The Authority

Uh, but we should say here, number four on this list was yet another story involving Jesus Christ very much not handled gently.

This was a pitch that was for a book that thrived on pushing the envelope, The Authority.

This was a Bryan Azarello and Steve Dillon story where Christ was going to return to the Earth to fight The Authority, who he believed represented the Antichrist.

And in the ensuing battle, The Authority would actually kill Jesus [laughs] okay? Like, this was going to upset people.

But DC Comics just decided that in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, an ultraviolent superhero team that caused mass destruction was just something they didn't wanna publish at all, and they just canceled the series altogether.

So The Authority was just gone before that story could even be considered to be published.

[laughs] But that is insane.

As far as they went with things, that one seems like way too far.

That's what Marvel needed and that's what they got in him.

And Mark Miller, another one who, you know, he had done The Authority, which was a big success over at DC Comics.

But he hadn't had, you know, he wasn't this big name yet.

So him coming on to do Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men was a huge deal.

Understood.

The, uh, also regarding the, uh, the hero group in Kafka, the, the Strangers, um, and, uh, especially the conversations that Kafka has with yourself, uh, [laughs] and Ash, um, the, uh, there, there's echoes of The Authority obviously in, in, in th- in this.

I mean, that's ...

You know, especially given what you just said.

Is that, you know, is that fair?

Well, I mean, I think the ...

You know, what The Authority did at the time was bring in a new sensibility, sort of, you know, really let's just call it what it is, a kind of a more fascist approach to superheroes, a more militant approach to superheroes.

And, um, we all kind of grok to that to, to one degree or another.

It's hard to explain what it is, but it is a really great series, Planetary.

And then the first couple of, probably the first 24 issues of The Authority before they brought The Authority into the mainstream DC universe.

I don't know why they did that.

I just can't see The Authority working in the mainstream DC universe.

But The Authority as it originally was, just the independent wild stream universe, very well written, very provoking.

And probably one of the best...

I've seen of how they deconstruct heroes and still have them trying to help people.

Take care.