American Way #2
AMERICAN WAY #2
Originally Presented at Comixtreme.com
Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: A New Generation
The Civil Defense Corps needs new blood.
Writer: John Ridley
Pencils: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Karl Story & Ray Snyder
Colors: Wildstorm FX
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Cover Art: Georges Jeanty
Publisher: DC Comics/Wildstorm Signature Series
Review: Last issue, the Government-created “superhero team” called the Civil Defense Corps suffered a devastating blow - Old Glory, the “Spirit of America,” fell dead in battle with a supervillain. Old Glory was taken out by a heart attack, but the public believes he was killed in combat with the villain Red Terror, unaware that Red Terror was an actor hired to fight the team, just like all the supervillains they combat.
To help the team remain the inspiration it was supposed to be, the new hotshot marketing genius comes up with a plan… create a new superhero, and make it a black guy. (This is the 1960s, let’s not forget.) A candidate is chosen, but he’s not immediately receptive to the idea.
Novelist John Ridley is crafting a really interesting story here. It’s not so much a superhero story as it is a tale about race relations in the 60s using superheroes as a backdrop. The heroes are mostly your basic archetypes, even the new one introduced this issue, while Wes, the ad man, is the real protagonist, the one who seems to have the greatest grasp of the changes that are happening in the world and how to deal with them. It’s a very, very interesting concept that Ridley has given us here.
George Jeanty’s artwork is a beautiful compliment to the script. He has a good handle on the superheroes, but his talking heads scenes (which are really far more important) look just as good. The ink and color teams deserve a lot of credit for this as well, contributing to the atmosphere of the book and the general feel it generates.
This is one of the more interesting titles to come from the Wildstorm Signature Series in some time, and I’m quite intrigued to see where it’s going.
Rating: 8/10