Authority 1: Bapteme du Feu
Authority 2: Invasion
Published by Soleil Productions
Available from Mars
Import
This will be a first for me. I've never reviewed a book I couldn't read before, but now I'm going to review two of them.
I ordered these spectacular volumes a few weeks ago, after many months of wishing DC/Wildstorm would issue a hardcover collection of The Authority #1-12, the issues by Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary and Laura DePuy. It's no secret to Galaxy readers that I hold those 12 issues in the highest regard, and in fact personally believe they're the 12 best superhero comic books ever produced. Yes, better than Watchmen, even.
Watchmen had a wonderful structure and terrific plotting and art, but the revelation of the motivation of the villain of the piece has always kept the book from being a true masterwork. That's not to say I don't love it, because I do: I am one of those comics readers "of a certain age" for whom the great comics of the mid-80s will always have a special place. Watchmen, Love and Rockets, Batman: Year One and a select few others were among the books that really cemented in my mind what superhero comics can achieve; they set the bar so high that it's rarely been reached. I strongly believe that the bar was reached and exceeded by Ellis, Hitch, Neary and DePuy when they produced those first twelve issues of The Authority.
It may be hard for some readers now to understand why the book was once so special. It's staggering to comprehend how quickly DC/Wildstorm allowed what was once a top-tier title to descend into a morass of defecting creators, botched schedules and (perhaps the most easily forgotten) Mark Millar's over-the-top gross-outs and seeming inability to come up with a satisfactory ending for any of his story-arcs.
Millar and Frank Quitely produced some interesting moments in their run on the title, but Quitely's contempt for schedules (and readers) and his eventual bolting to Marvel played a large part in the current state of disarray the title finds itself in. I certainly can't blame Quitely for taking a better deal from Marvel: DC/Wildstorm holds a large portion of the blame for not signing him to a contract in the first place. And his current deal with Marvel apparently pays him for doing nothing, and who wouldn't take a deal like that?
Tom Peyer and Dustin Nguyen did a nice job when asked to take on the thankless task of filling four months worth of issues that could somehow fit into the interrupted Millar/Quitely/Art Adams continuity, but once the Millar story resumed it seems like the Peyer/Nguyen run has been forgotten by readers and ignored or even contradicted by Millar's resumption on the title. Then when the terrorist attacks of September 11th gave DC the opportunity to deliver a killing blow to the book, it was apparently a chance too good to pass up, and it disappeared again for a while. A new issue is being published this week, but even hardcore Authority readers like myself will mostly be buying it with a shrug of regret at what has been lost.
In short, The Authority is currently a fucking mess. All the more reason, then, to look back in awe and appreciation of a time when the book was unquestionably great. When it was not a tool for Millar's mean-spirited satire, but rather an expression of Warren Ellis's ultimate extension of the '80s Watchmen/Dark Knight exploration of power and violence, and above all, making a better world.
Of course, the day after I ordered these two books from Mars Import, literally the next day, news leaked that DC/Wildstorm was planning an oversized, slipcased hardcover collection of the first twelve issues of The Authority. C'est la vie, I said.
The two volumes reprinting The Authority #1-8 in French arrived yesterday, and whether DC/Wildstorm ever issues that slipcased edition or not (and I hope they do), I am damned glad I ordered these imported editions. They are simply stunning.
Each 96-page volume reprints a four-issue story arc; Vol. 1 is "The Circle" from issues #1-4, and Vol. 2 is "Shiftships," (from issues #5-8) in which we meet Jenny Sparks's ex-husband. I quickly realized that the fact that the text was in a foreign language barely mattered at all. First of all, I've read these issues at least half-a-dozen times, and am well-versed in the storylines. Second, and more importantly, I never really realized how economic Ellis was with his script: Hitch, Neary and DePuy were given a huge canvas upon which to depict the visceral, dynamic and compelling stories Ellis had to tell. The Authority #1-12 are among the best planned comics ever, with Ellis laying down three distinct story-arcs within one over-arching meta-story that came to a dramatic conclusion in the closing pages of #12.
These two hardcovers, proportionally about twice-up from the size of the original comics, have pages so large that readers can really immerse themselves in their beauty. As much as I love Ellis's scripting of these comics, just looking at the pages for their expansive artwork allowed me to see the series in a new way. As big as it's always seemed, The Authority takes on a new scope and scale at this size. Scenes of the inside decks of The Carrier or of the Shiftships as they cross over into our universe are more awe-inspiring then ever. I could appreciate even more the subtle shadings of colourist Laura DePuy, who built her reputation on this title. Seeing it on these oversized, glossy pages made me realize just why I believe she is the best in the business.
The stand-out scenes, of course, are the full-page and double-page splashes that Hitch and Neary made such good use out of. Planning in three dimensions, there's always visual interest in the midle distance and background to complement and highlight the activity taking place in the foreground.
Bad reproduction is something that has plagued Hitch's artwork. Up until now I've always suggested people interested in The Authority read the original issues, not the trade paperbacks, which are printed on a lesser paper stock that saps much of the energy from the artwork. Hitch's JLA run was printed so badly that it's said to have contributed to the frequent fill-in artists: I intrepret it to mean Hitch was so depressed by the shoddy reproduction of his work that he just couldn't become enthusiastic about his work. Take a look at the difference between the JLA: Heaven's Ladder treasury and the regular monthly JLA issues he did, and you'll be depressed too.
So, I anxiously await DC/Wildstorm's hardcover collection of The Authority's best, most vital run. I also hope that Soleil releases a third hardcover collecting issues #9-12 someday, as well. Because it's unlikely the DC collection will be this oversized, and because these books are so beautiful that I would love to have a complete set, whether I can read them or not. As works of comic art, these French editions are a thing of beauty and are strongly recommended to fans of the artwork contained in them.