I'm giving you once last chance, I whisper to The Authority: World's End #1 like it's an ex-girlfriend I just can't get over.  It looks at me doe-eyed and full of promise as it innocently peeks out from under a pile of Hulk #5s. I run my fingers over the glossy cover and smile.  It feels good.  Just like old times.

Authority, please don't hurt me again.

At one time The Authority was my favorite comic and its stars my favorite heroes.  They literally kicked ass and took names later.  Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch made this tiny comic feel like a big damn movie.

Then Jenny Sparks died.  Then Mark Millar took over.  Then The Authority became complete assholes.

Having complete assholes as main characters is not entirely a bad thing in a comic, but when everyone in the book is an asshole and they are constantly doing asshole-y things to each other and innocent bystanders are slaughtered by the thousands, it starts to feel a little distasteful.  Millar's run was riddled with controversy and parts of his final arc were censored, leaving it jarringly uneven.  At the end of his run the book was suddenly cancelled.

Subsequent creative teams followed the path forged by Millar and The Authority became angrier, more militant, more violent.  Reboot after reboot failed to regenerate interest in this once best-selling title.  Not even Grant Morrison could rehabilitate the image of these heroes.

Now The Authority is back, and, while not exactly the vanguards of good comics that they once were, they come off as heroes you can actually root for.  It begins with the line, "there's no world left for them to save," which is a smart callback to how Ellis began the original series with the line, "there's no one left to save the world."  The world has been nearly destroyed, and it's up to The Authority to save what's left.  Now, I had no idea that this series was coming on the heels of Wildstorm's latest makeover, but it didn't take me long to get the gist.  Gone are the heavy-handed attempts at making political statements, and in their place is some good, old-fashioned post-apocalyptic action. 

Who knows if this new setting will turn off fans of the original series, but both they and new readers can pretty much pick this up and get with the program.  The best bit:  Midnighter yelling to a group of survivors "Oh damn it all.  Run!  Run, now!  Just leave your stuff and run!"  There are some real stakes here, and the fun, naturalistic dialogue helps emphasize that point.

If you liked The Authority in any incarnation, give this a try.  If this is not the direction you were hoping for then, well, I'm sure you won't have to wait long until the next attempted reboot.