(No Spoilers)

Here we go, finally delving back into the story started by Grant Morrison and Gene Ha 3 years ago.  Keith Giffen takes over writing chores and Darick Robertson doing the art.  Evident from the first page is Giffen’s writing style which of course differs greatly from Morrison’s.  But let me preface this is not a bad thing in the slightest.  In fact, people who were turned off by Morrison’s slow pace in the first two issues get a good dose of faster-paced story-telling here.  But it’s not all fast-paced.  Giffen does take time to slow down and give us some good character moments.

As we saw in the last issue, Midnighter was gearing up to face the U.S. army.  I was very leery of this (Yes, I’m American) but was gearing myself up for it because with The Authority, I’m used to dealing with a little controversy.  Thankfully, I think they went a smart route with this, which I won’t spoil here.

And I liked Darick Robertson’s art here.  I wasn’t too crazy about his art when he did The Authority: Prime mini-series but it seems to be stronger now.  Of course, it is a huge change from Gene Ha’s soft art in the first two issues, but Ha’s art seemed appropriate for how the first two issues were set up.  Even though I know Ha couldn’t done it, I have a hard time seeing how he would’ve laid out this issue (considering what happens in it) while keeping the feel of the previous two. 

Giffen does move the story along while keeping us connected with all the characters (even Ken’s wife) and ultimately bringing us to a cool and surprising revelation at the end of the issue.  It’s definitely something that comes out of nowhere, but the refreshing thing is that it’s not something anyone could have pieced together from the information laid out in the first two issues.  When this series started, I wasn’t sure what they’d do with the “superheroes in the real world” theme that they set up, but they’ve intrigued me enough to look forward to the next issue. 

Speaking of next issue, it looks like it’ll end this first 4-issue arc.  Which is a shame considering the excitement and huge strides they made in this issue.  I would’ve liked to have seen this go to at least 6 issues before they moved on to the next story.  I hate to think that they’ll have to wrap it up in just the next issue but I’ll wait and see what Giffen does with it.

Synopsis:

http://wildstormresource.wetpaint.com/page/Authority%3A+The+Lost+Year+%233