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Lie 1
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.