Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Of, By, and For the People
Written by: Micah Ian Wright
Penciled by: Carlos D’Anda
Inked by: NA
Colored by: Carrie Strachan
Lettered by: Rob Leigh
Editor: Alex Sinclair
Publisher: Wildstorm Comics/DC Comics
The Recap
The issue kick-starts with the Stormwatch Team taking down would-be dictator of Hungary and Doctor Doom analogue Baron Chaos with the help of their newest member, the turban-wearing commando Ajeet Singh. As Tefibi deactivate and remove Baron Chaos’s deadly armor and prepare to take him into custody, the Stormwatch team stumble upon Baron Chaos’s communications room, where the big screen monitors are all tuned to Faux News and it’s coverage of the Authority’s recent vow to take over the United States. This leads to a hilarious press conference, where President Kent gives a George W. Bush-like rant about the Authority being evil and makes up nonsense words such as “laserify”, “usurpatude”, and “freedomate”.
As the Authority plan to invade the Stormwatch HQ as part of their ongoing “Operation: Go Columbine On Everyone Who Ever Made Fun Of Them” plan, Ben and the gang decide that they have to go underground in order to stop the Authority and continue their work. So Santini has Jukko and Jaeger evacuate the Stormwatch HQ as Santini arranges for the Authority to receive several calling cards to let them know that Stormwatch is out there and will destroy them at the first chance they get.
My Two Cents
OK, this issue is a big turning point for the series as Santini and company make the decision to go underground and sever all ties with the UN. Of course the reason WHY the team has to go underground is pretty flimsy but Micah does his best to make it a reason that makes sense given the situation that he has to work with.
The image of the Stormwatch and Authority teams given to us by Micah Wright is of two teams driven by extreme paranoia and personal hate. The Authority sees Santini and Stormwatch as a bunch of unrepentant super-hero killers who need to be brought down ASAP before they squash the Authority and humiliate them in front of the entire world. Santini and company meanwhile see the Authority as the ultimate fascist group and who are a bigger evil that the Klansman President and the Nazi-esque Department of Homeland Security he has working for him.
The notion that the Authority would use their current war against America to destroy the team that humiliated and defeated them way back in Stormwatch Team Achilles #4-6 makes perfect sense given the situation. Especially since the Authority have become utterly unlikable and very petty assholes with the events of Coup D’Etat #1 Sleepers, which showed that the Authority have no intention to bring the real guilty parties to justice; instead they seek to exploit a national tragedy to go after people they don’t like.
Micah plays up the notion of the Authority being dicks and picking fights with innocent people by having the Stormwatch headquarters literally blow up in their faces when they attempt to vent their anger at those they feel have wronged them. Meanwhile, Santini is also over-reacting towards who is the bigger threat, but his equally extreme reaction is tempered by the fact that the Authority are refusing to do anything to help their case. The fact that the team invades the Stormwatch headquarters in order to destroy Santini and company goes a very long way to make Ben’s raving lunatic act seem more rational than one would normally think of them as being.
As a direct result of all of this, Stormwatch now is on their own and no longer have the United Nations protecting them from the powerful enemies that the team has made in the last nineteen issues. As Santini shoots Baron Chaos in the head, he points out to his teammates that they can no longer afford to show any mercy to their enemies since they must make the Authority aware that they will kill them without a second’s hesitation. Of course Santini makes the stupid mistake of not checking to make sure that Baron Chaos is dead, so we can predictably expect Baron Chaos to return at some point in the future and make Santini pay for his stupidity and for stealing his equipment.
Of course the biggest laugh of the issue comes from Jukko (the disfigured Finn) acknowledging the fact that the decision to sever ties with the UN will have no effect on the team due to the fact that Santini has historically done his own thing and never bothers with getting permission from the United Nations.
And finally, there is the matter of Baron Chaos. Like Citizen Soldier, Baron Chaos is a doppleganger of a popular Marvel Comics characters. But while Doctor Doom (Baron Chaos’s analogue) is a formidable threat as well as a master tactician who can hold his own against Stormwatch, Baron Chaos is more or less an over-the-top comedic figure who is easily defeated by the team.
