The Authority: Human on the Inside

By Alex De-Gruchy
April 20, 2006

The Authority: Human on the Inside is an original graphic novel starring Wildstorm's team of hard-hitting superheroes created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, who started the trend towards edgier and more adult oriented superhero books in the late 1990s. The Authority wear costumes and possess amazing powers with which they save the universe time and time again, but they also use bad language, have sex, take drugs and aren't afraid to kill their enemies if necessary. Here, screenwriter John Ridley pens a story which deals with The Authority having to face a threat to the future itself while also facing personal battles much closer to home.

Plot

The Authority have never been a team to simply tow the line - early on in this story they pay a visit to the President of the United States and threaten him into calling U.S. warships back from the Pacific Rim. The Authority don't want to hear any excuses about "weapons of mass destruction," and a humiliated President concedes. After the team leaves, the President consults his colleague Dr. Ledbedder, who tells the President he has a plan to deal with The Authority.

Enter the Erinyes, three goddesses who are the mythical punishers of sinners, and who happen to owe Ledbedder a favour - the Erinyes lure The Authority to them, and a battle takes place. After suffering a severe defeat, with the apparent death of team member Swift, The Authority are only saved by the sudden appearance of Danny Chan, a man who has no superpowers, just lethal martial arts abilities. Danny returns with the battered heroes to their spaceship, the Carrier, but unbeknownst to the team, Swift is alive and being tortured by Dr. Ledbedder and Danny may not be all that he seems. Their battle with the Erinyes also seems to have affected The Authority's general judgement, as they struggle to work and live together when their emotions begin to overrule their common sense. And all the while, they have no idea that the extinction of their entire timeline is racing backwards from the future towards them.

The basic premise behind Human on the Inside is a sound one - to add some depth to these superhuman characters in having them battle some personal demons before uniting to stop a huge threat to human existence. However, it never really works. The terrible threat that The Authority face in the end never really plays a significant part in the story until the final act, and there are several other elements which just don't tie together - the Erinyes are established as being amazingly powerful yet only appear briefly early on before disappearing, and the character of Danny Chan is simply redundant to the story. Just how and why Ledbedder has affected The Authority's judgement is never fully explained, and on the whole is a weak threat to the team during the story.

Characterisation

The Authority are some of the most powerful superhumans on the planet - Jack Hawksmoor, who draws his strength from Earth's cities; Midnighter, possibly the most deadly man in the world; Swift, who combines flight with amazing speed and vicious talons; Apollo, an almost-invincible man that absorbs power from sunlight; the Doctor, the most powerful mystic on Earth; and finally, the Engineer, who has amazing technological knowledge and can transform her metallic skin into weaponry. They work together to keep the planet safe, yet they are flawed heroes - for example, the Doctor is a heroin addict, and though two pairs within the team are couples, only a few of them actually feel affection toward one another. In this story, we also have Dr. Ledbedder, who seems to have a deep-seated hatred towards The Authority. We only learn later on that Ledbedder has his own personal crusade besides doing the bidding of the U.S. President.

Realistic and flawed characters are nothing new to the world of superheroes, but when those characters aren't even particularly likable, we have to wonder why we should give a damn about them in the first place. Unfortunately, this is the case with The Authority. Despite their human flaws, you never empathise with or relate to these characters. The main theme behind this whole story is human emotion, yet it never really pays off, though Ridley tries to inject some emotion into the characters and plot. Ledbedder's motivations ultimately are clichéd and pointless, and the exploration of the characters within the team seems to go as far as a trivial annoyance with one another. Hardly enough to make you emotionally invested in these characters.

Art

The artwork is by far the strongest and most impressive aspect of Human on the Inside, as the pencils and inks of Ben Oliver combine beautifully with Wendy Broome's colours to give the book a unique look that you wouldn't necessarily expect to see in a (relatively) mainstream superhero book. Having seen Ben Oliver's art in a recent issue of Marvel's Ultimate X-Men, I can safely say that his work on display here is far superior because of the smooth and textured colours by Wendy Broome. Broome's colours provide much more depth to Oliver's pencils and inks, which achieves an appearance of a painted finish.

Oliver's linework is also very slick in its own right. One such example is his depiction of The Authority's ship, which appears clinical but at the same time very high-tech. It looks perfectly balanced, never coming across as either too cluttered or unimaginative. The action scenes are also well executed by Oliver. Some examples of this are Danny Chan's very brief but powerful assault on the Erinyes, and Midnighter, Jackson and Danny Chan taking on a group of soldiers later on in the story. However, due to the lack of more intense and emotionally-involving action, I couldn't help but think that with better material, the art could have been that much better. It seems the potential of Oliver and Broome really letting it rip with one big, thrilling action scene was wasted here. The title characters, who are apparently bad-ass superhumans, only have one real battle together that occurs early on in the story, in which they are taken apart like amateurs anyway.

Overall

The Authority: Human on the Inside seems to be an attempt at a story that combines real depth of characterisation with an intense action driven premise. However, on the whole, it fails on both counts. Although some emphasis is put on the emotions of and relationships between these characters, there never seems to be much point to any of it, and it certainly doesn't make you empathise or relate to them any more. This situation isn't helped by a weak plot that never really grabs your attention and simply ends with a whimper rather than a bang. The action scenes are lacklustre and never feel integral to the events, and are certainly not as good as some of the high-octane action scenes that The Authority became known for under Warren Ellis' and Mark Millar's tutelage. Despite the wonderful art in this title, the only people who I would recommend it to are long-time Authority fans who simply can't get enough of these characters - anyone else could be very disappointed with what they get.

Publisher: Wildstorm
Writing: John Ridley
Pencils & Inks: Ben Oliver
Colours: Wendy Broome
Original Graphic Novel