The American Way: Those Above and Those Bellow #1

DC Comics
The American Way: Those Above and Those Bellow #1
By Hervé St-Louis
July 11, 2017 - 20:32

DC Comics
Vertigo
Writer(s): John Ridley
Penciller(s): Georges Jeanty
Inker(s): Danny Miki
Colourist(s): Nick Filardi
Letterer(s): Travis Lanham
Cover Artist(s): Georges Jeanty, Nick Filardi
$3.99

Meta-humans who used to work for their government as stooges pretending to matter for the benefit of public opinion decide to become active again in the dirty 1970s when hope has been lost. Will the individual trek of each protagonist spearhead something better about the world?

Unfortunately, I have never heard of the original series from Wildstorm published a decade ago. It’s a slow start as readers are introduced to the current setting of the series set ten years in the future since their last appearance. I like the 1970s setting but it wasn’t as well exploited and defined as it could have been.

I have to mention that the idea of staged super heroes and villains working for a government is not a new idea. Alan Moore’s Miracle Man first introduced this idea and Will Shetterly’s Captain Confederacy imagined a similar United States split across Civil War’s lines where heroes were also staged actors promoted by their governments. One things of interest to readers, as was suggested by a colleague, The American Way may be a better handling of the American cultural wars than Howard Chaykin’s Divided States of Hysteria.

Georges Jeanty’s work is gritty for the period covered and full of action. His storytelling is also very clear. I feel that the colouring overpowers the artwork but this is how most comic books feel nowadays.

Rating: 7.5/10