I think I need to admit to myself that I just want more from this comic than I’m likely to get.

The moon’s attack on Earth continues in usual STORMWATCH style – or, rather, AUTHORITY style – as the team deals with each component of the threat as only they can. And that’s okay, I guess, but the problem I see here is that, well, this isn’t THE AUTHORITY – this is DC’s STORMWATCH.

There’re several things that made THE AUTHORITY’s formula work, and generally it had nothing to do with overcoming superhuman crises. Not really. THE AUTHORITY took the time to deal more with the characters as individuals than STORMWATCH has yet to do, and, more importantly, the entire premise of THE AUTHORITY put the characters not only on the world stage, but in a position of dubious morals. Because DC’s Stormwatch team is clearly a covert operation – one that wants to conceal its existence from even the Justice League – I don’t see this as likely to happen. The characters are still good if handled right, but right now this book feels like it’s trying to emulate the style of a series that simply won’t fit in this shared universe. STORMWATCH needs to do its own thing.

That all said, there’s nothing really wrong with this issue – it just is what it is. If you liked the previous issues, this is the next logical step. If you didn’t, this won’t change your mind. It is, perhaps, telling that my favorite part of this issue did not have anything to do with the plot and characters at hand, but rather when the “spirits” of Metropolis and Gotham made brief appearances. That was kinda neat.