The Authority #28
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Arthur Adams, Tim Townsend and Trevor Scott
Published by DC/Wildstorm
The strongest, most consistent issue we've seen in many months...and also the only issue we've seen in months. Once again, welcome back The Authority as it continues to limp along and spit up blood and well, at least, it's a pretty issue. It would be funny to think that DC believes anyone could give a shit anymore after all they've done to actively destroy interest in this once-great book; it would be funny if it weren't criminally sad.
Arthur Adams has a lengthy and detailed interview in the new issue of Comic Book Artist from TwoMorrows, and it gave me a new appreciation for his work. He comes off as just a regular guy who likes doing comics (even if he's damned slow at producing them), and happens to be pretty talented. Some of his favourite comics artists are Michael Golden, Walter Simonson and Terry Austin, and damn if they aren't some of my faves too. His style is a quite pleasing amalgamation of those influences, and while I remember him best as the guy who pencilled some X-Men annuals I had no interest in buying, I now realize, in the wake of his CBA interview, that I probably need to go find some Monkeyman and O'Brien comics. Because his art is just that damned pretty.
This issue finds the real Authority (some of it, anyway) finally rising up and fighting back against the imposters that have seized control of the (unwilling) Carrier and work in the name of the evil, vile, scumsucking bollocks-eating fuckwads (Mark Millar hates the status quo, y'see...) that run society. George W., Ted Turner, like that. Problem with this, ah, satire is that it's so broad and hateful that it's utterly toothless. I despise the way the U.S. government has been hijacked by moneyed thugs, too, but any kind of meaningful addressing of their misdeeds needs to be a bit more insightful than this. Yes, even in the context of a superhero comic book. So I kind of breeze through all the, erm, social criticism to get to the ass-kicking that so defines this book.
Seth returns; the souped-up superfreak that seems to represent everything Mark Millar aspires to be killed the team however many months ago that it was Frank Quitely's last issue was. It's not really been explained how it is that they weren't really dead, and knowing Millar's habit of skipping over unimportant matters like consistency or logic, I doubt the question will ever really be answered. With Millar, storytelling takes a backseat to gross-outs and breakneck pacing, and you either like it or you don't. I have found his run increasingly tiresome and inappropriate to the book, but DC/Wildstorm's utter fucking up of the title have utterly eclipsed Millar's flaws, so I shrug and keep reading. Mostly at this point because The Midnighter is the only superhero left that I really am interested in reading about. Because no matter how much fucking has been done to him and the title he stars in, he still defines what it is to be cool in a post-ironic superhero comic book.
On balance, it's nice to have another issue of this doomed and dying concept, especially one so visually stunning. Millar manages to move the plot along, too, with a cliffhanger that would have actually had me anxious for the next issue if things hadn't descended to such a pathetic, incompetent status quo. But given the uncertain future the title faces and the utter disgrace DC has delivered unto it, one is left with little to say except, "Who cares?"