Captain

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Bradley’s enhancements are typical for one receiving the Super Soldier Serum without also being exposed to Vita-Rays, namely slightly superhuman strength and durability and near-peak human agility.

Due to dedicated medical treatments during his time with the Suicide Squad, his wife’s support, and his own considerable willpower, Bradley arrested and later overcame the psychological impairments normally associated with the serum when the rays are not used.

While he was initially poorly trained (see the Captain America (Isaiah Bradley) writeup for his initial stats), his work with the WII resistance, his subsequent training by the Suicide Squad, and the considerable experience he acquired from those periods of service made him a spectacularly capable combatant and covert operative.

History

Isaiah Bradley was one of three hundred black soldiers dragooned into serving Project Super Soldier in 1942, a continuation of Project: Rebirth’s experimentation with human enhancement. Bradley was one of the seven survivors of the various reformulations of the Super-Soldier Serum.

The others perished soon afterward due to complications from the process, enemy action in their initial deployment, and a fight amongst themselves resulting from a racist officer’s taunts in conjunction with rage fueled by the side-effects of the serum. Isaiah was strong-armed by threats against his family into assisting a raid on the German labs performing their own super-soldier research.

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While Bradley was intended to play a supporting role to Steven Rogers, Rogers’s flight was delayed by poor weather and Isaiah decided to go it alone, stealing the incomplete copy of the Captain America uniform that had already arrived on-base.

Assaulting the German compound single-handedly, Bradley managed to put a stop to the Nazi experiments but was taken captive. Helped to escape by black Germans leading a resistance movement against the Third Reich, Bradley decided to remain in country and assist them in their efforts in Germany and France.

European front

He was able to notify his wife that he was alive and eventually informed her of the broad strokes of what had happened to him as well as his current activities, though they mutually agreed to keep this information secret from the government at the time for their mutual safety and Isaiah’s operational security.

While working with the resistance Isaiah met several other superheroes. The ones he worked with most frequently were Citizen V and She-wolf, themselves members of the resistance and leaders of the V-Battalion. In a coincidence completely unknown to either man at the time, Steven Rogers undertook a mission with Isaiah to infiltrate a particularly important base of the Red Skull’s in December of 1944.

Bradley did not know Rogers was Captain America until seeing him in action during the battle itself and had no time to discuss their common history as Rogers left the scene immediately after the mission in pursuit of the Skull.

The two men would not have a chance to reunite during that era as Rogers was put into suspended animation a few months later while Bradley remained in Europe for the next four years fighting the powerful fiefdoms carved out by Axis supervillains in defiance of the Allied forces.

Demobilisation

When the war ended in 1948, Bradley returned home only to be court-martialed and sentenced to life in the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth for stealing the Captain America costume and going AWOL. At this same time Rich Flag was reforming the Suicide Squad under the auspices of the newly-created Task Force X, now focusing on fighting the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

Flag and Task Force X’s leader Amanda Waller both recognized Bradley’s potential and personally recruited him for the squad under the standard terms — ten years of service in exchange for a full pardon and clean record — though the government also insisted that Bradley be sworn to secrecy regarding his history in the military.

Both Flag and Waller frankly wished they could have offered something better, seeing Isaiah as a hero who was wrongly imprisoned, but under the circumstances Isaiah was largely relieved simply to have a way out from under his sentence.

As Bradley was not by nature criminally inclined, unlike most Suicide Squad inductees, Flag groomed him to be his second in command. While supervising Isaiah’s supplemental training, he noticed that Bradley was exhibiting paranoiac tendencies and outbursts of anger that seemed unusual for the man even when factoring in the prior stresses of his resistance work and subsequent imprisonment by his own country.

No degeneration

Researching the effect of the Super-Soldier Serum, Flag realized that Bradley was beginning to suffer the classic mental degradation associated with the serum when Vita-Rays were not also administered. The medical experts of Task Force X were able to work out a drug regimen that overcame most of the effects.

More advanced treatments later undid the damage entirely, though Bradley still struggled to control his temper at times for years afterward.

Though originally assembled to battle foreign threats to America, the Suicide Squad’s first mission pitted them against foes even more alien than originally imagined. The Squad found themselves on the front line of the Skrullian Invasion of 1949.

Using the covert operations skills they had been trained in, the team uncovered numerous Skrull operatives who had infiltrated human society in support of the Skrulls’ more traditional military strikes.

Isaiah Bradley personally uncovered the Skrull posing as Captain America. Though the Skrull warrior destroyed Bradley’s original shield in the course of their battle, Isaiah prevailed in the end and took the imposter’s shield as his own.

The shield

As the Skrull had been mimicking the Jim Harper Captain America, the shield that Isaiah claimed as a war prize was fortuitously badge-shaped much like his old one. It was also far more durable — though the Skrulls had not yet developed the ability to replicate adamantium, they had created an osmium steel alloy as an acceptable substitute.

Isaiah had the “Double V for Victory” emblem tattooed on his right bicep during his time with the Suicide Squad as a subtle gesture of defiance toward the circumstances that had placed him on the team.

He might not have been allowed to leave it on his shield to avoid identifying signatures on his equipment during covert missions, but he would be damned if he was going to surrender the notion that democracy wasn’t achieved until it was achieved at home and abroad.

Perhaps the most persistent enemy of the Suicide Squad during late 1940s and early 1950s was Baron Strucker, who was in the process of building the Hydra organization. Strucker co-opted many former Axis resources while doing so as well as eliminating former enemies.

Among his victims were most of the surviving members of the V-Battalion that Bradley has served with in WWII (the exceptions were John and Paulette Watkins, who were killed by Baron Blitzkrieg).

These acts made Isaiah and Flag particularly driven to foil Strucker at every opportunity. Though they were ultimately unsuccessful in thwarting his creation of Hydra, the Suicide Squad’s efforts substantially weakened it.

1950s

Due to his excellent service with the Squad and the willingness of Bradley and his wife Faith to sign an oath of secrecy regarding Bradley’s military history, Isaiah was allowed to take compassionate leave on occasion and visit his wife starting in late 1953.

This was an unwitting fait accompli on Task Force X’s part as Bradley had used his covert operations skills to sneak away on missions and visit Faith occasionally for over a year prior to that with Rick Flag’s secret approval and assistance.

Faith and Isaiah’s son Josiah was born in 1954, less than seven months after he was officially reunited with his wife. While his handlers realized the implications of the timing, they ultimately decided to overlook it given the circumstances. Isaiah was away on a mission when his son Josiah was born, which he greatly regretted.

When Bradley completed his agreed service in 1958, he declined requests to continue serving as a government agent, wishing only to enjoy his hard-earned return to ordinary civilian life with his family. The next few months were by turns calming and exhilarating.

Bradley still had some residual repressed rage over his treatment by the government which had been exacerbated by the period that the serum was affecting his mind. Reunited with his supportive wife and finally being away from the stresses of battle allowed Isaiah to come to terms with his demons and let go of his anger.

That same year also gave Isaiah a new more positive cause to fight for. Having already taken an interest in the civil rights movement, Bradley was at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s book signing in Harlem in September 1958 when King was stabbed by a mentally ill woman.

Inspired by King’s words and horrified by the near-fatal assault the man suffered in front of him, Bradley volunteered to guard King during public appearances whenever he could make himself available.

I am the master of my fate, I am the Captain of my soul

Unknown to anyone at that time, the man posing in public as the original Captain America was not the true Steven Rogers but in actuality the Red Skull in a body cloned from Rogers. His actions were increasingly disgusting to many other heroes who had once worn the flag, especially those such as Isaiah who had met the real Rogers during the war and expected much better from him.

In 1962 Isaiah became the first to publicly repudiate the faux Captain America’s actions by assuming a new similarly themed identity as the Captain. To show her support, his wife Faith commissioned a metal-working artist friend of theirs to create a replica of Bradley’s original shield for him to use in his new identity.

This time, Bradley decided to paint it in the same style as Rogers’s original WWII shield as a subtle condemnation of the fake Rogers’s current activities.

Though Bradley’s low profile as the Captain led some to dismiss him as an urban legend, he became well known to many heroes and civil rights figures. He often protected Martin Luther King, Jr. in this role and was present to foil the attempted assassination of King in 1968. A year later, Bradley met Superboy for the first time during another appearance with King.

Patriots

Bradley’s actions as the Captain inspired others to likewise reclaim the idea of the patriotic superhero that the false Captain America had been desecrating. In 1970 John Walker and Lemar Hoskins became Americommando III and Patriot II.

Working together with the Captain and the Guardian (Jim Harper) for the next year, the group gathered evidence revealing that the current Captain America was the Red Skull. They secretly contacted Jack Monroe, a.k.a. “Cap’s” partner Nomad, who had no idea that his colleague was the infamous Nazi supervillain.

In 1972 all five men successfully exposed the Red Skull’s deception on national television. The fallout from the Red Skull’s exposure contributed to the Watergate scandal, with the infamous missing 18 minutes of taped discussions containing information as to the original Captain America’s true fate and the experiments performed on Isaiah and his fellow soldiers.

It was later in this same year that Isaiah’s son Josiah joined SHIELD. Isaiah was initially skeptical of Josiah’s choice, remembering how armed service had treated him. Josiah reminded him that things were no longer as they had been when Isaiah was in the military, thanks in part to the actions taken by him and his colleagues, and received Isaiah’s blessing despite the father’s trepidations.

In 1973 Bradley encouraged Walker and Hoskins to redeem the heroic identity they had rescued from the Red Skull, with Walker becoming Captain America and Hoskins coming into his own by taking the newly-created identity of Battlestar. Josiah Bradley had been fast-tracked to SHIELD’s Guardsman power armor program, showing the same physical and mental gifts as his father.

When Josiah became a SHIELD liaison to Infinity, Inc. in the late ’70s, he assumed the identity of Americommando IV while using a modified Guardsman suit, a heroic merging that honored both the military and superheroic roots of his extended family and their friends.

Watergate

When Nixon resigned in 1974 and the Watergate scandal lead to some of the previously hidden crimes of Project: Rebirth coming to light, Bradley decided it was time to reveal his full history to Martin Luther King, Jr. King encouraged Bradley to go public despite his security oath, believing that the tenor of the times would disincline the government to prosecute him given the coercive circumstances the oath was taken under.

King was correct and the two men received further public prestige for exposing the hidden history of Project: Super Soldier and, to a lesser degree, its parent organization Project: Rebirth. Isaiah testified in front of a congressional investigation committee in closed session and his name was redacted in the official transcripts, allowing him to maintain his secret identity before the public at large.

Rick Flag, Sr., now a colonel, also went public with stories of Bradley’s heroism during his time with Task Force X — their reunion in their respective uniforms during their congressional testimonies, in particular the moment when they proudly saluted one another before session began, became a visual icon of honorable government employees speaking out against past mistakes.

These actions diminished some of the national cynicism that was emerging in the wake of the Watergate scandal, proving that there were still good people serving the nation.

While the primary architects behind Project: Rebirth’s abuses avoided full identification and prosecution, the pawns they were forced to sacrifice and the suspicion they fell under greatly weakened their influence and in many cases lessened their personal fortunes considerably.

(This would also later open the way for Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, and Frank Rock to expose the entirety of Project: Rebirth in 2000 and finish dismantling the organization).

Mister President

Two years later King would win his bid for presidency of the United States, propelled by public pressure from the fallout of Watergate and protected from violence by numerous heroes from every part of American society during his campaign. During the inauguration, T’Challa of Wakanda presented Isaiah Bradley with a vibranium shield similar to the steel-vibranium one used by the original Captain America.

This meeting would inspire a long standing friendship between the two men. Bradley was honored by the gift and quite enamored of the shield’s properties after years of using less-advanced designs. He dedicated himself to becoming even more proficient with the shield as a weapon than he had before. The shield Bradley was previously using was passed on to his son Josiah, who used it during his own superheroic career.

When the Justice League of America formed in 1977, the Captain was a founding member alongside Batman I, Superman I, Wonder Woman II, Iron Man I,&Thor II. He served with the team for almost a decade, retiring in the wake of the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985.

Bradley was happy to see that one of the heroes he had inspired, John Walker, assumed his place in the JLA. Not everyone was pleased by this choice. Bruce Wayne in particular was doubtful and visited Isaiah shortly after his retirement to discuss his concerns.

Retired

In his retirement Bradley enjoyed devoting time to his family. Having always felt a little guilty for missing his son’s birth and a fair amount of his early years due to Suicide Squad missions, Isaiah was particularly happy to be present for Josiah’s marriage to Jim Harper’s niece Mary Harper in 1990 and the birth if their twin children Elijah and Karen Bradley two years later.

Though the Captain was retired, his legacy still shaped the lives of other heroes. In 1992 Steve Rogers watched a TimeLife television biography about the Captain that triggered the collapse of the false memories he had been implanted with over the years, allowing him to recall his true self.

In 1995 Green Lantern John Stewart issues a worldwide call for heroes to assist in saving the Mosaic colony on the planet Oa in the wake of the Lantern War and the destruction of the Central Power Battery. Several retired heroes answer the call, among them, The Captain, Batwoman, and Red Raven.

Ultimately the heroes who travelled to Oa were able to restore the necessary infrastructure to keep everything working. This group would later become known as Justice League Oa.

Late in 1998 the members of Justice League Oa were dismayed to learn of the supposed deaths of the JLA, JSA, Avengers and Fantastic Four months earlier, but were unable to return and honor their fallen comrades or provide assistance as the world adjusted to their absence. At that time, limited resources in the Mosaic colony meant that travel between Oa and Earth was even more delayed than communication.

Worse, with the Green Lantern Corp still disbanded and Oa under attack by the Manhunters, the Star Sapphires, and any would-be looter that could reach the planet to plunder its ruins, the JLO was struggling simply to survive and protect its charges among the Mosaic population.

The 2000s

By 2000 with the assistance of the Darkstars, the Controllers, and the reborn GLC, the JLO had stabilized Oa and was able to visit Earth. They were overjoyed to be reunited with friends and family they had believed to be dead, but the recent death of Josiah Bradley at the hands of the Red Skull cast a pall over the celebration.

While Isaiah was initially quite angry at Jason Todd and others who had been present at the time of Josiah’s death, he soon recognized that they had done their best to stop the Skull and were not at fault.

Many people turned out to honor Josiah at his funeral, especially from the superheroic community, which allowed Isaiah to meet many of the new heroes he was previously unacquainted with though most of them already knew of his profound achievements and legacy.

After the funeral Isaiah’s wife Faith agreed to return to Oa with him. Now that the Mosaic colony was stabilized it was safe to live there and relatively easy to travel back to Earth when the two wished to do so.

Oan technology in the Mosaic colony also allowed Faith to undergo even further rejuvenation than that allowed by the Infinity Formula, which was now in widespread public use on Earth. This has lowered Faith’s biological age to match Isaiah’s, and the two are now effectively enjoying the life of a young married couple that was denied to them the first time around.

Intergalactic

Though the Mosaic colony is now their place of residence, Isaiah and Faith make regular trips to Earth to visit their friends and family. The most notable of these visits was seeing their grandchildren Elijah and Karen assume the superheroic identities of Patriot III and Bumblebee.

While both grandparents were understandably nervous about this given Josiah’s fate, they could not deny the grandchildren the right to continue the family legacy. They were greatly reassured to learn that Jim Harper would be looking out for them.

Description

Bradley is tall and powerfully built, with a broad-shouldered barrel chest and a round head. He has a very expressive face, particularly in the set of his lips, whether he showing a warm smile or determined smirk.

Isaiah’s right bicep is tattooed with the same “Double V for Victory” emblem that was painted on his original shield.

Isaiah’s uniforms are variations of a theme — a Captain America-style micro-chainmail shirt and a do-rag in complementary colors. Though originally adopted in extremis — Bradley was using an incomplete Captain America costume and was thus forced to improvise the missing head cover — he became comfortable with the fit of that outfit and continued to wear it whenever he went into action.

Personality

Isaiah is a man of many contrasts. He has spent decades as a close friend to a man dedicated to non-violence, and has also spent that time in the highly violent life of a Superhero.

What many consider the most inspirational thing about Isaiah is his dedication to his country’s ideals and his willingness to defend those ideals even when the government itself is treating him like dirt and cheating him out of his life. He is a man of strong convictions and deep moral fiber.

Even a decade of wrongful imprisonment and being sworn to secrecy about the truth couldn’t make him sit idly by while the legacy of Captain America was being betrayed. He is also capable of astounding compassion, traveling across the universe to assist people he has never met, most of whom aren’t from Earth.

His ability to persevere and to unerringly find the light at the end of the tunnel in his life is also remarkable.

By Azrael and Roy Cowan.

Source of Character: Marvel Comics with adaptations to Universe AZ, character originally created by Robert Morales.

Helper(s): Sébastien Andrivet, Roger Cormes, Frank Murdock, Dr. Peter Piispanen, Wikipedia and the Marvel Wiki for helping to develop the original stats.

Writeup completed on the 21^st of December, 2010.