The new DC Universe of films and TV series includes heavyweight heroes such as Batman and Superman, new spins on familiar icons such as Supergirl, and a universe of Elseworlds stories where gritty takes on the Joker can thrive. Wedged between all of these projects is a superteam of anti-heroes who have never made it to the big screen before; A squad of pragmatic metahumans known as the Authority.
Essentially an anti-Justice League, the Authority have existed in several shapes and forms since 1999, but never made it beyond the printed page. The closest we’ve come to an Authority feature film was Superman vs. The Elite in 2012, an adaptation of 2001’s Action Comics #775 in which Superman faces off against a vigilante team that’s an homage to the Authority.
Fast-forward to now, and the Authority is finally primed for the silver screen as part of the new DC Universe being run by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Described as a very different kind of superhero story that’ll be seen in the DCU’s Gods and Monsters lineup of projects, Gunn says that the film will lean into the morally grey area of justice that the Authority represents. In case you’re wondering just who folks like the Midnighter, Jenny Sparks, and Jack Hawksmoor are, we’ve prepared a quick breakdown below that’ll get you up to speed.
Origins
The team first hit store shelves in 1999’s The Authority by Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch, and a creative team that also included Paul Neary, Laura Martin, and Bill O’Neil. Some of the concepts for this series can be traced back to publisher Wildstorm’s Stormwatch, another vigilante group that operated in secret as a covert squad sponsored by the United Nations. When that group was shut down, team leader Jenny Sparks decided to take matters into her own hands and she formed a brand-new squad that could protect the planet from various local, cosmic, and interdimensional threats.
The big difference here when compared to Stormwatch? The Authority was self-funded and answered to no government or nation as it got the job done by any means necessary.
The Anti-Justice League
While superhero teams like the Justice League have clear rules and limitations, the Authority bucks that trend and follows a very loose code of honor. This team isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty, and by dirty, I mean stopping supervillains with techniques that would make the Mortal Kombat team wince. The Authority takes a no-nonsense approach to fighting crime and crises, operating under a might-makes-right assumption that leaves scores of dead bodies in their wake and plenty of collateral damage all over the globe.
Extreme violence is just one tool in the Authority’s arsenal, and they’re not concerned with public perception of their actions at all.
Who’s in the Authority?
Like most superteams out there, the Authority’s roster constantly changes and sees members rotate in and out of service. The first team included a diverse selection of members and future-thinking geniuses, with each member having unique powers and approaches to saving the day.
Jenny Sparks
Every century of human history has had a guiding spirit, and Jenny Sparks filled that role as a force for change and good throughout the 1900s. Able to manipulate electricity, Sparks would eventually die when the 2000s began and was succeeded by Jenny Quantum, the Century Baby of this era.
Jack Hawskmoor
The King of Cities, Jack Hawksmoor was abducted and experimented on by aliens, and was returned to Earth with several new abilities. Able to form a symbiotic connection with any city that he’s in, he has increased strength, durability, enhanced senses, organic sneakers for feet, and a huge chip on his shoulder.
The Engineer
Obsessed with superheroes from a young age, Angela “Angie” Spica used her genius to create a radical form of nanotechnology, with which she replaced her blood. With nine pints of tiny robots inside of her, Spica can armor himself in liquid metal, shape-shift, and communicate with machines via technopathy.
Midnighter
What if Batman scrapped his no-killing rule? You’d get the Midnighter, a cynical vigilante who can beat you before you’ve even thrown your first punch. Midnighter drew a winning hand when it comes to combat abilities, as his combination of battle precognition, survival implants, enhanced physical attributes, and keen tactical senses make him one of the most dangerous men alive.
Apollo
The muscle of the Authority and Midnighter’s husband, Apollo has several powers similar to that of Superman. With enough solar power, the Sun King is on par with the last son of Krypton and is almost unstoppable. Even without his environmentally friendly energy source, Apollo is a force to be reckoned with as sparring with Midnighter has helped develop him into a master hand-to-hand combatant.
Swift
A genetically gifted fighter who has put aside her pacifistic beliefs to help protect the world, Swift lives up to her name with dazzling speed when she’s airborne. Her avian genetics make her a dangerous fighter on land as well, and she also serves as the navigator for the Authority on the Carrier, the group’s mobile sentient spaceship headquarters.
The Doctor
Not to be confused with the BBC’s resident time-traveling alien, the Doctor is one of the most powerful beings in existence when he’s sober. Recovering from his drug addiction, this incarnation of the Doctor is the latest in a long line of Shamans of Earth and can essentially rewrite reality with his vast magical powers.
Recommended reading
There’s been a steady line of Authority comic book series and graphic novels, so if you’re looking to brush up on their adventures before they make their big screen appearance, now is a great time to dive in. Ellis and Hitch’s 12-issue run makes for fantastic reading if you can find The Absolute Authority: Volume 1, while Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, Tom Peyer, Dustin Nguyen, and Arthur Adams also put together a solid number of issues after Ellis and Hitch left.
The Authority Omnibus is a gigantic tome that collects all of these stories together if you want to save on shelf space, and subsequent appearances of the team after it was rebooted can be found in the trade paperbacks Harsh Realities, Fractured Worlds, and Coup d’etat. Beyond that, more adventures of the team were collected in The Lost Year, World’s End, and Rule Britannia. In the current era of comic books, a recent mini-series by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janín saw Superman team up with his old nemesis Manchester Black to form a new version of the Authority. How does Superman’s heroic nature exist alongside the more pragmatic approach of the Authority? You’ll have to read to find out.
What to expect from the Authority movie
It’s still early days for DC Studios and its upcoming adaptation, but the team’s live-action debut doesn’t sound like it’ll shy away from its cynical nature and extreme violence. “The Authority’s a very different kind of superhero story,” Gunn said during the reveal of the DC Universe’s projects. “They are basically good-intentioned, but they think that the world is completely broken and the only way to fix it is to take things into their own hands, whether that means killing people, destroying heads of state, changing governments–basically, whatever they want to do to make the world better. We’ll see how that journey goes for them.”
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