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| Tuesday, September 18, 2007 09:59 AM |
| Further Thoughts on The Authority |
 by Fëanor |
It's interesting to see how this book and the team in it have arisen from the ashes of StormWatch. Jenny Sparks, Swift, and Jack Hawksmoor were all StormWatch agents, of course, and Apollo and Midnighter were as well - in a way, at least; those two actually originally began as secret weapons created for the personal use of Weatherman Henry Bendix. Then there's the Engineer and the Doctor. These are particularly interesting characters, as they are essentially just new versions/incarnations of characters that were part of a super-human team Ellis created during StormWatch - a team that ended up going against StormWatch and getting obliterated. But they weren't villains, or at least, most of them weren't, and their ultimate goal - to eliminate all authority, make everything free, and put the power back in the hands of the people - is not really evil. It's particularly interesting, then, that new incarnations of two members of that team should end up in a team actually called The Authority, a team whose purpose is to essentially shape the world into a better place - according to their beliefs and ideals. As Jenny Sparks put it, "We are The Authority. Behave."
Speaking of the Doctor, I really like this character. He's a shaman/magician of enormous power because he holds inside of him all the power and knowledge of all past shamans. His magic is based on change - usually, imagining one thing into another thing. He can't just destroy things; there's a law of conservation even in magic. It's totally fascinating stuff.
One of the least interesting characters in the Authority is probably Shen or Swift. Ellis here has fallen into the trap of creating a super-human whose main power is just that she can fly. She actually is vaguely important to the team, as only a few other members of the Authority can fly, so she has to be there to carry people around places. But as super-powers go, it's a pretty dull one. Even worse, her personality is pretty dull, too. But at least she also has claws and screeches like a bird every once in a while.
And anyway, everybody else in the team is so crazy interesting, I guess somebody had to be boring just to balance things out.
Btw, have I mentioned how much I love the Midnighter? That guy is so awesome. His power is, he hits things until they break, grinning the whole time. I loved at the end of the one story arc, when he found something too big for him to break by himself, he decided to drive a 50-mile long spaceship into it. Bah ha ha ha! |
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