It's time for yet another relaunch of the WildStorm imprint.  WildCATS has already re-started, but this week sees the return of flagship title The Authority.  So, what have they got this time?

Let's be blunt: the WildStorm Universe is floundering.  The last relaunch was an utter fiasco, with big name creators simply failing to produce the advertised comics, and stories being abandoned halfway through.  Sales have been sluggish for a while, and even the reviews aren't what they were.  It's time for something attention-grabbing and daring.  And desperate.

So, they've destroyed the world.  Well, more or less.  WildStorm's Earth has been wrecked in a miniseries that nobody read, and it's now a post-apocalyptic dystopia, with the remaining heroes stumbling around scavenging for batteries and trying their best to look after the survivors.  WildCATS involved that basic concept in America.  Authority is the same basic concept, in London.  Because that's where the Carrier crashed.

Now, on the one hand, you've got to admire the nerve.  This is clearly a last-ditch "try anything" idea - but by god, at least they've committed to it.  No half-measures here.  But... you know, what do you do with it?  There's a decent creative team on this book - Abnett and Lanning writing, Simon Coleby on art - but their approach isn't fundamentally different from WildCATS, and it's hard to see how matters can be different for the other titles.  It's a concept so overpowering that it smothers the individual titles.  Where do you go with it?

Still, it does just enough to persuade me to give it a couple of issues.  There are some neat ideas based on following through the logical effects of the apocalypse (and the collapse of all technology) on the Authority.  Apollo has to hover over the smog clouds in order to get any sun; the Engineer has lost her powers altogether; Hawksmoor is as wrecked as the city around him.  As a short-term inversion of the series, I can see something to it.  But beyond that, I don't know.

Will this new direction save the WildStorm imprint?  I have to say, I don't see it.  Remember when the New Universe blew up Pittsburgh and instituted a draft?  Or when the 2099 imprint went for environmental catastrophe and flooded New York?  They both involved basically the same idea - shake things up drastically.  But it didn't work, because nobody was reading.  Sadly, I think the WildStorm Universe is probably beyond salvage at this point, no matter how well they execute this direction.

Rating: B-

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