The Authority: The Lost Year #12

“Reality” (No Spoilers)

Writers: Grant Morrison & Keith Giffen
Pencils: Jerry Ordway
Inks: Kevin Nowlan
Colors: Gabe Eltaeb
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Scott Peterson
Cover: Gene Ha

Here we are finally and so ends half (looking at you Wildcats) of the redemption for Worldstorm and this title which had been put on hold since Grant Morrison left it in 2006. It has been a bumpy ride to say the least but it is very interesting how they chose to end this.

All of you who have been following our coverage of this title know that for the most part we’ve been really frustrated with it. Morrison had a strong start when he worked on it, so when Keith Giffen was announced to take it over it seemed like a good fit. Giffen, after all, had already written these characters several times. But somewhere along the way, it seemed that this series as a whole just started to fall apart. One thing that was evident was the story arcs were way too short. There were several alternate worlds that the team visited that were really cool but only lasted two issues. This led to a lot of great set up being resolved super fast in order to move on to the next alternate reality.

This was hard to accept until those two beautiful issues drawn by Brandon Badeaux we just recently reviewed. By that time, we already knew to expect the shorter arcs and Badeaux’s art certainly made up for it. Which brings us to this issue. It is very interesting the way they decided to end this. It’s hard to talk about without spoiling but let’s just say, you’d get a very different feel for this ending if this series had come before DnA’s World’s End Authority run (in continuity this story takes place before World’s End). I’d go as far as to say this ending would’ve been very lackluster if you didn’t have DnA’s run to juxtapose. For me it was a reminder of why I didn’t like The Authority much before DnA’s run.

Another thing worth noting about this issue is that the art is by industry legend Jerry Ordway. We’re talking this is the equivalent of Jack Kirby drawing The Authority. It’s crazy to even see his name here. This is one of the guys who worked on Crisis on Infinite Earths (which is highly appropriate based on the premise of this Authority series). His art is obviously very old school but it still looks great!

Overall, I think this series fell flat. It had a great start and some great issues here towards the end but honestly it just ended up being another Authority adventure. It seemed like they were trying really hard to learn something here at the end but I’m not so sure they did. It’s a shame because there was such potential here but somehow it got lost along the way (pun intended). Honestly, I hope this is the last we ever see of this version of The Authority. I hope the lessons they learned in the DnA run are never forgotten.

I think they’re much better off for it.

7 out of 10 (Above Average)