The Tragic History of Isaiah Bradley [Falcon & Winter Soldier]

As seen in Falcon & Winter Soldier on Disney+, Isaiah Bradley was a super soldier, but did you know that he was Captain America?!

The photos of Kyle Baker and Bill Jemas were provided by Luigi Novi. Photo of Muhammad Ali was provided by Stanley Weston.

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Tags: #CaptainAmerica #Falcon #WinterSoldier

[dragonsswarm]

A hero, even when the world didn't treat him like one.

[adamnaameeazim]

If I'm being honest, as much as I'd love to see more of this character, having his comic book history being so short somehow makes everything around him feel even more poignant and hit you even harder. He's not some comic book superhero who died and came back from the dead a dozen times after fighting aliens and demon lords. He's a noble man who fought for what he believed in in spite of the racism, discrimination, the unjust world around him and the horrible things he had to endure. Isaiah Bradley deserves more love.

[comixproviderftw_]

We need a flashback of at least one episode dedicated to Isiah as Captain America and see the bar fight with The Winter Soldier.

[avaranabraham]

Fun fact the actor who played Isaiah Bradley was the voice of Martian man hunter from justice league and justice league unlimited so he had a lot of experience working as super heroes

[GenerationWest]

Even though it's slightly different in the MCU, his origin is still messed up, in some parts worse. He was in the Korean War instead fighting The Winter Soldier, but instead of making him a hero, they lock him up longer than the comic, and make him a MCU Henrietta Lacks. What's even sadder, no one knows who he is or was in comparison. We're so getting Eli's Patriot later on, but would still love to see Carl Lumbly beat Bucky up in Korea in something.

[todangtall]

I remember randomly deciding to google "black Captain America" several years ago. Their where some minor details and a pretty decent synopsis of the character. But it's always nice to see someone do a proper deep dive on characters like this.

[prexp]

I'm curious about the reaction of people when Isiah was first put to paper. People would most definitely have opinions on A black Captain America.

[ComicDrake]

For those confused about the timeline of events, let me clear them up. Isaiah and his platoon were experimented on BEFORE Steve Rogers was given the Super Soldier Serum the the effects of the imperfect version affecting his mental capacities later in life. For the in-universe Captain America comics, as seen in in Truth #4, they were released a full year before Steve's first mission as Captain America as propaganda from the US, presumably while he was training. To the best of my knowledge, Isaiah took Steve's costume before Rogers had a chance to wear it for his maiden mission.

EDIT: Okay. It has come to my attention that this was retconned in History of the Marvel Universe #2 in 2019 and that Isaiah was made into an attempt to recreate the serum. That's totally my bad for not being as thorough as I normally am for my content, especially since I read HotMU as it came out. I'll address this in my upcoming video about the history of every Captain America.

[marvelghost]

Isaiah Bradley should get his own Disney+ show. That would show why he ended up being the icon that he became; in the black community.

[awesomeblb]

I like the realism but it also makes me sad

[notnoda]

Nice mug, also i think if steve knew about these experiments before getting the serum he would of never took it, because steve Rogers is a morally good person

[pious]

_"Look at them. They can't even make peace with each other!"_ - Magneto

[jlev]

I just watched Captain America: Brave New World a few days ago, and I have newfound appreciate for Carl Lumbly's character: his distrust of the president, his distress over being locked up again, his relief over being pardoned.

[samrandoms]

I love how they mentioned how this man basically tore Bucky apart while Cap held back in Winter Soldier. This basically highlights how much Cap was handicapped because of his personal connections to Bucky

[andrepaul]

Isaiah Bradley is played by Martian Manhunter in Falcon & TWS. Cool

[maxamaya]

The way you incorporated the difficult history that the author's were trying to portray into this episode is commendable. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this one, your work is appreciated and enjoyed.

[DonniedrakoE]

Damn easily one of the saddest origin stories. A solider who basically got his entire life ruined from racism and the government turning a blind eye. All while being a bonafide hero. Mcu version got off easy

[acehealer]

I’d heard about Isaiah’s story before. I was really hoping he’d appear in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier AND HE DID! Hell yeah! And with his grandson Eli making a cameo appearance, a Young Avengers team in the MCU seems like a real possibility now! I don’t know a lot about Josiah X though. I should do some more reading.

[Emike-ncew]

Is really awesome that they are setting up the young avengers...

[AussieDragoon]

One thing of note is that the comics soft-retconned events. Isiah still took took the Captain America suit so he was the first Captain America, though not officially, but his formula didn't lead into Steve's. Erskine (under the alias of Dr. Reinstein) had completed the formula on his own and Steve was the first and only person that formula was used on since Erskine was killed right after without informing anyone of how he did it. The experiments the Isiah was forced into now happened after this as an attempt to recreated the formula used on Steve, conducted by another man using the Reinstein moniker (This one being Wilfred Nagel who just appeared Falcon and the Winter Soldier). It's just that like in the First Avenger movie, the government didn't send Steve into the field right away since he was their only Super Soldier. And Marvel has stuck to this being the order of Events, in the 2019-2020 Complete History of the Marvel Universe book it's mentioned that Isiah got his serum after Steve. I'm sure there are people who like the idea of perfect Steve having a darker origin to his powers, but honestly this makes more sense. Had the government been monitoring the experiments the whole time, one guy dying shouldn't have stopped them from being able to perfect it, so having Isiah be part of an attempt to recreate it works better in the grand scheme of things.