Broken Frontier

Last week saw Wildstorm reboot The Authority, as Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman jumped onboard as the writing duo to take the book in a bold new direction. Here they are commenting on their opening issue...

Superheroes are frightening. Not for nothing, but they oughta be. Men and women with the power of gods -- hampered with the brains of mortals -- should be frightening. That was a major thread of Warren Ellis’ genre-redefining run on The Authority -- that, perhaps, heroes of the super variety shouldn’t be trusted.

Turns out superheroes can also be frightening to write. See, for us, this is the first time we’ve really had to tackle the cape set. Our Wildstorm cohort, WildCATS writer Adam Beechen, had some big-time warm-up before landing his gig: Robin, Countdown to Final Crisis, and Batgirl, to name a few. He’s old hat, while we’re...new hat.

So you can judge for yourselves whether or not that new hat fits. Here’s a little commentary on the first few pages of our first time writing superheroes. Hope you dig ‘em as much as we dug writing ‘em.

PAGE 1

ADAM: We wanted to start our run with a striking image that set up the entire premise and here it is - the stuck-in-UnLondon Carrier being hit with a mysterious energy beam from places unknown.  The idea is that this beam is the first thing to pierce the choking clouds covering the planet since World's End. Pay close attention to the skeletal skyscraper and you really get a sense of scale.

PAGES 2 & 3

ADAM: A quick little montage to remind us all of the emotional state of UnLondon: people fighting, babies crying. I love the disturbing image of the naked kids eating the dead dog. Jack with the cane is a reminder that although he is no longer 100% crippled, he is still not 100% and is tied to the status of the city.  In terms of pure physical health, he probably has more to gain by the events about to unfold than anyone. Also, get your fill of Angie here while you can. That's all I'm sayin...

MARC: While writing this, we wanted to sneak in a little bit of crazy-meta-textual commentary about us taking over the book. “To draw a line in the proverbial sand...and mark the moment after which things would never be the same.” Yeah, we love ourselves a little.

PAGES 4-6

MARC: These were maybe the hardest part of the book for us to write. Dipping into each of the superteams -- Gen 13, WildCATS, Stormwatch -- getting their voices right, placing them at the exact right moment for each of their stories without making it super-dependent on having read those books to know what’s happening... Yeah, that took some doing, and some massaging.

PAGE 7

ADAM: I wish we had the real estate to do more of this - show the scope of the panic and what the general population of UnLondon is thinking. Luckily a few thousand get trapped on the Carrier and we get to deal with the mass hysteria and mob mentality in the next few issues. The asshole in panel 2 is a prime example of why I love the Authority. They don't get no respect. You know Midnighter is using every ounce of his strength to keep from ripping out that guy's intestines.

MARC: And, yet, I love that Midnighter is still pummeling an old man for touching him. He’s not a touchy-feely guy. At all. Nor is he really a nice man. At all.

PAGES 8 & 9

ADAM: Wow. Al kicks ass.  This reminds me of that old "Contest of Champions" mini-series from when I was a kid.  We know that in shaking up the teams in Authority and WildCATS we can't please everyone.  Everybody has their favorite but at least this panel shows that while we couldn't take everyone, we respect their place in the WS universe.  And here's a little tip - you are going to see some long forgotten faces pop up from time to time.  Remember - the Carrier is an awful big place and with the massive chaos you never know who made it on board.

MARC: Sometimes, you just wanna write a cool guy giving a cool speech. We really wanted to make sure that, at the very least, every issue of our Authority would have a great comic book moment. And Jack Hawksmoor addressing the collected heroes of the Wildstorm Universe, telling them how it is and how it’s going to be? Yeah, for us, that’s a great moment.