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The newest superhero hits comic stores across America this week, and like so many before him, he is owned by Marvel. Unlike so many before him, he is black.

Now, for the real surprise: He is Captain America.

Truth: Red, White & Black, a new mini-series to be released monthly over the next half-year, re-creates the story of one of the most popular superheroes of the last century. Marvel has chosen Philadelphia for an official debut Friday, with a signing and events at Atomic City Comics, the South Street store regarded by many in the industry as the nation’s largest African American-owned comic shop.

The original Captain America character, Steve Rogers, was a frail kid rejected by the Army, but permitted to be part of a military experiment with “Super-Soldier Serum” and “vita-rays.” He acquired the world’s most perfect body. He became the Nazi-fighting Captain America, a.k.a. the Sentinel of Liberty.

In the Truth story line, conceived by Marvel’s current execs and creative staff, the military was attempting to develop a serum to create the world’s most perfect fighter, and members of a small unit of African Americans were subjects in the experiment. They were cast aside, though, to make room for the white Steve Rogers.

Except for one.

You won’t know which one by reading the first issue, which is unusual for a comic series, in that it focuses on characters rather than action. After reading the initial part, set in the 1940s, you’ll have no notion of the military experiment to come.

But you’ll know the players who could become the superhero: a draft-resister from the well-to-do “East of Broad” neighborhood in Philadelphia; a new soldier spending time with his bride at the 1940 World’s Fair in New York, during “Negro Week”; and a captain who’s been demoted to sergeant after speaking out against a military injustice.

Marvel, which is selling each monthly installment for $3.50, models the story after a tragic part of real-life American history: the federal government’s Tuskegee experiment, in which white doctors decided not to treat black patients who were participating in syphilis drug tests. The subjects were never told they were in danger, and the resulting scandal forced a code of ethics onto drug research and development.

Months ago, when comic Web sites began carrying news of the Truth series, the buzz was mixed. On the extreme, some Captain America die-hards hated the idea, and some comments to the publisher were racially tinged.

“It’s par for the course that when you announce something controversial, the people who come out of the woodwork first are the people who have something negative to say,” mused Axel Alonso, who edits Truth. “That is a constant in our universe. But the next wave of response was from people who are really looking forward to this. The final indication of the project is sales and feedback.”

Marvel has shipped about 90,000 copies of the first installment to comic retailers who wanted them, making Truth the 15th-most-ordered comic book this month - a strong showing for a new comic.

“It’s sad, but the thing is, there are not a lot of black superheroes out there, and when parents come in looking for role models, they can be hard to find,” says Martin King, who co-owns Atomic City Comics with Michael Yates.

The two men contacted Marvel once they heard about Truth and suggested that the publisher set up some special event at the store. Marvel decided that Atomic City Comics - whose South Street sign still reads Showcase Comics, the store’s former name - was an apt launching site. Alonso and others from Marvel will sign copies of Truth, the store owners will sponsor a lecture on the comic, and two characters will portray Captain America - one black, one white.

Truth’s is not the first-ever black superhero or leading man in a comic, but the others have never caught on in a big way. In the `70s, Luke Cage was a Marvel superhero “who had a big Afro and walked around calling people `Jive Turkey!’ ” remembered Kyle Baker, Truth’s artist. ” `Sweet Christmas!’ he used to say. I never met anybody who said `Sweet Christmas.’ “

Baker, 36, long involved in the comics business, starting as an inker, lives in Los Angeles, where he’s one of the directors at Warner Bros.’ revived Looney Tunes studio. When he spoke by phone, he was in the middle of directing “Ba-da Bugs,” a short about the bunny and the mob.

“When I was a kid” in New York City, said Baker, who has a black mother and a white father, “we didn’t have black superheroes. You had to pretend to be Batman or Superman, and the black guy was usually the sidekick, if there was one. The thing that made Truth attractive to me was that it was about a superhero. I thought it would be great if kids could pretend to be Captain America.”

Baker has worked with Robert Morales, a New Yorker who writes Truth, off and on for years. After laying out the general outline for Truth, Morales, 44, gave Marvel a proposal he considered “so bleak, I thought they were just going to shy away from it. And they never shied away from the big points.”

Morales, whose parents are from Puerto Rico, said he decided that “racism would just be an element and it wouldn’t be something everyone would harp on again and again and again. You have characters who will explain the racial situation, but Truth is not the kind of thing where somebody will stand on a soapbox and complain for six issues.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 23rd, 2002 at 6:47 pm and is filed under U.S. History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.