The Authority...just got the GN and would like to know what other peeps thought.
and...
Rising Stars...Read the first GN a while back and enjoyed it, wondered if it was worth looking up the second one (if it exists).
I rather enjoyed THE AUTHORITY: RELENTLESS. Some absolutely gorgeous art (was it Hitch? I can't recall) and Ellis' script meant that you could actually tell the characters apart.
I thought Rising Stars was pants. Had loads of people waxing lyrical about how good it was, and felt really let down.
The page(s) with the ghosts was quite clever, though...
Authority was ok but suffered from over-powered heros... which led to boring plots. "Hello I'm an unstopable supervillian - prepare to die" "Well I'm a batman ripoff who can kill anyone - all your underlings are dead" "I can do magic that lets me do anything basically - now you're dead as well" "You forgot our super-duper spaceship that can do anything" "That's for the next story"
Prefered Planetary although once the actual plot got going (and it stopped just riffing/ripping off other genre faves - Godzilla, HK ghosts, 50s Bomb movies, Hellblazer, Supes/Wonder Women/Green Latern - to name a few) it went off the boil
I agree with the Authority being over-powered, as I thought it made too short work of the first mini-arc. Will have to read the rest later and see for myself what happens.
The ghost page was clever, I like that sort of thing every now and again. I seem to remember liking Rising Stars and will have another look at it when I get chance.
Will see if Planetary is in my local shop and check it out.
Cheers Gary.
I liked the character that had eight and a half pints of liquid machinery for blood.
I especially enjoyed how she had to tell us this fact. In every single episode she was in.
The bird with the hawk wings was a bit rubbish though, especially in comparision to the others. What exactly did she do?
I had to read some of this Authority stuff for an interview I've got coming up (second time I've tried), and I had to stop reading after a while, when I could feel my brain giving up the ghost and begin to shrink rapidly in size as it turned to mush.
Heh..it was join the team or live in the zoo...
Not read enough to know she always pointed out the liquid machinery for blood...once agaon GR spoils it for me...I can't read Edge without thinking how up its own arse it is these days!
"The bird with the hawk wings was a bit rubbish though, especially in comparision to the others. What exactly did she do?"
All superteams are required by law to have one member with rubbish superpowers.
JLA? Aquaman. With the power to breath underwater and control fish.
Avengers? Captain America. Slightly stronger than an ordinary man and has a shield that wont break. EVER.
The original Ellis Authority was quite good. Nowt original, but at least it looked as if it was done with enthusiasm.
However, post Millar, it became dross, so much so, that I doubt that any creative team could ever redeem it.
This is what it all looks like nowadays.
HAWKSMOOR: Solarpowered Superman! Batman without morals! Fucking kill that fucking guy now whilst we take care of his fucking underlings.
MIDNIGHTER: (Insert sadistic sounding phrase here)
They meet the bad guy.
BAD GUY: I'm going to kill you, you fags (Not only is he evil, but he's also HOMOPHOBIC).
The Midnighter shoves his stick up the baddies rear-end whilst Apollo fies him to a crisp. The word "Fuck" is used more than once
Swift flies about a bit, Jack Hawksmoor and girlwitheightpintsofliquidmachinery have sex, the Doctor acts a bit weird, whilst Apollo and Midnighter play with the five-year old girl who can destroy anything, but is also really cute.
THE END.
Never read Rising Stars...
Oh it was much more interesting when certain characters were in the closet rather than... getting married gak! gak! I try and forget about that...
I've enjoyed Rising Stars, but felt it could've been a bit longer and taken more time for Character develpoment. Still, I'll be buying the 3rd GN when it's out.
I still like Authority, but yeah, it's not as good as when Ellis was writing it.
Steve
Ellis's StormWatch,the prequel, if you will, to the Authority was miles better.
They weren't so much "in the closet" as "quite tastefully and tactfully done". It wasn't till Millar that it became, well, pretty much as Krustabi described.
And yes, what the fuck IS the one with wings for exactly?
According to the "Ask Wildstorm" Column, Swift's powers seem to be
a). Flying quite fast.
b). Super Strength.
c). "invulnerability to a certain extent" (eh?).
Oh and of course;
d). Being the token ethnic one.
e). Having big tits.
Ellis Authority is brilliant, excellent characters combined with enjoyable OTT action all portrayed with the goregous artwork of Bryan Hitch. It also contains the most sensitive, moving gay kiss in superhero comics, which is naturally a big plus point.
Millar's Authority is a bit ropey partly because of the trouble with the art as they're forced to get fill ins for Quitely. Quitely's artwork is amazing and every issue he does is more than readable however the non-Quitely artists aren't so good. Chris Weston does a couple of issues and they're (can't believe I'm writing this) nothing special and ditto for the art at the end. As for the writing, its to my mind overly reliant on shock value and dodgy liberal power fantasies whilst Midnight/Apollo are written in a completely hideous way. The first Millar trade (his first arc shares a TPB with Ellis' last) is good enough to be well worth a read but the second is slighty iffy unless you really love the characters/set up.
As for Robbie's...ugh, just ugh!!!
Will
Anyone reading the Brubaker run? Usually i like his stuff but I've kind of lost interest in the characters.
Nope...the art is utter shit
Will
The Brubaker run is just the same old bobbins.
If anyone's remotely interested
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Henry Bendix has been revealed as the nefarious mastermind.
AGAIN?