Great coverage of this series! I think your note about Jenny Sparks as a 'typical Ellis bastard character' are spot on for his style at the time, and 'mean spirited' is a great way to describe not just Millar's run, but his overall style. I don't know of a work of his that hasn't felt cynical in some way.
Can we all stop and admit how crazy it is that Wildstorm basically stopped and was rebooted there series in an Aliens cross over?!?!?! That would be like if the majority of Batman supporting cast were all killed off in the Looney Tunes crossover and DC just stuck with that Continuity… That’s what I love about this series, it’s got like all these crazy big ideas, and it just goes for unhinged, it’s the best
When someone asks me if they should read The Authority (which is happening a lot more than never now) I say “It starts really well. Kind of a product of its time. Hey, have you read Planetary? Read that instead.”
Imagine if someone had the same level of hate Millar has for superheroes but for another genre. Like, imagine if some guy just really hated biopics, and everything he created was a violent, spiteful parody of the average biopic.
Bruh you don't know how happy it is to hear you say "At this point, it's worth mentioning that it's good to have the stormwatch series as background information, but it's not necessary reading material to understand The Authority." When I first spawned a sudden interest in the comic, doing background research into how to even find a way to read stormwatch stressed me and now I can just go down to the comic book store and pick up The Authority with no further preamble.
This might be the nostalgia speaking but I miss those times when Wildstorm was letting authors go hard into interesting tangents while keeping the interconnected superhero universe approach. Ellis' Planetary, Casey's Wildcats and Brubaker's Sleeper were all highly personal takes on interesting concepts made possible in big part thanks to the new ground Authority broke. I haven't read much from Valiant (just a couple of things that Patricia Martín and Raúl Allén drew, because they are absolutely fantastic both as artists and as people), but I get kind of similar vibes from their output. Might need to go deeper into it
The first volume of The Authority along with the material written by Warren Ellis for Stormwatch is really good stuff. I just couldn't care less for the Millar years. No offence to anyone who likes it, it's just not my type of thing. Too little substance, too much provocation for provocation sake. Excellent video, Overlord. Glad you finally tackled this series.
@@piotrd7355 For all of you sourgrapes out there about Millar, there are probably ten or more people who likes him for each of you. It's okay not to like him, but to insult him because he keeps on being succesful is just sourgrapes.
@@rap3208 No one insults him. Millar writes the way he writes. The farther he goes, the more gore, sex and violence and less plot. His Swamp Thing run was arguably his best comic, and rumor has it that he had ghostwriters at the time.
Warren Ellis' stuff on this series, and Wildstorm in general, is really good (see the reboot he helmed a few years ago before he retreated from public life) but god did Authority go downhill from there - I really loved Wildstorm, I wish DC hadn't tossed them aside. Sleeper, Authority (early), the Monarchy, Stormwatch, and a whole bunch of other stories felt like superhumans in fairly grounded politically restrained world, the way I imagine it would be irl
I mean… there’s nothing necessarily wrong with a spectacle (devoid of substance) resonating with people. Once in a while we enjoy a fiery spectacle that we don’t have to think too much about.
Been doing a Wildstorm Universe readthrough so this is great to see! I quite liked the Authority Revolution arc by Brubaker but I definitely don't think the series ever truly recaptured the magic of those first 12 Ellis/Hitch issues. I was able to somewhat enjoy the issues after Mark Millar started Marking his Millar all over the book, but it was a pretty clear step down even if I love Quitley's art.
One correction: Jenny Sparks doesn't do anything about upgrading Swift, Henry Bendix did when he split Stormwatch up into 3 teams and chose her for Stormwatch Black. Her mutant gene was only partially active and Christine Trelane activated it fully.
I checked my collection, and I just realized the Ellis issues are the only ones I bought as single issues. The rest of the series were bought as TPBs. The only complaint I have about the Authority was that Ellis should have never killed off Jenny Sparks. Plus, the way she was handled was radically different from how he wrote the other Spirits of the 20th Century, i.e. the Century Babies, over in Planetary. Without her around providing leadership, the Authority became a team of violent assholes who caused more problems than they actually solved.
Great video, though I do think more attention could've been put on how much of the success and tone of the Authority was simply "How Warren Ellis Writes". Obviously the art, specifically Hitch, is a massive part of it all as well, but there's something about the cadence and style of Ellis' dialog that makes it uniquely enjoyable in a way few writers can eve come close to emulating. Of course Ellis' problematic treatment of female fans certainly makes a discussion of his writing a bit more difficult and unpleasant. Either way, I think he deserves even more credit.
Yes, I will. However, I'm going to focus on longer content first and foremost and try to do a few shorter ones here and there. I did a bunch of shorter videos recently and TH-cam utterly destroyed this channel's visibility. So, shorter videos will be done sparingly.
The Warren Ellis Authority, depites its revolutionary premise, is in practice a pretty classic comic. There aren't very many political stories and the 3 main arcs are all classic comic book tropes diled up to 11- a fu manchu yellow peril, an alternate reality, and a riff on galactus. The Mark Millar authority has the authority butt heads with the man more on top of being completely crazy. I do find there is a certain energy and twisted fun which keeps the Millar Authority going and I think its this energy which separates Millar's good comics from his not good ones.
I agree with what you said about Millar's insane energy being a big part of what makes his better work good, but I think something that's often overlooked is his ability to make characters that are believable, even if they're not likeable. Like, Dave Lizewski is a very realistic character but he's awful! So you take this realistic douchey dweeb and put him in a balls to the wall romp and you have something special.
While Ellis run is very classic, I find it part of what makes it so good - it's like a pin that separates classic and modern era of comicbooks. When we're talking about classic almost swashbuckling action adventure stories where guys in tight take on bad guys, that's Authority. In fact, I believe that's intentional - Fu Manchu was picked because he was the original mastermind supervillain after whom all later ones were modeled. The Sliding Albion is a prototypical story of a multiversal crisis. And God is alien invasion, taken to extreme. It doesn't do anything new, but It does it as well as it possibly could be done.
@@MrScroogedmcduckI think the Ellis and millar runs are both good at what they set out to do. I personally prefer the millar run but I think both are high quality.
Great video! I've wanted to check The Authority (particularly the Ellis/Hitch run) for quite a while because of its influence. Definetely skpping Millar's run because, let's be honest here, it's Mark Millar being his worst Millar. No nuance, just nonsense. Jeez, and I thought Wanted and Nemesis were offensive, but his run on The Authority seems to be the most vile thing he's ever writtened. And that's saying a lot. Shame, because when he's not being an edgelord, he's a good writer. Superman: Red Son is a must read!
Mark Millar has toned down his more edger writing for a while now (nemesis reloaded being an exception) his more recent stories like Huck, superior, reborn, starlight, magic order, ambassadors, night club, space bandits, Chrononaughts, MPH, and empress are great examples.
Man. Whenever I try to get into The Authority it just feels like Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme without the heart or Invincible without the story. At least the art is good.
None of those series delve into the realistic depravity the universe like the authority. I appreciate it simply for the fact that it went where most comics wouldn’t.
It's interesting to hear folks on the other side of the pond discuss superhero comics written by British authors. The UK doesn't have a tradition of superheroes, and there was an healthy anarchy and distrust of authority which ran through the comics we did have. The result being, UK writers deconstructing and satirising the American superhero genre. So, North Americans might see comics written by Brits as being mean spirited and sensationalist, but that was par for the course in UK comics of the 70s and 80s.
It's kinda weird to think that the Alien crossover is considered canon to the rest of the series. The only thing I know about the Authority is they are what Superman vs The Elite is commenting on.
Though he does go out of his way to be annoyingly edgy, I think Millar's run still makes sense and adds to the narrative. The oligarchs/governments would eventually strike back against the Authority.
Great video man. I hated Mark Millar's Authority. Just violence and stories designed to shock. I hated his Kick Ass and Youngblood Bloodsport too for the same reasons. . The only Mark Millar comics I like are 1985 and his Fantastic Four. Once again great video. 👍
Honestly even if the Millar run is all style and no sustance i still enjoy it. At least it's doing something completely different and from time to time i want to read something that's a bit cynical or mean spirited
I bought the issues with Hitch's and Adam's art-work ( big fan of both those artists work )don't have those titles any more tho.Another-GOOD-video,keep'em coming hoss.
@@StrangeBrainParts I saw a copy of Moore's "Lost Girls" hardcover in a library graphic novel section positioned next to manga and YA stuff designed for teens. Seemed like a sensationalist local news expose waiting to happen.
I bought the trade because i heard it was a milestone in how action sequences are made. But i couldnt make it past the second issue. I thought it was terrible.
I loved the first Authority run. Also liked a lot when they changed to Quitely and Millar despite what's said in the video being true. But I just couldn't do with it anymore once it started to be erratic and I don't even mean publishing but the story itself was all over the place. I was still reading but only in hopes that it would get better which never did... Great video by the way. I been wondering why you never mentioned The Authority - how about TopTen next? 😃
Wow. Looking at it from present day, where nothing like that would ever happen, it’s kinda cool for a whole team to actually be wiped out in a crossover with another IP. Imagine losing beast boy to aliens, or something like that.
I remember reading one of the first comics in my school library and loving it for being different and unafraid to make it very dark but now I question if the later issues were interpreted as edgy for edge sake which I don’t like.
I never understood censorship, it's very odd that someone other than me (I.E. the reader) is to decide what I can and can't handle. I can very well make that decision myself.
Yeah, seriously. There’s less censorship in movies that do the same thing as these comics. A lot of these behaviors, results and the like would fit into a superhero show like The Boys yet they wouldn’t show them in comics? Why?
5:49 when was this retconned to Jack having been abducted by people from the future instead of aliens? They made a BIG deal out of the alien thing for a good while.
Offhand...I can't recall the exact series it was retconned. But, yeah, it turned out to be people from the future. Even though it was established they were aliens.
I'd like to believe that Gunn and whatever script writer he hires have enough sense to do a hardcore version of the team, but not one that deviates into self-loathing of the superhero genre.
The Reverend John Clay is still one of my favorite villains ever lol Also them killing God was cool The Renegade Doctor yeah I'm gonna go reread The Authority
Always avoided the Authority due to the impression it was like the Ultimates stuff: a bunch of shallow, stupid, immature schlock that some might mistake it for "adult" just because sex and violence. Thanks to this video, it all makes sense.
The 2000's is where I grew up. But what is it extreme violence and too politics? I have no place in politics and the government stuff! I don't like violence. I was born sensitive.
Shame Brubaker's run did not get any traction I really wanted to see where it would go after Jenny Quantum took over the team and see how things between Jenny, the new doctor and Rose Tattoo played out.
Paul Levitz was on a rampage for those Brits and how they wrote comics. This was the era he fucked with Ennis constantly too. That dude was a damn Puritan when it came to his superheroes.
Any possible way you could review Vincent Locke's Deadworld? Walking Dead simply ripped off this great comic. It really was unique for the late 80s and got in a hell a lot of trouble for its content. It really needs some light shed upon it.
Also as an indonesian, they should have used Soeharto instead of Habibie. Because Habibie is a beloved figure while Soeharto is infamous dictator lol 😁
I have no particular love of Stormwatch, I’ve read none of it and most of The Authority. But lol how disrespectful can a writer be? “Gonna kill everybody except my two Original Characters (do not steal) and some bird I have a fetish for, then rename the series and fill it with the rest of my new characters.”
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Mark Millar has the following he does. There’s a couple good stories in his library, but even in those his flaws are glaring (only motivations for bad guy is because he’s bad, for example…and yeah this includes Old Man Logan). The rest is shock and bullshit.
This is one of the only times I think the censored version is better. that run just seems mean spirited, like the didn’t like what they were creating or the characters in it.
Aside from the use of stark, excessive color, the "Authority" has NOTHING I haven't seen already in Anime and Manga as far back as when i was ten years old. The art style is an eye-catching series of "dramatic poses" similar to that often seen in Kamen Rider manga - again with stark, garish colors - so as to highlight that readers of the "Authority" have to have the colors dictated because they have little imagination. I will admit, when it came out, "Stormwatch" piqued my interest for about twenty issues before my interest waned. The "Authority" didn't hold my attention any better; probably because by then, i was heavily commited to Japanese and Korean Manga and /anime. Most especially the works of Shirow Masamune which were MUCH MUCH MORE Realistic than either Stormwatch or the Authority. Neither title can hold a candle to Appleseed, and Ghost in The Shell in their many versions. More telling is the fact that while Appleseed and Ghost In The Shell have spun off into Animated and Live Action series' and movies, neither Stormwatch, nor the Authority are much thought about these days. Don't get me wrong; I'm not about to burn/trash my collections of Stormwatch nor Authority, But while both sets are languishing in a box somewhere, the manga volumes and vids of Appleseed and Ghost In The Shell (and other favorite manga/anime) are proudly displayed on my shelves and will periodically be taken down for a fondly nostalgic read/view.
12:14 Okay, I giggle a bit there. Showing example of censorship with how panel looked when was published with comparison to original... And still censor it yourself
Pretty much! While Ennis' run on The Boys is much more critical of the Comics Industry, rather than the genre, it still has much in common spiritually with The Authority.
I initially liked it a lot. You get used to regular comics being about a standard over-the-top villain hatching some foolish plot and being eventually countered and imprisoned by the superheroic superheroes, with everything going back to normal afterwards. And while The Authority had some of that going, the protagonists were a lot less delicate and a lot more proactive. I would have liked to see more of that, but they really turned the crazy up to 11 and the series suddenly went completely bonkers, tried too hard to be extreme and edgy. Never quite hit the right note. It's still unique and interesting, but I feel like it could have been so much more.
Ennis and Millar are not comparable. Ennis is an extremely cynical writer. His children’s picture book still has a character who sacrifices themselves. His endings tend to be very oblique and he tends to write anti-hero because he doesn’t view humanity in a positive light. Edgy humor is there so to not have his book just be depressing shit. I would agrue that while a comic like Sara is better than most of ennis main stream work it didn’t catch on because the majority of reader don’t like reading depressing shit. Millar is someone who uses edginess for the sake of making a story seem less mature and for shock value a lot.
@@jaredgarcia8638 no ennis is. Ennis wrote a punisher comic where the punisher wipes out all of humanity and its just really dark. It’s just ennis tends to have more of a point.
@paulak roy so basically, one is a man who has a bleak view of humanity, and one is just basically Michael Bay turned to a hundred, yet both seem to have resentment for the comics industry and hatred for the readers. You could tell me off if this sounds inaccurate
I am also waiting. A lot of people won't notice that The Filth was a reversal of The Invisibles. It's as if the next installment of The Matrix told the story of Agent Smith returning from retirement who slowly discovers that he may have been on the wrong side of the conflict.
@@StrangeBrainParts Thank you very much mate. I discovered your channel through your _brilliant_ analysis of the Invisibles, which I consider to be the best analysis I've ever seen of it anywhere. If your analysis of The Filth is just a fraction of how good that video was, then it would be savage.
@Dragon Moth Thank you! I put a LOT into the Invisibles video. And it strained the capabilities of my poor computer. Not to mention, my ability to summarize a complex series in a reasonably coherent manner. So...I'll re-read The Filth and see if I have anything I can do with it. It's pretty challenging stuff.
@@StrangeBrainParts hey if you feel like it's too much don't worry, we get it. I love your content btw, the best comic book related channel by far and one that deserves a lot more subs and views
"She is the typical bastard archetype that Warren Ellis uses for nearly every comic he has written." Thank you! I felt like I was the only one who noticed! he's still a solid writer (definitely WAY better than me) but i can always tell an Ellis story by the characters. often many of them are foul mouthed dicks. lol. honestly i was REALLY disappointed when the authority in particular joined the DCU. having analogs of batman and superman in the same universe as batman and superman just doesn't work for me.
Reminds me of when Warren Ellis got a job writing the tv show based on the Castlevania game series and all of sudden the Medieval Christian vampire hunters were foul mouthed, alcoholic, sex craved, quip addicts a characterization not in line with the game and frankly Ellis at his worst with how samey everyone was.
Oh...I've noticed. I call it the bastard archetype because of Spider Jerusalem, who was the first character I noticed was like a few other characters Ellis had written. Hellstorm in particular.
Yeah it's definitely all informed by Ellis' love for John Constantine. I think the progenitor was Pete Wisdom on Excalibur. Then Spider Jerusalem, Jenny Sparks, Elijah Snow, William Gravel, Desolation Jones...
Ellis run is tremendously edgy, but filled with with such wondrous ideas and truly provocative concepts that I can escuse those excesses (like with the parallel earth invasion storyline). Miller stuff has the same problem of everything else he ever did: the best ideas are clearly borrowed from someone else (in this case, of unused ideas from Ellis). Stuff like the absolutely bonkers fight against the Renegade Doctor, and a lot of the Conformist Authority (Religimon! the privatization of the collective unconscious!) are tremendous fun in a perverse way, but whenever Miller tries something original is terrible stuff like the invincible redneck mutant assassin or the Al Gore jab.
Yeah, out of context it's a bit... much. In that scene, The Doctor is describing the team to the previous Doctors, (and the readers new to the characters) as a modern pantheon. Hence, the "gods" bit. It's a bit like trying to describe the JLA to someone from the Roman Empire.
I learned from this series that I'm willing I am to follow a series with pretty distasteful* protagonists so long as the art is gorgeous, as it always was. *The Engineer and Swift were less distasteful than the others but also less interesting and often backgrounded.
The whole thing is a mess that didn't make sense. Bottom line, the next creative crew on board had to salvage a body of work that seemed completely different from what they were spear heading thus making it just odd, akward but ultimately some kind of mishmash of real ideas built off unreal shit. hate to say it, they should have just renamed it something else and not have touched the original Stormwatch. But then DC acquired Wildstorm so you have a shit storm of IP to deal with. I just don't have time for that.
With its gay "World's Finest" team, I wonder if this was the reason that Gunn picked the team for a movie treatment, sort of the equivalent of "owning the libs" on the Right.
*_So in new editions of The Authority they also censored Homosexuality?_* *_These new editions, are they still the editions DC sells, or have they gone back and re-added all Homosexuality? Things have changed the past decade._* *_So if I were to buy the Absolute/Omnibus editions of The Authority, they will be censored??_* *_DC are not the only ones to tone down violence and Gay or Lesbian sexuality; Disney did a huge sweep of all their TV and movies and toned down all violence and removed most Gay and Lesbian hints. This took a long time and wasn't ready before around 2015-16. By then the World had changed. But I don't think they have re-added anything non-Hetero since then, it did take a very long time to remove it all._*
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Great coverage of this series! I think your note about Jenny Sparks as a 'typical Ellis bastard character' are spot on for his style at the time, and 'mean spirited' is a great way to describe not just Millar's run, but his overall style. I don't know of a work of his that hasn't felt cynical in some way.
Indeed! I am on record a few times saying I dislike Millar's writing, for many of the reasons stated in this video.
@@StrangeBrainParts with Mark Miller your mileage may vary.
Can we all stop and admit how crazy it is that Wildstorm basically stopped and was rebooted there series in an Aliens cross over?!?!?! That would be like if the majority of Batman supporting cast were all killed off in the Looney Tunes crossover and DC just stuck with that Continuity… That’s what I love about this series, it’s got like all these crazy big ideas, and it just goes for unhinged, it’s the best
so like sonic
When someone asks me if they should read The Authority (which is happening a lot more than never now) I say “It starts really well. Kind of a product of its time. Hey, have you read Planetary? Read that instead.”
That is a far better suggestion. :)
The best answer you can give
@Strange Brain Parts were the original comic panels published
Never mind I just watched the video again
Basically just don't read Millar's run? Got it.
Planetary was boring
Imagine if someone had the same level of hate Millar has for superheroes but for another genre. Like, imagine if some guy just really hated biopics, and everything he created was a violent, spiteful parody of the average biopic.
A very good analogy.
Bruh you don't know how happy it is to hear you say "At this point, it's worth mentioning that it's good to have the stormwatch series as background information, but it's not necessary reading material to understand The Authority." When I first spawned a sudden interest in the comic, doing background research into how to even find a way to read stormwatch stressed me and now I can just go down to the comic book store and pick up The Authority with no further preamble.
The only good thing with Millar’s authority run is the Frank Quitely art. The script however reeks of early 2000s late 90s jingoism.
This might be the nostalgia speaking but I miss those times when Wildstorm was letting authors go hard into interesting tangents while keeping the interconnected superhero universe approach. Ellis' Planetary, Casey's Wildcats and Brubaker's Sleeper were all highly personal takes on interesting concepts made possible in big part thanks to the new ground Authority broke.
I haven't read much from Valiant (just a couple of things that Patricia Martín and Raúl Allén drew, because they are absolutely fantastic both as artists and as people), but I get kind of similar vibes from their output. Might need to go deeper into it
The first volume of The Authority along with the material written by Warren Ellis for Stormwatch is really good stuff.
I just couldn't care less for the Millar years. No offence to anyone who likes it, it's just not my type of thing. Too little substance, too much provocation for provocation sake.
Excellent video, Overlord. Glad you finally tackled this series.
You summed up Millar's entire career in one sentence.
Nothing wrong with not liking Mark Millar.
Yeah and the thing is that it seems to actually out-do alot of bad over-the-top movies from the 90s in those regards
@@piotrd7355 For all of you sourgrapes out there about Millar, there are probably ten or more people who likes him for each of you. It's okay not to like him, but to insult him because he keeps on being succesful is just sourgrapes.
@@rap3208 No one insults him. Millar writes the way he writes. The farther he goes, the more gore, sex and violence and less plot. His Swamp Thing run was arguably his best comic, and rumor has it that he had ghostwriters at the time.
Warren Ellis' stuff on this series, and Wildstorm in general, is really good (see the reboot he helmed a few years ago before he retreated from public life) but god did Authority go downhill from there - I really loved Wildstorm, I wish DC hadn't tossed them aside. Sleeper, Authority (early), the Monarchy, Stormwatch, and a whole bunch of other stories felt like superhumans in fairly grounded politically restrained world, the way I imagine it would be irl
I’ll keep rewatching this one to support your efforts against TH-cam censorship
I love how you can hear the strain to not call Millar out more intensely on his voice. Kudos for being a professional.
I mean… there’s nothing necessarily wrong with a spectacle (devoid of substance) resonating with people.
Once in a while we enjoy a fiery spectacle that we don’t have to think too much about.
Been doing a Wildstorm Universe readthrough so this is great to see! I quite liked the Authority Revolution arc by Brubaker but I definitely don't think the series ever truly recaptured the magic of those first 12 Ellis/Hitch issues. I was able to somewhat enjoy the issues after Mark Millar started Marking his Millar all over the book, but it was a pretty clear step down even if I love Quitley's art.
One correction: Jenny Sparks doesn't do anything about upgrading Swift, Henry Bendix did when he split Stormwatch up into 3 teams and chose her for Stormwatch Black. Her mutant gene was only partially active and Christine Trelane activated it fully.
I must have misread. I was sure it was Jenny Sparks that literally shocked her system into upgrading, so to speak...in Stopwatch #36 or thereabouts.
You have some of the best comics related content in this dimension. THANK FOR YOUR EFFORTS
You are very welcome. Thank you for watching!
@@StrangeBrainParts I look forward to every new video.Salute!
I loved the authority. Found some of the trades when I was in highschool and absolutely loved it.
I checked my collection, and I just realized the Ellis issues are the only ones I bought as single issues. The rest of the series were bought as TPBs. The only complaint I have about the Authority was that Ellis should have never killed off Jenny Sparks. Plus, the way she was handled was radically different from how he wrote the other Spirits of the 20th Century, i.e. the Century Babies, over in Planetary. Without her around providing leadership, the Authority became a team of violent assholes who caused more problems than they actually solved.
Great video, though I do think more attention could've been put on how much of the success and tone of the Authority was simply "How Warren Ellis Writes". Obviously the art, specifically Hitch, is a massive part of it all as well, but there's something about the cadence and style of Ellis' dialog that makes it uniquely enjoyable in a way few writers can eve come close to emulating. Of course Ellis' problematic treatment of female fans certainly makes a discussion of his writing a bit more difficult and unpleasant.
Either way, I think he deserves even more credit.
YES. Authority video. I love your videos. I know this sounds like cliche but you are my inspiration. Thank you for your content.
Thank you for watching and I'm glad you enjoy what I put out. :)
@@StrangeBrainParts I join the thanks. Will you continue to review the classic Doom Patrol issues?
Yes, I will. However, I'm going to focus on longer content first and foremost and try to do a few shorter ones here and there. I did a bunch of shorter videos recently and TH-cam utterly destroyed this channel's visibility. So, shorter videos will be done sparingly.
@@StrangeBrainParts I´m looking forward to all of it. ;)
The Warren Ellis Authority, depites its revolutionary premise, is in practice a pretty classic comic. There aren't very many political stories and the 3 main arcs are all classic comic book tropes diled up to 11- a fu manchu yellow peril, an alternate reality, and a riff on galactus. The Mark Millar authority has the authority butt heads with the man more on top of being completely crazy. I do find there is a certain energy and twisted fun which keeps the Millar Authority going and I think its this energy which separates Millar's good comics from his not good ones.
I agree with what you said about Millar's insane energy being a big part of what makes his better work good, but I think something that's often overlooked is his ability to make characters that are believable, even if they're not likeable. Like, Dave Lizewski is a very realistic character but he's awful! So you take this realistic douchey dweeb and put him in a balls to the wall romp and you have something special.
So do you like
While Ellis run is very classic, I find it part of what makes it so good - it's like a pin that separates classic and modern era of comicbooks. When we're talking about classic almost swashbuckling action adventure stories where guys in tight take on bad guys, that's Authority. In fact, I believe that's intentional - Fu Manchu was picked because he was the original mastermind supervillain after whom all later ones were modeled. The Sliding Albion is a prototypical story of a multiversal crisis. And God is alien invasion, taken to extreme. It doesn't do anything new, but It does it as well as it possibly could be done.
@@MrScroogedmcduckI think the Ellis and millar runs are both good at what they set out to do. I personally prefer the millar run but I think both are high quality.
Great video! I've wanted to check The Authority (particularly the Ellis/Hitch run) for quite a while because of its influence. Definetely skpping Millar's run because, let's be honest here, it's Mark Millar being his worst Millar. No nuance, just nonsense. Jeez, and I thought Wanted and Nemesis were offensive, but his run on The Authority seems to be the most vile thing he's ever writtened. And that's saying a lot. Shame, because when he's not being an edgelord, he's a good writer. Superman: Red Son is a must read!
Mark Millar has toned down his more edger writing for a while now (nemesis reloaded being an exception) his more recent stories like Huck, superior, reborn, starlight, magic order, ambassadors, night club, space bandits, Chrononaughts, MPH, and empress are great examples.
Man. Whenever I try to get into The Authority it just feels like Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme without the heart or Invincible without the story. At least the art is good.
None of those series delve into the realistic depravity the universe like the authority. I appreciate it simply for the fact that it went where most comics wouldn’t.
It's interesting to hear folks on the other side of the pond discuss superhero comics written by British authors. The UK doesn't have a tradition of superheroes, and there was an healthy anarchy and distrust of authority which ran through the comics we did have. The result being, UK writers deconstructing and satirising the American superhero genre.
So, North Americans might see comics written by Brits as being mean spirited and sensationalist, but that was par for the course in UK comics of the 70s and 80s.
It's kinda weird to think that the Alien crossover is considered canon to the rest of the series. The only thing I know about the Authority is they are what Superman vs The Elite is commenting on.
Though he does go out of his way to be annoyingly edgy, I think Millar's run still makes sense and adds to the narrative. The oligarchs/governments would eventually strike back against the Authority.
Great video man.
I hated Mark Millar's Authority. Just violence and stories designed to shock. I hated his Kick Ass and Youngblood Bloodsport too for the same reasons. . The only Mark Millar comics I like are 1985 and his Fantastic Four. Once again great video. 👍
I’m extremely interested to see where James Gunn & DC Studios take this.
You have a great value...a voice that is consice. Excellent
I always heard great things about the Authority, but whenever i picked up an issue, i was very unimpressed. Guess i just chose the wrong times.
Conceptually, it's a good idea. In execution...well, it depended on the writer. :)
This was a really good video mister brain parts! thank you for the recommendation.
You are very welcome! Thanks for watching.
Honestly even if the Millar run is all style and no sustance i still enjoy it. At least it's doing something completely different and from time to time i want to read something that's a bit cynical or mean spirited
Thank you for recognizing the genius of that book early on. I adored it.
Go Storm Watch. Go bryan Hitch. Go century Babies.
Thank you for this.
You're welcome. :)
I bought the issues with Hitch's and Adam's art-work ( big fan of both those artists work )don't have those titles any more tho.Another-GOOD-video,keep'em coming hoss.
recently I saw a trade of Millar's run at a dollar store. on the kids bookshelf. next to coloring books.
I am not kidding
That...that does not seem right.
@@StrangeBrainParts I saw a copy of Moore's "Lost Girls" hardcover in a library graphic novel section positioned next to manga and YA stuff designed for teens. Seemed like a sensationalist local news expose waiting to happen.
It's notable that this post-buyout Wildstorm title is getting a movie, but not Wildcats or Gen 13, which were the two big team books of the studio.
Well done. Very acurate
Despite the setback, you got 100k. You deserve it.
This is an excellent review that is completely non-controversial. The video should not be age restricted.
I bought the trade because i heard it was a milestone in how action sequences are made. But i couldnt make it past the second issue. I thought it was terrible.
I loved the first Authority run. Also liked a lot when they changed to Quitely and Millar despite what's said in the video being true.
But I just couldn't do with it anymore once it started to be erratic and I don't even mean publishing but the story itself was all over the place. I was still reading but only in hopes that it would get better which never did...
Great video by the way. I been wondering why you never mentioned The Authority - how about TopTen next? 😃
Wow. Looking at it from present day, where nothing like that would ever happen, it’s kinda cool for a whole team to actually be wiped out in a crossover with another IP.
Imagine losing beast boy to aliens, or something like that.
Excellent Thumbnail 💯👍🏻
I remember reading one of the first comics in my school library and loving it for being different and unafraid to make it very dark but now I question if the later issues were interpreted as edgy for edge sake which I don’t like.
I never understood censorship, it's very odd that someone other than me (I.E. the reader) is to decide what I can and can't handle. I can very well make that decision myself.
Yeah, seriously. There’s less censorship in movies that do the same thing as these comics. A lot of these behaviors, results and the like would fit into a superhero show like The Boys yet they wouldn’t show them in comics? Why?
5:49 when was this retconned to Jack having been abducted by people from the future instead of aliens?
They made a BIG deal out of the alien thing for a good while.
Offhand...I can't recall the exact series it was retconned. But, yeah, it turned out to be people from the future. Even though it was established they were aliens.
I hope to god that when they adapt The Authority into a movie, they adapt Warren Ellis' run of the characters and not Mark Millar's crap.
I'd like to believe that Gunn and whatever script writer he hires have enough sense to do a hardcore version of the team, but not one that deviates into self-loathing of the superhero genre.
From watching his work, I suspect Gunn's sensibilities lean more towards the Ellis side of the characters.
Yay
The Reverend John Clay is still one of my favorite villains ever lol
Also them killing God was cool
The Renegade Doctor yeah I'm gonna go reread The Authority
What I have read but not confirmed is that Warren Ellis described The Authority as villains who were fighting worse villains. Was this true?
I'd say that's definitely true of the Millar run at least.
@@newsrim But that is when I read the comic used them as the writer's mouthpiece, doing things like comparing Bill Clinton to Hitler.
Ps. Lineat lines is redundant... Ps i can t spell. Love your lingustics ! Go man go !
It was bold and brash and once the mainstream took the best parts of it, (including for the ultimates) it had no place anymore.
Always avoided the Authority due to the impression it was like the Ultimates stuff: a bunch of shallow, stupid, immature schlock that some might mistake it for "adult" just because sex and violence.
Thanks to this video, it all makes sense.
Sounds like fun
Are there any offical copies of the uncensored version?
Yes, there are. I believe the most current printings of trade paperbacks are uncensored. Ditto for digital editions.
I am late 90's baby. A Zillennial. The 90's radical and extreme era is a neat concept sure, but it came off trying way too to be cool. Not my thing.
The 2000's is where I grew up. But what is it extreme violence and too politics? I have no place in politics and the government stuff! I don't like violence. I was born sensitive.
Shame Brubaker's run did not get any traction I really wanted to see where it would go after Jenny Quantum took over the team and see how things between Jenny, the new doctor and Rose Tattoo played out.
Oh Kevon Nowlen.....waren kills ailens.
Authority did gay characters in a way modern comics just cant grasp
So why was diverse censored
I miss that chain smoking old lady😢
Paul Levitz was on a rampage for those Brits and how they wrote comics. This was the era he fucked with Ennis constantly too. That dude was a damn Puritan when it came to his superheroes.
Were the original comic panels ever published
Yes. I mentioned that in the video. Current printing of the Millar run are uncensored, with the exception of the George Bush panel.
Any possible way you could review Vincent Locke's Deadworld? Walking Dead simply ripped off this great comic. It really was unique for the late 80s and got in a hell a lot of trouble for its content. It really needs some light shed upon it.
I will take this suggestion under advisement. To be honest, I have been meaning to look at Deadworld for a while now.
I did liked the video, so I liked the video and I am here writing a comment about liking the video because that is the best I can do.
Here I am thinking you for watching, liking and for commenting. Thanks!
"It seemed like both creators had a particular distaste for the genre they were working within." You can just say it was bad.
Coming to James Gunn’s DCU to streaming soon. 🌞🌚
So you saying authority originated from stormwatch collected both as a kid so woooww
Also as an indonesian, they should have used Soeharto instead of Habibie. Because Habibie is a beloved figure while Soeharto is infamous dictator lol 😁
Lik...the money trail
Ultimates feels like authority lite
Considering the fact Millar was only action and not substance, it's no wonder
I think I can agree with that assessment.
I have no particular love of Stormwatch, I’ve read none of it and most of The Authority. But lol how disrespectful can a writer be? “Gonna kill everybody except my two Original Characters (do not steal) and some bird I have a fetish for, then rename the series and fill it with the rest of my new characters.”
It’s got be weird living in a world shaped by the conflicting wants and squabbles of the authors creating it lol
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Mark Millar has the following he does. There’s a couple good stories in his library, but even in those his flaws are glaring (only motivations for bad guy is because he’s bad, for example…and yeah this includes Old Man Logan). The rest is shock and bullshit.
You won't find me disagreeing with you at all.
Sadly, there will always be a market for shock and bullshit. :(
Is this the original version (not sanitized)?
Yes, it is.
@@StrangeBrainParts THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 🙏💕
This is one of the only times I think the censored version is better.
that run just seems mean spirited, like the didn’t like what they were creating or the characters in it.
Omnibus has much of the original art thankfully.
Aside from the use of stark, excessive color, the "Authority" has NOTHING I haven't seen already in Anime and Manga as far back as when i was ten years old. The art style is an eye-catching series of "dramatic poses" similar to that often seen in Kamen Rider manga - again with stark, garish colors - so as to highlight that readers of the "Authority" have to have the colors dictated because they have little imagination. I will admit, when it came out, "Stormwatch" piqued my interest for about twenty issues before my interest waned.
The "Authority" didn't hold my attention any better; probably because by then, i was heavily commited to Japanese and Korean Manga and /anime.
Most especially the works of Shirow Masamune which were MUCH MUCH MORE Realistic than either Stormwatch or the Authority. Neither title can hold a candle to Appleseed, and Ghost in The Shell in their many versions.
More telling is the fact that while Appleseed and Ghost In The Shell have spun off into Animated and Live Action series' and movies, neither Stormwatch, nor the Authority are much thought about these days. Don't get me wrong; I'm not about to burn/trash my collections of Stormwatch nor Authority, But while both sets are languishing in a box somewhere, the manga volumes and vids of Appleseed and Ghost In The Shell (and other favorite manga/anime) are proudly displayed on my shelves and will periodically be taken down for a fondly nostalgic read/view.
Great video, honestly it's a shame the amazing quietly art is trapped in that shitty book lol. I hope you tackle Planetary at some point too!
I've done Planetary in the past. Then Warren Ellis became toxic and I took the video down. I might remake it as some point.
12:14 Okay, I giggle a bit there. Showing example of censorship with how panel looked when was published with comparison to original... And still censor it yourself
00:29
So basically this where the Boys comic book originated from .
Pretty much! While Ennis' run on The Boys is much more critical of the Comics Industry, rather than the genre, it still has much in common spiritually with The Authority.
I initially liked it a lot. You get used to regular comics being about a standard over-the-top villain hatching some foolish plot and being eventually countered and imprisoned by the superheroic superheroes, with everything going back to normal afterwards. And while The Authority had some of that going, the protagonists were a lot less delicate and a lot more proactive. I would have liked to see more of that, but they really turned the crazy up to 11 and the series suddenly went completely bonkers, tried too hard to be extreme and edgy. Never quite hit the right note. It's still unique and interesting, but I feel like it could have been so much more.
Mark Millar’s name makes me physically cringe
I will never love anything Mark Millar or Garth Ennis touch. Great vid bud :)
If you had to pick who was the most vile, who'd you pick
Ennis and Millar are not comparable. Ennis is an extremely cynical writer. His children’s picture book still has a character who sacrifices themselves. His endings tend to be very oblique and he tends to write anti-hero because he doesn’t view humanity in a positive light. Edgy humor is there so to not have his book just be depressing shit. I would agrue that while a comic like Sara is better than most of ennis main stream work it didn’t catch on because the majority of reader don’t like reading depressing shit.
Millar is someone who uses edginess for the sake of making a story seem less mature and for shock value a lot.
@@paulakroy2635 so Millar then.
@@jaredgarcia8638 no ennis is. Ennis wrote a punisher comic where the punisher wipes out all of humanity and its just really dark.
It’s just ennis tends to have more of a point.
@paulak roy so basically, one is a man who has a bleak view of humanity, and one is just basically Michael Bay turned to a hundred, yet both seem to have resentment for the comics industry and hatred for the readers. You could tell me off if this sounds inaccurate
Day 2 of begging SBP to cover The Filth
Ha ha ha. So noted.
I am also waiting. A lot of people won't notice that The Filth was a reversal of The Invisibles. It's as if the next installment of The Matrix told the story of Agent Smith returning from retirement who slowly discovers that he may have been on the wrong side of the conflict.
@@StrangeBrainParts Thank you very much mate. I discovered your channel through your _brilliant_ analysis of the Invisibles, which I consider to be the best analysis I've ever seen of it anywhere. If your analysis of The Filth is just a fraction of how good that video was, then it would be savage.
@Dragon Moth Thank you! I put a LOT into the Invisibles video. And it strained the capabilities of my poor computer. Not to mention, my ability to summarize a complex series in a reasonably coherent manner.
So...I'll re-read The Filth and see if I have anything I can do with it. It's pretty challenging stuff.
@@StrangeBrainParts hey if you feel like it's too much don't worry, we get it. I love your content btw, the best comic book related channel by far and one that deserves a lot more subs and views
"She is the typical bastard archetype that Warren Ellis uses for nearly every comic he has written." Thank you! I felt like I was the only one who noticed! he's still a solid writer (definitely WAY better than me) but i can always tell an Ellis story by the characters. often many of them are foul mouthed dicks. lol. honestly i was REALLY disappointed when the authority in particular joined the DCU. having analogs of batman and superman in the same universe as batman and superman just doesn't work for me.
Jenny Sparks always seemed like John Constantine with boobs to me.
Reminds me of when Warren Ellis got a job writing the tv show based on the Castlevania game series and all of sudden the Medieval Christian vampire hunters were foul mouthed, alcoholic, sex craved, quip addicts a characterization not in line with the game and frankly Ellis at his worst with how samey everyone was.
Oh...I've noticed. I call it the bastard archetype because of Spider Jerusalem, who was the first character I noticed was like a few other characters Ellis had written. Hellstorm in particular.
I think Ellis even calls it out himself in Planetary, when he has John Constintine transform into Spider Jerusalem (basically)
Yeah it's definitely all informed by Ellis' love for John Constantine. I think the progenitor was Pete Wisdom on Excalibur. Then Spider Jerusalem, Jenny Sparks, Elijah Snow, William Gravel, Desolation Jones...
Ellis run is tremendously edgy, but filled with with such wondrous ideas and truly provocative concepts that I can escuse those excesses (like with the parallel earth invasion storyline). Miller stuff has the same problem of everything else he ever did: the best ideas are clearly borrowed from someone else (in this case, of unused ideas from Ellis). Stuff like the absolutely bonkers fight against the Renegade Doctor, and a lot of the Conformist Authority (Religimon! the privatization of the collective unconscious!) are tremendous fun in a perverse way, but whenever Miller tries something original is terrible stuff like the invincible redneck mutant assassin or the Al Gore jab.
Also his Supreme Blue Rose with Tula Lotay art was an incredible read...one of my favorite comics of all time.
I really can't stomach Millar's juvenile writing style: he goes way too far to be edgy.
God of cities shuts it down for me...
Yeah, out of context it's a bit... much. In that scene, The Doctor is describing the team to the previous Doctors, (and the readers new to the characters) as a modern pantheon. Hence, the "gods" bit. It's a bit like trying to describe the JLA to someone from the Roman Empire.
I learned from this series that I'm willing I am to follow a series with pretty distasteful* protagonists so long as the art is gorgeous, as it always was.
*The Engineer and Swift were less distasteful than the others but also less interesting and often backgrounded.
Mark miller the authority I thought wasn’t great in my opinion.
Why does millar keep getting work on Superhero books that are established?? Like damn. The man is just eh edgy teenager.
The whole thing is a mess that didn't make sense. Bottom line, the next creative crew on board had to salvage a body of work that seemed completely different from what they were spear heading thus making it just odd, akward but ultimately some kind of mishmash of real ideas built off unreal shit. hate to say it, they should have just renamed it something else and not have touched the original Stormwatch. But then DC acquired Wildstorm so you have a shit storm of IP to deal with. I just don't have time for that.
With its gay "World's Finest" team, I wonder if this was the reason that Gunn picked the team for a movie treatment, sort of the equivalent of "owning the libs" on the Right.
I think he wanted to see if a DC movie could get an R rating and do as well as Deadpool.
Exactly. I always wondered why Snyder went though all of the effort to make the JLA dark, "edgy" and violent when the Authority did that already.
Hated what Millar did to the series and never been a fan of Quitely's work. Never got the appeal.
Never really liked the action-heavy approach the Authority took. Planetary was a much better book.
Hate that it's apart of DC, now!
*_So in new editions of The Authority they also censored Homosexuality?_*
*_These new editions, are they still the editions DC sells, or have they gone back and re-added all Homosexuality? Things have changed the past decade._*
*_So if I were to buy the Absolute/Omnibus editions of The Authority, they will be censored??_*
*_DC are not the only ones to tone down violence and Gay or Lesbian sexuality; Disney did a huge sweep of all their TV and movies and toned down all violence and removed most Gay and Lesbian hints. This took a long time and wasn't ready before around 2015-16. By then the World had changed. But I don't think they have re-added anything non-Hetero since then, it did take a very long time to remove it all._*
From what I understand, those scenes were rewritten and not actually drawn. So, they've not been included in the most current editions.