Though I'm not at all happy with the way this whole book spiralled down during the Millar/Quitely run, I'm well aware that The Authority is not and has never been a creator-owned book. Despite the stamp that creators Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch (and later Mark Millar and Frank Quitely) put on it, technically this is a book that DC and Wildstorm can do whatever they want with. That doesn't necessarily mean they should, and Scorched Earth pretty much confirms for me that though The Authority might be published again, The Authority I had any interest in is long dead. I've seen behind the curtain, and no matter that the team is now allowed to curse and it can echo the sarcasm and anger that defined them early on, I think that the heart of the franchise went out about the same time the company decided that it was a "franchise" and that it needed to be protected and remolded into a more company-friendly form.
It's hard to really blame the creators for the failings of this book, especially when I know that Morrison is capable of telling a ripping yarn, as evidenced by his work on the AIT/Planet Lar White Death. However, this story seems to largely miss the point. The threat facing the Earth is indeed something that fits the widescreen ethos, but tying it in to an obscure character from Stormwatch, even Warren Ellis's Stormwatch, misses the point about accessibility that defined The Authority. In addition, the anger and fury that the villain espouses seems hollow, nothing more than the usual "look how you humans destroy yourselves" stuff we've heard hundreds of times before.
Honestly, though, it's not the menaces that have defined The Authority previously, it's the characters. The hedonistic tendencies of Swift and The Doctor, the sense of wonder that The Engineer retained, the cynical anger that drove Midnighter, Apollo and Hawksmoor, these provided moments of characterization that defined them despite the focus on action over character. In this issue, however, the characterization is tired and uninspired. The one-liners lack spark and the characters seem to be going through the motions. Morrison cements the long-teased relationship between The Engineer and Hawksmoor and does some potentially interesting stuff with foster parents Midnighter and Apollo and their "baby" Jenny Quantum, but the rapid aging of that character put me off as well.
In terms of art, Frazer Irving has a tough road ahead of him, competing against Bryan Hitch and Frank Quitely. The panel arrangements and lettering style mimics the original book, but the style of the art seems to be attempting a cross between the gorgeous detailed realism of Hitch and Quitely and the moody abstraction of Wildstorm favorite Ashley Wood, and it just doesn't work. The reason that the alien invasion of Earth, the super-villain assault on world cities and the battle of The Authority versus a corrupt U.S. government team worked was because it was recognizably set in a "real world" setting. Irving substitutes blank space or explosive effects for detailed background, and even the impressive "money shots" are mostly splashes of color, relying on David Baron to do the job. But while Baron is certainly a talented colorist, there's only so much he can do with a few sketchy elements, and the result is that the intended widescreen effect falls flat.
I'm one of those who thinks that The Authority is a concept better left buried, that it ran out of gas in the middle of its second creative team's run. Whether or not that was a result of editorial interference is immaterial at this point, the fact of the matter is seems like everything that the book did first has now been incorporated into any number of other super-hero books, and it was never the characters that defined the book so much as the style that the creators brought to it. Make no mistake, the creators on this book have talent, and I suspect I'll enjoy their work on other books, but they're not the right team to bring The Authority back. Quite honestly, I'm not sure that team actually exists.
