These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
YMMV: The Authority
Complete Monster: Seth is a sadistic (implied) child rapist who calls himself the "six billion dollar bastard". Tired of the Authority's interference in their affairs and afraid of their influence on the world (particularly after the Doctor ruined two presidential candidates by causing them to make out in public), a coalition of interests decided to develop a living weapon capable of defeating the Authority. To this end, they either acquired or kidnapped Seth, an skinny, ignorant, and unambitious hillbilly with an apparent history of being sexually abused by his uncles, transformed him into a cybernetically-enhanced monstrosity, then set him loose inside the Carrier. Armed with over 1,000 post-human abilities, Seth very quickly neutralized all of the Authority, with the sole exception of the Midnighter and Jenny Quantum, who managed to steal a jet and crash it into the side of the Carrier. Despite this, Seth ripped the Carrier from its orbit and scuttled it in Antarctica. Convinced that Midnighter and Quantum were dead, the coalition allowed Seth to retire to a residence within the White House with a harem of prepubescent girls. The surviving Authority members, meanwhile, were all dumped into degrading new lives while the team was replaced by a new team approved by the seven richest governments on Earth. Unbeknownst to all at the time, Seth's scuttling of the Carrier tore a hole in the Bleed.
Designated Hero: In the beginning, the Authority were hardline with their ideals and used violence reasonably. With Jack Hawksmoor as leader receiving the position after Jenny Sparks's death, the Authority became increasingly predisposed toward unyielding moral positions and merciless brutality as time went on, but the entry of another character , Jenny Quantum/Quarx, as a member of the team softened them somewhat. Now, their level of violence is about par for Wildstorm's post-apocalyptic world, so they're no better or worse than any other group.
Right from the start, this was the case. Ellis has said on more than one occasion that he wrote the Authority as villains, just ones who happened to fight even bigger villains. The first story arc does end with Midnighter plowing a giant swathe through a populated city just to reach one person, after all. If that's not enough for you, one arc later the Authority stops an invasion from a parallel Earth by totally and indiscriminately destroying a whole country to eliminate enemy's infrastructure, even though by that point it is clear that the invaders are completely outmatched by them anyway. Starting from Miller's run, however, the comic increasingly turned into a vehicle for political Author Tracts, where the Authority were indeed designated to be heroes, although, obviously not all readers were convinced.
In the "Utopian" arc, their actions kill off an entire alternate earth.
Fanon: Artists have given Midnighter several different hair colours, probably because he keeps his cowl on so much that none of them know any better. Fans have used this to draw the conclusion that the otherwise Manly Gay Midnighter just loves to dye his hair.
In a Storm Watch: Achilles comic, Midnighter admits that he's a natural redhead. He just likes to dye his hair.
Mary Sue - Jenny Sparks\Jenny Quantum are basically God Mode Sues. They only die after living 100 years but they don't age after becoming women, nothing can kill them otherwise... doesn't help that Sparks is considered an Author Avatar.
Idiot Plot: Whenever the Authority is supposed to successfully solve a real-life problem (by their usual and almost the only method, namely killing or threatening whomever they don't like) the current author seems to know only as much as he saw in the news on his favorite TV channel.
