The Authority: Human on the Inside

The Authority: Human on the Inside

By John Ridley & Ben Oliver (Wildstorm/DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-926-3

This all-new story of the comic world’s most “Take Charge” super group sees them as de facto rulers of the world tackling twin crises as the American President they have ousted instigates a bizarre plan for vengeance just as the world, and our heroes, succumb to a global wave of psychological depression.

Naturally there’s shedloads of lavishly illustrated carnage – on both large and personal scales – and the requisite adult language and behaviour abound, but still there’s something missing here.

Artist Ben Oliver delivers sensitive drawing which is technically superb but somehow fails to engage the viewer, whilst the script from novelist and movie veteran John Ridley is frankly uninspired and a touch derivative – which is quite a disappointment from the man who wrote the screenplay for the wonderfully edgy anti-war film Three Kings. Perhaps it’s simply passion for the subject that’s absent.

Whatever the problem, I hope we see more work from them either individually or paired again, perhaps on a Vertigo project which inclines more to sensitivity and mood rather than hyper-cosmic Thud and Blunder.

© 2004 WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics. All rights reserved.