History ComicBook / SupermanAndTheAuthority

* FeelingTheirAge: Part of this story, like with ''ComicBook/SupermanPhillipKennedyJohnson'' and part of the inciting stuff for ''ComicBook/SupermanSonOfKalEl'' is Clark realizing he's not a young man anymore and dealing with his mortality.

* BilingualBonus: The second issue has a pair of robots cleaning up Manchester Black's vomit speak in Kryptonian to each other. Deciphering the words reveals they're saying "Analyze vomit." "No, ''you'' analyze vomit."

* LawyerFriendlyCameo: When Superman leads Manchester Black through the Fortress in the first issue, a panel has the time machine from ''Film/TheTimeMachine1960'' in the background, as well as what appears to be [[Series/DoctorWho a TARDIS]], which is painted red instead of blue.

** In the second issue, Manchester Black refers to his first meeting with Superman as "when I was young and evil, and you'd only just got started on your journey to irrelevant old-manhood", which gives a pretty clear opinion on how Morrison thinks that story changed Superman's general trajectory. (Admittedly, there's also a CallBack to ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'' in that panel, suggesting [[SelfDeprecation Morrison's willing to admit fault there.]])

* BigBadWannabe: Ultra-Humanite spends a good chunk of the story posturing about how he's Superman's ''real'' first villain, how he practically invented supervillainy, and how their battle will be a grand showdown to last the ages. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Superman just sees him as a relic of an older era, has no interest in continuing their rivalry, foils his scheme with relative ease, and quickly recognizes him as a pawn of Brainiac. (Quite tellingly, Ultra-Humanite spends most of the story in the body of a zombie.) When Superman declares that he doesn't want to fight him, Ultra-Humanite believes that Superman fears the idea of facing him--in reality, Superman simply views fighting him as an unproductive waste of time.]]

''Superman and the Authority'' is a 2021 Creator/DCComics four-issue mini-series written by Creator/GrantMorrison, with art by Mikel Janin. Serving as an interquel to ComicBook/SupermanPhillipKennedyJohnson run.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The four issue series ends on a {{Cliffhanger}} where Clark reveals that the team's next big mission is to help him liberate Warworld from it's tyrannical rule, a plotline that will be picked up in [[ComicBook/SupermanPhillipKennedyJohnson Action Comics #1036]].

* TheBusCameBack: Issue #3 features the appearance of Iron Cross, Coldcast and Fleur de Lis. The first two haven't been seen since before Flashpoint, while the third one only appeared for a single panel during ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock''. Issue #4 ups this further with a reappearance from the pre-Crisis version of [[spoiler:Koko, Brainiac's pet monkey]].

** Jenny Sparks = Manchester Black: a hard drinking Brit who wears a Union Jack and dislikes superheroes.

** The Doctor = The Enchantress: a super powerful magic user who also might be unstable and has a dark past.

** Superman mentions the ''second'' fall of Camelot. This is a reference back to Morrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'', where the original Camelot echoed through history, resulted in a number of ''other'' Camelots, all of them eventually falling. This is even echoed in this issue with Kennedy (whose administration was called "Camelot") being assassinated.

** In the ''Batman/Superman'' special that follows up on the series, Midnighter mentions Dick Grayson when he first meets Batman. This is referring to the events of ''ComicBook/{{Grayson}}'', where the two worked together on-and-off.
* {{Depower}}: Superman is slowly losing his powers. He says that flight is going first, so he is making sure to hover six inches off the ground at all times just to keep practice.
* DolledUpInstallment: Morrison wrote the comic with the intention that it be a standalone out-of-continuity tale, perhaps to serve as a distant finale for ''ComicBook/ActionComicsNew52''. However, it was rolled into standard continuity, leading to a number of tweaks--for instance, the intent of the JFK scene was that this Superman was around in the JFK administration, but it was given a quick HandWave as time travel.

** The entire concept of Superman founding the Authority seems to be inspired by The High, who was a very Superman-esque hero in the Wildstorm universe who realized that his attempts to "save the world" were doomed and so went against the government and founded his own team; his attempts to create meaningful change were a major inspiration behind the Authority's formation. Notably, Superman points out that attempting to actually defy the world's governments is a good way to make things worse (as he puts it, those same liberal ideals nuked Hiroshima), suggesting that he wants to avoid a situation similar to that of The High.

** The Fortress of Solitude here is called "Fort Superman," as it was on the cover of it's debut, ''Action Comics'' #241.

* NewMediaAreEvil: An AI that formed within the internet was absolutely horrified by what it found there, and created defences based on its view of humanity: misinformation-spewing bots, body-shaming trolls, and obnoxious and vicious edgelords.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: One of the core ideas of the comic is that Superman spent so long wrapped up in superheroing that he failed to affect larger issues or change the status quo. He wants to form the new Authority in part because he hopes they can do better.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The four issue series ends on a {{Cliffhanger}} where Clark reveals that the team's next big mission is to help him liberate Warworld from it's tyrannical rule, a plotline that will be picked up in [[SupermanPhillipKennedyJohnson Action Comics #1036]].

* DolledUpInstallment: Morrison wrote the comic with the intention that it be a standalone out-of-continuity tale, perhaps to serve as a distant finale for ''ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsActionComics''. However, it was rolled into standard continuity, leading to a number of tweaks--for instance, the intent of the JFK scene was that this Superman was around in the JFK administration, but it was given a quick HandWave as time travel.

''Superman and the Authority'' is a 2021 Creator/DCComics four-issue mini-series written by Creator/GrantMorrison, with art by Mikel Janin. Serving as an interquel to ComicBook/PhillipKennedyJohnsonsSuperman run.

** Both Black and the Ultra-Humanite mention that Superman has revealed his secret identity to the world, which happened during ''ComicBook/BrianMichaelBendisSuperman''.

* SpiritualAntithesis: It stands as one to the original ''ComicBook/WhatsSoFunnyAboutTruthJusticeAndTheAmericanWay'', which introduced Manchester Black. While ''What's So Funny'' depicted Superman as diametrically opposed to the anti-heroes, this story shows him as sympathetic to them and their attempts to affect meaningful change, only trying to guide them onto a brighter path. While ''What's So Funny'' has Superman refuse to compromise his ideals ever, this story has Superman admit that the path he's taken his career on has largely ''failed'' to generate meaningful change, and try to evolve his methods. While ''What's So Funny'''s climax hinged on [[MightMakesRight Superman proving his superior methods]] by being able to crush the anti-heroes easily, this story depicts a weakened Superman who needs their help. And while ''What's So Funny'' portrayed the anti-heroes as utterly monstrous supervillains who do nothing but kill wantonly and incidentally hit bad guys, this story depicts them as {{Unscrupulous Hero}}es at worst and victims of larger issues who are lashing out at a world genuinely going sour. Even the first issue, which features Superman using his heat vision to surgically heal Black, is a counterpoint to the finale of ''What's So Funny'', where Superman used his heat vision to disable him.

''Superman and the Authority'' is a 2021 Creator/DCComics four-issue mini-series written by Creator/GrantMorrison, with art by Mikel Janin.

** Both Black and the Ultra-Humanite mention that Superman has revealed his secret identity to the world, which happened during ComicBook/BrianMichaelBendisSuperman.
** When Midnighter tells Apollo that they've scored a spot on Superman's new team, he specifies that he's talking about "Sexy Dad" Superman, not "Skinny Next-Gen," referring to Jon Kent who took up Clark's mantle in ComicBook/SupermanSonOfKalEl