Is it wrong for me to find that woman utterly terrifying?
: Midnighter- I think it just proves that you're still human.
: Jack Hawksmoor
The Authority #6 is an issue of the series The Authority (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1999.
Synopsis for "Shiftships (Part II of IV)"
Jenny Spark recalls her first encounter with the Sliding Albion reality - an alternate reality dominated by blue, alien hybrids - in the 1920s. Until the 1950s, the British government had been hiding the existence of Sliding Albion. In 1953, Jenny Sparks meets Saul Baxter (Lord Emp) at a secret gathering which includes the "blue bloods". Later, Jenny receives word that Sliding Albion has gone to war with Europe on their parallel Earth and that they stand on the verge of "Parallel World War One". In an act of desperation, Sliding Albion opens a rift between the two worlds, effectively deflecting a biological attack on the populace of Wildstorm's London.
In the present, the forces of America's air force, the Authority and the shiftships of Sliding Albion continue to battle each other over Los Angeles. Jenny Sparks stop the invading forces by electrocuting every enemy shiftships, disabling in midair. Sparks then warns the invaders that her Earth is under her protection and forcing them to retreat back to their reality.
Back on the Carrier, Jenny Sparks informs her teammates an explanation of Sliding Albion: in a parallel Earth, a group of aliens known as the "Blue" visited the planet during the Renaissance of the 1500's in which the royalty of Europe and the visitors coexisted and interbred. By the early twentieth century the resultant fusion of culture led to the establishment of a imperialistic society based in England known as Albion. Overtime, this society grew stagnated, and to solve this, the denizens of Sliding Albion used their technology to seek to invade and conquer other parallel realities. Eventually they discovered and made contact with the British government of the Wildstorm universe.
After Jenny finishes her story of Sliding Albion's withdraw from the Wildstorm universe in 1953, she figures that contacting a known "indigene" from Sliding Albion who is held as a prisoner will explain as to why Sliding Albion is invading Earth again. After contacting a listening post of British Intelligence in seeking access to the prisoner, Jenny brings Swift and the Engineer to see the prisoner in Rendelsham. The three meet the prisoner known as Lorenzo, who is revealed to be Jenny's ex-husband.
Appearing in "Shiftships (Part II of IV)"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Saul Baxter (Flashback only)
Antagonists:
- Shiftships forces of Sliding Albion
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Los Angeles
- Rendelsham, England
- The Bleed
Items:
Vehicles:
- The Carrier
- Helicars (Flashback only)
Notes
- This is the first appearance of Lorenzo Antonio Slzfi and the facility known as Rendelsham.
- The dialogue and narration in 1953 is taken word-for-word as shown in Jenny Sparks' backstory in StormWatch #44.
Trivia
- Jenny Sparks mentions two known instances of major alien contact on Earth: the Kherubim/Daemonite War and the aliens that modified Jack Hawksmoor. However, Hawksmoor's alien visitors were later revealed to be beings from Earth's far future.
See Also