Warren Ellis had initiated a very special concept and rather extreme for his team of supermen: "The Authority" does not confront the villains of the usual mainstream series. The threat is on a different scale: The Apocalypse, the universe, the multiverse, alien invasions or extra-dimensional and cataclysmic end of the world are their nemeses! The masses of destruction are their daily lot.
The world's major metropolises are regularly ransacked or completely destroyed, sometimes covering millions of corpses.
Overall, interventions of "The Authority" have repercussions on the management of the world and the political regimes, creating a tension between our heroes and leaders of our planet. From the start, the group members were extremely firm: If they are the only ones capable of saving the world, they have no order or to receive no guidance from any government whatsoever. "The Authority" is free and independent, free to choose and decide what is right when fighting the danger and injustice, defying the power and the laws whenever he deems it necessary, as American than either that power ...
Mark Millar will endorse all these elements, focusing even more on the political aspect by inviting its readers to ask the underlying issues that had not been thorough, complete their logic. Combating social injustice wherever they detect in the name of freedom and equality, the heroes of "The Authority" constantly interfere with the interests of the dominant nations, which no longer support these vigilantes libertarians and regularly denounce their hegemony , hoping thereby exaggerate the undemocratic nature of their actions. The political backdrop is now glowing and the reader wonders about the status of a superhero team that overcomes the laws and promotes humanistic values while not renouncing nor his power, nor the cult of personality that follows!
And finally, the ultimate superpower of our heroes will be the one to remain incorruptible against all without sacrificing their difference, knowing that both of them form a homosexual couple recognized and another is openly addict! The expression "if power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" does not apply to our friends ...
Even more than on episodes signed Warren Ellis Millar pushes impertinence at the irreverent provocation. He unhesitatingly denounced US imperialism (and much more brutal manner than its Ultimates!), Finally putting some of -officieux- leaders of our world to the rank of villains, bringing the usual enemies tights hero almost grotesque villains of healthy and harmless operetta!
If I had to compare the two "run" on a qualitative scale, I'd say my preference is that of Ellis & Hitch (compared to that of Millar & quitely). If Millar is a great writer, he is still not at Ellis, who meanwhile is simply one of the best of his generation. And it is the same for Frank Quitely, which does not play in the same category as Bryan Hitch. Generally, Warren Ellis scenario is more conceptual, more inventive and much finer. It is inhabited by a unique creative verve and narrative also gives it a special flavor, as to make the reader live (open minded) a unique literary experience. He Millar is more demonstrative, more linear and more front, which ultimately exposes brutally what in Ellis, could read between the lines ... And then there Millar in a large dose of bad taste that succeeded very well avoid his predecessor. Warning, bad taste can perfectly be an interesting element when it is justified, but Millar falls overboard too often to be honest. Let's say if the impertinence at Warren Ellis was still in the service account, the account at Mark Millar is often used to be impertinent, which ultimately is not at all the same thing!
Despite this comparison that plays (but this is just a personal opinion) against him, the run of Millar & Hitch's still a masterful reading in the phenomenal power, which flies over the superhero comics usual at heights vertiginous. Both nag and cynical, the scenario remains extremely effective and diabolical acuity, and all (nearly 280 pages anyway) reads in one sitting.
The staging is full and spectacular. The pace is relentless and the twists keep us in suspense until the end. The trials must cross the members of "The Authority" are really up their excess, and the balance between the action and the backdrop is in the pay of a masterful cutting.
The design of Frank "big lie" quitely is very effective, with an indisputable ability to confer considerable presence to the characters. Not being very prolific, it is nevertheless replaced fairly regularly. Twelve episodes, both are painstakingly designed by Chris Weston, two by Arthur "pointy ears" Adams, which in turn made a very good working over, and the last is imaged by Gary Erskine (also very good) .
Either the episodes "The Authority" # 13-20, 22, and 27 to 29, completing the series. Either the story arcs "The Nativity", "Earth Inferno" and "Brave New World", which form a unique and complete.
The episodes missing, narrative made by other teams, were not grouped together in this volume. But this is minor story arcs whose absence makes no fault with this compilation, which regroups all the run of Millar & quitely and end of the series (episodes # 23-26 put elsewhere stage version of "The Authority" and alternative bastard!). After these episodes, the authoritarian superhero team did find that during some limited series.
