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Updates here and here.
Key bits:
quote C Comics has addressed the circumstances surrounding the delayed issues of The Authority (#'s 27-29, parts 2-4 of Mark Millar's final story arc), and while the publisher has announced those issues will be published after a six week delay, the planned relaunch of the series as part of Wildstorm's new 'Mature Readers', Eye of the Storm line, has been "put on hold."
"In the wake of the tragic events of September 11th, DC Comics announces several changes being made in regard to future plans for The Authority," reads a press release the publisher issued Tuesday.
"Issues #27, 28, and 29 of The Authority, which have been announced as being delayed, are now rescheduled, with each issue expected to reach comic-book stores six weeks later than originally announced. This follows some editorial adjustments that had already been in discussion in recent weeks and which were crystallized by the events of September 11th. The issues are now scheduled to arrive as follows:"
o The Authority #27: In stores December 5
o The Authority #28: In stores January 2
o The Authority #29: In stores February 6
"In addition, the intended relaunch of The Authority has been put on hold, as the creative team of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Steve Dillon are no longer involved with the project," continues the announcement.
"After the very real events of 9/11 and what unfortunately is yet to come, there was no way the story I had planned for 'The Authority' could be told - period," said Azzarello in the release. "This has more to do with philosophical and religious belief systems that would have been touched upon rather than the widescreen destruction and intimately graphic violence that make 'The Authority' such a unique book. Instead of watering down and drastically changing what I had planned, I decided to withdraw from the book. End of story, but not my relationship with Wildstorm."
When the relaunch and the new line was announced this past summer at the San Diego Comicon, Wildstorm EIC Scott Dunbier said this of the Azzarello's plans, "The new series kicks off with a familiar level of violence and butt-kicking - followed by an unexpected bout of conscience in which the team members must examine their personal beliefs."
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DC also confirmed The Authority: Widescreen one-shot - originally scheduled for November - has been removed from DC's publishing schedule "due to concerns over the story 'The Man with the Quantum Brain', written and illustrated by Bryan Hitch."
Of the Special, while Hitch originally reported to Newsarama that he suggested that DC postpone the issue (with which DC agreed), he later said at The Art of Comics that to make the issue publishable, timewise he couldn't work it into his schedule.
"I certainly understand postponing it for a while, it was my suggestion to do so, but it seems they are only willing to publish (and this would be for second quater next year) if the story was set somewhere property destruction was none existent and noone was in any danger of dying. I was offered the Moon as an alternative to NY. Failing that I was offered the chance to write and draw a completely new story for the Widescreen book, but due to my exclusivity with Marvel and the rather heavy commitments on The Ultimates I don't see that happening anytime soon."
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"Despite all the turmoil we're going through to find the right path for The Authority, I'm confident that there will be new Authority projects in the future," said Jim Lee.
DC did not address the status of the previously announced two-issue story arc by Garth Ennis and an unnamed artist that was planned to bridge the end of Millar's run with the spring Azzarello/Dillon relaunch, or announced whether the title would return as an ongoing series with a new creative team.
Warren Ellis has some good points to make about this:
quote:"What's 'appropriate' is a choice for publishers to make, not creators - if anyone's going to make it," answered Ellis. "The story you want to tell should be the only consideration. But then, I had a story 'shitcanned' because it was about school shootings. Bryan Hitch is a much nicer person than I am, and volunteered to DC/Wildstorm the idea that his Authority story should be postponed - but it was always going to be killed anyway. And has been.
"DC comports itself as any large entertainment company would, and has, in the midst of events like 09-11. Film companies are pulling movies they deem inappropriate in the circumstances, TV networks have pre-empted material for the same reason. Like them, DC remains very sensitive to the topic of appropriate material, and is perhaps too careful about the art it introduces into the culture. This is no insult: it's just the way it is, and it's childish to behave otherwise. Paul [Levitz] and Jenette [Kahn] do what they believe is best for the company, and they certainly seem to believe it would be incorrect to introduce callous material like The Authority into an intensely charged and sensitive cultural situation.
"The Authority will not appear in any form we recognize for some time to come. Because for it to work, it must be callous. It must be horrible, and violent, and must be gleeful about what it's doing. If it's not cranked up to ridiculous volume, viciously insulting to the genre that spawned it and blatantly absurd in its scale and its disregard for human life... it's just another superhero team book. You can find those anywhere.
"Unfortunately, the clash between the Authority style and the real-life events and attitudes surrounding it means that, at least for a little while, it'll have to be just another superhero team book. If it's going to be published at all.
"Personally, I think the audience is ready for it. It's escapism, and it's revenge fantasy on the biggest possible scale. But the people who make the decisions clearly believe otherwise. I mean, there's no bad guy. They want to do what they believe is right. It's just that I believe that stuff exploding and people getting kicked is always right."
I actually disagree with that last bit though: personally, The Authority now looks like an idea whose time has passed (it was always meant to be a pop comic, wasn't it? trashy, irresponsible, insane fun). Bring on the pacifist futurist comics. |
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