John Ridley, an award winning screenwriter for 12 Years A Slave, an adaptation of the real-life tragedy befalling a free man and the practices that allowed it to happen. But before this, he was a comic writer for Wildstorm before it was completely absorbed into DC Comics. But what exactly did he do that was so different than Black Panther or the Jace Fox Batman? Well let’s take a look.
Side note, it will be a while before those series finish so don’t expect the full post to be on Gutternaut anytime soon.
On Who’s Authority?
Starting with Wildstorm’s premiere series The Authority, Ridley followed up Mark Millar who took the team in a radically different direction than Warren Ellis. Ellis created the team as the World’s foremost defenders against the most absurd threats. Ellis and Bryan Hitch embraced comics’ insanity while reveling in the counterculture movements of the early 2000s. Despite how bleak things looked, there was still reason for optimism. But Millar made the Authority more… Authoritarian. They became amoral and defaulted to lethal force to enforce their version of the Greater Good.
In a way Millar’s time with the Authority mirrored a post-9/11 world. With the United States entering wars with terrorists like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, people started to view the US as a world police-like empire. The Authority in this manner felt like retaliating against the world for allowing these disasters to happen. But at the end of day, much like how the US army left Iraq with only minimal success, people started to become disillusioned with the Authority.
I need to note that Warren Ellis is undergoing transformative justice for sexual misconduct as of this post’s release. Compare that what you will, but it says a lot.
Uh… Ridley
Anyway… Ridley’s time on The Authority: Human on the Inside has a few meanings. The US president and his people try to infiltrate the Authority with spies or special plants to disrupt them. But the man who helps set this off, Dr. Ledbedder, is critical of the president’s stance. He knows it’s just a pissing contest for dominance; Ledbedder just happens to have motive for petty vengeance against the Authority for his daughter’s death via collateral. Instead he takes a transformative justice option; rather than dethrone the Authority, he knocks them down pegs to remember that they’re not as infallible as they believe. With the Authority getting a grip on themselves, they should’ve shaken off their jerkiness.
Instead, Wildstorm and DC’s executives doubled down on the grim and grittiness because they believed that sold more and that’s what fans came to see in The Authority. I need to note that Ed Brubaker, the guy who had an infectious influence on Captain America tried to do the same thing as Ridley… and also failed to reverse the standoffishness. So yeah that says a lot.
What’s So Funny About The American Way?
Wanna know what’s not haha funny though? Ridley would try this concept again in a completely different universe. While still at Wildstorm, Ridley publishes The American Way. This story was influenced by the Space Race’s Mercury Program to include an African-American astronaut as well as how the US military used their rescue of an important woman as propaganda. So yes, this is political but unlike his later comics work, this feels more authentic.
Taking place in the early 60s, The American Way revolves around a team of government superheroes. The only twist, their adventures are mostly just a performance! Yeah instead of just the Space Race, the US wanted to show off superpowers too.
In any case, the hiring of a black man to replace a dead superhero was meant to score points with the civil rights movement. But because half of the southern superheroes and their politicians are racists, Jason has to hide his face for a few years. Years of service were meant to show his heroic qualities, especially since Jason’s kind of pessimistic. Only for one job to damage his helmet and reveal his face to everybody. Even one of the southern superheroes who was nice to the guy at first turned on him for his race.
More Than One American Way?
In this manner, Ridley speaks about the dangers of propaganda and performative altruism.
In Jason’s case, it’s about how inclusion can become Tokenism. Remember Jason was brought in partly to help get votes from colored people in the next presidential election. But being a black hero doesn’t protect the “New American” from killing a real supervillain. Even the black communities in the south don’t help him out because they’re already oppressed by the Southern superheroes. Representation might matter, but one flawed black man can’t make a difference. Not even MLK Jr. got far without help.
Next there’s how image can disrupt a person’s worldview. After Jason’s predecessor died from drug-based organ failure, the actor who played a villain fled. He has a pretty authentic panic attack at the absurdity he gets the blame for. All he wanted was to help his Chinese parents immigrate to the US. He tries to make the best of his situation under the delusion he has superpowers, only to meet a tragic end.
The Superman analogs meanwhile show two different sides of how trying to represent paragons can go wrong. Pharos of the north team is mild mannered but is extremely doubtful of handling sticky situations. Up until the finale, he’s never had to fight anyone he wasn’t sure he could defeat or ask a reporter he likes out. Because as that dead hero suggests, looking perfect means not taking risks. Then there’s Mighty Delta, a character who follows the strongest personality to reflect his home’s ideals. Unfortunately the influencer he follows is a hardcore racist.
Still on image, one of the southern heroes Ole Miss (who isn’t a racist) has to watch the back of one of her teammates. But it just makes the smug white supremacist Southern Cross more condescending as he believed he was invincible. She was ashamed of her actions, but had to do the job to keep morale up. At least until she couldn’t take his BS anymore when a real emergency kicked in.
That real emergency came from Chet one of the propaganda team managers, a stern bureaucrat who after being influenced by a serial killer snapped and arranged the events. I didn’t really like this revelation because it’s an exaggeration at the mental strains on the people behind propaganda. The longer people do this stuff, people usually just burnout and stay because they have nothing better to do; this was just pessimistic nihilism.
Those Above And Those Below
Might as well talk about its sequel. Those Above and Those Below deals with themes of self-righteousness. Disclaimer: I believe in morals and ethics not ideologies. New American is caught in the middle of ideological battles of the 70s. Partly because the black communities he tries to help with black on black crimes consider him a sellout. Worse the public takes a “silence is compliance” stance against him for how Jason doesn’t want to take sides, despite the moral gray areas.
His ex-teammate Amber meanwhile is starting riots for political change. But having seen footage of real riots in 2020-2021, you realize that this is not the way to make change. It doesn’t even matter if the police started it, it doesn’t help the communities whose neighborhoods are wrecked in the process. Not only that but Amber’s taking drugs to help deal with the stress and it’s affecting her powers as well as her mental state.
Then there’s Ole Miss, retired and going into politics now that her powers have given her cancer. Running for governor, her platform revolves around nostalgic ways that while not simple manage to convince the politically moderate to support her. Because of how passionate she is, she’s able to justify herself that while it’s not a perfect scenario, the comforts might outweigh the cons. She didn’t even open that she left her teammate to die because she had enough of Southern Cross. Yet most of her supporters believed Southern Cross died a hero instead of giving up his lynch on Jason. All-in-all, she’s burned out and doesn’t want to stress anymore time she has left.
From what I’ve got out of this: The best you can do is help who you can to inspire a better tomorrow.
What’s Missing In The “Big 2”?
So yeah, everything Ridley writes is political which might be why his commercial work lacks his luster. One look at The Other History of the DC Universe shows that historical authenticity adapting what he and others lived through from the 80s to the 2000s. Granted people might not like that it’s more of an illustrated novel than a comic, but it does have Ridley adapting what he and others lived through in real time.
The Jace Fox Batman and Black Panther meanwhile… Please see this section on Gutternaut after these respective series end… So yeah, might be a while. All that I will say are these going forward. I Am Batman revolves around the difference between institutional bad and pure evil. While Black Panther revolves around what a nation of people should be represented by, a king, its technological prowess, or its people. In fact, while Ridley tackles representation awkwardly in these outlandish settings, it does play a major role in these series.