That’s right, it’s another comic book thread. I stopped collecting about nine years ago, but while interning in Houston a few years back, I started picking up the Authority. I loved the book. It was edgy, violent, and wasn’t anywhere near the typical costumed superhero comics I’d read in the past where the hero’s seem more interested in posing than fighting. But it seems it’s over, and I’m still not sure why.
At first, the deal was that a lot of thier current stories would seem very cruel and callouse to produce after what happened on September 11, but why cancel both series (there was one in the making for DC’s new “adult line.” How some DC comics get more “adult” is beyond me)? Why not just write new stories? Why, even though the plotline was written out months before the September 11, has every issue since then been over a month late and seemingly unchanged? Anyone else upset about this loss or able to add some insight?
There are currently two rumors about why it was cancelled. One is the “We can’t criticize the government after Sept. 11” rumor you have pointed out. The other is this:
Let’s face it, Apollo and Midnighter are Superman and Batman. In the issue of StormWatch where they debuted, there’s a blatant one-to-one correspondance between that team and the JLA. Okay, fine. Well the problem is, DC now owns Wildstorm, the company that produces The Authority. Also, Apollo and the Midnighter are gay.
So rumor has it, and I make no claims to the veracity of this statement, that DC is cancelling a very popular and ciritcally successful book because two if its most popular characters are gay versions of DCs two biggest heroes.
Personally, I find this claim to not hold much water. First, if that’s the problem, write them out. They wouldn’t be the first main characters in the book to die. Second, why are they releasing action figures of these two characters if they’re so embarassed by them?
So I dunno. Maybe it is the whole Sept. 11 thing. After all, comic book companies are currently in the process of falling over themselves to declared how moved by those events they were.
(Actually, the real reason it’s been cancelled is that I started buying it regularly. All it takes to kill a comic book is for me to enjoy it and bam, it gets cancelled or the writer decides he doesn’t have time for it anymore.)
I had read rumors that suggested it was going to be cancelled, but they’re still producing it. I just bought #28, which is part 3 of 4 of the Brave New World storyline, and it ends with “TO BE CONCLUDED.” Does that mean concluded for good, or just this arc? I’ll have to break down and cry if they really do cancel the series.
Authority had been one of my favorite titles ever. I think a lot of it has to do with the simple “cool” factor, but also the idea that a group of super-people would attempt to do something about the problems with the world, not just fight the “weird things in the dark,” as the High said. Whether they were right or wrong, they saw injustice in the world, and did something about it. Imagine what the JLA could do if they took 24 hours to simply fix things.
There have been some other problems with the Authority, such as the speed of regular artist Frank Quitely. Quitely is very good and very, very slow. He’s also moved over to Marvel’s New X-Men, which left Authority pretty much in the lurch. You can get a lot more info on the topic by visiting www.comicon.com/newsarama and the Warren Ellis Forum on Deplhi Forums.
–Cliffy
I realize I’m in the minority, but I absolutely despise The Authority. I picked it up back when Warren Ellis was writing and Bryan Hitch was handling the artwork and I loved it. The book was a no holds barred, over the top action extravaganza. It was one of the books that lured me back into the world of superheroes.
Then Mark Millar and Frank Quitely came on board. I stuck around for about twelve or so issues (the last I read is when Willy decimated The Authority) and that was when I had finally had enough. The book had gone from well done, brain dead entertainment and morphed into a poor attempt at social commentary where every problem could be solved with horrible violence. I’m not opposed to heavy doses of violence in media, but the way Millar handled it I thought was reprehensible. When Ellis had one of The Authority kill someone it was because they were at war and it was (usually) an unfortunate necessity. Millar had the characters taking glee at ripping people’s limbs off. They murdered people who were defenseless. Millar changed the Authority from a team of heroes into a group of image concious sadists.
I know some of you might be ready to comment on how violence is very common in comic books but usually the hero acts violently only to the point that is necessary to prevent something bad from happening. Or in the case of anti-heroes there may be an attempt at social commentary, or it may be a character study. Millar, IMO, replaced plotting and character development with violence that was inhumane and ultimately pointless. The violence was, in theory, supposed to augment the storyline, not be the storyline, which is what I think it truly wound up being. If that had been his intention I would have had fewer problems with the book, but he seemed to hide behind half-assed attempts at commetating on stardom and what people want in a hero without ever going anywhere on those issues. That is where my big beef is: piss-poor storytelling.
As far as Quitely goes I think the only thing he’s good at is drawing ugly people.
Mind you this isn’t a “I’m glad The Authority’s gone! Nah-Nah!” rant. My problems with the book ended when I stopped reading it and I don’t begrudge anyone else’s choices in terms of what they like (generally speaking). However, usually when there is something I dislike I can see what there is about it that draws other people to it. With the Authority I’m baffled. The only thing it had IMO was sadistic violence, and you can find well done violence in any number of other places that is better done with a better storyline.