THE AUTHORITY #18 (WILDSTORM): First off, a big thanks to the awesome dudes and dudettes at Wildstorm, who saved my butt and got me a copy of this book when my local shop didn’t come through. So you can look at this review as forever tainted if you like, but trust me when I say: The Authority continues to be one of the best and most original superhero books on the stands today under the steady hands of new creative team Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman.

But first! There’s an essential problem with The Authority that was set up during the original Millar/Hitch/Ellis/Quitely runs, which very few creative teams have figured out how to overcome. The problem is: The Authority is too damn unstoppable. By their very essence, the team is insanely overpowered, so you have what I like to call the “Superman Problem”: you either need to depower them; or you need to throw something so insanely over the top at them that even they have no clear way of getting out of the mess.

The problem with the first tact is that it’s repetitive. How many times have you seen Superman taken down by surprise Kryptonite, and how many times has it actually affected you? Once, probably, right? So this particular story arc can only be used sparingly, if at all. I would put the recent World’s End arc under this headline, and Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning did a bang up job with it, as usual. They figured out ways for each member of The Authority to be overmatched and out of their element, while dealing with a situation far beyond their control. And The Authority, by definition, is about control. So it worked.

The problem with the second tact is that there’s only so many times you can throw something insanely over the top at a superhero team before you, quite literally, reach the top. In the case of the original run(s) on the title, I would put that somewhere around the time they fought God, probably? I’m thinkin’?

With so many Authority stories told, and the series coming off of the successful “depowering” arc from DnA, with most of the Authority back (or almost back) to full power, Bernardin and Freeman are left with the unenviable task of either depowering them again, or throwing them in an over-the-top situation. Lucky for us, they chose the latter.

Without spoiling too much, the Carrier, the Authority’s sentient ship, is coming back on line, and it looks like it may return to wherever it came from, leaving the charred Wildstorm Earth behind. So, big situation, check. Authority about to enter into, most likely, the fight of their lives, check. And though this isn’t a checkpoint really, kudos to the creative team for answering an unasked question from The Authority’s past, and making the reader smack themselves on the head for not thinking of it first. Mainly: where  does The Carrier come from?

If I have some quibbles with the issue, it’s that there’s a bit too much time spent on guest stars and sprawling masses, rather than The Authority themselves, especially when Bernardin and Freeman perfectly capture the voices of the main cast. In particular, Jack Hawksmoor is pitch perfect, and back to form. B&F perfectly channel Millar/Ellis with the character, and it’s non-stop fun to read. [Note: only the first half of this paragraph was a quibble. Quibble!]

And between a breakneck first half, and a killer last page, there’s a little bit of flab in the back half of the book, where it feels like the writing team is reiterating points we’ve already heard in the issue a few times before.

But, those aside, it’s nice to see The Authority back on top and exerting their, well… Authority. They’re a-holes, and they’re proud of it, and as a reader, that’s what I want to see. Bernardin and Freeman capture that perfectly, and are well complemented by Al Barrionuevo on art, who picks up where Simon Coleby left off without missing a beat.

For the past seventeen issues, The Authority has been delivering on Wildstorm’s promise to completely shake up the status quo, and provide comics stories that are surprising and fun. With the new creative team on board, I’m definitely sticking around for the next seventeen*.

*And then I’m done! Thirty-four issues is my max for reading a good comic book**.

**Kidding.