The issues that you’re talking about are so well married to this moment.’ But that was after Trayvon Martin, during Ferguson, Freddie Gray. “When we started ‘American Crime’ five or six years ago, people said, ‘Oh my God. Ridley’s stories may not always be centered on race, but with society’s reckonings this year, telling tales from the point of view of a character of color seems in step with the times. His words helped prompt HBO Max to take down the film for a time it’s now back on the platform with an introductory segment with film scholar Jacqueline Stewart. Or, perhaps it could be paired with conversations about narratives and why it’s important to have many voices sharing stories from different perspectives rather than merely those reinforcing the views of the prevailing culture.” “I would just ask, after a respectful amount of time has passed,” Ridley wrote, “that the film be re-introduced to the HBO Max platform along with other films that give a more broad-based and complete picture of what slavery and the Confederacy truly were. Earlier this year, Ridley wrote an op-ed for The Times imploring HBO Max to at least temporarily remove “Gone With the Wind” for the way it ignores “the horrors of slavery” and “romanticizes the Confederacy.”

Then, how do these stories line up.”Īs society has opened up to more discussions about race, the “American Crime” creator and showrunner understands the moment that he’s in and the audience that he is courting as well. Trying to look at these timelines as being real and true -that these folks were mortal rather than immortal. “The deep dives, a look at the history of the DC universe, and imbuing that with real history things that really happened. “ all the things that attracted me to doing this story?” Ridley says. The characters, all heroes of color, are some of Ridley’s favorites in the DC superhero community. John Stewart (Green Lantern), the first Black superhero in the DC Universe, shows up too. Ridley has actually written for DC periodically since 2004 - including “The American Way” comic book series and the animated movie “Justice League: Starcrossed.” Now, however, he’s brought his signature skill for envisioning situations from a different vantage point to “The Other History of the DC Universe,” a five-issue series focused on some of DC’s lesser-known characters: Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning), Mal Duncan and Karen Beecher-Duncan (Bumblebee), Renee Montoya (The Question), Katana and Anissa Pierce (Thunder). Specifically, the perspective of John Ridley, the Oscar-winning writer and TV creator whose “12 Years a Slave” took the point-of-view of a freed Black man made to live as a slave.

Most may not equate “12 Years a Slave” or FX’s “American Crime” - two seriously dramatic projects - with DC Comics, but it’s all a matter of perspective.

MARVEL'S VOICES by John Ridley