Welcome to part two of POINT OF ORIGIN’s second edition. If you haven't read the first part yet, you can find it here. We’ve previously covered a few mature readers titles, but it’s about time we got into some super-hero stuff.

Since Monday is a national holiday celebrating one of our great civil rights leaders, I’m reminded of a story published by Marvel Comics just about 5 years ago entitled TRUTH: RED, WHITE AND BLACK.

Minor Spoilers Ahead.

Everyone at this point in time should be aware of who Captain America is. He died a few months back. It was all over the news. You really couldn’t miss it. Honest. “Death of Superman”-like coverage nationwide.
For those few who don’t, go hit the wiki, and then come back.

Writer Robert Morales and artist Kyle Baker, for better or worse, take what everyone knew about Captain America in 2003, and say, “You’re kidding right?”
Any person with some knowledge of our nation’s civil rights history knows how poorly people who aren’t white men are treated, especially in the era of the Tuskegee Airmen. So what made us think Steve Rogers, the scrawny white kid with polio, would’ve been the first person to have the super soldier serum put in him? Why would we believe they didn’t have test subjects for this “super” serum? Morales and Baker believe there were test subjects.

Centering on a group of 5 black soldiers, TRUTH follows them from the barracks to the lab and beyond. The tale is told mostly in the past, but there are a few scenes which show us how the families of those black soldiers are living today. I don’t want to give too much away, since there’s a lot of good story here. Despite how much media attention this storyline got bashing it before it even came out, I still enjoyed what Morales brought to the table.

There were really only two major problems with the whole project, in my eyes. One was the misuse of Kyle Baker on art. Baker is a fantastic cartoonist. In the case of this dramatic story, his art can downright take you out of the element. This cover pretty much shows you what to expect.

The other fault here is since this was written in 2003, and Captain America has been around since WWII, it supposes a lot that Cap would have no idea the events here occurred by now. Though, some of the best moments of the series come after Cap finds out what happened all those years ago.

I'm not going to lie, the feedback on this story is really love it or hate it. I happen to think it’s still an important revision made to Captain America’s history, and a decent place to start your CAPTAIN AMERICA reading. Especially since it ended up sticking, and elements brought to life here are still used in current Marvel comics.

Point of Origin is here for you to find out about stories you may have missed. It’s up to you to decide whether or not you enjoy them. All I can do is point you in the right direction. See you next week.