The Authority: The Lost Year #8

“No Laughing Matter” (No Spoilers)
I have to admit, I’ve struggled a lot with The Authority: The Lost Year. It has really been hit and miss for me. I believe there have been some great ideas presented in this series but I’m not really enjoying the way they’re being presented. However, with J.M. DeMatteis helping with the story this time we do get some humor which is very unusual for an Authority comic.
In visiting parallel worlds, the team has encountered several doppelgangers of themselves, both here and in past Authority stories. But this time, we get a more comedic take on the parallel Authority team encountered here.

The Authority: The Lost Year #7

“Wildcats” (No Spoilers)
I’m starting to think that this series is not giving itself enough time to develop. I was so pumped about the way last issue began because it was a new arc and Giffen had a chance to start fresh. We had a great set-up and a very cool alternate world introduced. But now we get it all resolved here in this issue! It definitely was not enough time to tell a story with this kind of set-up.
Let’s back-track a little. Issue 5 acted as sort of a prologue to this arc but not entirely. In reality it was more of a bridge between the first arc and this one. What happened in issue 5 was incredibly important to setting up what has happened in number 6 and 7.

The Authority: The Lost Year #6

“Absolute Authority” (No Spoilers)
I think this is the strongest issue of The Authority: The Lost Year yet. Last issue was more of a bridge between this arc and the previous. It gave closure to the first arc but set up how The Authority got to where they are now. For a first-time reader, there isn’t much missing info, so I think a person picking up this issue wouldn’t be lost.
I usually wait until the end of my reviews to talk about the art but this time, I really liked it from page one. I don’t have a way to confirm this, but judging by the way the two men are credited it looks like Brian Stelfreeze (Wednesday Comics, Shadow of the Bat) did the layouts and Joel Gomez (Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs, Iron and the Maiden) did the finishes.

The Authority: The Lost Year #5

“Blood Brothers” (No Spoilers)
A new story arc begins for The Authority and Keith Giffen is free to start fresh without Grant Morrison’s start on the series over-shadowing him, right? Well, not exactly. First off, this is still based on stories Morrison outlined and which Giffen is going to use through-out the rest of this mini-series. But that’s ok because we already knew that. The problem is we get a slight overflow of events from the last arc. This is not a big deal if you’ve followed since the beginning but it might throw new readers off who are jumping on this issue because it’s being toted as a new story arc.
One thing that is evident in this issue from the start is that this is definitely the pre-World’s End Authority. Before Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s World’s End run humbled the team and hopefully taught them a few things about being heroes, the Authority were basically powerful jerks.