The Authority : Under New Management [Illustrated] (Paperback)

If you've read the first Authority TPB, you'll know exactly what to expect from the first half of this book - which reprints issues 9-12 of the comic.

In the second half of the book, Mark Millar and Frank Quitely take over. I've thought for a long time that Mark Millar hadn't had the success he deserved. This book fixed all of that and he is now one of the hottest writers around. Instead of trying to top the scale of Warren Ellis's work (which would probably require at least a galaxy to be destroyed) Millar goes back to the more political side of things that Ellis did so well in Stormwatch, and I think improves the book with this move.

Frank Quitely is one of the best artist around in comics - and if you want to see proof of this, try to track down the Flex Mentallo miniseries he did with Grant Morrison - or pick up the Earth 2 book which comes a close second. Here his art is not up to his best standard - whether that is his fault or the inkers, I don't know, but it is still a lot better than most of the art you will find in comics.

As an aside - When Mark Millar's first issue came out, there were articles in newspapers saying he had created the first gay superheroes in comics. This is largely hype - they are not the first gay superheroes - though they may well be the first gay superhero couple. Also it's apparrant if you paid attention through Warren Ellis's run that they were an item from the beginning. Millar and Ellis both deserve credit though for doing it without ever drawing attention to it. It's never raised as an issue - just like it wouldn't be if it was a hetrosexual couple.

I've given this book 4 stars - and I feel a bit mean only giving it that, but it jsut doesn't quite match up to the Ellis's later Stormwatch work. Still darn good though

Warren Ellis's Authority swansong was, I felt, always his weakest work on the book - a little too far over the top, and so sparse in terms of dialogue that it's hard to believe he was actually writing it, as opposed to sending Hitch and Neary memos with comments like 'Authority kick God in head!' Still, it's good work by normal standards, the art is as stunning as ever, and it ties up the year's run pretty well, especially for those who have been following the character of Jenny Sparks and the whole century children concept (developed further in Ellis's much superior 'Planetary'.)

But things really pick up with the fourth arc (the second here), and Millar and Quitely's arrival. Millar obviously had a hell of a lot of fun writing this, and Quitely turns the book's visual style inside out, making the Authority's world an ugly, brutal (if beautifully drawn) place. Basically the plot revolves around a struggle for the Jenny Sparks of the 21st century - a mere baby, albeit with nifty powers - between the Authority and a villian who is, to all intents and purposes, Stan Lee.

It's hilarious fun watching Apollo, Midnighter et al kick the crap out of, amongst others, the Avengers, the X-men and countless X-spin off teams. Just for the joy of character-spotting twisted versions of Stan's offspring, this is worth every penny. And the unpredictable and inspired ending does as much to question the traditional values and asumptions of the superhero genre as anything in this very revolutionary series.