History ComicBook / StormWatch

* HeroKiller: The creatures from the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' franchise were used as this for Stormwatch to clear the decks for ''ComicBook/TheAuthority''.

* WhatMeasureIsAnAlternateReality: "The Bleed". Weatherman Jackson King refuses to help the parallel Stormwatch when they're facing overwhelming danger, because he views his jurisdiction as just his Earth. Not everyone in Stormwatch is happy about this, and even King yields enough to send his counterpart Weatherman a key piece of information that helps save the day.

''Stormwatch'' is a series originally created by Jim Lee for Creator/ImageComics in 1993, though the series later moved to [[Creator/{{Wildstorm}} Wildstorm Productions]] with Creator/WarrenEllis taking over writing duties in 1996.

The third, going back to simply ''Stormwatch'' again, is by Creator/PaulCornell and incorporates the team into Franchise/TheDCU as part of DC's line-wide relaunch in 2011 (the "ComicBook/{{New 52}}" or the "[[FanNickname DCnU]]"). Stormwatch is a covert organization of superhumans that has been protecting the Earth from within the shadows for centuries, and they regard themselves as the "professionals" compared to Franchise/{{Superman}} and the new wave of "superheroes" he inspired. The ComicBook/MartianManhunter was a member of Stormwatch this time around, after an offscreen period serving with the [[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]] that ended badly. He summed up the difference between the groups by saying that when he's with the League he's [[TheCape a hero]], and when he's with Stormwatch he's [[ShootTheDog a soldier]].

The ''Stormwatch'' brand has been revived three times since then: first, ''Stormwatch: Team Achilles'' (2002-2005), a paramilitary team of Badass Normal Cape Busters. The title was cancelled unexpectedly when its writer was revealed to be faking the military background he was using to sell the book. The second incarnation, ''[[ComicBook/StormwatchPHD Stormwatch: Post Human Division]]'', drops the paramilitary and advanced tech aspects of Team Achilles, and has a even mix of supers and non-supers trying to do the job with a drastically reduced budget.

Ellis' run on the title introduced several memorable characters, such as the retired and cynical Jenny Sparks and urban empath Jack Hawksmoor. Ellis also didn't shy away from both political commentary (Stormwatch having to fight a corrupt and hostile U.S. goverment on multiple occasions) and commentary on the genre of comics as a whole (the history of Jenny Sparks). It also had the main leader of Stormwatch, Henry Bendix, reveal himself as a manipulative sociopath before he's forced to leave the organization. In 1997, most of Stormwatch was [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed offscreen]] or PutOnABus in the IntercontinuityCrossover ''ComicBook/WildCATs[=/=]Franchise/{{Alien}}s'' when the title was cancelled, and Ellis turned the surviving black ops unit 'Stormwatch Black' into the nucleus of ''ComicBook/TheAuthority''.

* HeroicSacrifice: Winter dies piloting the team's xenomorph infested station into the sun.

* {{Retcon}}: While still an evil arsehole it's later revealed the Bendix killed by Sparks was actually a counterpart from an alternate universe. The original would later return to haunt the second incarnation of Stormwatch Black a.k.a. ''ComicBook/TheAuthority''

* InSpiteOfANail: In the ''New 52'' version, Cornell established that Stormwatch had existed for hundreds of years, being a descendent organisation of Comicbook/DemonKnights, which in turn was inspired by several Camelots, all set up by Adam One/Merlin. In Starlin's first issue, the baddies kill Adam One at the beginning of the universe, meaning that none of this history exists. Why that hasn't led to humanity being taken over by the Daemonites/the Hidden People/the Evil Dolphin Army/the Questing Queen has not yet been unexplained.

* AbortedArc: When the Comicbook/MartianManhunter wants out of the group, the Shadow Lords say he can, but will one day owe them a favor, and that it will be something that he dreads more than anything else in his life. ... nope, never mentioned again.

* AscendedMeme: In the last few issues of the first 18 in the New 52 run, the characters themselves start cracking jokes and insulting Midnighter's chin-spike, and demanding he explain its purpose. Something that fans online had been mocking his new character design about for months.

* ButNowIMustGo: The ComicBook/MartianManhunter is as straight of an example as this can get. Out of the blue, he decides he must leave Stormwatch, because he has some kind of mysterious mission he must accomplish that he can not tell anyone. He then erases the memories of all the team members that he ever existed, and somehow struck a deal with the shadow lords to allow him to leave. Something that no one else was able to do in the thousands of years they have existed. He was then, obviously, never seen or heard from again.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the ''New 52''[='=]s zero issue, Jenny tells her team members in the final page "I've been watching a movie. But it had a downer of an ending. You really get into the characters and...and then everyone dies...". A rather dark warning to the readers that the series was on its way out the door.

* InNameOnly: The ''New 52'' relaunch contains only one prominent character from the original Stormwatch and the cast is being whittled down until only the members of ComicBook/TheAuthority remain.
* InSpiteOfANail: In the ''New 52'' version, Cornell established that Stormwatch had existed for hundreds of years, being a descendent organisation of Comicbook/DemonKnights, which in turn was inspired by several Camelots, all set up by Adam One/Merlin. In Starlin's first issue, the baddies kill Adam One at the beginning of the universe, meaning that none of this history exists. Why that hasn't led to humanity being taken over by the Daemonites/the Hidden People/the Evil Dolphin Army/the Questing Queen has not yet been unexplained.

* MerlinSickness: Adam One in the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' incarnation, who was an old man at the beginning of the universe and gets younger as it gets older. Appropriate, since [[spoiler: he ''is'' Merlin]].

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Jenny Quantum's powers are... vague. She doesn't actually really know what she can do, or how she does it, and neither does anyone else. It seemed to generally be "If she needs to be able to do this at the moment, then that's what her powers can do."

* RippleEffectProofMemory: The Shadow Lords in the ComicBook/{{New 52}} version; when Stormwatch is removed from history, they just set it up again.

* {{Retcon}}: While still an evil arsehole it's later revealed the Bendix killed by Sparks was actually a counterpart from an alternate universe. The original would later return to haunt the second incarnation of Stormwatch Black aka ''ComicBook/TheAuthority''

* SkyPirate: In ''[[ComicBook/JonahHex All Star Western]]'' #17, Jenny Freedom of the 19th Century Stormwatch clashes with Smokestack Jack; SteamPunk anarchist MadScientist based on a CoolAirship.

* StatusQuoIsGod: As mentioned in the description, the final issue of the New 52 ''Stormwatch'' reset the characters to where they'd been before the Kollective changed history. Except the Engineer, who got reset a bit further back, to before her FaceHeelTurn.

* DiplomaticImpugnity: During the original run, members of the team had diplomatic immunity, which was also conferred on family members. In issue #1, Jackson King reluctantly invokes this to keep his little brother Malcolm out of jail after the latter gets involved in an armed robbery.

* TookALevelInBadass: By the time of WildStorm's cancellation, ''everyone'' who was alive by that point was tougher/stronger/faster than when they were first written.

* EvilStoleMyFaith: One of the story beats in WarrenEllis's run, which carried over into ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' a few years later, was that God does not exist. The Doctor mentions it offhandedly in Ellis's final arc, and earlier, a "villain" called the Eidolon had come back from beyond the grave to try to convince people to make the most of their lives.

* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong: Winter, ex-Spetsnaz, field leader of Stormwatch's "Prime" team, and total {{badass}}.

As of issue 19, after the first try proved to not be as successful as DC had hoped, it got [[ContinuityReboot re-rebooted]], with writer Jim Starlin taking things back to something more similar to how they were in Wildstorm, complete with original logo. Previous stories were largely erased, Apollo and ComicBook/{{Midnighter}} went back to their old costumes, the Bleed was re-introduced, going back to Skywatch as their base of operations, introducing more classic Stormwatch characters like Hellstrike and Fuji. Though some elements of Cornell's set up remained, such as the Shadow Lords, it is pretty much a complete fresh start. The change resulted in a BrokenBase. Fans of the first 18 issues were NOT pleased with the change, due to it erasing events from {{continuity}} and heading in a whole new direction, while fans of the Wildstorm incarnation mostly rejoiced. Since the first storyline is "Something's happened to Stormwatch history; we need to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong", it remains to be seen how permanent Starlin intends the changes to be (especially given that the new set up contradicts ''Demon Knights'' and ''All-Star Western'''s "19th Century Stormwatch".) Unfortunately, the re-reboot didn't succeed in winning new readers, and DC cancelled the Stormwatch series, but not before the very last issue re-re-rebooted Stormwatch ''back'' to the #1-18 continuity.

** Also, ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'''s portrayal of the League as a larger organization with [[SpearCarrier support crew]] and political conflicts with the United States was also influenced by ''Stormwatch''.

Ellis' run on the title introduced several memorable characters, such as the retired and cynical Jenny Sparks and urban empath Jack Hawksmoor. Ellis also didn't shy away from both political commentary (Stormwatch having to fight a corrupt and hostile U.S. goverment on multiple occasions) and commentary on the genre of comics as a whole (the history of Jenny Sparks). It also had the main leader of Stormwatch, Henry Bendix, reveal himself as a manipulative sociopath before he's forced to leave the organization. In 1997, most of Stormwatch was [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed offscreen]] or PutOnABus in the IntercontinuityCrossover ''ComicBook/{{WildCATs}}[=/=]Franchise/{{Alien}}s'' when the title was cancelled, and Ellis turned the surviving black ops unit 'Stormwatch Black' into the nucleus of ''ComicBook/TheAuthority''.

* [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome Alternate Universe Jack Hawksmoor Is Awesome]]: In "The Bleed", we see a universe where most of the membership of Wildstorm's other superteams like the ComicBook/{{WildCATs}}, [[ComicBook/{{Gen13}} Gen13 and DV8]] are part of Stormwatch, under the leadership of Jack Hawksmoor.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Almost everyone who didn't join ComicBook/TheAuthority in the ''{{WildCATs}}[=/=]Franchise/{{Alien}}s'' crossover.

* TheRealRemingtonSteele: Kaizen Gamorra first appeared in ''{{WildCATs}}'', where he was revealed to be the original "John Colt" that team leader Spartan was based on. The real Kaizen was brought back in Stormwatch.

''ComicBook/{{Stormwatch}}'' is a series originally created by Jim Lee for Creator/ImageComics in 1993, though the series later moved to [[Creator/{{Wildstorm}} Wildstorm Productions]] with Creator/WarrenEllis taking over writing duties in 1996.

** OvershadowedByAwesome: StormwatchPHD makes it clear that the security teams and Stormforce consist of some of the world's best special forces agents and soldiers. They just tend to be horrendously outgunned by the rogue metahumans Stormwatch was created to deal with.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Stormwatch_preview_950.jpg
%%[[caption-width:300:some caption text]]

-->''My name is Henry Bendix. I am'' The Weatherman.

-->''I am the controller of'' '''Stormwatch''', ''the United Nations special crisis intervention team. I am the'' world's ''policeman''.

-->''I am the Weatherman -- and I've got your New World Order right'' '''here.'''

!!This comic book series provides examples of:

The third, going back to simply ''Stormwatch'' again, is by Creator/PaulCornell and incorporates the team into Franchise/TheDCU as part of DC's line-wide relaunch in 2011 (the "{{New 52}}" or the "[[FanNickname DCnU]]"). Stormwatch is a covert organization of superhumans that has been protecting the Earth from within the shadows for centuries, and they regard themselves as the "professionals" compared to Franchise/{{Superman}} and the new wave of "superheroes" he inspired. The ComicBook/MartianManhunter was a member of Stormwatch this time around, after an offscreen period serving with the [[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]] that ended badly. He summed up the difference between the groups by saying that when he's with the League he's [[TheCape a hero]], and when he's with Stormwatch he's [[ShootTheDog a soldier]].

* RippleEffectProofMemory: The Shadow Lords in the {{New 52}} version; when Stormwatch is removed from history, they just set it up again.

The third, going back to simply ''Stormwatch'' again, is by Creator/PaulCornell and incorporates the team into Franchise/TheDCU as part of DC's line-wide relaunch in 2011 (the "{{New 52}}" or the "[[FanNickname DCnU]]"). Stormwatch is a covert organization of superhumans that has been protecting the Earth from within the shadows for centuries, and they regard themselves as the "professionals" compared to Franchise/{{Superman}} and the new wave of "superheroes" he inspired. The MartianManhunter was a member of Stormwatch this time around, after an offscreen period serving with the [[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]] that ended badly. He summed up the difference between the groups by saying that when he's with the League he's [[TheCape a hero]], and when he's with Stormwatch he's [[ShootTheDog a soldier]].

As of issue 19, after the first try proved to not be as successful as DC had hoped, it got [[ContinuityReboot re-rebooted]], with writer Jim Starlin taking things back to something more similar to how they were in Wildstorm, complete with original logo. Previous stories were largely erased, Apollo and Midnighter went back to their old costumes, the Bleed was re-introduced, going back to Skywatch as their base of operations, introducing more classic Stormwatch characters like Hellstrike and Fuji. Though some elements of Cornell's set up remained, such as the Shadow Lords, it is pretty much a complete fresh start. The change resulted in a BrokenBase. Fans of the first 18 issues were NOT pleased with the change, due to it erasing events from {{continuity}} and heading in a whole new direction, while fans of the Wildstorm incarnation mostly rejoiced. Since the first storyline is "Something's happened to Stormwatch history; we need to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong", it remains to be seen how permanent Starlin intends the changes to be (especially given that the new set up contradicts ''Demon Knights'' and ''All-Star Western'''s "19th Century Stormwatch".) Unfortunately, the re-reboot didn't succeed in winning new readers, and DC cancelled the Stormwatch series, but not before the very last issue re-re-rebooted Stormwatch ''back'' to the #1-18 continuity.

* AbortedArc: When the Martian Manhunter wants out of the group, the Shadow Lords say he can, but will one day owe them a favor, and that it will be something that he dreads more than anything else in his life. ... nope, never mentioned again.
* [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome Alternate Universe Jack Hawksmoor Is Awesome]]: In "The Bleed", we see a universe where most of the membership of Wildstorm's other superteams like the {{WildCATs}}, [[{{Gen13}} Gen13 and DV8]] are part of Stormwatch, under the leadership of Jack Hawksmoor.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification (of ''Murder'' no less): Rose Tattoo

* ButNowIMustGo: The Martian Manhunter is as straight of an example as this can get. Out of the blue, he decides he must leave Stormwatch, because he has some kind of mysterious mission he must accomplish that he can not tell anyone. He then erases the memories of all the team members that he ever existed, and somehow struck a deal with the shadow lords to allow him to leave. Something that no one else was able to do in the thousands of years they have existed. He was then, obviously, never seen or heard from again.
* CanonWelding: The incorporation into the DCU.

* DepartureMeansDeath: Jack Hawksmoor's Weaksauce Weakness is that he can't spend more than a few hours outside a city. Makes all-hands meetings on the team's space station base awkward.
** The {{New 52}} version has found a way round that; the Eye of the Storm has a cathedral on board, to make it technically a city.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Almost everyone who doesn't join ComicBook/TheAuthority in the ''{{WildCATs}}[=/=]Franchise/{{Alien}}s'' crossover.

* ForeShadowing: In the New 52's zero issue, Jenny tells her team members in the final page "I've been watching a movie. But it had a downer of an ending. You really get into the characters and...and then everyone dies...". A rather dark warning to the readers that the series was on its way out the door.

* InNameOnly: The New 52 relaunch contains only one prominent character from the original Stormwatch and the cast is being whittled down until only the members of ComicBook/TheAuthority remain.
* InSpiteOfANail: In the New 52 version, Cornell established that Stormwatch had existed for hundreds of years, being a descendent organisation of Comicbook/DemonKnights, which in turn was inspired by several Camelots, all set up by Adam One/Merlin. In Starlin's first issue, the baddies kill Adam One at the beginning of the universe, meaning that none of this history exists. Why that hasn't led to humanity being taken over by the Daemonites/the Hidden People/the Evil Dolphin Army/the Questing Queen has not yet been unexplained.

* MerlinSickness: Adam One in the {{New 52}} incarnation, who was an old man at the beginning of the universe and gets younger as it gets older. Appropriate, since [[spoiler: he ''is'' Merlin]].
* MissingEpisode: The final issue of ''Team Achilles'' was scripted, and can be even found online, but was never finished. The writer, Micah Ian Wright, lied about his being an Army Ranger to get the job. When this was found out, he was promptly fired.

* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: Ellis killing off all the characters he didn't plan to use in ''The Authority''.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The final arc of Stormwatch Final Orbit where the majority of the cast are killed off-panel during a Wildcats/Aliens crossover instead of what you would expect the storyline to be: the confrontation between Sparks and Bendix which had been brewing since the middle of Ellis' run. The Bendix/Sparks confrontation happens but occurs across two pages. Thankfully years later a decent attempt was made at this storyline in the Revolution arc of Authority.

* TookALevelInBadass: By the time of WildStorm's cancellation, ''everyone'' who was alive by that point was several dozen times more badass than when they were first written. [[TheDarkAgeofComicBooks And considering when they were introduced]] that's saying something.

* MadeOfIron: Flint (MadeOfDiamond variant)

* NighInvulnerable: Flint is an exceptional case. So far, the only thing that has ''ever'' injured her is [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorph]] blood. She ''still has the scars''. The High, being a Superman Expy, is of course even more so.

** The Jennys are basically the AnthropomorphicPersonification of both the century and the concept they've taken as their surname. Jenny Quantum's power is unlimited, because she's the AnthropomorphicPersonification of science we don't fully understand yet (with the implication that, the more we understand of what quantum physics means - and ''doesn't'' mean - the more limited she'll become).

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Almost everyone who doesn't join TheAuthority in the ''{{WildCATs}}[=/=]Franchise/{{Alien}}s'' crossover.

* EvilStoleMyFaith: One of the story beats in WarrenEllis's run, which carried over into ''TheAuthority'' a few years later, was that God does not exist. The Doctor mentions it offhandedly in Ellis's final arc, and earlier, a "villain" called the Eidolon had come back from beyond the grave to try to convince people to make the most of their lives.

* InNameOnly: The New 52 relaunch contains only one prominent character from the original Stormwatch and the cast is being whittled down until only the members of TheAuthority remain.

* {{Retcon}}: While still an evil arsehole it's later revealed the Bendix killed by Sparks was actually a counterpart from an alternate universe. The original would later return to haunt the second incarnation of Stormwatch Black aka ''TheAuthority''

* SpiritualSuccessor: Most famously, ''TheAuthority'', made up mostly of characters Ellis created during his run on ''Stormwatch''. ''The Monarchy'' tried to follow in its footsteps with other Stormwatch members.