Comments on: SHOUT OUT! Review: The American Way

By: Jeff Munson

Jeff Munson — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:58:07 +0000

So did any of you catch Ridley on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO last friday night? I missed most of it, but caught a segment when Maher went off about Cheney’s assasination attempt/ bombing last week, asying that the world would be a safer place if the attempt had succeeded. Ridley was busy NOT agreeing with him and spent some time talking about comments about Cheney that were deleted from a newspaper’s website that said the same things that Maher was talking about. Kinda cool that he was on the show IMO!

That being said, I picked this book up monthly, and loved every second of it! WIldstorm tends to put out some really good Mini’s not connected with their main universe of books (Black Sun, Tokyo Storm Warning etc…), and this one was no exception. I dug this book and saw so many parallels to what is happening in the media now. TV shows like American Idol, Survivor & The Real World are sellng us on people and their personalities that may or may not be what the “Stars” are really all about. The SDC was no different, as they manipulated the media, created powers for some members, and staged events to gain popular public opinion. Pretty heavy stuff, and I take my hat (not my hand like Mike Tyson would want me to) off to Ridley.

By: Bahlactus

Bahlactus — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:42:38 +0000

Thomas, hey bruh, thanks for comin’ through! I’m glad you’re feelin’ the new layout — it’s been through a lot of iterations in a short time, but, I felt the flow had to lead here eventually.

I agree that the SDC was way over the top, which, struck me as strangely appropriate (being from the south myself, it is easy to see how it could be blown out that way). If Ridley puts out a sequel, I’m hoping he brings the thunder, because he’s got a huge baseline right now.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:37:32 +0000

Firstly … the new layout is badass, B. Truly, this has all the style your site deserves. So well done, sir. Well damn done.

Secondly … American Way was the best comic book series of 2006, hands down. And it how steep a hill to climb, eh? Having no established characters, no pre-existing setting/universe, a series like AW has to live or die on the basis of story alone. Ridley has hinted at a sequel, and I hope he means it.

All the same, it is hard for me to accept the caricatured nature of the Southern heroes. The names were over the top, but hey, these are superheroes. Over the top is everyday to them. But there was something simplistic about the dialogue given in later issues to the SDC.

Having grown up in the south, admittedly starting a decade after the Kennedy administration, I’ve come to recognize that racism is rarely as incredibly blatant and obvious as Southern Cross’s loose cannon of a mouth. Deep-seated racism is insidious and sly.

That aside, I thought American Way was a shining example of what good comics can be, a work as good as Watchmen and just as much of a classic. Because the tale it tells will maintain relevancy for years to come.