The unconventional super-team The Authority has recently entered the Superman mythos, and some of the current Superman writers have shared why that has come to pass.
"I can't take credit for The Authority idea at all, although I would love to," said Action Comics writer Philip Kennedy Johnson Saturday at Comic-Con@Home's virtual Truth, Justice and a Better DC Universe: A New Future for the Man of Steel panel. "For the next few months, the events of 'Warworld Rising' will be quickly building to a head. A lot of different threads are coming together."
"There's going to come a point of critical mass when the status quo on Earth will be irrevocably changed and things will not be able to continue the way that they are," Johnson said. "They'll have to be changed after what is about to happen, happens. And those will be the months in which the Jon Kent Superman story by Tom Taylor and John Timms begins, and Superman and The Authority come together in the pages of Grant [Morrison] and Mikel [Janín's] run."
In Morrison and Janín's Superman and The Authority #1, an older and weakening Superman searches out and recruits his former enemy Manchester Black to put together a new super-team who will "live beyond the law." So it's clear the Man of Steel isn't looking to form a new Justice League.
"The reason he's forming a new team is because his powers are diminishing," said Morrison. "He's trying to put people in place, but there are three levels of why he's forming a new team as well, and each one kind of peels back as we go through the story."
"We start to understand, 'We thought it was for this reason, but it's actually for this next reason, no it's actually for this third reason which is even bigger and more important,' Morrison continued. "But yeah, there's a lot in play and he's chosen these particular characters."
Morrison elaborated on the irony of Superman working side by side with one of his former enemies. "He's working with Manchester Black, a character who hates Superman, who spent his entire fictional career trying to humiliate and destroy Superman and suddenly this guy is asking him to be is the leader of his team."
The Authority appearing in the new series won't be the familiar team introduced by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch two decades ago, but will include original members Apollo and Midnighter. The new team will also feature OMAC, Enchantress, Natasha Irons and the new Lightray, in addition to Superman and Manchester Black.