LOS ANGELES TIMES

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.

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. 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). John Stewart (Green Lantern), the first Black superhero in the DC Universe, shows up too.

The characters, all heroes of color, are some of Ridley’s favorites in the DC superhero community.