#yes i did actually prepare this for juneteenth yesterday

[sineala]

18+ 616 Steve/Tony Discord Book Club: Captain America: Truth: Red, White & Black (2003)

It's Captain America week for Book Club! And since our last Book Club, Young Avengers, was such a hit with the server, we thought it'd be a good time to read the story of Eli's grandfather, Isaiah Bradley. Truth: Red, White & Black (currently released as Captain America: Truth) is a seven-issue miniseries from 2003 by Robert Morales and Kyle Baker that introduces Isaiah Bradley. If you watched the Falcon and the Winter Soldier show, you've already seen him, but this is his original Marvel Comics debut.

The plot of Truth essentially recasts the Tuskegee Syphilis Study into the 616 universe as WW2 super-soldier serum trials. None of the subjects are told what's going on, and there are only a handful of survivors. Isaiah is one of them. Isaiah is sent on a suicide mission (for which he steals Steve's uniform) that would definitely have killed him if he hadn't had the serum, and he gets captured by the Nazis. This is not as bad as what the US government does to him when he gets back.

Steve knew about none of this, and there's a framing story where, in the present day, he finds out that all of this has been happening, and he gets to meet Isaiah.

It's a very serious story and it's not an easy read; it's an unflinching look at racism in the past and present. But it's definitely worth reading.

Come join us on You Gave Me A Home, an 18+ comics Steve/Tony Discord server!

(We are now once again a Level 3 boosted server, thanks to our Nitro members, and that means our URL is once again discord.gg/stevetony. Previous book clubs are also always on topic so if you missed YA v1 you can come read it now. And you should, because YA is really good.)