The American Way

{{Infobox comic book title | image = Americanwaydc01.png | caption = The American Way #1, artist Georges Jeanty. | schedule = Monthly | format = | limited = y | publisher = WildStorm: The American Way Vertigo: The American Way: Those Above and Those Below | date = The American Way: April to September 2006 The American Way: Those Above and Those Below: July to February 2017 | issues = The American Way: 8 The American Way: Those Above and Those Below: 6 | main_char_team = | writers = John Ridley | artists = Georges Jeanty | pencillers = | inkers = Karl Story | colorists = Mayor & Rench of WSFX | creative_team_month = | creative_team_year = | creators = John RidleyGeorges Jeanty | TPB = | ISBN = | subcat = Wildstorm Comics | sort = American Way }}The American Way is an American comic book series produced under DC Comics' Wildstorm and Vertigo imprints. The series is an alternate history retelling of the 1960s and 1970s, featuring a team of government-sponsored heroes named the Civil Defense Corps. Much of the series revolves around the introduction of an African American superhero to the team and the responses of the team, government, and public. The series debuted with an eight-issue limited series published by WildStorm and was written by John Ridley with art from Georges Jeanty. The original series ran for eight issues, from April to September 2006. A follow-up series to the original, The American Way: Those Above and Those Below ran six issues, from July to February 2017 with Ridley and Jeanty returning as the creative team. Publication history In an interview with National Public Radio, John Ridley stated that the inspiration for this story came from President Lyndon Johnson's wish to include an African-American in the Mercury Space Program. In addition, Ridley noted that he had deliberately employed many different forms of superhero archetypes in order to make the comic more approachable to readers, as well as saying that the U.S. Army's rescuing of Jessica Lynch and the subsequent media narrative, as well as the unraveling of said narrative, inspired the propaganda element of the story. Plot