The list will take a look at my favorite volumes of one of the best comic book teams to ever exist - the Authority. Since the introduction of the team by Warren Ellis the team has seen a fair share of creative teams(some were great and others....well, not so much).
This list will grade my favorite volumes with a bit of an explanation of what made the certain volume great in my opinion.
The very first one sits at the top as it saw two great takes on these characters by Warren Ellis along with Bryan Hitch(on art duties) and after that Mark Millar with Frank Quitely. However, after those two creative teams it became time for Tom Peyer to fill in until the volume ended, and to say the least his stint wasn't the best but it was fun as well.
Now, I am one of the few people who actually think that Millar's run was equal and if not even superior to the Ellis one. However, I still cannot make up my mind on who writes the Authority better.
Now while many thought that the direction Brubaker drove the team towards to was a mixed bag at best, I thought the exact opposite. It seemed like a fresh take and one which isn't questionable in any way at all. The Authority always were the higher power, the team that is willing to do anything to keep the world safe even if it means taking it over. While that wasn't the only point, the return of Henry Bendix being in the second part of the volume and having Jenny age up, everything that happened in the volume was crafter more than well. In addition to that, Nguyen is straight after Quitely and Hitch as my favorite Authority artist.
Robbie Morrison's run was a bit forgettable and cringy at times. However, it did came straight after Ellis and Millar's runs, so it may be the reason why it left a slight bad taste in my mouth. Turner's artwork didn't really help Morrison to elevate his run, but it was enjoyable, unlike the runs that I will mention later.
As much as this may not be an exact Authority book or volume in any way, it was the connecting part between Morrison's run and the new status quo that Brubaker will write.
It was a nice mini-series that saw different creative teams tackle different perspectives of the Wildstorm universe until we saw what changes the Authority will decide upon.
A weird mini-series that was really more of a one long action packed graphic novel that saw the Authority face off with Stormwatch until they united to fight the superhumanly enhanced clone of Henry Bendix.
It was a weird one as it came after Revolution and it really felt like a bad re-do of the battle between the Authority and Henry Bendix.
Gage's take on the character wasn't bad even though the dialogue was far from stellar most of the time.
I won't be mentioniong the third volume of the Authority as this maxi-series was a continuation of it.
This volume saw Grant Morrison's idea of a run on the Authority but having a lack of interest or time and just seeing Keith Giffen bring his idea to life. A questionable run which saw a poor story idea along with bad characterization of the characters, terrible pace and terrible dialogue team-up with a very bad catalogue of artists.
After this run things definitely started going downhill for the team.
While I still don't know which volume is worse, this one or the one that I've put at the last place, I just wanted to say that they are probably tied. This volume, being the last one for the Authority before the "death" of the Wildstorm universe, definitely saw the team at a very bad state with terrible creative teams which took them to lenghts that I don't even wanna talk about.
Everything about this volume was abominable starting from the storytelling to the characterization of the characters, to the dialogue and ending up with the artwork.
It was a run that the Authority didn't deserve as the characters have tons of potential but the writers and the editors just didn't know what to do with them anymore.
I know that the name of the book says 'Stormwatch' and not 'The Authority' but this book was a poor mash-up of the two Wildstorm concepts with characters which were featured in the books of The Authority.
Now, while the last volume of the Authority had a few strong issues and some redeemable points about it, this was one surely didn't have any of that. The characters were handled poorly, acting extremely out of character. The plot of the whole book was anything but coherent and interesting and it felt like a chore reading it. The artwork from start to finish was terrible, with a few good issues which featured Will Conrad on art duties, but apart from his issues everything else was terrible to see. The idea that DC had with this book is still something that I am looking for and I am eager to learn everything behind this book as why they didn't even care about it.
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