// Review: This is the brainchild of writer Warren Ellis (Planetary) and artist Bryan Hitch (The Ultimates). After the fall of Stormwatch, there is no longer a super-human response to dire threats against the Earth. Jenny Sparks, the spirit of the 20th century, is one of the century babies spawned by the planet itself as an anti-body to protect it. She decides to fill this super-hero vacuum by assembling a team of her own that operates outside of any government or jurisdiction. Notably the characters of Apollo and Midnighter are Superman and Batman archetypes, except that they are a homosexual couple.

/ Each story arc is 4 issues long and all involve one Earth threatening crisis after another. The first 3 major stories include a meglomaniacal terrorist/despot trashing major cities with his army of super-beings, aninvasion by a parallel earth, and the creator of the solar system returning to claim to the world. Ellis does a great job in creating characters that are believable people who happen to possess incredible powers.

/ After the first 12 issues both Ellis and Hitch left and the new creative team turned the series very political. The Authority themselves become extremely arrogant and in addition to protecting the world decide to police the world according to their own philosphies. They use their power to bully the world governments to comply with their pro-environment and anti-war ultimatums.It also became a turn off that each member had become too powerful; seemingly outstretching their original capabilities. The series itself underwent a lot of instability due to censorship (necrophilia, anti-Bush, ultra-violence, explicit gay sexual content) that resulted in changing key staff and re-launching and re-inventing the comic several times. I felt like the stories began treading somewhere between satire and farce until it was redone once more as a traditional super hero series. It's interesting that in its 3rd iteration that some of the reasons that incurred the original censorship are taken even further as sexual content and profanity are significantly increased. The 3rd volume was decent as the team actually gets a calculating worthy opponent rather than the typical transient alien threat.

/ A subsequent spin-off entitled The Authority: Kev involves a British assassin who begrudgingly ends up working with the Authority. But it's pure parody and light-hearted humor.

// Wrap up: The first 12 issues are by far the best and worth reading as well as the 5 issue Jenny Sparks mini-series on the history of each member. But passed that, with so many changes in writers, artists, direction and vision, the series becomes so fractured it's not that entertaining.

Entertainment rating: 4