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 | The Authority: Kev. Garth Ennis & Glenn Fabry WildStorm Books, 144pp  The concept of the Superhero Group, exemplified by such famous teams as the Justice League and the Avengers, is one of the more optimistic ideas in comic books. Sure, it'd be nice if a bunch of friendly super humans could work together for the good of the planet, but real people tend to be less like Superman and more like the hero (if you can use the word) of this volume, Kev Hawkins.I have no way of knowing if 'Kev' is a typical example of 'The Authority' series, or if Garth Ennis, known for his foul-mouthed, in-your-face style, is just going to town on the concept, as this is the first of the books I've read. Certainly the protagonist seems out of place in the superhero genre. Kev Hawkins is an ex-SAS soldier who, following an embarrassing incident involving a member of British parliament, has been relegated to low-key assassination jobs that the government doesn't want to acknowledge. That is, until he's given the job of eliminating the eponymous superheroes who defend the Earth from every kind of intergalactic threat. This is where things get a little stupid. It's hard to believe a loser like Kev manages to trounce a super team later seen taking on an entire alien fleet without breaking a sweat. As well as being hard to swallow, it doesn't make for tense drama; or, more to the point, entertaining comedy. The next story sees two of The Authority's heroes, who happen to be a gay couple, reluctantly working with the very homophobic Kev and suffering much the same problems. What really sinks these stories is Kev himself. While the unreconstructed, yobbo loser is a well-established anti-hero that can work to great comic effect, Kev is so utterly charmless that you really don't care what happens to him. Even his roughneck SAS mates, his equals when it comes to swearing, smoking and drinking, make better role models. And on the subject of swearing, while I'm not the sort to take offence at the odd four-letter word, the sheer volume of profanity in these stories goes, literally, beyond a joke. The same could be said for the frequent and gory violence which makes Glenn Fabry's serviceable artwork quite unpleasant in places. I've heard good things about Ennis' writing before; that it's clever and darkly hilarious. Clearly this isn't his best work. Maybe he got so caught up in slaughtering the sacred cows of the superhero genre that he forgot there's a reason people like those comics so much.  | |
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