11. The Authority



First Appeared in: Stormwatch vol. 2 (1997)
Spin-offs: The Authority (various volumes)


I struggled with whether to include this one because this breakout success also led to the rise of an admitted sexual predator in comicdom. On many levels, I wish this spin-off hadn't succeeded, but I still keep Harry Potter on my shelf and still buy tickets anytime an Agatha Christie play comes to town, so I suppose I can learn to separate the work from its creator here too.

And man, Warren Ellis could write.

Stormwatch under Warren Ellis was always a treat, but when The Authority spun out of that series, it felt a bit like wearing glasses for the first time. All the best characters and aspects of Stormwatch came into greater focus, whereas the characters and ideas inherited from previous writers -the parts that weren't all that interesting to me- fell by the wayside. I was never as into the "wide-angle" cinematic storytelling that the first volume went for, nor the attitude and violence, but the concepts and characters...wow. Century babies, a man who "listens" to cities, the engineer, the heavily considered alternate dimension travel, all of it. Ellis went on to write at least two better series (the abandoned newuniversal and Planetary), but he was already taking idea-driven comics to the next level here. That it spun out of an early image title, created in an era of extreme style over substance, is all the more impressive.

#11 – The Falcon #1–4 (1983–84)





I've always had a soft spot for the Falcon, ever since I first encountered him in Captain America #272, back in mid-1982. I didn't buy this solo mini-series when it came out, but I likely would've done, had I known about it.

It was penned by Christopher Priest (who is credited here as Jim Owsley) and focuses as much on the Falcon's alter ego, Sam Wilson, in his job as a ghetto social worker, as it does on his super-heroics. The stories range from the worthy to the ridiculous, with Falcon having to deal with low-income housing problems and gang violence in the ghetto on the one hand, while also battling a mutant-hunting Sentinel (turns out Falcon is a mutant!) and foiling an utterly improbably kidnapping of U.S. President Ronald Reagan by street hoodlums on the other!

The art in the first issue is by Paul Smith, with the much maligned Vince Colletta on inks, but don't be put off by that: the artwork looks really nice, with some well depicted action sequences and some nicely moody ghetto scenes. M. D. Bright comes on board in issues 2–4 and his artwork is certainly serviceable, but for me it lacks the dynamic qualities of Smith's work on issue #1.

Overall, The Falcon mini-series is an entertaining and, at times, thought-provoking read. It succeeds in continuing the process of moving the Falcon away from his earlier '60s Civil Rights and '70s Blaxploitation-influenced characterisation and towards a more nuanced hero for the '80s (a process that was actually begun by J. M. DeMatties in his run on Captain America). Priest's desire to comment on the serious, real-world problems facing poor ethnic minorities in the ghetto is laudable, but it sometimes sits slightly uneasily next to the Marvel super-heroics. Still, this is a solid early '80s mini-series that I wouldn't be without.

11. Falcon
(the back-up features in Captain America #s 276-278)
The Falcon, Sam Wilson, first appeared in Captain America #117 and then become Cap’s sidekick, or rather partner, for quite a few years afterward, even sharing a title credit on the series. He appeared in a back-up story in Cap later, then in an issued of Marvel Premiere (#49, another personal favorite) before this little trilogy of back-ups, while a mini-series followed soon afterward (see Confessor's post above for details).
The set-up is this: Sam Wilson is running for political office, and then gets enraged when some sordid details from his past are dug up by a reporter – and those sordid details refer to a retcon done by Steve Englehart during his run on Cap in the 1970s, wherein he retooled the Falcon’s past to claim that he used to be a small-time hustler named ‘Snap’ Wilson (straight from 1970s central casting for a streewise pimp):

Essentially, Red Skull, using the Cosmic Cube, actually turned him into a goodie two-shoes as a part of a long game to mess with Cap. I never read those issues, but ever since I learned about it, I found it wrong for so many reasons.
So during his run on Cap in the 1980s, in came J.M. DeMatteis (with the regular Cap art-team, Mike Zeck and John Beatty) to do his own retcon and fix the damage. The story sees Sam slipping into his ‘Snap’ persona, so he then does a bunch of soul-searching, and finally with some help from the local pastor (well, sort of, but I won’t spoil it here) of the church he grew up in, comes to grips with his past and the man he truly is.

Honestly, nothing much happens here, as much of the story consists of flashbacks, often narrated by Sam’s older sister, Sarah, explaining his childhood and what *really* caused the ‘Snap’ episode. I just think it was so well done, as DeMatteis showed how to fix a bad retcon without having to do some kind of heavy-handed, massive reboot and wipe out a whole bunch of previous continuity.

^ He'll show up in mine too eventually....

Great selection. I was a fan of the mini as well. Just darn near forgot about it. Glad to see it get some love. 

#11 The Silver Surfer



I first encountered the Surfer at a new friend's place. The parents of the latter knew my own, and we had been invited for dinner one weekend. Luke and I, being roughly the same age, clicked immediately because we had a common interest for comics and we both drew ou own. In fact, for the next two years or so we would regularly meet and produce our respective titles on leftover paper our parents brought from the office, under the ponderous banner of "Venus Selection Comics". (That's Venus the planet, not the goddess of love associated with porn comics). Luke and I both had a clone of Conan, but while my own titles were very derivative of what Marvel put out at the time my friend was more creative and had a great portfolio of cool original concepts. (I just drew faster!). Each of our issues had to be 9 pages long, and I kid you not, we had around one hundred issues by the time we ceased seeing each other. But I digress.

So... meet a new friend, look at his comics... and there it was, in an issue of Thor: Balder the Brave and Karnilla climbing a high mountain, sending some kind of signal to the heavens by flashing a sword, and down zooms this strange looking fellow on a surfboard. I was hooked. Who was that character with a minimalist design? Did he, like, live up there in the sky? Why was he treated with such reverence, even by gods? How powerful was he?

In the following years, I got to read a few stories featuring the Surfer: his introduction in the Galactus Trilogy story (thanks to the Fantastic Four Treasury Edition) and his meeting with Mephisto (thanks to a French translation in a comic titled Nova). His character and power set seemed to vary wildly; alien and aloof in FF, powerful and noble in Thor; rather mopy against Mephisto... but I wanted more. The look, the murky backstory, the doomed love affair, I wanted MORE!

Another FF Treasury Edition helped some (the one with Galactus, Gabriel Airwalker and Richard Nixon), but it was Marvel's reprinting the early Silver Surfer issues in Fantasy Masterpieces that allowed me to finally learn who he was supposed to be. I won't lie, the way Stan Lee re-worked the concept after the Galactus Trilogy seemed to be a mistake; but I wasn't going to turn my back on a character I had been enthused with for so long.

Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers' revival in the '80s rekindled my inerest, and although I dropped the title when Ron Lim came aboard I was happy that the Silver Surfer had joined the Big Leagues again. Another great Kirby creation that started as a plot device and graduated to his own book (and far from the last on my list).

I heard good things about more recent incarnations of the Surfer, with creators like Jon J. Muth and Mike Allred. Perhaps I should give them a look.