Who are The Authority? (DC’s comic book super team explained)
By Matthew Roth
James Gunn and Peter Safran just announced their DC Slate. So who are The Authority?
The internet is ablaze this morning as James Gunn and Peter Safran have announced their highly anticipated DC slate. One of the announcements is that we will be getting a film on The Authority.
If you’re like me, this probably comes as a surprise as they may be one of the more under the radar team ups in comics so who are they exactly?
Who are The Authority?
The Authority are a superhero team created in 1999 by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. Their goal is to get the job done by any means necessary (sound familiar?). The lineup initially consisted of; Jenny Sparks who could turn into electricity, Jack Hawksmoor who physically bonds to cities to communicate and receive powers from them, Swift who is a Tibetan woman possessing wings and sharp talons, Apollo who is a bio-engineered Superman-like being, Midnighter a bio- engineered Batman-like being with the ability to foresee his opponents moves in combat, The Engineer, a scientist who replaced her blood with pints of nanotechnology and can create objects with it, and The Doctor, a drug addict and Shaman who is possessed with the power of hundreds of Shamans.
The first run ran from May of 1999 to July of 2002 when Ellis and Hitch were replaced with Mark Miller and Frank Quitely as well as Tom Peter and Dustin Nguyen. Under their run, Jack Hawksmoor took over leadership of the team after the death of Jenny Sparks. Other additional members of the team include Christine Trelane, Deathblow, Grifter, Rainmaker, The High, Freefall, Flint, Jenny Quantum, Rose Tattoo, Jereon Thorndike, and Habib Ben Hassan.
The final volume of The Authority was released in March of 2010. With the announcements today can we fans expect a return to the fabled heroic team?
Gunn has referred to the upcoming Authority movie as a passion project of his, and it’s going to be interesting to see how it fits into the DC Universe given all of the other well-known heroes headlining their projects in the new chapter.
Who would you like to see on the Authority squad if they make their return to print? Are you looking forward to the DCU movie? Let us know in the comments below!