The Truth
We meet Isaiah Bradley and his new bride at the World’s Fair in 1940. They experience some racism, yet when the time comes, he is proud to enlist and serve his country.
Maurice Canfield is the son of a wealthy father, but wants to find his own path and dedicates himself to justice. He is arrested for protesting the war and sentenced to enlist.
Sgt. Lucas Evans is career military. He had been a Captain before assaulting a superior officer for dismissing the racially motivated killing of one of his soldiers.
Dr. Reinstein, the scientist who developed the super soldier serum, needs black soldiers for his experiments.
A handful of soldiers are selected. Every other black soldier is murdered to cover up the project’s existence.
The family members of the selected volunteers are told they are dead. Isaiah’s wife; Maurice’s mother.
These black soldiers become early experiments for the super soldier serum. The first tests are not successful.
Five survive.
They are sent into action in Germany.
Between combat with the enemy and each other, soon Isaiah Bradley is the last of America’s original super soldiers.
The perfected formula had been given to a white man. But Bradley took the costume meant for that white man and went into action as Captain America.
(That’s 11 Captain Americas)
In the present, Captain America learns about Isaiah Bradley for the first time, and was informed every black person in America already knew about him.
Isaiah was officially declared dead, but had actually been arrested by the US military and sentenced to life in prison for stealing the Captain America costume.
Isaiah was eventually pardoned, his family sworn to secrecy. But the experimental serum and poor medical access over the years had led to deteriorating mental health. He had one daughter before the treatment who left him grandchildren. As a token of apology, Captain America brings Isaiah the remains of his old Captain America costume.
Isaiah is happy to receive it.
A later Handbook entry clarifies/changes this story. It makes clear these experiments took place after Steve Rogers became Captain America, not before, and that the scientist involved was not the scientist who experimented on Captain America, but a different, crueler scientist using the same name. I guess this series wasn’t the whole truth, after all.
The scientist behind the massacre and cruelty depicted in this series was Dr. Wilfred Nagel, who makes his way into the television show in a similar role, having recreated the super soldier serum.
Eli Bradley, grandson of Isaiah Bradley, later becomes the superhero Patriot of the Young Avengers.
Winter Soldier
A mysterious sniper assassinates the Red Skull.
Somebody murders Jack Monroe,the 1950s Bucky. Is it the same assassin?
Somebody desecrated the graves of William Naslund and Jeffery Mace, the other Captain Americas of the 1940s.
Captain America thinks back to an old Invaders mission. Brubaker has a new take on Bucky. The story we thought we knew was the propaganda story: that Bucky was the teen sidekick, a symbol of America’s youth. The truth was that he was already 17 or so when he became Bucky, and the symbol story was a cover. He was a highly trained covert operative there to do the dirty work so that Captain America could keep his hands clean.
The assassin turns out to be the Winter Soldier, who many thought to be just a rumor or myth. But more than that, Sharon recognized him as Bucky. Was Captain America’s World War II sidekick not dead after all?
Nick Fury fills Captain America in on the history of the Winter Soldier, the KGB secret weapon, kept in suspended animation between missions.
If Winter Soldier was Bucky, he has no memory of it.
Captain America reads old classified KGB documents, which explain how Bucky survived the explosion, was healed, given an artificial arm, brainwashed, and trained to be a lethal KGB assassin, the Winter Soldier.
Captain America uses the power of the Cosmic Cube to restore Bucky’s memories.
In the aftermath of a superhero Civil War, Captain America is arrested for his opposition to the Superhero Registration Act. While being taken into custody, he is shot and killed
Tony Stark announces there is no intention to replace Steve Rogers, and the uniform and shield are donated to the Smithsonian. Bucky visits and realizes the shield in the museum is a fake. He resolves to get it back, and to kill Tony Stark for his role in the Civil War which led to Captain America’s arrest and death.
Retrieving the SHIELD means battling his old friend from their KGB days: the Black Widow.
Tony gets a posthumous letter from Steve.
Bucky makes his move and attempts to kill Tony Stark; Tony talks him down and shows him the letter.
Steve had two requests of Tony: to make sure somebody else takes up the mantle of Captain America; and to help Bucky. Stark thought this might accomplish both, and he knows Bucky would allow nobody else to do it. Bucky takes up the shield and steps into action as the new Captain America.
Fast forward some. Steve Rogers ends up not dead and returns as Captain America. Bucky goes back to being the Winter Soldier.
Sam Wilson, Captain America
The Iron Nail sucked the super soldier serum out of Captain America, leading to him rapidly aging. The serum was all that was keeping him young in a dimension where time aged differently or some such.
He is Captain America no more.
He called a meeting of the Avengers to let them know he’d be stepping down as Captain America and that Falcon would be the new Captain America.
When John Walker replaced Captain America, the internet wasn’t a thing. You could get a small sample of fan sentiment from the letters pages. Plenty of fans were not happy to see Steve Rogers replaced. When Bucky Barnes replaced Captain America, the internet was a thing, though Twitter and Facebook were still brand new, so the internet was not quite what it would become. Plenty of people were not happy to see Steve Rogers replaced as Cap.
As expected, if you look to Twitter in 2014, you would see plenty of people unhappy to see Sam Wilson replace Steve. Except this was different. Perhaps the internet had just changed in the 7 years since Bucky had replaced Cap. But the level of vitriol was stronger. These fans weren’t just unhappy; they were furious. Harassing writers, spouting obscenities, often racially-tinged invectives.
The reaction this time went well beyond the fanbase. Some people who didn’t read Captain America comics were equally opinionated, equally furious, not just that Steve Rogers would be replaced, but specifically it seemed with who the replacement was. And that the writer was inserting politics into comics.
You started to get the sense that maybe some of these people just didn’t like the idea of a black man as Captain America.
Some of the internet commentary made it into the voices of characters in the comic, expressing their own disapproval of this new Captain America.
Seeing the many issues dividing America, Captain America tries to give an inspiring speech.
It is not well-received.
Many people, it seems, don’t accept him as Captain America.
Joaquin Torres regularly helped provide water and food to refugees making the dangerous trek from Mexico to America. When he disappeared, his grandmother called on Captain America for help.
He turned out to be a prisoner of our old friend Dr. Malus, who spliced his genes with Redwing’s.
When Captain America is in trouble, Torres is able to save the day.
Yes, Captain America is a wolf now. Not the first time. Don’t ask.
Torres gets himself a costume and a new identity as the new Falcon.
In the show, Torres is reimagined as Sam Wilson’s military liaison. He does not sprout wings. Yet.
Steve Rogers becomes young again, but decides Sam (no longer a wolf) should keep on being Captain America.
Many people would prefer John Walker take up the shield again, preferring him to Sam Wilson.
The story never ends.
Steve Rogers is Captain America again. He’s since encountered at least one other crazy Captain America associated with the Weapon XXX project. (Final count is 14 or maybe 15.)
The truth is, I have trouble keeping up with it all sometimes.
Sam Wilson is Falcon again and he and the Winter Soldier have been teaming up lately, battling Baron Zemo and such. Just in time for the TV series, coincidentally.
Recommended Reading
Captain America Epic Collection: The Captain
The story of John Walker’s time as Captain America while Steve Rogers served as The Captain. The series seems to have been heavily inspired by this era, written by Mark Gruenwald.
Captain America: Winter Soldier: The Complete Collection
Ed Brubaker’s modern classic revealed Bucky was still alive and serving as an elite assassin named the Winter Soldier.
Sam Wilson: Captain America: The Complete Collection
Rick Remender has an elderly Captain America hand over his shield to his longtime partner Sam Wilson. See Sam Wilson’s adventures as Captain America.
Holy Crap, that was just part one?
Extremely thorough and interesting, although I was a little sad not to see the fake Cap from Captain America Comics #…3(ish) and doubly saddened by the exclusion of Fake Chain-Smoking Midget Bucky, AKA the greatest character in the history of comics, Those five (ish) panels before they were gruesomely killed off were truly a milestone inside a watershed.
I wanted to focus on the time Rogers was not Cap and somebody tried to step in. I knew if I tried to count every fake Cap, I’d add a 5th page to an already long post and still inevitably miss some. For example, Golden Age comics are something of a weakness. I did google “chain smoking midget bucky” and the top hit was you talking about the comic. And I fear for what Google will start trying to advertise to me now.
That’s fair. “Return of the Red Skull” might been slightly noticeable because it’s the origin of the replacement Cap trope – and also my all time favorite Captain America story.
Finished reading the whole thing and learned a lot, especially from the last couple years of comics. Great post!
I should go a Cap reread. I remember really liking Dematties and Greenwald’s runs but a decade + on I forget damn near everything.