The Falcon And The Winter Soldier Episode 2 Reveals Marvel’s Black Captain America

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 2 has revealed the secret history of Marvel's Black [...]

By Kofi Outlaw

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 2 has revealed the secret history of Marvel's Black Captain America. After the game-changing ending of episode 1 introduced the New Captain America (John Walker) to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, episode 2 finds Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) struggling with what Jon Walker's debut means for Steve Rogers' legacy. However, that rumination doesn't last long: the Flash Smashers are still out there, and Falcon and Winter Soldier need to take them down. But when it's revealed the Flash Smashers have Super Soldier powers, Bucky is forced to reveal a key piece of clandestine history to Sam: There was a Black Captain America years before Steve was found.

Warning: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier SPOILERS Follow!!!

In "The Star-Spangled Man" Bucky takes Same to Baltimore, to the home of one Isaiah Bradley. As Bucky reveals, he met Isaiah during the Korean War, when Isaiah was serving as America's new Captain America. He had been created as an experiment with the Super Soldier Serum and was used by the military for especially hazardous missions. But instead of getting a hero's reward for his heroic service, Isaiah was instead put through hell.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 2 Spoilers Black Captain America Isaiah Bradley Origin
(Photo: Marvel Studios)

From Isaiah's own words to Falcon and Winter Soldier, he was locked in jail for 30 thirty years while the US Government experimented on him and took samples of his blood - the same with the HYDRA forces embedded in America. Whatever happened it left Isaiah shattered, and he's apparently been living in secret in Baltimore, ever since.

Isaiah Bradley is a character who was also the Black Captain America in Marvel Comics. The series Truth: Red White & Black told the story of how Isaiah was the sole survivor of an early version of the Super Soldier Serum that was tested on 300 black soldiers during WWII. The other black soldiers experienced gruesome mutations and death, and even after Isaiah survived and gained the powers of a super-soldier, the perfected serum was given to a white man (Steve Rogers) who better fit America's vision of its heroic symbol.

There's no telling just how big a role Isaiah Bradley will play in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but the truth that there was an original Captain America who was a black man - and the US government buried him, and that truth - is going to no doubt have a profound effect on Sam Wilson, and his consideration of why (or why not) to take up the Captain America mantle.

MORE: The Legacy and Importance of Marvel's Truth: Red, White & Black

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is now streaming on Disney+.

Watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

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