Who are the Authority in DC Comics and Warner Bros.’ new movie?

There are a lot of common-sense projects in Warner Bros.’ new DC Studios roster: a Green Lantern buddy show set on earth, an Amazonian clash of politics and swords show set on Themyscira, a new Superman movie to set the new tone, and a Swamp Thing flick for the booming genre of horror cinema.

And then, there’s a movie about the Authority — a high concept superhero team from a little-known indie superhero setting created as a boundary-pushing reflection and celebration of the Justice League and the Avengers, whose two most famous members are basically “What if Batman and Superman were gay married?” They adopted a kid, and everything.

What’s the Authority? What is the Authority? How did the team become a DC Universe reflection? The answers are here.

What is DC Studios’ Authority film based on?

Image: Mark Bagley/DC Comics

In 1992, Jim Lee, current chief creative officer of DC Comics founded Wildstorm, an independent superhero series. This was where the Authority’s editorial start. Wildstorm was a kind of hard-edged, ’90s kid version of the Marvel Comics titles that Lee and his artist cohorts had quit in order to form their own publisher, and the Authority grew out of its founding superhero team, Stormwatch.

Image’s StormwatchThe title represents a new vision of the extra-governmental, weapons-toting, pro-active task forces that were the latest fad in superhero comics. But while the team’s brand of Schwarzenegger-esque one-liners and take-no-prisoners attitude was all the rage in 1993, it was looking increasingly dated by the end of the decade — and sales were starting to show it. Warren Ellis became the director of the series, with the responsibility to take it apart and rebuild it as he wished.

Ellis — who work is now overshadowed by persistent allegations of predatory interpersonal behavior — replaced Stormwatch with a completely new roster. You will now find the Union Jack-dressed Jenny Sparks and Trench Coat Guy leading Stormwatch. par excellence Jack Hawksmoor, Ellis’s new team didn’t just take a proactive approach to crises. Their whole purpose was to influence world events. They were willing to override or overthrow national governments. The Authority was created out of all the remnants of the former team.

Which characters make up the Authority?

Image by Warren Ellis/DC Comics

With Brian Hitch and Ellis, the title launched 1999. The book’s visual language was heavily inspired by blockbuster cinematic films. Ellis imagined his team as an ersatz version of DC’s Justice League, but one that engaged with — and exerted their will on — a world far more like our own. Alongside Sparks (alive since the year 1900, electricity powers, eventually revealed to be a human embodiment of the 20th century) and Hawksmoor (genetically engineered via alien abduction to take on the ineffable power of any city he walks into), were the Doctor (a magic-wielding mystic who was something like if Doctor Strange had no limits), the Engineer (a scientist who replaced her blood with 10 pints of nanomachines that can build essentially anything), Swift (Hawkgirl, but interesting), and the tag team of Midnighter and Apollo, clear analogues for Superman and Batman (with a little bit of Wolverine) who were — shock upon shocks for 1999! — a devoted gay couple.

He has a revolutionary approach to big-scale storytelling and decompressing it. And he takes a humorous, cynical view of superhero cliches. The AuthorityThe new millennium saw Ellis/Hitch quickly become a hot trendbook. This reputation was made even stronger by Ellis/Hitch’s team. Then came Frank Quitely and Mark Millar, who followed a loud and controversial approach that was very much in line with their original vision. Under their pens, the new team set the tone, style, and storytelling approach that (for better or worse) superhero series would follow for the next decade and change: From the cool-kid energy of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe (for which Millar wrote an updated Avengers), to the attitude of writer Grant Morrison’s concurrent run on DC’s JLA.

What is the difference? The Authority from other attempts to make “more realistic superheroes” was that while it was more violent, sarcastic, and gritty than the classic superhero team book, at its best, it retained a fighting optimism about superheroes as a whole. If the world sucked, then the Authority would grit their teeth and find a way to make it better, whether by punching a despot’s brain out through the back of his head, or using their bigger-on-the-inside headquarters to home refugees afterward.

What is the secret to DC’s inclusion of the Authority?

Image: Mikel Janín/DC Comics

Ironically, it is just as The AuthorityAs Wildstorm was about to begin its run, it went through a major corporate change. It moved from Image Comics ownership to DC’s new ownership. In the beginning, Wildstorm was run by its new owners. The Authority and other members of the DC family only interacted with Batman and the JLA in special, rare crossovers. But the launch of DC’s New 52 in 2011 inaugurated a new approach of gradually but steadily blending the two continuities.

And so, in 2021, the Authority came full circle, as Grant Morrison and Mikel Janín gave us Superman and The AuthorityA miniseries in which Superman assumed the leadership of the superteam’s globe-watching team and transformed them into an organization to defend humanity. And while that series seemed to be imagining an Elseworlds reality to come, Morrison (and their editors) were clear that it reflected the new status quo of the DC Universe, telling Comic Book Resources, “What I did was kind of retrofit it all in so it absolutely ties in, it’s kind of important […] it’s very much tying in with what happens next with Superman and with Superman’s son Jon Kent.”

So, two decades later, the Authority have become more than just a wiseass version of the Super Friends: They’re a sincere, if intimidating, encapsulation of what superheroes mean to the DC Universe in the new millennium. Here’s hoping the world is ready for them.