Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: Ghost of Authority Yet to Come
Written by: Ed Brubaker
Pencilled by: Dustin Nguyen
Inked by: Richard Friend
Colored by: Randy Mayor of WSFX
Lettered by: Jared H. Fletcher
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Publisher: Wildstorm Comics
At the close of last issue, Midnighter found himself pulled into the future as the rest of his teammates hunted for the men responsible for the Philadelphia riots and the attack on Swift. Good news: Swift is still alive. Bad news: No one can seem to find Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty. Worse news: the future of the Authority is not a pretty one.
Future Apollo is hoping that he has the solution to that last problem and that is why he has dragged Midnighter to the future. The Authority, in the wake of the events of Coup D’Etat, has already begun the process that will lead America to a brutal dictatorship by one of its members and the Authority’s own dissolution. However, there is one particular event of the horizon from which there will be no turning back. If Midnighter does what Apollo suggests, that event will never occur. Apollo’s suggestion? Break apart The Authority now.
With Brubaker at the helm, things are rarely cut and dry, particularly if they seem clichéd upon first glance. What you see is rarely what you get at the end. That being said, I can only review the issue I have in my hand, so just bear that in mind.
I am not a huge fan of this type of future story. It has always bugged me that, for some reason, the disbanding of a team (or something in that vein) is the only possible solution. In this scenario, for example, I can spot at least one other: Midnighter tells the rest of the team what he learned in the future and the team scales back it’s effort at ruling America. Voila, crisis avoided. Granted, that isn’t all that dramatic, but it does make a lot more sense to me. Instead, we have an isolated Midnighter, keeping the future from his lover, friends, and teammates, and attempting to covertly break up the team. I have no doubt that that can equal a cool story, I am just hoping for more. Of course, if we see my statement about Brubaker above, I am confident that more is what we shall (eventually) get.
In terms of characterization, Brubaker does nicely. With the politics of the Authority’s takeover taking a backseat to the reveal of the dark future and the hunt for Paul Revere and Co., they are once again the bastards who are on our side. Regardless of how bad The Authority’s intentions are going awry, we can all agree that Paul is a dangerous man and his team is hardly any better. Thus, free of trying to identify which group of people doing wrong are doing more wrong (The Authority eliminating free will or Paul and Co. bringing about riots that lead to random destruction, injury, and death), the story becomes a little easier to slip into. Indeed, that question is far more intriguing, but in the first issue it also did much to pull me out of the narrative.
At this point in the story, Brubaker has done a nice job of grasping the voices of the members of The Authority. However, the story is still wanting a bit, treading on the line of cliché. My faith remains strong, but I still don’t feel that it is time for “The Return of The Authority Marching Band” to bust out its instruments and batons and march down Main Street.
