Takeoff is optional, landing is mandatory: Jimbo and the Jet-Set ►
◄ My review: Defenders of the Earth (2024) new comic #1
Once upon a time (thirty plus years ago now) a comics publisher called Image was founded by creators as an alternative to DC and Marvel, with WildStorm being an imprint that primarily produced superhero comics. Being the 90s there was a lot of exaggerated art and shooty explosions, and a lot of it was highly derivative. But people who weren't traditional DC and Marvel creators also got opportunities to work in the genre, including Warren Ellis on StormWatch. As Ellis tells it the sales on StormWatch were low and it was only the fact that WildStorm was very creator-led as a company that kept it in production. The following title, The Authority, was therefore a conscious effort to do something more commercial, with Bryan Hitch bringing a detailed, dynamic cinematic style that proved to be very influential in the comics industry, acting as a catalyst for similar takes on the superhero genre such as Marvel's Ultimates and arguably their current films. The Authority had elements of pastiche but also set out to explore world-building with superpowers elevated to radically change things, rather than real world analogue political and economic structures always being a base to which everything would reliably be reset.
After that inflection point the WildStorm universe wound up with a shelf life in which stories could be told before the universe would become harder for readers to recognise and relate to, accelerated by the directions taken by other creatives playing in that sandbox. Fans of The Authority and WildStorm (or maybe it's just me) tend to focus on the "new ideas" establishing period; i.e. the original 12 issue run and maybe the StormWatch issues before it, as they set the scene for why the group exists, and why Aliens (yes, Ridley Scott aliens) are part of the reason. I have a soft spot for the sentimentality of the prequel Secret History of The Authority too, certainly more than for the Mark Millar main book issues.
There've been many attempts to extend or revive the concept, following the ebb and flow and eventual ending of the WildStorm universe and the imprint itself, and even revivals by its original writer with The Wild Storm (2017). The latter isn't bad, incidentally, nor particularly exciting.
Part of the problem is that, as already suggested, the team is inherently unbalancing to any fictional universe they exist in, and if they aren't you aren't doing it right. This means that by definition the concept doesn't work as part of the teeming DC universe, and usually gets bastardised into "this is why we don't kill" parables and parodies such as Manchester Black. There's a harsh "what can we do with this that's new but faithful" limit built in for anyone still fascinated with the idea trying to get lightning to strike twice.
As I say, I didn't really care for the first attempt to do that in the Millar and Quitely run by abandoning the distinctive art style and updating the lightning of the C20th from electricity to do-anything plot device quantum physics. For one thing, having two reality warping magicians on a team quickly becomes redundant. For another, century babies having an expiry date made so little sense it's even called out in issue 12 of the original run that the date is wrong, plus other century babies such as Elijah Snow or Doc Brass don't and electricity is still just as relevant in C21st. Energy beings tend to be essentially unkillable when a plot calls for it, so why not just reconstitute the character with a hell of a hangover but continuity? What made Jenny of the last century was a spark of life, creativity and invention that flared more or less brightly at different points throughout that century, supposedly influenced by (invariably Western) global events, and certainly seeming more dark by the end of it. For instance, nuclear science generally didn't heal or give people super powers and technology became an existential threat as much as bringer of hope. What I'm driving at is that the old century is still with us in this one, something this 1980s kid is keenly aware of, and dates are just labels.
So with apologies for not spending more time trying to explain century babies (the world having an immune system creating superpowered defences, is the typical take) and how we got here, is the new DC Black Label (i.e. unlikely to be in-continuity) six issue Jenny Sparks series by Tom King and Jeff Spokes any good?
Well, anyone hoping for characterisation that follows the Wildstorm series (which this seems to loosely follow on from at least the original 12 issues of) is going to be disappointed. A dozen and a half pages in, all that's happened is establishing Jenny as a Tank-Girl-esque character* who swears a lot and talks snarkily to a Batman whose real name she knows and equally dismissively to Captain Atom (latter cast as a pseudo-religious Dr Manhattan who's gone off the rails). And some original WS material ("Save the World. They deserve it. Be better. Or I'll come back and kick your heads in.") has been quoted, or misquoted, on page one to justify the conceit of this story. It's not exactly stuff that grabs you, except with how ham-fisted and po-faced it is. Who's now "tasked" Jenny with policing supers isn't detailed yet, unless it's simply the agreement with the Justice League, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it's a Spectre-type deal due to the emphasis on lightning, deaths/rebirth and religious overtones, or even the emphasis on "spirit".
*Apologies to Tank Girl fans, it's been a while since I've read much, and I'm referring to the aesthetic.
Captain Atom / Nathaniel Adam has been a go-to MacGuffin for DC, and indeed WildStorm, for a long time. In the well-known classic Kingdom Come he's a plot point, and likewise in the WS Armageddon event. Plus a previous DC event around a supervillain called Monarch, which I won't get into. Basically he has Superman-tier "quantum field" based powers and is nearly invincible/invulnerable but if his containment is breached, there's a massive and potentially world-ending nuclear incident. As Terry Pratchett put it, million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
The references get less subtle as the issue continues – Gable, Hitler, Einstein, etc. Captain Atom strongly suggests that he remembers The Authority as was, before "killing" Jenny again – just a gentle neck snapping and being left sprawled out rather than reduced to jam, for any necrophiles in the audience, although in fairness I suppose there's a bit of cheesecake for people who like men too. There are flashbacks which include Kaizen Gamorra's superhuman troops destroying London. A lot of pages are used up with narrative beat panels establishing "ordinary people" characters. Some time after killing a old guy feeding birds, Captain Atom walks into the same bar as the quickly sketched characters and apparently takes hostages, which has Sandman Doctor Dee diner vibes. Jenny reappears after a nap in the morgue and makes an explicit "spirit of the 20th century" reference.
There's not a lot here, even less that couldn't have been spit out by AI as an outline. That's a topical 21st century way of being rude about an author who I'm sure is perfectly lovely in real life, CIA background or not, but also unfortunately feels true. Not just about this, but about many comics. It's formula and regurgitation, and it's more annoying in proportion to how well-liked previous material was. This is a criticism of a lot of old WildStorm material too, of course.
DC has also recently been dusting off Planetary in its Outsiders series that started last year, a book that was only ever vaguely in-continuity with the WildStorm universe but using a character or two from feels slightly more at home in (the weirder bits of) a mainstream DC universe.
I think I'm going to come back to this once it's complete and see if it improved, but have low expectations.
A review of parts 2-6 can now be found here.
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