History ComicBook / TheAuthority

Rather aggressively satirized in the Superman comic book ''What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?'' and its AnimatedAdaptation ''WesternAnimation/SupermanVsTheElite'', in which their [[{{Expy}} Expies]] beat up Superman, who was concerned about both their violent methods and the pointlessness of killing them. He worked it out without killing them although it didn't look that way, [[MookHorrorShow making it a very frightening moment]].

* '''Apollo''', "The Sun God" (a Franchise/{{Superman}} pastiche with [[FlyingBrick powers of flight, indestructibility and laser vision]], lover of the Midnighter. A SuperSoldier who became a PhlebotinumRebel from a Stormwatch splinter cell before reconciling with the main organization.)

* '''The Engineer''', "The Maker" (A woman whose blood was replaced by [[{{Nanomachines}} nanotechnology]], making her a ChromeChampion GadgeteerGenius who can [[GreenLanternRing create her gadgets at will]].)
* '''Jack Hawksmoor''', "The King of Cities" (A man experimented on by aliens who were actually humans from the 70th century who has a symbiotic relationship with cities, granting SuperStrength and psychic abilities relating to a city and what happens within it. He was a member of Jenny's Stormwatch Black team.)
* '''Swift''', "The World's Greatest Huntress" (A woman with the ability to [[{{Animorphism}} grow wings and claws]], low-level FlyingBrick powers, and superhuman senses. Part of Jenny Sparks's Stormwatch team, and in fact the only character from pre-Ellis ''Stormwatch'' to survive into ''The Authority''.)

Created by writer WarrenEllis and artist Bryan Hitch, ''TheAuthority'' took the standard superhero tropes and shook them up with a {{manga}}-influenced "widescreen" style that used splash pages and large panels to make the business of saving the world actually look impressive for once.

* CorruptHick: One of ''TheAuthority'''s worst foes was a CorruptHick given [[SuperpowerLottery 1,024 different superpowers]] and set on them by the G7 leaders. When he's finally defeated, they punish him by [[BalefulPolymorph turning him into seven chickens]] and then [[BlackComedyRape bringing him home to his seven brothers]].

* PaidForFamily: In a decidedly creepy variation, in one story that has TheAuthority replaced by Heroic Sociopath Captain Ersatz-es, the Engineer has all her nanomachines removed and is brainwashed, then placed in a "family" of evil children and an abusive husband (all actors), [[HappinessInSlavery that she will be conditioned to never leave or go against despite the abuse they heap on her]].

* CorruptHick: One of ''TheAuthority'''s worst foes was a CorruptHick given [[SuperpowerLottery 1,024 different superpowers]] and set on them by the [[StrawmanPolitical G7 leaders]]. When he's finally defeated, they punish him by [[BalefulPolymorph turning him into seven chickens]] and then [[BlackComedyRape bringing him home to his seven brothers]].

* AntiHero: The team started out as extremely violent against potential world-ending threats, and was perfectly willing to kill thousands of invading superhuman terrorists, or cause extreme collateral damage in doing so. However, this is no different from the actions of regular soldiers, and could initially have been argued as type III, as they were extremely benevolent in other respects: such as helping to clear up the disaster zones after any conflict; feeding and hosting millions of war refugees, or victims of other disasters; protecting them from militias; freeing them from tyrannies through much less human casualties than a standard military could manage (through outgunning scare tactics); reforming supergenius criminals to help their research for cures to various diseases or life-improving technologies; and overall genuinely making the world into a better place. However, later writers who didn't like the themes arguably severely flanderised and tried to twist around the more idealistic notes that Ellis and Millar introduced, so among other things the team was tricked into "overthrowing the government of the US, and briefly taking over" (rather than, say, China, which would make far more sense).

* '''The Midnighter''', "Night's Bringer of War" (a Franchise/{{Batman}} pastiche who can work out how to win a fight in his head before it's even begun; he is also Apollo's gay lover and later husband. He shared an origin with his partner.)

--> --'''Jenny Sparks's''' [[FamousLastWords epitaph]]]]

--> --'''Jenny Sparks'''[[spoiler:'s [[FamousLastWords epitaph]]]]

* '''Jack Hawksmoor''', "The King of Cities" (A man experimented on by aliens [[spoiler:who were actually humans from the 70th century]] who has a symbiotic relationship with cities, granting SuperStrength and psychic abilities relating to a city and what happens within it. He was a member of Jenny's Stormwatch Black team.)

Both [[spoiler:Jenny Sparks]] and [[spoiler:The Doctor]] eventually died and [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute were replaced]] by {{Legacy Character}}s, [[spoiler:Jenny's next incarnation (Jenny Quantum)]] and [[spoiler: another Doctor]], respectively. By 2007, the other members remained in the team, and other characters, such as '''Rose Tattoo''' (Another ex-Stormwatch member and the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Spirit of Murder]], transformed by the current doctor into the Spirit of Life), joined.

Rather aggressively satirized in the Superman comic book ''What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?'' and its AnimatedAdaptation ''WesternAnimation/SupermanVsTheElite'', in which their [[{{Expy}} Expies]] beat up Superman, who was concerned about both their violent methods and the pointlessness of killing them. [[spoiler:He worked it out without killing them although it didn't look that way, making it a very frightening moment]].

Later writers took the team in a slightly different direction. Picking up on the idea that the team originally formed to ''improve'' the world, not just save it, they had them executing dictators, defusing international crises and even pulling a coup d'etat on the US Government itself. However, as StatusQuoIsGod, they have only rarely been able to effect any kind of serious change.

Both [[spoiler:Jenny Sparks]] and [[spoiler:The Doctor]] eventually died and [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute were replaced]] by {{Legacy Character}}s, [[spoiler:Jenny's next incarnation (Jenny Quantum)]] and [[spoiler: another Doctor]], respectively. As of 2007, the other members remain in the team, and other characters, such as '''Rose Tattoo''' (Another ex-Stormwatch member and the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Spirit of Murder]], transformed by the current doctor into the Spirit of Life), have joined the team.

* AntiHero ([[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes type IV or V]]): The team started out as extremely violent against potential world-ending threats, and was perfectly willing to kill thousands of invading superhuman terrorists, or cause extreme collateral damage in doing so. However, this is no different from the actions of regular soldiers, and could initially have been argued as type III, as they were extremely benevolent in other respects: such as helping to clear up the disaster zones after any conflict; feeding and hosting millions of war refugees, or victims of other disasters; protecting them from militias; freeing them from tyrannies through much less human casualties than a standard military could manage (through outgunning scare tactics); reforming supergenius criminals to help their research for cures to various diseases or life-improving technologies; and overall genuinely making the world into a better place. However, later writers who didn't like the themes arguably severely flanderised and tried to twist around the more idealistic notes that Ellis and Millar introduced, so among other things the team was tricked into "overthrowing the government of the US, and briefly taking over" (rather than, say, China, which would make far more sense).

** He also [[EvenEvilHasStandards refuses to harm children,]] to the point of refusing to go back in time and kill ''Hitler'' while he was in his infancy. This was after his severe reluctance to kill the infant [[OmnicidalManiac Jenny Fractal]], no matter how necessary it was, so it may be the reason he's unwilling to cross that line again just to save his own life.

* AChildShallLeadThem - Jenny Quantum: looks about 14, really about 8. Either way, she does her name proud.
* AfterTheEnd - The current state of the Wildstorm universe.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent - "The Elite" in ''Superman''; Nicola Zeitgeist, Nightfighter, etc in ''X-Man''.

* [[AscendedFanboy Ascended Fangirl]] - Angie was a big superhero fan before becoming one herself.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking - Literally. When the Authority takes control of the United States of America, they still continue their normal crime-fighting while running the country.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis - Midnighter. "I've already played this fight in my head, a million times, from each and every angle."
* {{Badass}} - Midnighter

* BadassLongCoat - Midnighter
* BadassNormal - Averted rather sharply; unlike his inspiration, Midnighter is most definitely ''not'' a normal, but a cyborg SuperSoldier with a computerized brain and superhuman physical abilities.

* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace - The Engineer, post-Ellis, as she needed to use her nanotech to create a helmet and breathing apparatus during his run. Quite possibly Midnighter himself, as he claims to be able to survive in anaerobic environments.

* BewareTheNiceOnes - On a normal day, Apollo is easily the most [[TheCape pleasant and idealistic]] of the group; it's hard to make him truly furious. On the rare occasions it happens, though, his anger is a [[GameBreaker terrifying]], [[FlyingBrick city-wrecking]], [[KillItWithFire burninating]] sight to behold.
* BewareTheSuperman - Between {{Knight Templar}}ish, brutally violent superheroes and supervillains that kill millions ForTheEvulz, {{Muggle}}s of Wildstorm universe live their lives in constant fear. You know it is bad, when the first reflexive reaction of the people upon seeing a previously-unknown super is to beg for mercy.
* [[BlackandGrayMorality Black and Gray Morality]] - While the Authority tend to be violent and brutal, a lot of its villains are arguably orders of magnitude worse. Memorable examples include Kaizen Gamorra, who killed millions for fun, or Regis, who headed an empire on an alternate Earth that turned all of China into a ''rape camp''.

* BloodyMurder - The Engineer can use the nanites in her blood to make just about anything.

* CallingCard - Kaizen Gamorra in the original storyline, symbolically drawing his family's symbol (a circle with three knots) on the Earth, with UsefulNotes/{{Moscow}}, {{London}}, and UsefulNotes/LosAngeles as the knots.
* CanonDiscontinuity - Issues 23-26 of the original run (a Filler arc which starred the replacement Authority created after Seth dispatched the originals) were never referenced again, removed from collected volumes and featured ''very'' contradictory characterisation.

* ClarkKenting - Alluded to/averted.

* ClothingDamage- Apollo. And how!
* ClothesMakeTheSuperman - The Engineer's nanites.
* ComicBookFantasyCasting - Jenny Sparks is visually based on the model Kate Moss.

* CrapsackWorld - Why does ''anyone'' live in major cities anymore given the rate at which they're leveled in the series?

* {{Expy}} - Apollo and Midnighter fill roughly the same roles on their team as Superman and Batman respectively, but actualy character-wise, Apollo is actually Wildstorm's version of The Ray, a rather obscure DC character.

* {{Flanderization}} - The team became more and more sociopathic and homicidal as time passed, especially compared to Ellis's version. Usually justified by Jenny Sparks being a MoralityChain for the team.
* FriendToAllChildren - Kids ''love'' Midnighter, [[RuleOfCool probably because they can spot a badass a mile away]]. For his part, Midnighter's pretty fond of kids, especially [[HasTwoMommies Jenny Quantum]].

* GeniusLoci - All cities, as long as Jack's there to talk to them.
* GetBackInTheCloset - In a textbook example of this trope, a panel depicting Apollo and Midnighter kissing was censored, while apparently Apollo getting raped by another man is just fine, as long as it's not pictured.
* GooGooGodlike - Jenny Quantum's reality-bending powers manifest when she's about three days old, and she immediately starts using them to help the Authority.
* HasTwoMommies - Jenny Quantum is adopted by Apollo and Midnighter. [[{{Squee}} Aren't they cute]]?
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower - Swift can, uh, fly! And grow claws! But these powers are actually very effective since she is fast and strong enough to tear apart jet fighters from other dimensions and [[SuperSpeed Speedsters]].

* [[SociopathicHero Heroic Sociopath]] - Emphasizing the "Sociopath" more as time went on, see the Designated Hero entry above.

* HeroInsurance - The Authority are one of the few superhero teams who acknowledge that the massive collateral damage from their battles can and probably has caused civilian casualties. The general understanding is that it's an unfortunate but necessary evil, since allowing their enemies to rampage unchecked would cause even more death and destruction. It's also worth noting that they try to limit the damage when possible, such as evacuating civilians and fencing in the combat zone, and are frequently on hand afterwards to help with the emergency services dealing with the aftermath.
* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct - The first story arc of Midnighter's solo series.
* HitmanWithAHeart - Kev Hawkins.
* HolyHalo - Apollo, whose halo gets dimmer when weak and brighter after a good sunbath.
* HumongousMecha - Jack Hawksmoor can turn ''entire cities'' into this.
* {{Jobber}} - There was a period where the Authority didn't have their own ongoing series, yet were still supposed to be the most powerful superhero team of their Earth. This led to the team only being used so that they could be jerks to the protagonists of other series, then swatted down to show off how cool those other heroes were. Examples include ''Stormwatch: Team Achilles'', and GailSimone's ''{{Gen13}}'' (where they substitute "[[HeelRealization realize what jerks they're being]]" for "swatted down"). Notably ''not'' the case in ''[[CaptainAtom Captain Atom: Armageddon]]'', where they were portrayed as the {{Badass}}es they are... it's just they were up against [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter a bigger Badass than they were]].
* KnightInSourArmor - Jenny Sparks.
* KnightTemplar - The heroes kill or threaten to kill anyone who opposes them.
* LegacyCharacter - Quite a few. Angie's the second Engineer, a new Doctor is made every time the old one dies, and a different Jenny is born to every age of mankind.
* LegCling - Kev receives one from Midnighter and his evil boss on one of the Kev covers. He does not look in the slightest bit pleased.
* LightningBruiser - At least half the team. Jenny Sparks was choosy.
* MadeOfPlasticine - Most anyone Midnighter gets his hands on. In one case he ''rips a guy's skull and spine right out''.

* ManlyGay - Apollo and Midnighter, especially the latter.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate - Jeroen. Every other Doctor as well. In fact, the only Doctor who is explicitly confirmed to have actually been a doctor(he was a heart surgeon) was an OmnicidalManiac who had the position of The Doctor revoked.
* MostCommonSuperpower - [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]]. Swift makes no secret of her "twenty-grand boob job."
* MotherNatureFatherScience - Inverted. The Doctor is in tune with the whole universe and deeply tied to nature, and is AlwaysMale; Jenny, reborn to every age of mankind, embodies that age's dominating technological advancement, and is AlwaysFemale.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero - In the above-mentioned IntercontinuityCrossover. [[spoiler: Nice job blowing up the universe and causing the cosmic reboot, The Authority.]]

* OhCrap - ''Don't'' cross Midnighter (or worse, hurt Apollo), or you ''will'' wear this expression. For either two seconds or until your face rots off.

* OvershadowedByAwesome - Swift is frequently this compared to her teammates, despite having powers roughly equivalent to Hawkgirl, who frequently holds her own amongst the rest of the JLA.
* PaidForFamily - In a decidedly creepy variation, in one story that has TheAuthority replaced by Heroic Sociopath Captain Ersatz-es, the Engineer has all her nanomachines removed and is brainwashed, then placed in a "family" of evil children and an abusive husband (all actors), [[HappinessInSlavery that she will be conditioned to never leave or go against despite the abuse they heap on her]].

* PowerCreepPowerSeep - While the Authority have always been heavy hitters, they all had reasonable limitations when written by Ellis, such as Angie's limited supply of nanoblood to use as weaponry and Jack's inability to survive outside of a city. Millar ignored this entirely when he took over and gave several characters new powers to boot, and almost all later writers have kept them at their new power level or higher.
* PropheticNames - Jenny Sparks, Jenny Quantum.
* RapeAndRevenge - [[spoiler: As mentioned below, the Commander raped Apollo. The last we see of him, it's implied that Midnighter intends to return the favor--with a jackhammer.]]
* RapeAsDrama - The Commander, an {{Expy}}/TakeThat against Captain America does this to a couple of nurses during a mission to find [[spoiler: the infant Jenny Quantum]] and then [[spoiler: Apollo after Thor expy Storm-God knocked him down and drains some of his solar charge via [[ShockAndAwe a lightning strike]]]]. This results in Midnighter being pissed and the aforementioned OhCrap example and it's implied that Midnighter's going to return the favor and [[spoiler: use the jackhammer to rape Commander back.]]

* ReedRichardsIsUseless - Lampshaded and averted. The Engineer, in particular, spends a lot of time making multiple copies of herself and spreading them around the world so she can simultaneously build wind farms, address the UN, research cures for diseases, etc., and Habib's first act upon becoming [[spoiler:the Doctor]] was to create peace in the Middle East.
* ReluctantWarrior - When Jenny formed the Authority, Jack and Shen had to adjust to the fact that it would often be necessary to kill their enemies. The former was extremely reluctant to kill and was disgusted by the two times he had to do so during his time in Stormwatch, while the latter was highly spiritual and preferred to avoid violent solutions whenever there was any other option. This... didn't last that long, mainly due to ItGetsEasier and different writers.
* SapientShip - The Carrier a spaceship that, while being made of metal, is fully sapient. However, it has only once spoken directly to anyone (and then it was only to tell hapless assassin Kev Hawkins what a prick he is).
* SlasherSmile - The Midnighter.
* ShockAndAwe - Jenny Sparks.
* ShoutOut - "This some kind of [[JakAndDaxter green eco]] thing, isn't it?" [[spoiler: No.]]
* SimpleStaff - Midnighter's collapsible metal staff... which he can swing fast enough to ''[[SubvertedTrope decapitate people]]''.
* SpinOff[=/=]SpiritualSuccessor - ''The Authority'' features many of the characters, plot elements, and themes from Ellis's revamp of ''Stormwatch''.

* {{Stripperiffic}} - The Engineer's aforementioned skintight nanosuit is ''very'' skintight.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe - As a result of power creep in the series, what The Doctor can do is limited solely by whatever the plot requires at the moment. Authors often try to portray him as a GlassCannon to counter his effective omnipotence and invincibility, but come on, when you are explicitly stated and shown to have enough mojo to ''create and destroy universes'', concocting some sort of personal shield shouldn't be particularly hard.

* SuperpowerLottery - Jenny Quantum and The Doctor.

* ThouShaltNotKill - Averted with extreme prejudice.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans - Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen.
* VillainousBSOD - The previous Doctor, after regaining his powers.
* WeaksauceWeakness - Jack Hawksmoor becomes catastrophically ill if he spends too long outside a sufficiently large city; one of his powers allows him to travel between cities without assistance. Fortunately, the Carrier is large enough to count as a city; unfortunately, Stormwatch's old satellite base wasn't.

* WellIntentionedExtremist - All of The Authority, really, but the Midnighter and Jack Hawksmoor tend to stand out as the most hardcore about their ideals and the most brutal.
* WingedHumanoid - Swift

* WriterOnBoard - The writer of the day tending to using the comics to ram their beliefs about politics and superhero comics at the reader; particularly obvious during Grant Morrison's run.

* YaoiGuys - Apollo and Midnighter.

** Midnighters hair color seemed to switch with every artist. Eventually a writer just had him say he likes dying his hair.

* DesignatedHero: The whole team. They can pretty much get away with anything because they're the good guys, and they don't suffer much doubt about what they do.

Midnighters hair color seemed to switch with every artist. Eventually a writer just had him say he likes dying his hair.

*** In his own series, he crosses the [[MoralEventHorizon Horizon]] with a particularly [[ToThePain cringe-worthy torture session]], showing himself to be a CompleteMonster who happens to fight villains.

The original series appeared in May, 1999. The story continued on from the recently cancelled ''{{Stormwatch}}'', where most of the team members first appeared during Ellis's run. Ellis started ''The Authority'' by blowing up {{Moscow}} and continued in suitably bombastic fashion, threatening the Earth with an imperialistic army from an alternate universe and a battle with [[GodIsEvil God]] itself. Hitch's detailed but kinetic panels conveyed the action with aplomb and the series's style essentially spawned the trend for {{Decompressed Comic}}s.

* CallingCard - Kaizen Gamorra in the original storyline, symbolically drawing his family's symbol (a circle with three knots) on the Earth, with Moscow, London, and Los Angeles as the knots.
* CanonDiscontinuity - issues 23-26 of the original run (a Filler arc which starred the replacement Authority created after Seth dispatched the originals) were never referenced again, removed from collected volumes and featured ''very'' contradictory characterisation.

* {{Pettanko}} - Jenny Sparks

** Also Jenny Sparks in her mini solo series.[[spoiler: Apparently during her brief time in Austria she felt sympathetic for a young artist trying to sell self-made postcards to passers-by. She decided to tell the poor lad he had absolutely no talent in art and should just stop trying. She whatsoever thought he HAD a rhetoric talent and therefore advised him to try politics. The said artists [[AdolfHitler name]]?...[[OhCrap Yeah]]]] To be fair she tried fix it.

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