THe WiLD sTorm
Authoritative action
released OUT NOW! Publisher dC Comics
Writer Warren ellis Artist Jon davis-Hunt
1-3 There aren’t many comics as influential as the first 12 issues of The Authority. The superhero series created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch in 1999 defined the decompressed “widescreen” comic storytelling style that dominated the 2000s, and was one of many memorable titles that emerged from the independent imprint Wildstorm. Stormwatch, WildCATS,
Planetary and many other series formed a superhero universe that was eventually folded into the DC Universe when Wildstorm was bought by DC. Up until recently it seemed that aside from the characters Apollo and Midnighter, few traces of the Wildstorm universe would ever be seen in comics again, but now a major revamp is happening.
DC is rebooting the entire Wildstorm superhero continuity from the ground up, and it’s sensibly brought in Warren Ellis to oversee version 2.0 of the universe. Multiple series are in the planning stages, but the newly arrived flagship title is The Wild Storm, an ambitious 24-issue saga that will be entirely written by Ellis, and which is already giving us a fascinating slant on modern-day superhero action.
Designed as a fresh start with no previous Wildstorm knowledge necessary, the series is set in a shadowy world of corporate conspiracies and black ops organisations. The silent war between espionage outfit International Operations and technology corporation HALO explodes into life when a renegade IO engineer named Angela Spica steals an impossibly advanced nanotech stealth suit.
Spica ends up on the run, with multiple organisations wanting to either help or kill her, and these first three issues outline an impressively dense and complex story that successfully gives the Wildstorm characters a fresh and modern feel. This is a gnarly, intelligent comic that’s got more in common with Ellis’s brilliant Image Comics thriller Injection than his previous Wildstorm work.
Decompression and massive splash pages are out. Instead, with the aid of Jon Davis-Hunt’s crisp and elegant style of artwork, the story unfolds in a dense and involving manner, with almost every page presented as tightly constricted panels packed with text and detail.
There’s also plenty of Ellis’s trademark wit and anger, giving us a superhero saga that feels exciting and mature, while also setting up a bunch of deeper mysteries for further down the line. Distinctive and idiosyncratic, The Wild
Storm’s mix of slow-burning intrigue and full-tilt action won’t be for everyone, but it’s certainly one of the most promising superhero reboots in a very long time. Saxon Bullock
Ellis has said that the cast of his other Wildstorm series Planetary won’t be part of the newly rebooted universe.
This is a superhero saga that feels exciting and mature