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.

Gen 13 #35

“Pocatello: Part 1 – Pathcutter” (No Spoilers)
Finally, we get a good jumping on point with the Gen 13 kids. Originally, issue 33 was supposed to be writer Phil Hester’s first but the story running through Wildcats and The Authority required writer Adam Beechen to take Gen 13 for issues 33 & 34 before we could get here. I can see why this was done but it has been hard to sell Gen 13 with a good jumping on point because of this. Thankfully, they finally accomplish that here.

Wildcats #21

“Red Blade 3 of 3: Red Reign” (No Spoilers)
Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! What an amazing finish to this crazy high-speed car chase on crack of a storyline that Adam Beechen and Tim Seeley have kicked off their run with! These guys took the phrase “hit the ground running” to the nth degree with this one. This was a crazy superhero war! This is the kind of carnage that would be wrought if super-powered beings really got into it.
When I saw that their first arc was only going to be 3-issues I was a little concerned because I thought that was too short for an arc. Especially considering the kind of the story they were going to tell.

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.