All things come to those who wait. In the previous issue of Abnett & Lanning's excellent Authority run, we finally found out why Apollo's been MIA since being bitten by an Incubite in issue #5. These creatures, misshapen human carriers of the Warhol Virus (15 minutes of rage and biting before self-destruct!), looked like a fun but shallow plot device when they appeared in issue #1, something to generate fight scenes and provide horror moments. They've strayed into all the other World's End titles, but they've mostly remained a mysterious threat, showing up to rampage, infect people, or get zapped by the good guys. Unfortunately for Apollo, zapping stuff in World's End takes a greater toll on him than usual, hence the bite. Issue #11 confirmed he was infected, but the sting in the tale was what infecting a post-human had done to the virus. Now it has a mind and a voice and a name for itself: the Burn. And as the movie 'The Thing' has taught us, no good can come of a virus with personality.
Issue #12 is all about the payoff, as the infected and possessed Apollo crashes into the Carrier and attacks his team-mates. As you 'd hope, it's a hell of a fight, with several distinct stages and some clever flourishes with Angie's nanotech (her generous loan to the group is especially fun, and Coleby's drawing of her versus the virus is the stuff of shiny nightmares). As ever DnA write some great, snippy fight dialogue, and The Burn/Apollo is an enjoyably nasty piece of work. The resolution to the fight seems a bit convenient at first, until you reach the end and see that it's not a resolution at all.
One of the consistent appeals of this series is the way Abnett and Lanning balance chunks of fast-moving plot with character moments and pathos. Predictably this action-heavy issue rests some emotional weight squarely on Midnighter's shoulders. His sparsely-expressed anguish is very poignant, especially his realisation that, even when he can't bear to think of something, his fight-mind will still tell him a million ways to do it. There's also a nice snappy moment between Angie and Jack harking back to his behaviour in issue #5.
If I have one reservation it's that Apollo's been out of the major story threads for quite a while now, and although this has made for some wonderfully written emotional drama, his absence is starting to seem a little over-constructed. I have plenty of confidence in DnA's planning and storytelling, but now that Apollo's back on the Carrier, I hope his stay in the not-so-proverbial refrigerator will be brief.
Drew Johnson provided some pages of artwork in this issue. He's a highly competent artist and some of his compositions are very striking, but Simon Coleby is a hard act to follow.
