Isaiah Bradley

Isaiah Bradley is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

The First Black Captain America in Truth: Red, White and Black v1 #6.

Isaiah Bradley

Col. Walker Price and Dr. Wilfred Nagel forcibly recruited Isaiah and 300 other Black soldiers to serve as test subjects to recreate the Super Soldier Serum. To keep the operation secret, families were sent letters informing them of the soldiers' deaths. (Truth: Red, White & Black v1 #3) Although, Faith refused to accept Isaiah's death, and continued to look for the truth. Of the 300 Black soldiers, only a handful of men survived the gruesome process. These survivors became a convert black-ops team. After only a few missions, only Isaiah, Maurice Canfield and Sgt. Luke Evans remained. (Truth: Red, White & Black v1 #3) While waiting in Sintra, Portugal for the arrival of Captain America, Maurice discovered the truth about his parents' death. Enraged by the information, coupled with PTSD and an exaggerated thyroid gland, Maurice was led into a confrontation resulting in his death, the death of Sgt. Evans, and the severe injury of Isaiah and Pvt. Merritt. (Truth: Red, White & Black v1 #4) Bradley's last assignment was a suicide mission to kill Doctor Kosh, stop the development of the German Super Soldier formula, and destroy a Nazi death camp in Schwarzebitte, Germany. Before leaving on the mission, Isaiah took a Captain America costume and shield with him. His mission was successful but was also captured. Luckily, while being transported, Isaiah was rescued by a group of German freedom fighters. Months after Isaiah was rescued from Germany, he was able to finally return home where he was promptly court-martialled and given life in prison for stealing the Captain America costume. Starting in 1943, Isaiah served seventeen years in solitary confinement. There his body and mind slowly deteriorate due to unforeseen side effects of the Super Soldier Serum. He was only released because Faith wrote President Eisenhower a letter every month for three years. In 1960, on the day of Kennedy inauguration, Isaiah was granted a full pardon and swore to secrecy. (Truth: Red, White & Black v1 #7)

Overview

Personality and attributes

He came to be known as the First Black Captain America. (Young Avengers v1 #3)

One of his grandchildren was Eli Bradley who was the son of Isaiah's daughter Sarah Gail. (Young Avengers v1 #8)

Notes

• Isaiah Bradley was created by Robert Morales and Kyle Baker where he made his first appearance in Truth: Red, White & Black v1 #1 (January, 2003).
• In the appendix of Truth: Red, White & Black trade paperback collection (2004), Robert Morales commented, "Truth was originally planned to be outside of the Marvel Universe's official continuity. The editorial decision to place it into continuity meant explaining Timely Comics' first publication of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America in 1940—a full year before Pearl Harbor and the true start of our story."
• Co-creator Kyle Baker also noted in an interview that, "With Captain America, people get on my case for 'changing' Captain America. We got a lot of grief from the Captain America fans on that series until the fifth and sixth issues came out; when it turned out that we hadn't tinkered with the continuity. Before that, everybody was very upset, because our story started with Pearl Harbor, and everybody knows that the first issue of Captain America took place before Pearl. Somewhere in the middle of the series, it's revealed that Cap already existed, and we hadn't tinkered with the timeline, and suddenly, the book is okay."

In other media

Television

• In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Isaiah Bradley appeared in the setting of the live-action television mini-series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he was portrayed by actor Carl Lumbly. He was shown as among a group of black soldiers who served in the U.S. military where they became unwitting test subjects of attempts to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum that was lost in Captain America. Each of the soldiers were given different versions in secret with Bradley manifesting all the strengths of a super-soldier as a result. He came to serve in various campaigns including the Korean War and also was noted to had defeated the Winter Soldier in one fight. One day, his unit was captured and orders were given to drop a bomb on the site to prevent their super-soldier enhancements from being studied. However, Bradley was determined to return back with the men under his command and went rogue. Despite his efforts, they were all killed with Bradley the only survivor to return where he was arrested and imprisoned for 30 years. During that time, he was constantly experimented on by the government and HYDRA who wanted to unlock the secrets of the super-soldier serum.

Films

• In Captain America: Brave New World, Isaiah Bradley appeared in the setting of the live-action film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he was once more portrayed by actor Carl Lumbly. By early 2027, he developed a friendship with Sam Wilson, now Captain America, who brought his new comrade and friend Joaquin Torres to his gym for some training for his new role as Falcon; he then personally invited him to a party at the White House with the recently instated president Thaddeus Ross, to which he initially objected before finally accepting. Once at the party, he, alongside 5 other people, suddenly attacked the President upon receiving some flashing lights on their phones and hearing a specific song on the loudspeakers, having secretly been turned into sleeper agents against their will by Samuel Sterns, so, after he tried to run away, he regained his conscience and was arrested. After the other attackers were murdered by a brainwashed guard, who then killed himself, he was moved to solitary confinement, reliving the trauma of his unjust imprisonment of 30 years, but Sam reassured him that he would find evidence on the incident to get him out. Some days later, after Sterns let himself get arrested and turned President Ross into a raging monster, he was finally proven innocent and released from prison, where Sam greeted him.

Appearances

• Truth: Red, White & Black v1: (2003)
• Young Avengers v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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