Comic Reviewer: William Cooling
Story title: N/A
Writer: Robbie Morrison
Penciller: Whilce Portacio
Inker: Trevor Scott
Colourist: David Baron
Letterer: Phil Balsman
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Publisher: DC/Wildstorm/Eye of the Storm
The Eye of the Storm mature readers line has built up a fantastic array of titles with Stormwatch: TA being one of my must reads and Wildcats Version 3.0 and Sleeper being among the most respected mature superhero comics on the market today. However, this critical success has not been matched by sales success with only one of the titles breaking into the Top 100. Ironically it’s this sole centurion that has been the Eye of the Storm’s biggest failure as it has been the almost universally derided second volume of the Authority. What’s worse in its first six issues The Authority has lost around 50% of its readership. Obviously something must be done to stop the Authority bleeding to death and secondly to aid some non-critic excitement to the wider Eye of the Storm line. Obviously this “reload†would be centred on The Authority to reel in ordinary readers and so we get fan-fiction’s dream scenario of them taking over the U.S.A. So as to ensure that Dwayne Turner didn’t have to draw it the first three issues of this four issue story we saw the other three EOS titles roped in and given a staring role in their chapter. So for Issue 1 (Sleeper) we saw Tao and co trick the Americans into using an unstable device to explore the bleed. This unstable device explodes and ends up sinking a spaceship of the Vigil, the most advance race in the multiverse. The ship then ends up destroying Florida. The Authority driven by hatred of the American Government and alarmed by the knowledge that the ship was of the utmost importance to the Vigil caused them to announce a coup d’etat against the American Government. In Issue 2 (Stormwatch: TA) and Issue 3 (Wildcats) we saw other superhero teams prepare to go into hiding to strike against the Authority with only glimpses of the impending coup. Now we actually get to see the central plot progress from the end of Issue 1 with the coup in progress and The Authority entering into last-ditch negotiations with The Vigil to stop them declaring war.
I’m sure that many fans were looking forward to this issue with trepidation due to Robbie Morrison’s less then stellar work on the Authority. Yet as almost all 2000AD fans say he is not a good writer but a GREAT writer having produce a body of work including Nikolai Dante and that produces exactly the mix the Authority would be looking for; namely inventive, exciting action sequences and superb characterisation. So coming of the back of this work his failure with his Authority run has been slightly surprising and disappointing. In many ways the Authority just didn’t suit him with the four-issue arc being ill-suited to one of the most compressed writers around whilst the superficial/satirical nature of the story being ill-suited to a writer who has always brought a degree of seriousness to his work. It also should be added that he had very little or no experience of superhero comics (both writing and reading) or of writing franchise characters he hadn’t created. What we have seen is Morrison try to overcome these and largely failure miserably in part due to the lack of adequate support and in part due to the sloppy and forced nature of his writing. This issue however offers a marked improvement over his previous Authority work with it even touching the heights of some of his British work. Partly this is because the issue plays to his strengths; to sell a slightly ridiculous concept there must be a serious tone, due to languid pacing of Issues 2 and 3 Morrison has a large amount of plot to get through in 22 pages and with the plot largely being shown through characterisation/dialogue it limits the amount of superhero action sequences. Also throughout the issue you get the feeling that this plotline fully enthuses and interests him rather than being constructed to appease Ellis/Millar fans, especially as the idea behind this crossover was what he wanted to open his run with. Perhaps this is because it allows him to take a more critical view of the Authority’s actions with their negotiations with The Vigil being a stark warning from Morrison of how he intends to develop the new rulers of the U.S.A.
The concept certainly revitalises his characterisation with the Hawksmoor coming across as an interesting character for the first time since ooh Earth Inferno with his eyes and actions burning with half-psychotic/half-idealist intensity. Even welcomer is his handling of Apollo and Midnighter who he had reduced to little more than an excuse for pub-comic, pseudo-homophobic gay jokes. Here they are returned to something of their former glory with Midnighter being a genuinely threatening and hardheaded character while Apollo regains his explosive, irrational charm. Perhaps more important is his characterisation of Swift with him developing her newly remembered pacifism and idealism with her reaction to how The Authority handle their negotiations with the Vigil. Her doubting of their actions is a welcome if all too brief glimpse of the counter argument to what The Authority has done and develops the developing sense of detachment between Swift and the rest of the members. Another welcome development is how Morrison’s dialogue actually rings true with it finally having edge and feeling natural, with Midnighter and Hawksmoor in particular having appropriate dialogue. Morrison also makes a good fist of justify and explaining the coup, something that Ed Brubaker had shirked by not showing the decisive meeting when they initiated the coup.
Of course one of the problems with Morrison’s run has been the appalling art of Dwayne Turner that has robbed the comic of any quality that Morrison gave his scripts. In this issue Whilce Portacio takes art duties and with his mixture of the styles of Kevin O’Neil and Frank Miller (circa DK) marks a welcome improvement. His art excels at the characterisation/dialogue dominated elements with his unusual facial characterisation being excellent in places, in particular the look of complete fear and incomprehension with President Kent and the steely determination of Midnighter. In addition Portacio ably depicts the few action sequences throughout the issue with a great looking Apollo double summary. Having said that are places where the linework isn’t of quite as high quality and loses character and proportion but such flaws never become intrusive.
With good art and revitalised writing this issue is thoroughly enjoyable read with the concept being done justice. Morrison finally shows glimpses of the quality that made him such a hot name in the British industry as he makes The Authority exciting again. However, its dialogue heavy, characterisation focused and plot driven nature makes it atypical of an Authority story so if you from the Millar school of superheroes then this may not be for you. Still it caps off an excellent (if unfocused) crossover that has made a significant (and in my opinion beneficial) change in the status quo while exposing readers to the lesser read titles. Now let’s hope Turner doesn’t ruin it.
