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Kjerstin Lie

November 11, 2013

English 418

Final Rough Draft

Science fiction is a progressing genre that uses a futuristic setting or themes in order to

reevaluate historical situations or prove a point. Generally science fiction deals with problems of

social identity, morality or the way society is structured. For example the novel Dune by Frank

Herbert, a Hugo and Nebula award winner, explores themes of gender, declining empires and

environmentalism. This novel explores these various issues through a science fiction lens, it is

set on a different planet and focuses on problems that readers can relate to and can think about

critically. While many people see science fiction as a genre that places people in different

dimension and planets, science fiction is really much more than that. James Gunn describes

science fiction as, “literature that deals with the effects of change on people in the real world as it

can be projected into the past, the future or to distant places. It often concerns itself with

scientific or technological change and usually involves matters whose importance is greater than

the individual or community” (Gunn 6). Gunn discusses that science fiction is a complicated

genre, but the most basic aspects of it reimagine a part of the world that readers cannot control.

Using this definition we can then gain a greater understanding about African American science

fiction, Afrofuturism.

Afrofuturism is a new sub-genre of science fiction. It has started to dominate pop culture

starting in the 1990’s. Lisa Yaszek explores the idea of Afrofuturism in her essay “Afrofuturism,

Science fiction, and the History of the Future”. She writes that Afrofuturism is, “a larger

aesthetic mode that encompasses a diverse range of artists working in different genres and media

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who are united by their shared interest in projecting black futures derived from Afrodiasporic

experiences” (Yaszek 1). Combining Yaszek and Gunn’s definitions, we can try to understand

Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism, essentially, recreates the African Diaspora using historically

reimaged events and thinks critically about the concerns and themes surrounding African

American culture.

Robert Morales and Kyle Baker’s 2004 graphic novel Captain America: Truth, explore

the idea of a black super hero. The story takes place in the 1940’s during World War II, where

Isaiah Bradley, an African American solider in the war, is given the super serum that audiences

have seen regularly in the original Captain America story. Bradley turns into the first black

‘superhero’. While this reimaging on a classic super hero story would seem to be powerful for

African Americans, it actually does just what the title offers; it tells the truth. The novel looks

closely at the treatment of black Americans and their roles in war time and everyday society in

the forties and beyond. I argue that this novel can be read as an Afrofuturist text. Based on the

above definition of Afrofuturism and what our class has discussed throughout the quarter, I argue

that Truth is a strong example of an Afrofuturist text.

This novel is written as a story that is being told by Isaiah Bradley’s wife, she is telling

Steve Rogers, the original Cap, the story of her husband and his downfall in both the military and

in life. Cap is trying to figure out the truth about the situation involving other people effected by

the super serum. Morales has written this novel about Bradley and the other black heroes as a

tragic tale, whereas Roger’s become a large well know story of pride and honor. Towards the end

of the novel when Roger’s learns of Bradley’s existence and black half black doctor is astounded

that Roger’s has never heard of Bradley. The doctor says, “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of

Isaiah Bradley—The black Captain America!?” (Morales). This part of the novel shows the

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unfortunate difference between the black and white heroes. Roger’s is well recognized, praised

and sought after, while Bradley is hidden, forgotten and mentally deteriorated. Rebecca Wanzo,

a professor at Duke University, looks closely at this problem within the novel. She writes,

“Isaiah Bradley, the last one standing, is not even

given the privilege of hero status as blackness makes

his publicly wearing the Captain America uniform a

crime. As outcast and first citizen, revolutionary and

state solider, the black Captain America signifies a

relationship to the state that addresses both an

attachment to principles such as democracy and justice even as such rights were historically

denied to black Americans” (Wanzo 340-41). Wanzo points out the unfairness of the situations

because it shows the ways in which black people are treated unjustly. Bradley accomplishes and

survives chaos in the same way that Roger’s does, yet gets no recognition or help from the

government. Bradley even talks about how the government gave him so much money in order to

help him live, “Yeah, I know all about that. I just got a fortune in back pay for all the years I was

in suspended animation—more money than I knew what to do with” (Morales). The back pay

that Roger’s earns is vast in comparison with what the Bradley family got, which was basically

nothing. Bradley was sentenced to solitary confinement and practically lost his mind. At the end

of the novel readers learn that despite popular belief, Bradley is alive, but after all of his

suffering, he has the mind of a child. The Bradley family received no compensation from the

government. This is an afrofuturist point because it is criticizing the past and working with

historical events and patterns in order to critique the historical treatment of colored Americans in

the past. This means that Morales is critiquing the way that a black Captain American would

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have been treated as opposed to how a white Captain America was treated. Isaiah Bradley was

pushed to the side and taken out of the work, he was a “failed” experiment, while Steve Rogers

succeeded and was allowed to go into the public and be a hero. This concept is essential to the

story because it is showing readers true discrimination. Morales takes a close look at the way the

government functioned when concerning black Americans and how they are recognized in

comparison with white American’s who have done the same things.

Truth continues to represent an Afrofuturist text when it recreates the image of the middle

passage. This scene is reminiscent of the past and foreshadows future events in the novel. It leads

the readers to understand that a form of slavery is occurring again. The men being placed on the

boat did not willingly, they are asked to go into the “hold” and stay there until they are let out. In

the hold a man named Jack starts to see figures that do not really

exist in this location. He sees black men who resemble a

stereotypical image of a native African man. When Jack sees these

men, it can be understood that he is seeing ghosts of his friends’

ancestors. Jack seems to be overwhelmed and

understand that history is repeating itself and that they are just as trapped

as their ancestors once were. This reimaging of the middle passage helps to

show that this novel can be read as an afrofuturist novel because Jack is

seeing something that isn’t real, something alien to him and others, so this

shows the science fiction side of this novel. This idea of the Middle

Passage was an experience that is as alienating for the characters as

anything that occurs in a science fiction novel. These men are put in a place they do not know or

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understand which is comparable to being on an alien planet. This in addition to the visuals in the

scene.

Visual masculinity plays a large role in the depictions of Morales and Baker’s characters.

Baker makes a conscious decision to play up the physical prowess of the main characters. All the

men who are given the super serum start as fairly large and capable men. Isaiah and Maurice are

tall and bulky young men and Luke Evans is defined and scrappy. But after getting treated with

the serum they turn into overwhelmingly massive, muscular, veiny super humans. (This is an

interesting comparison to the original Captain America as well because Steve Rogers started as a

puny little man before he was changed into the super charged Cap.) In Jeffrey Browns essay

“Comic Book Masculinity and the New Black Superhero”, he discusses the idea of what

masculinity does for its characters and readership. Brown says that the masculine is something

that all men strive for and that masculinity is anything that “isn’t feminine”, meaning that

somebody who is masculine isn’t going to have emotions, isn’t weak and won’t be passive

(Brown 6). He goes on to discuss, the fairly new, comic book company Milestone. Milestone

was started by a group of African Americans who

wanted to write comics and have their voices be

heard. According to a study that brown conducted,

Milestone’s popularity goes beyond super heroes

with super muscles, “The young fans who count the

Milestone books among their favorites do so

because they offer an alternative to the extreme of

hypermasculinity- or, as one reader put it, ‘With Milestone it isn't always the guy with the

biggest arms that wins .... it's the guy with the biggest brain’”(Brown 3). This point is relevant

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for Afrofuturism because this helps to reimagine historical masculinity for black men. In Truth,

Bradley and Roger’s show many emotions and ‘soft’ sides of themselves. Instead of pure muscle

and brawn, audiences view a more emotional side of the men. Bradley is given orders to kill and

raid Nazi stations and platoons, and while he follows through with orders, he doesn’t necessarily

want to. He weeps over the bodies of captured Jews and seems to hesitate when carrying out

orders. His ability to show his weaknesses cause him to be more human. He doesn’t seem like a

robot super hero who just does as he is told. He is still a living, breathing, emotional human and

audiences like that. Readers can look at this character and relate to him. Even though he has

super strength and heroic characteristics, he still has something everyone can relate to; emotions

and opinions. The reimagining of the Captain America myth, leads a hand in Afrofuturism

because it helps to make reconsider the idea of masculinity in black culture. It allows black

characters to be more accessible to readers.

The origin story of Captain America and Isiah Bradley is explored in Jennifer Ryan’s

essay, “Truth made visible: crises of cultural expression in truth: Red, White, and Black”. She

looks at how the Tuskegee project has an effect on the making of the stories and how Isaiah

Bradley is affected by this event as well. She writes:

The story derives from the experiments with untreated syphilis that the US Department of

Health conducted on African-American volunteers from Tuskegee, Alabama...Although

Bradley and his fellow soldiers suffer much more violent effects in the short-term than did the

Tuskegee participants, many of them also died as a result of complications from an untreated

illness, outside the scope of public awareness (Ryan 2).

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Morales and Baker use the Tuskegee project as inspiration for this story. The tests that are run on

Isaiah Bradley and his comrades are reminiscent of the treatment in the projects of Alabama. In

the Tuskegee Syphilis Project, the African Americans who participated were told they were

getting free health care to treat their “bad blood”. Instead they were not treated for syphilis, and

were used to test drugs. This was a non-consensual

project. The participants were not aware of the

situation they were in. The project is eerily similar to

the situation that Bradley finds himself in. Many

African Americans are taken to a lab and are tested

on. Bradley is placed on a table and injected with the

super serum that is not finalized. Many of his friends

die in the process. Morales’ decision to include this

speaks directly to the mistreatment of African

American’s in history. He and Baker are critiquing the government and the injustice that blacks

have faced over time in the U.S. Understanding Morales’ influence for this portion of the novel

is significant because it shows his interest in the past. He is trying to comment on many different

aspects of African American mistreatment. Rebecca Wanzo comments on the decision of

reimagining the Tuskegee experiments, “Marvel editor Axel Alonso suggested that a feasible

origin story for Captain America was that military scientists would more likely have

experimented on black bodies before allowing a white male to be endangered (Wanzo 340). This

comment by Alonso is significant because he points out that Morales’ idea to rethink that past is

accurate and helps him to explore the way in which black Americans are dehumanized. This is

considered an Afrofuturist move because it helps to recreate a historical event in order to further

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understand the concept and issues surrounding the African Diaspora. Readers can look at this

book and continue to see how the characters are alienated and treated as un-human.

Truth continues to reflect on the past and create an Afrofuturist identity through the use

of famous figures throughout the novel. Throughout the graphic novel the readers may or may

not notice the many times that well known writers and African American activists are mentioned

or seen. At the beginning of the novel, Faith talks about W.E.B. Du Bois jestingly saying, “du

Bois is supposed to be talking here today…something about how Negroes have to learn their

place, how we have to give up on our hopes to ourselves…you know how he is” (Morales). Faith

is joking about du Bois because he was outspoken and very involved in gaining African

American rights. This opening to the story can be looked at as foreshadowing. Faith’s talk about

equality and hope is “disrupted by historical realities that burden the narrative with the

impossibility of any of these men being embraced as ideal patriots” (Wanzo 350). When Morales

brings up famous figures in the text he is calling on the contributions that these specific people

have had on African American equality advancement. Thinking about these characters within the

novel helps to create a stance for the authors; they are

able to bring up significant points within history. Later

in the graphic novel, the readers may notice that

Thomas Pynchon is referenced. On the boat that takes

the men on their reimagined Middle Passage, the ship is

called “HMS Pynchon”. Thomas Pynchon is a novelist

who has worked with the concept of racism and has

dabbled in the art of comic book writing. This ode to

Pynchon is placed in this scene because Pynchon

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worked heavily with the concepts of socioeconomic themes and using his name is supposed to

show that even in modern day society these issues still exist and is still being explored. The last

portion that shows famous figures is towards the end of the novel. When Steve Rogers goes to

meet Isaiah Bradley he walks down a hall that commemorates Bradley’s life and achievements.

The wall is full of pictures of Bradley smiling and enjoying various events with many famous

people. Most of the people he is with are black and historically contributed to the advancement

of black Americans. People like, Alex Haley, Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali. All of these

people are significant in the history of black culture in the U.S. and having Bradley associate

with these people makes a huge statement in the novel. It shows that Bradley was aware of the

issues and struggles he was confronted with. The concept of famous figures in this novel aid in

the concept of Afrofuturism because it allows the readers to grasp the concepts that are

reimagined in this story. The themes and concerns surrounding Afrofutuism are strengthened

here by applying advocates for the African American.

While many of the literary themes already discussed are very important in terms of the

novel being Afrofuturist, it is also important to note that

the illustrations in the novel are also extremely

significant in this argument. One of the most prominent

features of this novel is the front cover. The cover is the

first thing that readers will see and this cover is very

interesting. Wanzo notes, “while the star that is

traditionally at the center of the Captain America

uniform read as either a stark emptiness or glowing

beacon at the black figure’s center” (342). Wanzo is

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saying that there is specific significance in the coloring and the function of this cover. She argues

that the black man on the cover has two different readings, a reading of hope or the reading of a

void (342). In saying this she helps readers to think about the role African Americans wish to

play in the U.S. This concept of the cover is interesting in the sense that readers can attempt to

understand the binaries surrounding black culture.

The art work of Kyle Baker is further criticized by both Wanzo and Ryan. They look at

the use of line and color in this text. Wanzo says:

Baker’s use of the simple line, rounded headed characters, flat color and undetailed

landscape as opposed to complex paintings and shadow that would mirror in tone the tragedy

of the story. However, the contrast between the tragic narrative and an aesthetics often used

to depict stereotypical images of black characters is more sharply realized with Baker’s

artwork (Wanzo 345).

Wanzo is commenting on the way in which he draws these characters. She argues that the unique

way in which he draws lends a hand in reading the horrors that Bradley faces as something

stereotypical. Baker’s depictions of his black characters are somewhat stereotypic; they are large,

muscular and have other features that point to a classically imagined black man. When Baker

draws like this the readers almost feel as if they are at fault for the awful things African

Americans have been put through

because they are feeding into this

concept of typecasting. This is

especially true when comparing

the ways in which Steve Rogers is

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drawn as compared to Isaiah Bradley. Rogers has more color, he is always wearing the Cap

uniform and the lines in his face and body are very detailed and small. While Bradley is round,

his face has simple long lines and a big smile. When comparing the two above pictures of the

men, it seems as though they aren’t even from the same graphic novel. Having these two differ

so greatly points to the way race and color causes people to see one another as completely

different. Not to mention when not in the military, he does not wear his Captain America

uniform.

Another image that stand out in this novel and calls to the past, is the cover for the

beginning of Issue #5 titled “The Math”, is a picture of a

black man staring straight out from the book. He is

shadowed and has white numbers glowing on his skin, or

maybe they are projected onto his skin? His eyes shine

red, staying consistent with the basic color scheme of red,

white and blue throughout the novel. Although these

colors are dulled, not vibrant, likely making a statement

about the concept of dulled and less enthusiastic

enthusiasm toward patriotism, especially amongst black

Americans. The cover for this issue of the comic is

“concerned (with) ‘the math’ of the military that sacrifices

citizens while also more specifically alluding to the inscription of numbers on concentration

camp member bodies”(Wanzo 354). Wanzo is speaking directly to the concepts that are

happening directly in the novel and how they play into the idea of the visuals. In this part of the

novel, Isaiah is going to blow up labs in Nazi camps. Then he runs into a group of women, or

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arguably, ghosts, in the internment camps. This scene in

the book is very powerful and draws on the similarities

between the treatment of the Jewish and Black

Americans. Jennifer Ryan looks closely at this scene as

well “Grotesquely cartooned images help to strengthen

the links that Morales and Baker establish between the

book’s Jewish and African American characters through

such excessive representation…authors draw a series of

unmistakable visual connections between the

experiences of African American soldiers and…Jewish

concentration-camp prisoners”(Ryan 6). Ryan is continuing to see the link between the two

groups of people as well. This is an afrofuturist move because this scene directly revisits the past

in order for Bradley to understand the situations he is working with. While this scene doesn’t

recreate the African Diaspora, it does recreate the treatment of those similar to Bradley.

Reimagining the past and having Bradley interact with the past directly causes him and readers

to understand the different forms of slavery and how it seems to repeat itself in many different

forms of abuse and containment.

Truth by Robert Morales and Kyle Baker works hard to explore the treatment and issues

surrounding past and present African American culture and people. This text focuses heavily on

the treatment of soldier and looks closely at war and the comparisons of white to black people

during World War II. While this book is appealing in that way, it can still be considered an

Afrofuturist text. The graphic novel uses references to the past, The Middle Passage, the

alienation of a reimagined Tuskegee Syphilis Project as a super serum experiment. It also works

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with the style of illustrations; including color and use of line and detail. The text has a small

emphasis on famous figures that fought for black rights and the concept of masculinity. All of

these elements play into an afrofuturist text. Afrofuturism is supposed to reimagine a world in

which readers can understand the concepts of African Diaspora and white this text doesn’t have

light sabers, or space ships, it still constantly alienates the characters and audiences. Truth is an

interesting graphic novel because it thinks critically about the themes surrounding black culture

and unpacks history in order to reevaluate a new event. Bradley is a new Captain America and he

represents the black community in a “melancholic, wounded, inadequately provided for by the

nation” man (Wanzo 360). Morales and Baker successfully recreate the Captain America story

in order to show readers the truth.

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Works Cited

Brown, Jeffrey A. "Comic Book Masculinity and the New Black Superhero." African American

Review 33.1 (2012): 25-41. J Stor. Web. 8 Dec. 2013

. Gunn, James. "Toward a Definition of Science Fiction." Speculation of Speculations. Lanham:

Scarecrow, 2005. 5-12. Print.

Morales, Robert, Kyle Baker, and Robert Morales. Captain America: Truth. New York: Marvel

Pub., 2009. Print.

Rebecca Wanzo. "Wearing Hero-Face: Black Citizens and Melancholic Patriotism in Truth: Red,

White and Black." The Journal of Popular Culture 42.2 (2009): 339-62. Web. 8 Dec.

2013. <http://cuwhist.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/wearing-hero-face-black-citizens-

and- melancholic-patriotism-in-truth-red-white-and-black.pdf>.

Ryan, Jennifer. Truth Made Visible: Crises of Cultural Expression in Truth: Red, White and

Black. Publication. 3rd ed. Vol. 38. West Chester: West Chester University, 2011. Print.

Yaszek, Lisa. "Afrofuturism, Science Fiction, and the History of the Future." Socialism and

Democracy 20.3 (n.d.): 1-16. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.