DC Comics' approach to handling its multiverse is distinct from most other comics publishers' approaches because of the way it includes a set of iconic stories that, technically-speaking, aren't considered canon. If you like that sort of thing, their new Black Label should excite you. And well, if you're a comic fan, you'll probably also be excited to hear names such as Kelly Sue DeConnick, Scott Snyder and Greg Rucka, just a fraction of the talent involved.

Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley has been writing an excellent politically-charged superhero story in The American Way: Those Above and Those Below. For his next DC project, he's going to get inside the heads of heroes such as John Stewart, Renee Montoya and Katana to see what it feels like to be a superhero when you aren't just another white guy.

In cape comics, it's not uncommon for superpowered beings to find themselves operating on opposite sides of an ethical divide. Most times, when one character feels like the other has gone too far, disagreements get settled with punches and explosions. Superfights will probably still happen in The American Way: Those Above and Those Below, but its characters' conversations about their personal politics is just as exciting.

With main characters who are former superheroes trying to pursue justice in the turbulent 1960s, The American Way: Those Above and Those Below is a comic book series about revolutions old and new. Fires start burning in the series' latest issue and writer John Ridley talks to us about what it all means.