The Authority is Earth’s last hope in this The Wild Storm #23 exclusive

The Wild Storm is rapidly approaching its conclusion, and the book’s final chapters have introduced a new third party to disrupt the intensifying war between covert organizations IO and Skywatch. Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt have been building to the debut of The Authority for over two years now, and the group of heroes that changed the course of superhero comics in the new millennium has finally reassembled on the page to reclaim the Earth. The power behind the Authority is astronomical, and this exclusive preview of next week’s The Wild Storm #23 highlights the team’s extraordinary ability as its members let loose. Jenny Mei Sparks takes her connection to technology to new heights as she turns into a towering being of electric energy, taking out Skywatch aircrafts like they’re mosquitos flying into a giant zapper.

One of the best things about Davis-Hunt’s artwork is his emphasis on scale, and while the artwork in the original Wildstorm books was very in-your-face, the visuals in The Wild Storm often zoom out to show the action in relation to larger surroundings. That scale is on full display in this excerpt, which opens by reinforcing Jenny’s hugeness before jumping over to the regular-sized Jack Hawksmoor on the ground. By showing how small he is compared to Jenny, Davis-Hunt amplifies the impact of Jack using his powers on the same aircraft, depicted in an explosive splash page that feels even bigger than Jenny’s attack. Along with colorist Steve Buccellato and letter Simon Bowland, Ellis and Davis-Hunt have crafted a complex and exhilarating superhero story rooted in the current cultural moment, rejuvenating the original Wildstorm ideas by modernizing them in both the narrative and visuals.