The group known as ECC Ediciones Authority presents a comprehensive volume that brings together the entire golden period.
The Wildstorm label was a very successful series (if we didn’t know the unusual Planetary) and it revolutionized the world of mainstream superhero comics. After the epic period, Authority moved to fully integrate into the DC Universe with writers like Grant Morrison and share story arcs with characters like Nightwing, but nothing quite reached the quality of its debut. It is exactly those beginnings that ECC Ediciones has now compiled and published in one volume under the title of Power – The Complete Saga.
The dictators of the future
There are comics that represent such an important stylistic revolution at the time of publication that they completely change the way writers of the future work. You can talk about Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, or David Aja and Matt Fraction’s time as Hawkeye, but you can talk about Powers and put this comic on the same level.
Interestingly, the story of Dr. Manhattan having triple sex with his wife can be helped by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It is against individuals who call themselves heroes and are like masked fascists who take to the streets and impose justice with an iron fist.
That was all that mattered, the characters’ arrogance and pride and their ability to deliver death without flinching as long as it was for the greater good (and sometimes not) was the starting point of the story.
Paradoxically, the original creator of this series, Warren Ellis, who unfortunately drowned the genre for more than a decade, collected a portion of this poorly understood legacy that he used to construct much of what had already been seen. time, but this time it was done well (maybe for the first time). From the ashes of a group called Stormwatch, a new formation is born whose name could not be more descriptive.
Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmore, Swift, the Engineer, the Doctor, Apollo, and Middayer have the spirit of those toothy heroes who solve everything with a bang and don’t hesitate to get their hands dirty (literally) when the time comes. That’s the difference, they live the most exciting stories of everything that happened in the nineties, they face unusual challenges in a sleep comedy, they challenge the reader with a moral dilemma and do everything to overcome it. Considering his team is a Batman clone and a Superman clone sharing the same bed (something that obviously doesn’t sit well with DC Comics).
Cruel, careless and disgusting
In the first eleven issues included in this volume, we see the closing of the Stormwatch series, where Ellis devotes himself to writing a great story while preparing what is to come. And that’s when the reader who doesn’t know these stories really starts to get frustrated…
“Somebody’s got to stay to save the world,” Jenny Sparks said in the series finale, where she talked to her friends about the group’s breakup. And now this new team, drawn by the reigning Brian Hitch, heavily influenced by Alan Davis’ style and high-octane film blockbusters, was about to make history.
Ellis was going to face this team with threats that could go from small to large, which will increase the level of confidence in what he is doing. First a copy of Fu Manchu or rather the Mandarin from Marvel Comics, then some multi-faceted enemies for serious science fiction and finally God himself shows his taste. It cannot be raised.
Ellis’s sensational character poses not only a daring demeanor in terms of sex and violence, but also raises uncomfortable moral dilemmas, especially those caused by the actions of a handful of super-powered beings as global action. Police who answer to no one and are far from good and perfect. In Jenny’s own words, “Bad things happen when I lead teams, and bad things happen when I don’t.”
Then a hilarious Mark Millar and the beastly Frank Quitely would come along to up the ante. The hard part is already done, but now it’s time to maintain the level. And they made him a child. Millar takes the plots to an intimate level by having the characters deal with real-world problems.
Social injustice, climate change and egalitarian policies are just some of the invisible enemies our heroes must fight against. And the horrifying truth that Millar lays before our eyes is that the only way for these people to get rid of the problems they are creating for humanity is to take control and do it their way through a totalitarian regime. Be good or you will be punished. And that’s just one of the many things good old Millar brings to this series.
This is power. It is different from what has been done before. Capital importance, avant-garde, bold and fantastic, written and illustrated by a team of authors, is the best work of their creation. A little more needs to be said…
Authorized version.
ECC Ediciones offers this volume in cardboard format. It has a recommended retail price of €80 and will be available in December 2023. The slightly reduced size may not be to everyone’s taste, but considering how wide the spine is, this size is certainly very manageable and easy to read, without fear of erasing. 180º when opened. Being able to fully enjoy a single volume at this level is a luxury that will soon be unthinkable.
The volume contains 1040 color pages, and the American edition version includes eleven issues of the second volume of Stormwatch, twenty-nine issues of the first volume of The Authority, part of Special Storm: A Celebration. 25 Years and the Planet/Authority: The Transcendent Rule of the World and a small final episode with bonus material.
We also appreciate the inclusion of the cover of each issue and the price of the audio, because all this is much less than the cost of getting this material in any issue separately (there are now three hardcover volumes containing this content, being around 100 euros in total). Therefore, it is an ideal edition for readers who want to have full access to this comprehensive level and are not concerned about the size.
Authority – the whole saga
International terrorists, invaders from another direction… the world is facing ever-increasing danger, as Jenny Sparks, the self-proclaimed 20th-century spirit girl, knows all too well. Therefore, the formation of the Authority was proposed, a group of unusual beings that included special members such as Midnighter, Apollo or Jack Hawksmoor, God of Cities.
Created by authors such as Warren Ellis, Brian Hitch, Mark Millar, Frank Quitely, Arthur Adams or Phil Jimenez, prepare for the adrenaline rush in this event, one of the most influential comics in recent history, meets the planetary bodies.
Authors: Mark Millar, Tom Payer, Warren Ellis, Doselle Young, Frank Quitely, Dustin Nguyen, Chris Weston, Gary Erskine, Arthur Adams, Brian Hitch, John McCrea, Oscar Jimenez and Michael Ryan.