Ah, disillusionment.  Remember the days when it didn't come fitted as standard to 99% of popular culture?  No, me neither.  I believe it was called the sixties.

The American Way, by John Ridley and Georges Jeanty, is not exactly treading original ground, but does have a vaguely original angle on the point.  It's 1961, and America is defended by its own army of government-sponsored superheroes, the Civil Defense Corps.  They occupy their time inspiring America by fighting supervillains, Commies, and alien invaders.

Unfortunately, there's a catch.  As lead character Wes finds out when he's hired to work as their PR man, the whole thing's a bit of a sham.  They're real superhumans (well, some of them are), and yes, they genuinely help out with disasters and low-level crime.  But there aren't really any supervillains.  Or aliens.  They're just manufactured threats designed to give them a chance to be inspiring.  Oops.

Of course, the basic idea - that the American government is deceiving the public, and America's automythology is a means of social control - is far from original.  However, American Way does deserve credit for a slightly more nuanced approach than usual.  The government aren't evil.  There is no big nasty conspiracy.  They just... want to inspire people.  Because that makes people feel good and secure.  And what's wrong with that?

There are also some cute superhero designs to liven up the proceedings.  Naturally the team come equipped with their own standard-issue Superman clone, Pharos (although Jeanty at least makes the effort to model him on Captain Marvel instead).  But you've got to love any team that includes a bloke in a suit called the East Coast Intellectual.

But bits of the story don't really add up.  Why doesn't the government know where some of these people came from?  If Pharos is as incorruptible as we're told, why is he willing to have anything to do with the scam?  More to the point, the analogy of benign propaganda doesn't hold up because the CDC's battles are unequivocally shown as causing massive property damage and costing Wes his previous job. 

Even if you're prepared to accept that nobody is actually getting hurt, it's difficult to see how this sort of threat is going to make the public feel better about anything, if they actually believe in it.  Perhaps that's the point, and instead of truly inspiring anyone, the CDC are just creating a sort of facile dependence through their dramatically-convenient last-minute comebacks.  There are enough hints in the dialogue to suggest that this may in fact be where the story is heading, although the bigger issue is obviously how the public react when the sham is exposed and their source of inspiration is fatally undermined.

It's an interesting take on a well-established theme, but slightly marred by aspects of the set-up that become less and less credible the more you think about them.  Depending on how those points get addressed, the series might well overcome them.

Rating: B

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