To be my number one pick of the week’s releases, all you had to do was tell me that Stormwatch would have Jenny Quantum as a team member. The Authority is one of my all-time favorite teams and books, and Stormwatch simply takes them and throws them in the DC Universe. If The Authority is not your thing (and in this instance, The Authority refers to ridiculously huge threats and the super-powered beings capable of stopping them), Stormwatch might still be right for you.

Where The Authority was outed and figures of the media as much as heroes for the world, Stormwatch returns to its Wildstorm roots making the group secret and deadly. This is basically how I wish Secret Avengers would have been handled from the beginning, and it works very well.

I like the team for its mix of DC characters (this is the coolest depiction of Martian Manhunter since Morrison’s JLA) with Wildstorm characters and new characters. I’ve read that Cornell wanted to firmly plant Stormwatch into this new history of the DC Universe, and it really does feel that way. The mind wanders when thinking about all the events still in DC continuity where Stormwatch might have had a hand in seeing how things played out. For example, I can’t wait to read about how they dealt with Green Lantern coming to Earth. That’s their role – instead of focusing on just really big threats, they’ve narrowed in on defending the world from alien invasions. It’s a great concept with pretty much infinite potential. The team feels big, but not too big. Cornell’s built quite the huge world for himself, and I couldn’t be more thrilled that he’s gotten the responsibility to take over the team that Warren Ellis made me love.

The only weak spot in the book for me was the art. It felt muddy at times, which was a very odd experience considering I was reading this digitally, and I haven’t noticed any art to not be crisp with great coloring, that is until this book. There’s some great stuff in here such as the depiction of Martian Manhunter or some of the more fantastical parts of the story.