


4/01/2021 3:53 am  #121

Re: Things people keep getting wrong (Round 2) redux

Another Truth related one, though this one is based in the real world publication.

Incorrect: Isaiah Bradley was intended to be the original Captain America, before Steve, but they had to change the story due to negative fan reaction (read: racist fans objecting).
Truth: As far as I can ascertain, they did change the story, but not because of negative fan reaction.

Full disclosure here - as I was obviously not involved nor privy to creative discussions about Truth, I'm going on what I've learned from interviews and other publicly available facts.

Robert Morales makes it clear that originally Truth was not going be in 616, as explained in the foreword to the original TPB:
"Truth was originally planned to be outside of the Marvel Universe's official continuity."
In the non-616 timeline Truth was meant to be part of, Isaiah would indeed have pre-dated Steve. However, this was changed, not because of fan outrage, but because editorial decided they liked the story so much they wanted to have it in continuity, which would allow potential future stories to follow up on it.
Morales again in that foreword: "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."
So it was indeed the change that necessitated placing Isaiah after Steve, because Steve becomes Cap well prior to Pearl Harbor, and Truth established that attack was what prompted Isaiah's enlistment.

Could negative fan reaction have been a factor? Almost certainly not from reaction to the actual issues, as Truth#4 is the issue that confirmed Steve was already around; knowing how far in advance stuff has to be in for the printers based on handbook schedules, I'm fairly sure (if not 100% certain) that by the time Truth#1 hit the stands Truth#4 had to already be completed and sent to the printers.

Could it have been negative reaction to pre-publicity, mentions of Truth in Previews for example? That could in theory have happened far enough in advance for the storyline to be changed, but I'm not sure the story was well enough pre-publicized for this to happen. The articles Andy provides links for a couple of posts back were both written after the first issue came out.

Was there some negative fan backlash from Truth? Yes. That's not in doubt. But did it prompt a scared Marvel to change the course of the story to placate them? I don't think the publication timeline supports that possibility.



4/01/2021 4:25 am  #122

Re: Things people keep getting wrong (Round 2) redux

And another:
Incorrect: Isaiah was experimented on as part of Project Rebirth.
Correct: Project Rebirth was the one with Erskine, and died with him. Isaiah was part of the follow-up Project Super Soldier.

We see this in Truth#3:


4/08/2021 5:55 pm  #123

Re: Things people keep getting wrong (Round 2) redux

This one might have been mentioned on the Capes (Optional) site. It's even made it to the Handbooks:

Incorrect: Phil Sheldon first appeared in Marvels #1
Truth: Phil Sheldon first appeared unidentified (one panel cameo) in Amazing Spider-Man #122 before being fully identified in Marvels #1

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