This may be the start of a Warren Ellis kick.
This volume collects the first eight issues of The Authority (volume one). The Authority is introduced, fights an army of superhuman terrorists from Gamorra, and repels an invasion from Sliding Albion.
The Authority is best known as a violent, offensive analogue to the Justice League, notably with Apollo (Superman) and Midnighter (Batman) as a couple. There are parallels, and there is a bit of the old ultraviolence, but the usual characterization is misleading.
It is true to the extent that The Authority serves as a world-protecting superteam like the Justice League. We have our character parallels as well. The Authority approaches some of the same issues that other big superteams might, and it tends to solve them by killing the people responsible.
It is misleading because you would expect, more or less, JLA plus graphic violence plus cursing. There is a bit of it, but it is not just having the superteam solve the world's problems or re-doing old Justice League stories and showing them solve the problems permanently. The plots are event-driven, based on the attacking forces, but by page count it is substantially character-focused. They are unique characters, not stand-ins for archetypes. And, while you hear about the darkness and cynicism in the series, it is also remarkably idealistic. They are here to improve the world, not just protect it. (This is especially endearing, since most superteams do not even aspire to more than damage control on whatever supervillain pops up next.)
The characters are not the same. Batman is a great planner and technologist; Midnighter hardly wants to be there, and so far he is nothing more than a good hand-to-hand fighter. Apollo shares Superman's idealism, but not his leadership or power level. Jenny Sparks is the team's leader, and she is not Wonder Woman. The Doctor seems like a magical version of Green Lantern, willing into existence whatever he can imagine, but he shows himself to be on another plane entirely. (Okay, Swift is Hawkgirl.)
The team is a mix of veterans and new blood. Some of them are pre-existing characters that I had not met, since I have not read Stormwatch in 15-20 years. Apollo and Midnighter were in semi-retirement. The Engineer (II) and The Doctor (II) are the new versions of characters killed by Stormwatch. Swift mixes veteran knowledge with a bit of idealism, perhaps naivete given the series.
(At this point, I am going to stop worrying about italics to distinguish a team from the comic of the same name. Some of the above could refer to either anyway.)
As I met The Authority, I wanted to hug them. That is objectively the wrong reaction, but they are just so idealistic and hopeful amidst their realism and cynicism. Jenny Sparks put together a team to save the world. The sense at the beginning is that there are no more heroes, no one to protect people; "someone must" is a recurring theme. Jenny Sparks is the Spirit of the 20th Century, born on January 1, 1900, and this series is set at the end of the 20th century. She is short on time, and you can see that she will be fighting for this world until her dying breath. The world is a harsh place and changing it is hard, but it is worth doing. Apollo does not say much, but it is pure Superman: protection, responsibility, "there is no one else."
Apollo is also unhesitatingly violent. His ways are not as graphic as the more visceral fighters, but he has quite a body count. Jack Hawksmoor tends to get that gory violence, since he means it literally when he refers to punching someone in the brain. Midnighter is closer to Batman in a different sense, with few kills but all the cynicism you were expecting.
The Engineer, The Doctor, and Swift get to express the young hero thoughts. The first two are seeing their first engagements, and they are not sure what to do. We are introduced to them through their hesitancy and their creativity. Both express the trade-off in giving up their normal lives for heroics. Swift is the one noticing that they are a violent bunch, wondering how much and whether it is justified. She raises moral questions, but she also provides the resolution: the killing is not as bad as what they are preventing.
So I like the characters. The plots are nothing much. The introductory arc is a straightforward bad guy for them to fight while we meet the characters. The second is more or less the same thing, only with a different bad guy. I liked that the first villain was as pure Yellow Peril as it gets, along with his ridiculously numerous, "they all look alike" troops. It's classic.
I am not a fan of the pacing. This is not a shot at decompressed comics. I like decompressed comics. These are insufficiently decompressed, despite being the trope codifier. The "widescreen" fight scenes are particularly over-clocked, given that they are introducing an entire team, with some completely new characters, and blasting through the cannon fodder faster than we can watch. What just happened in that frame where Apollo took out a half-dozen guys? At least The Doctor works in a visually exceptionally way so that we can follow what he is doing even if he takes out half an army in half a page. This went better in Nextwave.
Similarly, we are not getting substantial characterization on most of the cast. Maybe some of them had it earlier in Stormwatch or get it later, but half the cast seems to be just along for the ride. Why is Apollo there? She asked. Why is Midnighter there? Apollo went. What kind of guy is Midnighter, beyond a badass longcoat? Not stated.
What characterization there is is good. Jenny Sparks is our central character, and she displays a wide range of emotions complete with flashback. The Engineer and The Doctor get a bit, since they are being introduced. The rest of the cast comes across as power sets with a personality trait or two.
The other difficulty is the unclear power level. Apollo is clearly below Superman, which is good because he would otherwise just solve half the world's problems at once and obviate most of the plot. Others are ambiguous. Jenny Sparks looks like just another energy blaster, but then she does things like making giant electric copies of herself, and was she hijacking two planets' airwaves or borrowing The Engineer's tech on that? I don't know if The Spirit of the 20th Century is vastly powerful or just someone with a forceful personality. The Doctor might have trouble with medium-sized groups of enemies, or he might be able to deal with an entire country at once. The Engineer ... is not explored, but she still seems to be figuring out what she can do anyway. And just how strong is Apollo anyway? He can take on entire invasion fleets on his own while low on power, but he might have problems fighting a dozen cannon fodder supers.
And then you have Swift, who can fly. She also has claws. And she is on a team with a sun god, The Spirit of the 20th Century, The God of the Cities, the most powerful shaman in the world, and two cyborg killing machines. Oh, and she is pretty tough. This is also flexible, since she seems variably either about what I described or Apollo without the eyebeams.
The eyebeams surprised The Engineer. Really? Laser/heat/whatever vision is surprising in a superhero setting? Maybe I am just used to Superman, but blowing things up just by looking at them is what these guys can do. And if it ever misses, smack that writer, because laser vision moves at the speed of light, so it literally hits whatever he is looking at.
Rather than ending on kvetching, let's note that Jenny Sparks runs a good team. A series noted for darkness and violence is actually run on hope and potential. The Supergirls sold her short, if anything: she is far more than a protective, maternal figure to her team and the world. She is a superhero, without the need to toss in "as strong as any man" because you never feel the need to compare her to the men. She is forging her own way, with her team, and bringing the world with her.
I note that this is surprisingly idealistic. Later writers, I am told, go beyond black and gray morality to casting The Authority as evil people who happen to fight worse ones. That would explain the reputation of the series. It seems an unfair thing to do to Jenny Sparks's team, as she is such an uplifting figure, but then her century ended a decade ago. It might not be unfair, given the groundwork laid in the second arc, which includes heroic genocide and a villainous plan for planetary rape camps. And the series gets darker from here.
Now I'm curious about Warren Ellis's run on Stormwatch. I hadn't realized he had written that. Ooh, and Freefall's on the team these days.
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