"You all remember Union, some shitty mid-‘90s superhero that no one remembers.

Ha.

That is a hell of a sentence."

I enjoyed Millar’s first arc on the book well enough. Ths second a little less. The third less so.

I just got annoyed with the characters talking about how much they had changed the entire world by stopping a dictator, whilst they then fought The Avengers, a super villain and a big bad robot and evil versions of themselves.
It was everything we've seen before - and I get that was the point, but nothing new and exciting was done with it.

Chris -- Yeah, Lorcan's old site for the book... I'll have to look around it a bit more. What I found funny about the book is that it came out originally as I was finishing high school and I assumed that parts were over my head and here I am, eight years later, far more educated and, no, it's not over my head, it just doesn't work.

FGJ -- I never really thought about the unknown writer aspect. I enjoyed Millar's first arc on the book well enough. Ths second a little less. The third less so. The Authority flirting with their limits became something a weird thing for Wildstorm and one I may get into when I get around to doing one of these posts on The Authority: Revolutions by Ed Brubaker and Dustin Nguyen.

If you’ll recall, The Authority #13 was the first issue of Mark Millar’s run on the book with Frank Quitely where the group began applying their ideas more directly on the world, going after dictators and affecting direct change upon the political landscape. It was a natural progression for the book Warren Ellis had written for twelve issues.

If only they'd done it for more than that one issue it would have been a great run...

I also agree that McCrea wasn't suited for this title, but I've never been a fan of his style

I found an old Monarchy fan site that might help when reading this title
http://members.fortunecity.com/themonarchy/

Great write-up,Chad. You've made me interested in re-reading these books again Like you said, you got to respect the ambition despite the flaws

The defeat of Chimera is a bit too 'regular fight scene,' you're right.

Hadn't thought about McCrea's designs, but you're right, they are rather strong -- except for adult Happy Hank Bendrix who looks... I'm not sure I know how to describe that.

I wrote it, noticed what I wrote, thought it was funny, left it that way.

I appreciate that.

More than I appreciated The Monarchy. I read that series in full four or five summers ago, as part of an Authority binge. And, man, those first few issues were a head-scratcher, a confounding series of clues and set-ups that, thankfully, eventually merged into something. Bram was a welcome addition to the cast; in a series where events were purposefully put just at the edge of clarity and sanity and comprehension, his sad sack life was something to cling to, something that made perfect sense. Was his arc -- a loser hero being forced to become something he wasn't, forced to transcend -- a microcosm of the book itself? Taking a bunch of cast-off and knock-off characters and pushing them beyond the tropes of the genre, to become something...else? Except it devolves into a big fight scene at the end anyway. Eh...

As much as McCrea was absolutely, entirely, fundamentally the wrong artist for the book, I do have to give him credit on his character designs. They were all sleek, efficient, and distinct.

I was a bit surprised that you didn't mention Condition Red in your review. But, then, I guess he never did much in the series. He was just the guy who had the same name as Grifter's dead brother.

You all remember Union, some shitty mid-‘90s superhero that no one remembers.

Ha.

That is a hell of a sentence.

You actually got me interested in picking up the rest of this series. I re-read issue #21 a few years ago and STILL couldn't understand the confounded thing, and I know I bought a few issues of the ongoing but lost interest. I agree with you that McCrea wasn't really suited for it, though. He was a big reason why I bought it and he was also a big reason why I stopped buying it. I don't think I reached issue #5, but I don't have my long boxes in front of me, so I can't be sure.

Whatever happened to Young? I remember that when this book came out, a lot of people were touting him as the next big thing. That didn't work out too well.

Honestly, I liked the Monarchy, for all that it confused and baffled me. I preferred the science hero version of Happy Hank Bendix to the one that returned in the Authority a few years later... if you can't stay dead, at least come back interesting, right?

This was a lot more entertaining and thoughtful than much of what we've seen coming from the Wildstorm universe ever since they blew it up. Even in its failure, it had ambition and character. Ah well.

I met Doselle Young at a convention a few years back. I knew the name was familiar, but it wasn't until later than night when I snapped my fingers and made the connection. And that's it: the Monarchy, for better or worse, left that lingering, subtle impression on me.

I second the suggestion to check it out. It's not perfect, but by God, it's interesting.