The Authority, Vol. 5: Harsh Realities

The Authority #5

by Robbie Morrison, Dwayne Turner (Illustrator)

High above the planet, aboard a fifty-mile-wide alien vessel, The Authority - seven awesomely powerful meta-humans - act as bouncers for the Earth. If you threaten the life and liberty of its inhabitants, they'll get nasty in the pursuit of your blood. Reality Incorporated is the first ever multiversal business corporation. They strip-mine and globalise on a universal scale. Now they want The Authority's technology as their next exploitable resource or they'll reduced the Earth to an asteroid cloud. The Authority has only one answer - fight's on! The latest volume in this acclaimed, gut-crunching series features a brilliant new creative team to pitch The Authority once more into action!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Science Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

So in this volume we find the Authority dealing the remnants of Gamorra, the country from the very first storyline. We also have another of the crazy ideas that make the Authority so entertaining. What if a billion dollar corporation found a way to jump from dimension to dimension? Think Walmart conquering all of reality and you get the idea. Unfortunately, however, this corporation is much move evil than Walmart. (Yes, really!) Thankfully, the Authority is there to deal with them.

The final story in the volume was more sad than anything, but since the title of the volume is "Harsh Realities" I suppose that's to be expected.

I still miss the original creative teams, but this volume was still pretty good.

[Chris Youngblood · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's truly sad to see a decent-to-good product decline into mediocre writing, sub-standard plotlines, and vulgarity for the sake of shock value like The Authority property has done.

The current author of this TPB needs to be removed from this project, and hopefully any other writing whatsoever, if this book is any indication of his level of storytelling. Not only have the characters of the Authority devolved into the one-liner-spouting, four-color comic book heroes they were intended to gently lampoon, but the stories themselves are so re-hashed and maudlin that I'm tempted day in and day out to just burn this book and pretend like it never existed. A multiverse-spanning casino taking odds on our heroes' survival? ::Yawn:: A pandimensional corporation that came about because a being of pure spirit was overwhelmed when it entered the body of a crime lord on the receiving end of a blowjob? ::YAWN SO HARD MY JAW DISLOCATES::

Toss in a few liberally-sprinkled fuck you's, and you've got the makings of a juvenile and literarily stunted product. Whoever decided to assign the scriptwriter and penciler to this book needs their head 'examined' - with a cricket bat at high speed.

Recommended for anyone who thinks the words "fuck you" equate to high art, and Twilight Twihards. Seriously, the writing level's about the same.

[Viki · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was still one of my best decisions to start reading The Authority and even though I liked the first big volume more, this was very very good as well. Sometimes it's refreshing to read less censored, more serious comic books and this delivers perfectly.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This issue consists of 3 distinct storylines. #0: High Stakes was my fav by far. The story was tight and fast-moving. It gave me a classic Bond feel in that there was a maniacal villain with a big base to blow up. I got the feel of why The Authority was getting a reputation throughout the multiverse. I gave this part 5 stars for the polish and the fun it provided. The next part #1-4: Reality Incorporated read uneven. The storyline wasn't real smooth or clear and I struggled to keep going. I easily got that Authority was dealing with the remnants of Gamorra, the description of which making me wish I'd read that issue instead. It got off the rails for me first when IMHO the little kid, Jenny Q wasted the frames she was in ( I love kids, but not in comics) and when too much couple time was spent between Apollo and Midnighter--the sappiness got to me, but I really lost it when the villain team Reality Incorporated came on the scene. They are what?! But the art and action were entertaining enough to get my 3 star overall rating for good/pretty good. The last part #5: Behemoth Blah. It seems they filled space with an undeveloped, unfinished premise. To summarize, this volume with its great beginning, uneven middle and lame ending gets an overall 3 stars.

[Mouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently I read this and forgot to review it on Goodreads! I made a few notes, but I don’t remember if I liked it or hated it! My notes didn’t seem overly critical, but they didn’t praise it either! Why didn’t I just review it right after? How long did it take me to read...a few days? A week? I don’t know? I seem to recall a series of short stories in it, but I can’t for the life of me remember what any of them were? Damn... I guess I’ll give it 3 stars since I didn’t light the book on fire and I actually returned it to the library on time!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is where the Authority started to show it's age.

Warren Ellis's "Relentless", Garth Ennis' "Midnighter" and "Kev" series, along with Mark Millar's "Jenny Sparks: Secret History of the Authority" and Ed Brubaker's "Revolution".

Harsh Reality is basically a giant Multiverse corporation trying to appropriate the Superheroes. The second story is them fighting a new religion "The Church of Transcendence" which converts 70% of the the world's population. Fun ideas, but they feel a little lower in the stakes.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The overall quality takes a bit of a step down as Volume 2 begins: the characters are a little flatter, the storylines are a bit simpler, and the overall world of The Authority seems a bit less three dimensional, but this is still heads above a lot of superhero comics in concept and execution. Hopefully the rest of Volume 2 picks up a little bit.

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not as good as the Warren Ellis run, or even the Mark Millar books. I reread those four volumes before this one and I was a little disappointed. Not bad, but forgettable. The Authority fights some people. They win.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5

[Trepkos · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I like the character and political messages, I didn't find this especially easy to follow.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the characters but this depiction and their stories are very surface level. Similar to the millar run without as much bombast and excitement.

[Fazun · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Joey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loaded with edgy rude 'tude anti-heroes.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love "The Authority" series, it's a superhero franchise I don't think is cheesy or stereotypical in the same way I think of Superman or Spiderman as. It's fresh, has great ideas, and contains some of the best writing in comics today. That said, it's had a couple of poor books. "Human on the Inside" had poor art and poor writing. "Harsh Realities" has poor writing though the art isn't as bad.

If you're familiar with Authority books you'll know that bad guys from another dimension threaten Earth with vast armies and the Authority battle them to win the day. Same thing happens in this book. Utterly uninspired. The bad guys lose, the Authority wins. It's also annoying as those who know who the characters are have to endure a whole issue reintroducing the characters and their powers.

Like I said it's a fantastic series and for those wanting to see the brilliance I'd suggest Warren Ellis's "Relentless", Garth Ennis' "Midnighter" and "Kev" series, along with Mark Millar's "Jenny Sparks: Secret History of the Authority" and Ed Brubaker's "Revolution". They're all awesome, unfortunately "Harsh Realities" isn't.

[Ma'Belle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a sad and frustrating thing to see a series start with thoughtful scripts and a sharp political awareness and then devolve into a string of cheesy one-liners. I like The Authority enough to keep plowing away, but I really hope Robbie Morrison's run is/was short-lived.

Ok, I have to give this a two-star rating because at least it's still better than most of the rubbish in the world of entertainment.

[Noah Soudrette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This first collection of Robbie Morrison's run on the Authority isn't bad, but it's not especially good either. While there is some nice character development, the book is mainly wall-to-wall fighting, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a little generic. Still, not a bad light read, just not as good as series one.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so this is more on the level of comics created by mortals but still extremely cool and original. I'm not sure if that's because Morrison is a great writer or because Milar set him up with a great world/heroes to work with (probably a little of both). I haven't really looked into how many more Authority comics there are but I definitely plan on reading them all.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leído del Absolute #3 de Norma, que ya reseñé por su lado. Por ahora, hasta que Goodreads encuentre un modo mejor de hacerlo, voy a tener que ir marcando ediciones superpuestas para tener bien en claro que estoy leyendo.

[Camilo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only the very last issue in there was halfway decent, and the art almost killed it for me. The main Reality Inc storyline was pretty bad, taking shock for no reason. The very first issue of this book was only memorable for how terrible it was. No rhythm, no real story.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. This is a reintroduction of The Authority. So I can forgive some of the stumble. This is pretty standard fare for a later era Authority. Better than an average book from some of the competition.

The art is far better here than in the previous volume hence the rounding up.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fair stories, but nothing really original.

[Curt]

Never finished. Uninteresting characters and who gives a shit story.

[Mer Mayhem · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5