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lunasarielWell, now I'm all caught up with The Authority. I've never been a big comic book (as opposed to other graphic literature, such as graphic novels, manga, etc.) fan, and TA is a prime example of why. The writers/artists switch up too frequently, so characterization is spotty at best, continuity errors sometimes occur, story quality varies widely, and the characters' very appearances can change wildly. Partially because of this, there's a "you're not my *real* daddy!" mindset, in which the fans feel free to ignore whichever runs they don't like, because they might not have really happened anyway. There's always a chance that this turn of events will have been a dream sequence or an alternate reality, or that supposedly dead character can come back via a clone, parallel universe counterpart, robot, etc. Even without all that, there are always the crossovers, team-ups, and side-stories, which may or may not even be canon (Human on the Inside and Prime case in point). And then, of course, there are the parodies, the backstories, and the times when a Character 1 from Universe A will appear in Universe B, so fans of Character 1 and/or Universe A will have to read up on Universe B, just in case Character 1's appearance in Universe B is a serious, canon plot point, heralding a larger crossover/story arc, not a little one-off, easily forgotten gimmick to boost Universe B's sales by injecting a popular character from Universe A. *cough*Wolverine*cough* *hack*Midnighter*hack*
That said, World's End was a good thing for the series. Of course, I'm not saying that the apocalypse was a fortuitous series of events, but I didn't really like Revolutions, so I think World's End was just a way for the creators to get their heads back in the game, to re-figure out the characters, who they were, what they would do, and why they would do it. As I said, the creative team in charge has been changing pretty frequently of late, so it's nice to get some stability back. And I don't mean "stability" as in "by the end of the episode, everything is right back to normal" (Futurama quote), but as in "reliably consistent characterization and continuity." Midnighter especially has been all over the place, from sadistic psychopath (the Grifter/Midnighter crossover, a prime example of everything wrong with comics today) to feckless dupe (Revolutions) to Captain Snarky McBadass (original Ellis, World's End). Even his interactions with other characters, most notably Apollo, have run the gamut from "old friend" (Secret History of Jenny Sparks. wtf?) to love/hate (a few perplexing instances in Transfer of Power and Revolutions) to outright cheating on him (Human on the Inside. WTF?!?! I honestly think that HotI takes place in some bizarro parallel world, where characters' personalities are radically different than their "real" selves), before settling on the current mix (which hearkens back to, once again, Ellis' original work), which is almost indescribable. They're buddies, they're co-workers, they're comrades-in-arms, they're spouses, and they're in big-time, smooshy, true luv. They're comfortable around each other in a way that they could never hope to achieve with anyone else. The Midnighter reminds Apollo that he's not a god, brings him back down to earth (literally and figuratively) when necessary, and keeps his feet on the ground (once again, literally as well as figuratively). Apollo, on the other hand, reminds the Midnighter that he's not a monster, that there's more to life than statistics and messy, painful death. They keep each other alive, in both body and mind, and that's incredibly valuable to both of them.
Of course, the events of Revolutions will have had a profound impact on their relationship, but things seem to have turned out rather differently than I thought they would have. Whereas I thought that Midnighter's abandonment and perceived betrayal, coupled with how easily Bendix was able to manipulate him, would have driven a wedge between the two, but the exact opposite seems to have happened. I think they've re-learned not to take each other for granted, because they're extremely close in World's End, although that might just be the circumstances and enforced separation talking. We haven't gotten to see much sap from them lately (for obvious reasons), and I miss how cuddly they used to be. Apollo has always been pretty emotionally demonstrative and touchy-feely, but it's always been the Midnighter that's really gotten to me. This is a guy whose very existence could be called "cruel and unusual punishment," a guy who knows a thousand ways to kill you as soon as he looks at you, a professional bastard. I've always found it incredibly sweet that he can be a snarky badass one minute, and an adoring worrywart the next. Apollo is literally the light of his life, and he doesn't give a good goddamn who knows it.
But I really thought, after everything that's happened, there was going to be an issue or two where they re-learn how to live and work together, both as a couple and part(s) of the team. Of course, the fact that it *was* Bendix who was doing all of the scheming and manipulating might have helped as much as, if not more than, it hindered, at least emotionally. Bendix is the acknowledged Baddest of Bad Guys, and thus everything he does, says, or causes to happen is a Bad Thing, and very little blame is cast on the characters themselves, who were just pawns in his game. This would apply especially to Apollo and the Midnighter, who have first-hand experience at the positively Machiavellian levels of manipulation Bendix can attain. Given all this, it would be much easier (and possibly more accurate) for the dynamic duo to lay all the blame squarely at Bendix's feet, while chalking their own actions up to being played like puppets by the world's biggest bastard. And this is true, at least to a degree. I think they both understand that Midnighter wanted more than almost anything in the world to stay with Apollo and Jenny, that he honestly thought that he was doing the right thing, and that he never stopped loving either of them.
Speaking of Jenny, she and Habib have been AWOL for quite a while now. While I see that it's necessary to remove the two completely omnipotent characters to have any sort of dramatic tension at all, I miss them both. Not so much Rose Tattoo, because we hardly got any time to know her anyway, but losing the Spirit of the Twenty-First Century and the Doctor is a serious blow to both the Authority's sheer might, and to their team dynamic. The writers used to have a pretty good setup, in which both characters could be present and effective, without Deus Ex Machina-ing the shit out of the series. Jenny Q. was still very much a child, and so couldn't fully comprehend or use her powers, but with her recent rapid-aging deal, that particular check has been removed. Similarly, when Jeoren was the Doctor, he had a drug habit and slew of mental disorders to keep him from fully utilizing his Shaman powers (the few times he got his act together and used his mojo to the fullest, he literally could not be stopped), but now that the non-crazy (as far as we know), non-drug-addled Habib is the Shaman, the writers have had to remove him from the scene entirely, because a well-adjusted, balanced, mentally sound Doctor could more or less wish away anything and everything, from war to disease to poverty to the villain of the week to the currently ongoing apocalypse. I think they had the right idea with Habib purposefully scaling himself down, consciously working on changing the world one mind at a time, instead of the grand, earth-shaking gestures his predecessors have been so fond of.
Evidently, I've been looking a bit more into the other characters. Apollo and the Midnighter are and will remain my favorites, of course, but this is more than a two-man show. First off, there's Jack and Rose Tattoo, who don't seem to have an awful lot going on with them. Rose Tattoo was briefly introduced in Revolutions (although I understand that she's a longtime WildStorm character in other series [serieses?]) and then apparently dropped of the face of the earth. I can't say I miss her; she might have been an interesting character, but she was never really given a chance to develop her new Spirit of Life persona. Jack, on the other hand, has been there literally since before day one, and has remained fairly static throughout the series. He worries about his leadership abilities, yes, and has an on-again, off-again relationship with Angie, but neither of these things seem to affect him as a character very much. His leadership angst was heavily reminiscent of Jenny Sparks', but somehow less heartfelt. There is real potential in his relationship with Angie, but it seems to be a purely physical, friends-with-benefits deal that rarely impacts their work (except for that one kiss towards the end of World's End, which opened up some intriguing possibilities). He's not a particularly jealous or possessive lover, which is good, but then again, he's not a particularly *anything* lover, or even particularly anything in general. That's what I think his problem is: he's not a bad character per se, he's just not as compelling as the colorful characters he's surrounded with. I suppose that I might be able to hash him out a bit better with a lot more thought, but that'll have to wait until I have the time to devote to such in-depth contemplation.
Angie has been growing on me considerably. She loves life, plain and simple. She's a hardcore geek getting to live out her childhood dreams of being a superhero, saving innocent lives, and defeating evil villains, which gives her a wonderfully joyful, almost innocent outlook. She's the one who appreciates flying to the moon or interacting with the team's sentient ship or meeting advanced alien life-forms, whereas most of the others usually just see enemies and pain and death. Goddess knows, sometimes the Authority can really use an optimist, and Angie is just the ticket. But then she gets involved in all the down-and-dirty blood and gore that the Authority has to deal with on an almost daily basis, and that's where we start to see a more militaristic aspect of her character. She's not afraid to let loose a barrage of hot lead when the occasion calls for it, and has saved the entire team's asses by sheer awesomeness more than once. The way I see it, Dr. Angela Spica is a very well-balanced character: she's enough of an idealist to truly want to make the world a better place, and she knows that the ends don't justify the means, but she's also enough of a pragmatist to know that sometimes, offers of peace, friendship, and cooperation just won't cut it, and that's when the guns need to come out. And, ideals aside, her friendships with the rest of the team, Apollo especially, are one of the high points of the series for me. She genuinely cares about these people, and wants them all to have the happiness she thinks they deserve, which is a helluva lot better than the Authority's other emotional M.O., which is to snarl at each other until either someone takes a swing or everyone flounces off in a huff.
Moving on, I find Shen (yes, I *know* that Shen is her surname, but Jack is frequently just called Hawksmoore, and the old Jenny was just as frequently known only as Sparks) to be a very tragic character. I don't know what kind of a person she used to be in her StormWatch days, but now, as a member of the much more morally ambiguous Authority, she's had to give up quite a few of her long-held morals, especially those regarding pacifism. She's tried to reconnect with her Buddhist roots several times, but each time, some fresh disaster has forced her to leap back into the bloody fray. This has caused less psychological trauma than I would have thought, but it still obviously weighs heavily on her. The only part of Human on the Inside that I found to be even remotely in-character was Shen's solution to the whole "crapsack future" problem: hugging a frightened little girl and telling her that somebody loves her. No punching, no shooting, no blood, just helping people to live happier lives.
I mentioned Jeoren's drug habit and slew of mental disorders earlier, and these are two aspects that I find central to his character in more ways than one. Yes, they do very much color the way he interacts with his teammates and the world at large, but they're also indicative of a much more basic aspect of his personality. He's a person driven to excess, pure and simple. He doesn't do anything by halves, either at work or at play. When he defeats a monster or supervillain or whatever, he makes damn well sure that that sucker is staying *down*. On the other hand, he doesn't just dabble in a little pot here, a little depression or insomnia there. No, he goes the whole nine yards, both in regards to drugs and mental problems. In both regards, he does the hardcore stuff that even the Rolling Stones would just say "no" to.
Interestingly enough, he's much more complex when it comes to humans. He sleeps with Angie on what seems to be a semi-regular basis, despite their deep moral conflicts and the fact that she is openly disdainful, and occasionally outright hateful, towards him. He'll take Jack's orders, but shows comparatively little respect for him, especially intellectually. And as far as Apollo and the Midnighter go, I'm still going off of Miranda Solo's idea, posited so perfectly in her story "Fantasy," that our dead Doctor harbors an unrequited and not entirely healthy passion for the Sun God. I was re-reading "Fantasy" the other day, and his attitude towards the Midnighter really struck me. Like any true stalker, he views the actual S.O. of the object of his affection as an interloper, especially during sexual encounters, and displays extreme antipathy, if not actual hatred, for him. It's interesting that he seems to hate Midnighter so much simply because he's there, not because of any particular aspect of his personality. He does display quite a few classic stalker behaviors in this fic: he blames Apollo for the feelings he inspires, he detests seeing displays of affection between Apollo and the Midnighter and tries to mentally devalue or explain them away, he (at least initially) acknowledges that what he's doing is wrong, but claims that he "can't help himself;" good goddess, the voyeurism alone... Suffice to say, the Doctor has got it bad. But what pushes this little obsession into dangerous territory is that, as a part of his "do nothing by halves" mentality, Jeoren seems to have rather poor impulse control. As a certain rogue Slayer once said, "I want, I take." The very nature of the Shaman's powers mean that Jeoren can have literally anything he wishes for, which, at this point, would definitely seem to include a particular solar-powered teammate. I could see him trying mundane means first, trying to break Apollo and the Midnighter up by tried-and-true methods such as starting rumors, emotional manipulation, and outright lying. The Doctor is by no means a stupid man, and I think he would want to try these more subtle methods first, before putting the magic whammy on, which would certainly show his hand. That having been said, I don't think he would be at all adverse to using his powers to screw with Apollo's and/or the Midnighter's head, if conventional means failed. But love magic is a tricky and easily-backfiring business by all accounts, and I'm sure that Jeoren's buddies in the Garden of Ancestral Memory wouldn't stand for such a misuse of his powers. But therein lies the one big stumbling block that would prevent this little scenario from possibly making it into canon: if the Doctor truly does empathize with every living thing on the planet, then he wouldn't want to break up a case of real, true love just so that he could act out a few fantasies. But then again, the worldwide empathy thing didn't stop the previous Doctor from killing twelve thousand people, so maybe if Jeoren were driven crazy enough, the empathy thing would cease to matter to him...dammit, now I'm going in circles.
Habib is okay, I guess. He suffers from a combination of the problems that beset Jack and Rose Tattoo: we didn't have time to get to know him properly before he was whisked away, and he's got quite a legacy to live up to. I haven't seen much more of him, so I haven't got much more to say.
Jenny Quantum has the same problem: she's got some damn big boots to fill, and I'm not sure whether I even want her to. I honestly don't think that anyone can ever take Jenny Sparks' place, and I sincerely hope that whoever is going to be writing Jenny Q. in the future won't try to out-Sparks the original. It's become patently obvious that the various creative teams in charge of TA don't know how to write kids, especially smaller ones. OK, some of them get it right, but then some of them get it so, so wrong. As far as I'm concerned, her characterization increases dramatically as she gets older. I consider her line, "I am queen of everything!," from just after she figured out how to hack (for lack of a better word) into the Garden of Ancestral Memory to be the best she's ever spoken. Other than that...meh. She's coming into her own, slowly but surely, and I'd love to see where they're going to be taking Little Miss Badass in future issues.
That said, World's End was a good thing for the series. Of course, I'm not saying that the apocalypse was a fortuitous series of events, but I didn't really like Revolutions, so I think World's End was just a way for the creators to get their heads back in the game, to re-figure out the characters, who they were, what they would do, and why they would do it. As I said, the creative team in charge has been changing pretty frequently of late, so it's nice to get some stability back. And I don't mean "stability" as in "by the end of the episode, everything is right back to normal" (Futurama quote), but as in "reliably consistent characterization and continuity." Midnighter especially has been all over the place, from sadistic psychopath (the Grifter/Midnighter crossover, a prime example of everything wrong with comics today) to feckless dupe (Revolutions) to Captain Snarky McBadass (original Ellis, World's End). Even his interactions with other characters, most notably Apollo, have run the gamut from "old friend" (Secret History of Jenny Sparks. wtf?) to love/hate (a few perplexing instances in Transfer of Power and Revolutions) to outright cheating on him (Human on the Inside. WTF?!?! I honestly think that HotI takes place in some bizarro parallel world, where characters' personalities are radically different than their "real" selves), before settling on the current mix (which hearkens back to, once again, Ellis' original work), which is almost indescribable. They're buddies, they're co-workers, they're comrades-in-arms, they're spouses, and they're in big-time, smooshy, true luv. They're comfortable around each other in a way that they could never hope to achieve with anyone else. The Midnighter reminds Apollo that he's not a god, brings him back down to earth (literally and figuratively) when necessary, and keeps his feet on the ground (once again, literally as well as figuratively). Apollo, on the other hand, reminds the Midnighter that he's not a monster, that there's more to life than statistics and messy, painful death. They keep each other alive, in both body and mind, and that's incredibly valuable to both of them.
Of course, the events of Revolutions will have had a profound impact on their relationship, but things seem to have turned out rather differently than I thought they would have. Whereas I thought that Midnighter's abandonment and perceived betrayal, coupled with how easily Bendix was able to manipulate him, would have driven a wedge between the two, but the exact opposite seems to have happened. I think they've re-learned not to take each other for granted, because they're extremely close in World's End, although that might just be the circumstances and enforced separation talking. We haven't gotten to see much sap from them lately (for obvious reasons), and I miss how cuddly they used to be. Apollo has always been pretty emotionally demonstrative and touchy-feely, but it's always been the Midnighter that's really gotten to me. This is a guy whose very existence could be called "cruel and unusual punishment," a guy who knows a thousand ways to kill you as soon as he looks at you, a professional bastard. I've always found it incredibly sweet that he can be a snarky badass one minute, and an adoring worrywart the next. Apollo is literally the light of his life, and he doesn't give a good goddamn who knows it.
But I really thought, after everything that's happened, there was going to be an issue or two where they re-learn how to live and work together, both as a couple and part(s) of the team. Of course, the fact that it *was* Bendix who was doing all of the scheming and manipulating might have helped as much as, if not more than, it hindered, at least emotionally. Bendix is the acknowledged Baddest of Bad Guys, and thus everything he does, says, or causes to happen is a Bad Thing, and very little blame is cast on the characters themselves, who were just pawns in his game. This would apply especially to Apollo and the Midnighter, who have first-hand experience at the positively Machiavellian levels of manipulation Bendix can attain. Given all this, it would be much easier (and possibly more accurate) for the dynamic duo to lay all the blame squarely at Bendix's feet, while chalking their own actions up to being played like puppets by the world's biggest bastard. And this is true, at least to a degree. I think they both understand that Midnighter wanted more than almost anything in the world to stay with Apollo and Jenny, that he honestly thought that he was doing the right thing, and that he never stopped loving either of them.
Speaking of Jenny, she and Habib have been AWOL for quite a while now. While I see that it's necessary to remove the two completely omnipotent characters to have any sort of dramatic tension at all, I miss them both. Not so much Rose Tattoo, because we hardly got any time to know her anyway, but losing the Spirit of the Twenty-First Century and the Doctor is a serious blow to both the Authority's sheer might, and to their team dynamic. The writers used to have a pretty good setup, in which both characters could be present and effective, without Deus Ex Machina-ing the shit out of the series. Jenny Q. was still very much a child, and so couldn't fully comprehend or use her powers, but with her recent rapid-aging deal, that particular check has been removed. Similarly, when Jeoren was the Doctor, he had a drug habit and slew of mental disorders to keep him from fully utilizing his Shaman powers (the few times he got his act together and used his mojo to the fullest, he literally could not be stopped), but now that the non-crazy (as far as we know), non-drug-addled Habib is the Shaman, the writers have had to remove him from the scene entirely, because a well-adjusted, balanced, mentally sound Doctor could more or less wish away anything and everything, from war to disease to poverty to the villain of the week to the currently ongoing apocalypse. I think they had the right idea with Habib purposefully scaling himself down, consciously working on changing the world one mind at a time, instead of the grand, earth-shaking gestures his predecessors have been so fond of.
Evidently, I've been looking a bit more into the other characters. Apollo and the Midnighter are and will remain my favorites, of course, but this is more than a two-man show. First off, there's Jack and Rose Tattoo, who don't seem to have an awful lot going on with them. Rose Tattoo was briefly introduced in Revolutions (although I understand that she's a longtime WildStorm character in other series [serieses?]) and then apparently dropped of the face of the earth. I can't say I miss her; she might have been an interesting character, but she was never really given a chance to develop her new Spirit of Life persona. Jack, on the other hand, has been there literally since before day one, and has remained fairly static throughout the series. He worries about his leadership abilities, yes, and has an on-again, off-again relationship with Angie, but neither of these things seem to affect him as a character very much. His leadership angst was heavily reminiscent of Jenny Sparks', but somehow less heartfelt. There is real potential in his relationship with Angie, but it seems to be a purely physical, friends-with-benefits deal that rarely impacts their work (except for that one kiss towards the end of World's End, which opened up some intriguing possibilities). He's not a particularly jealous or possessive lover, which is good, but then again, he's not a particularly *anything* lover, or even particularly anything in general. That's what I think his problem is: he's not a bad character per se, he's just not as compelling as the colorful characters he's surrounded with. I suppose that I might be able to hash him out a bit better with a lot more thought, but that'll have to wait until I have the time to devote to such in-depth contemplation.
Angie has been growing on me considerably. She loves life, plain and simple. She's a hardcore geek getting to live out her childhood dreams of being a superhero, saving innocent lives, and defeating evil villains, which gives her a wonderfully joyful, almost innocent outlook. She's the one who appreciates flying to the moon or interacting with the team's sentient ship or meeting advanced alien life-forms, whereas most of the others usually just see enemies and pain and death. Goddess knows, sometimes the Authority can really use an optimist, and Angie is just the ticket. But then she gets involved in all the down-and-dirty blood and gore that the Authority has to deal with on an almost daily basis, and that's where we start to see a more militaristic aspect of her character. She's not afraid to let loose a barrage of hot lead when the occasion calls for it, and has saved the entire team's asses by sheer awesomeness more than once. The way I see it, Dr. Angela Spica is a very well-balanced character: she's enough of an idealist to truly want to make the world a better place, and she knows that the ends don't justify the means, but she's also enough of a pragmatist to know that sometimes, offers of peace, friendship, and cooperation just won't cut it, and that's when the guns need to come out. And, ideals aside, her friendships with the rest of the team, Apollo especially, are one of the high points of the series for me. She genuinely cares about these people, and wants them all to have the happiness she thinks they deserve, which is a helluva lot better than the Authority's other emotional M.O., which is to snarl at each other until either someone takes a swing or everyone flounces off in a huff.
Moving on, I find Shen (yes, I *know* that Shen is her surname, but Jack is frequently just called Hawksmoore, and the old Jenny was just as frequently known only as Sparks) to be a very tragic character. I don't know what kind of a person she used to be in her StormWatch days, but now, as a member of the much more morally ambiguous Authority, she's had to give up quite a few of her long-held morals, especially those regarding pacifism. She's tried to reconnect with her Buddhist roots several times, but each time, some fresh disaster has forced her to leap back into the bloody fray. This has caused less psychological trauma than I would have thought, but it still obviously weighs heavily on her. The only part of Human on the Inside that I found to be even remotely in-character was Shen's solution to the whole "crapsack future" problem: hugging a frightened little girl and telling her that somebody loves her. No punching, no shooting, no blood, just helping people to live happier lives.
I mentioned Jeoren's drug habit and slew of mental disorders earlier, and these are two aspects that I find central to his character in more ways than one. Yes, they do very much color the way he interacts with his teammates and the world at large, but they're also indicative of a much more basic aspect of his personality. He's a person driven to excess, pure and simple. He doesn't do anything by halves, either at work or at play. When he defeats a monster or supervillain or whatever, he makes damn well sure that that sucker is staying *down*. On the other hand, he doesn't just dabble in a little pot here, a little depression or insomnia there. No, he goes the whole nine yards, both in regards to drugs and mental problems. In both regards, he does the hardcore stuff that even the Rolling Stones would just say "no" to.
Interestingly enough, he's much more complex when it comes to humans. He sleeps with Angie on what seems to be a semi-regular basis, despite their deep moral conflicts and the fact that she is openly disdainful, and occasionally outright hateful, towards him. He'll take Jack's orders, but shows comparatively little respect for him, especially intellectually. And as far as Apollo and the Midnighter go, I'm still going off of Miranda Solo's idea, posited so perfectly in her story "Fantasy," that our dead Doctor harbors an unrequited and not entirely healthy passion for the Sun God. I was re-reading "Fantasy" the other day, and his attitude towards the Midnighter really struck me. Like any true stalker, he views the actual S.O. of the object of his affection as an interloper, especially during sexual encounters, and displays extreme antipathy, if not actual hatred, for him. It's interesting that he seems to hate Midnighter so much simply because he's there, not because of any particular aspect of his personality. He does display quite a few classic stalker behaviors in this fic: he blames Apollo for the feelings he inspires, he detests seeing displays of affection between Apollo and the Midnighter and tries to mentally devalue or explain them away, he (at least initially) acknowledges that what he's doing is wrong, but claims that he "can't help himself;" good goddess, the voyeurism alone... Suffice to say, the Doctor has got it bad. But what pushes this little obsession into dangerous territory is that, as a part of his "do nothing by halves" mentality, Jeoren seems to have rather poor impulse control. As a certain rogue Slayer once said, "I want, I take." The very nature of the Shaman's powers mean that Jeoren can have literally anything he wishes for, which, at this point, would definitely seem to include a particular solar-powered teammate. I could see him trying mundane means first, trying to break Apollo and the Midnighter up by tried-and-true methods such as starting rumors, emotional manipulation, and outright lying. The Doctor is by no means a stupid man, and I think he would want to try these more subtle methods first, before putting the magic whammy on, which would certainly show his hand. That having been said, I don't think he would be at all adverse to using his powers to screw with Apollo's and/or the Midnighter's head, if conventional means failed. But love magic is a tricky and easily-backfiring business by all accounts, and I'm sure that Jeoren's buddies in the Garden of Ancestral Memory wouldn't stand for such a misuse of his powers. But therein lies the one big stumbling block that would prevent this little scenario from possibly making it into canon: if the Doctor truly does empathize with every living thing on the planet, then he wouldn't want to break up a case of real, true love just so that he could act out a few fantasies. But then again, the worldwide empathy thing didn't stop the previous Doctor from killing twelve thousand people, so maybe if Jeoren were driven crazy enough, the empathy thing would cease to matter to him...dammit, now I'm going in circles.
Habib is okay, I guess. He suffers from a combination of the problems that beset Jack and Rose Tattoo: we didn't have time to get to know him properly before he was whisked away, and he's got quite a legacy to live up to. I haven't seen much more of him, so I haven't got much more to say.
Jenny Quantum has the same problem: she's got some damn big boots to fill, and I'm not sure whether I even want her to. I honestly don't think that anyone can ever take Jenny Sparks' place, and I sincerely hope that whoever is going to be writing Jenny Q. in the future won't try to out-Sparks the original. It's become patently obvious that the various creative teams in charge of TA don't know how to write kids, especially smaller ones. OK, some of them get it right, but then some of them get it so, so wrong. As far as I'm concerned, her characterization increases dramatically as she gets older. I consider her line, "I am queen of everything!," from just after she figured out how to hack (for lack of a better word) into the Garden of Ancestral Memory to be the best she's ever spoken. Other than that...meh. She's coming into her own, slowly but surely, and I'd love to see where they're going to be taking Little Miss Badass in future issues.
