- Title: The Authority #1
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Warren Ellis
- Artist: Bryan Hitch
Wayback Wednesday takes us back to a higher Authority. Like most of the characters who made up the new WildStorm super-team, Jenny Sparks didn’t premiere in The Authority #1. She was introduced a few years before in StormWatch (a comic I’ll freely admit never really worked for me). However, the twelve-issue run which reintroduced her as the leader of the Authority stands up against as one of the best in comics.
We kick off with an attack by super-humans destroying Moscow in a world left defenseless against this kind of attack. Enter Jenny Sparks and the Authority. The comic spends time slowly reintroducing Jenny, Apollo, the Midnighter, Swift, and Jack Hawksmoor, while also allowing time to introduce a new Doctor and Engineer who will round out the team living on a spaceship in the Bleed between realities capable of jumping into anywhere on Earth when the need arrives.
The team’s first action is saved for the end of the issue with the Authority deploying in London when the Children of Kaizen Gamorra are sent to raze that city as well sent their by their deranged leader marking the Earth with death and destruction. This time, however, they will have to deal with the Authority. It’s a great first issue that builds slowly as it brings the various pieces of the larger arc together and by the end we’re ready to see this team kick some serious ass.
[WildStorm, $2.50]