Bin Fodder: The Authority – Part 5

 

As Mark Millar moves into his second arc on The Authority I start to sense the wheels coming off the track a bit.  I don’t entirely blame him, though.  He’s following in the footsteps of this generation’s most irreverent and off-beat writer.  Millar is struggling to match the intensity of what these characters can be while still using his own voice to guide these characters.

 

In this story the Earth, scared by the events of Ellis’s final story where “god” returned to reclaim Earth as its retirement beach house using creatures to un-terraform the planet.  The Authority saved the day but Earth is still reeling from the exposure and is determined to rid its surface of the annoying creatures whom brought the wrath down upon it.

Along the way we are introduced to another former Doctor whom it turns out is partially responsible for the Earth’s upheaval, even though he’s trapped powerless in a prison twenty-one million years in the past.  And we also continue to see the raunchier sides of the team members.

 

The Doctor gets married, overdoses and is nearly booted from the team.  Shen is continually tramping around and Hawksmoor and the Engineer, despite hooking up regularly, are still freely banging anything they can.  This is never more evident than in the final scene of the arc where we see the recently divorced Doctor in bed with a still-smoking Engineer.

 

But enough about the exploits of the team and to the nitty-gritty of the story itself; unfortunately it’s not as interesting as the other stuff.  Sad to say this arc seems almost a bit contrite and almost phoned in.

 

The feel of the whole arc is off a bit with Quietly sitting the first two episodes out, so the characters look, more than slightly, less than we’ve come accustomed to with the artists previous quality.  And when the story finally rounds out its conclusion is meant to be insightful and something of an “a ha” moment and a twist we didn’t see coming.

Admittedly I didn’t see the end coming, but mostly because it was the most boring outcome to the presented scenario imaginable.

 

I really hope the next arc gets back on track and Millar was just having an off cycle.

 

If you have suggestions for future Bin Fodder reviews, drop me a line in comments!  Or e-mail me at [email protected].

 

I can be found on Twitter – @tim_thewriter

 

Check out this week’s Playlist!

 

Till next Wednesday…

 

This is your Bin Fodder Guru Tim Blacksmith signing off.

 

Interpol – Mammoth, Rise Against – The Good Left Undone, Chevelle – Comfortable Liar, Rise Against – Whereabouts Unknown, Fastball – Wind Me Up, Carla Vallet – Streets of Tomorrow, TOOL – Parabola, Longwave – No Direction, Sparta – Hiss the Villain, The Ataris – New Years Day, Metric – Stadium Love, Final Round – Let’s Go

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