authority

Influence Without Authority (2nd Edition)
$29.95
Good information, good concepts. A bit repetitive and more oriented towards a sales/marketing perspective than general management.

The Authority Book 2: Under New Management
$17.99
Honestly, I've never been the biggest fan of Warren Ellis' writing. I think he has great ideas, but for all the uniqueness of the concepts, the writing is stereotypical in a lot of ways. The Authority themselves are interesting characters, and it's refreshing to see a superhero team with an agenda, but the villains are so laughably, stereotypically evil that it's hard to take the wannabe complicated morality seriously. The whole thing takes itself just a little too seriously to pull off having, say, a villain who literally laughs evilly while explaining his dastardly plan.

But I gave it four stars for a reason. For all its flaws, The Authority is unique, interesting, and really fun to read. The characters have interesting powers and they're used in interesting ways. The stories are action-packed enough that they don't leave much time for character development, but the characters are still pretty great. And the storytelling is good -- the plots are easy to follow without being simplistic, and the art is beautiful. It's nice to see a 'gritty' comic that uses such a full, bright color palette.

Those colors are appropriate to the tone, too. Sure, it's gritty and violent and serious, but it's also a lot of fun -- even the characters seem to have fun a lot of the time. Over the course of the series, you really get to see how being a superhero is both the best and the worst job in the world. And that's pretty cool.

So the bottom line is that I highly recommend The Authority to anyone who's entertained by violence and sardonic humor, and doesn't mind a bit of left-wing moralizing -- they lay that on a bit thick sometimes.

Authority
$18.95
I can't say enough how much this book has been a source of insight to me. It is a serious work, but it is very well written and quite accessible.He explores in this book as he does in others, the hidden and emotional sides of social bonds. Our ambivalence about athorinty is the subject of the book. John Locke thought all we had to do was get rid of kings to be free, but Sennet and the rest of us know we are still not free. why?read this and start to at least ask some of the right questions.

The Authority: Revolution, Book One
$14.99
Brubaker's writing style is not a satisfying match with the Authority at all. I was so bored I quit after two issues, came back for the last and thought he phoned it in. Did he really need to bring back Henry Bendix and Rose Tattoo? Yawn. It's truly disheartening that given a series that once had so much creativity and verve, Brubaker settles for formulaic predictability. I really didn't care for the art either. Great premise with the Authority overthrowing the U.S. government but the execution was completely fumbled and lifeless. The Ellis Authority is infinitely better. The Millar run starts fun and sadly deteriorates into a heartbreaking fiasco. Don't even bother with the later series. What could have been one of comics
great reinvigorations ends up a total dead end.