By Zack Quaintance — Superman and the Authority #1 is out this week, essentially mashing up two of superhero comic’s most influential forces over the past 25 years, those being visionary writer Grant Morrison with the early ‘00s book credited with popularizing widescreen comic storytelling. This is a really interesting dichotomy. Morrison and The Authority are often on opposite ends of the online comics discussion spectrum, with Morrison ranking as one of the most beloved modern comics creator, while The Authority is frequently scorned or ignored. One of the critics who is on the weekly DC Comics Round-Up team with me over at The Beat, in fact, has an attitude toward The Authority that is basically, I’ve never read it but I know what it’s about and I don’t like it.

This is all to say Morrison and their body of work is at odds legacy-wise with The Authority. Morrison is generally perceived as having given us some of the most creative, abstract, and progressive ideas of late to shape superhero comics, always putting out work ahead of its time, destined to become more beloved years after publication than in its own moment. While The Authority is seen by many as damaging, a gritty power fantasy of sorts that played a role in pushing some comics toward cinematic storyboarding while also supposing the world’s problems could be fixed with strength and violence (your individual milage on the last point will vary).

What we get immediately in Superman and the Authority #1 is Morrison laying out a vision for doing The Authority their way. This is perhaps best encapsulated by the book’s opening scene. This story begins in November of 1963 at the White House. Superman is having a meeting with the late John F. Kennedy, a meeting during which he asks, “You need any protection in Dallas?” This is, of course, designed to be a sliding doors moment, an insinuation that in this world Superman almost went to Dallas and saved John F. Kennedy from assassination. Kennedy tells Superman no, that he has more important things to do, and then he goes on to list them.

This list of what Kennedy envisions applies to both Superman and humanity. Kennedy tells Superman he sees him ending war everywhere, while humanity at the same time puts an astronaut on Mars by the end of the 1960s. “I want human ingenuity to lead the way.” We as an audience know what will soon become of Kennedy, and we also know that Superman will not stop all war, that he in this comic book world by the nature of the storytelling medium won’t impact the geo-political trajectory of human existence. Not really, instead sticking to the familiar adventures, to stopping invading aliens and going back and forth with Lex Luthor. It almost feels like Morrison and their collaborators are opening the story by refuting the core concept of The Authority, the question of what a world would be like if superheroes managed humanity, perhaps saying, nobody wants to see that world, that’s not the point. There’s also the Big Metaphor here, that the hopes we had through much of last century have not come to fruition, and that the powerful have/continue to misallocate their abilities, resources, and time…but that’s all likely to come in this book later, or perhaps in small doses throughout.

So, that’s the subtext. On the surface, Superman’s meeting with Kennedy is a really enjoyable scene, a quaint bit of icons trading their mutual belief in inherent goodness and hope, even if one of them is entirely doomed. It’s well-executed and well-written, and not a bit schlocky at all.

From there, the book hits what feels more like its cruising altitude, switching over to some unlisted point in the future with a focus on Manchester Black, a character that Morrison has tagged — along with other familiar DCU mainstays — to be part of Superman’s new Authority, if preview text and cover artwork are to be believed. That’s where the book heads off to next — a Superman in the future has his powers diminished, realizes this, and as such, is putting together a team. It’s a great concept, and one that seems poised to wildly succeed if it continues to enable Morrison and their collaborators to play with the questions and metaphors in that opening.

This book looks amazing, and while Morrison’s ideas are as outsized and dominant as always, Mikel Janín is doing career-best work, brought to life by Jordie Bellaire’s colors. The visuals in the first scene are crisp, clear, and as bright as the hope beneath the conversation, while the aesthetic after the shift to Manchester Black is deliberately darker, grittier, more dirtied by the time that has passed and all that has happened since 1963. Everything looks amazing, of course, but it’s the way the artists also worked to set a visual tone that I found most impressive. I should also note here that I find Steve Wands to be one of the industry’s best letterers.

I don’t know where this series is headed. My guess is that we get more stories of Superman putting together his team, ahead of a finale that sets them up as protectors of space, of the bigger issues, as examples for humanity rather than stewards of it. But who knows. Morrison’s work is so hard to predict and process in the moment. If Superman and the Authority #1 is any indication, however, I know I will enjoy every last moment of it.

Overall: Powered by career-best artwork from Mikel Janín with colors by Jordie Bellaire, Superman and the Authority #1 is visionary writer Grant Morrison’s take on The Authority, a take perhaps at odds with its source material. This first issue is fantastic, and we should all be excited to follow this story. 9.5/10

REVIEW: Superman and the Authority #1

Superman and the Authority #1
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Mikel Janín
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: DC Comics - Black Label
Sometimes even Superman finds a task almost impossible. Sometimes even the Last Son of Krypton needs to enlist help. Some tasks require methods and heroes that don’t scream “Justice League.” So Clark Kent, the Metropolis Marvel, seeks out Manchester Black, the most dastardly of rogues, to form an all-new Authority tasked with taking care of some business on the sly. Not only will Black know the right candidates for the team, but if Superman can make him behave himself and act in service of the greater good, then he’ll prove literally anyone can be a hero! They’ll have to move quickly, however, as the Ultra-Humanite forms his own team to take out the Man of Steel.
This new limited series helps launch an all-new Superman status quo, setting up story elements that reverberate across both Action Comics and Superman: Son of Kal-El in the months to come. And not only is Superman putting together a superstar team, but it takes superstars to tell the tale: Grant Morrison (The Green Lantern, All-Star Superman) and Mikel Janín (Batman, Future State: Superman: Worlds of War)!
Price: $4.99
More Info: Superman and the Authority #1

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.