Is Sam Wilson Betraying Isaiah Bradley By Becoming Captain America?

If Sam Wilson truly becomes the new Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it raises the question of whether or not he's betraying Isaiah Bradley by doing so. Through the first four episodes, despite Steve Rogers having passed the shield down to him and Bucky Barnes unhappy with his decision to turn it over to the U.S. government, Sam has resisted the idea of being the next Captain America. It was never an idea that sat comfortably with him.

Sam was further conflicted after learning of the existence of Isaiah Bradley, the first Black Super Soldier. Despite having been a heroic Super Soldier, particularly during the Korean War, Isaiah's existence was kept from the American public. Unlike Steve Rogers, who volunteered to take the Super Soldier Serum during Project Rebirth and was well-aware of the risks, Isaiah Bradley and 500 of his fellow Black soldiers were experimented on with different versions of the serum while being told it was simply for tetanus. Later, after acting heroically, Isaiah was instead thrown into a black site prison for 30 years. For him, Steve Rogers became nothing more than a symbol of the racist double standard of America.

Despite that, Sam has been quietly grappling with and growing more open to the idea of taking up the shield. Seeing it mistreated in the hands of John Walker has incensed Sam and Bucky both. The first and only Captain America they ever knew was Steve Rogers, whose stalwart moral compass and purity of heart inspired and influenced them; seeing John Walker pervert everything Steve stood for as Captain America has been a painful reckoning for them both. But if Sam Wilson does become Captain America, will he be betraying Isaiah Bradley if he does? The answer is complicated.

Isaiah Bradley's Warning To Sam Explained

Isaiah Bradley tells Sam his story in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

"Those stars and stripes don't mean nothin' to me." It's the first thing Isaiah Bradley tells Sam when Sam brings the Captain America shield to him after reclaiming it from Walker. He's not wrong. He's been experimented on, used up, spit out, betrayed and abandoned by the country he fought for and tried so hard to love – the country that made it clear it never loved him back. But as Isaiah warns Sam, America doesn't love him, either, and it never will. Not the way it loved Steve Rogers and not the way it loves any other white man who screws up more than it will ever love a Black man trying his best. As far as Isaiah sees it, the minute Sam takes up the shield, America will just use him as a scapegoat, too, just like Isaiah himself was used all those years ago by the U.S. government.

Sam is in a difficult position. If he does take up the shield, he betrays Isaiah Bradley, but if he doesn't take up the shield, he betrays Steve Rogers. So he brings the shield to Isaiah with the pretense of wanting to understand what Isaiah went through – and he does – but he's also looking for permission. Still the Falcon, Sam Wilson has clearly already quietly made up his mind to be Captain America, even if he hasn't voiced it yet, and by bringing the shield to Isaiah, what he's really looking for is absolution from the old Super Soldier. But Isaiah isn't about to give it. Where Steve was treated as a hero, Isaiah was treated as a lab rat and he knows the same thing will happen to Sam. "You think things are different? You think times are different?...They will never let a Black man be Captain America. And even if they did, no self-respecting Black man would ever want to be." Isaiah's feelings are clear; after a lifetime of mistreatment at the hands of the United States, he will never see the Captain America shield as anything other than "that white man's shield." Neither should Sam, as far as he's concerned.

Sam's History Is Different From Isaiah's

Captain America Winter Soldier Anthony Mackie Chris Evans talk Civil War

Sam Wilson, however, didn't grow up in the same world as Isaiah. Isaiah grew up in a pre-Civil Rights era world, where segregation and separate drinking fountains and sitting at the back of the bus were normal. A world where the KKK burned crosses on the lawns of heroic Black Red Tail pilots returning from war, and Black men were still lynched for looking at a white woman a little too long. Isaiah never got to be part of the Civil Rights Movement, never got to hear the impassioned wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr., or the fiery oratory of Malcolm X or even the inspiring decision of Rosa Parks to not give up her seat on that bus – he'd already been imprisoned away from the world for at least two years by that time.

But Sam grew up in a post-Civil Rights era world, and as a result, he has hope things can get better. That's not to say racism is over; even in the fictional MCU, it's still woven into the fabric of the country. As a Black man in America, Sam has had to deal with all that comes with that. Being racially profiled and having guns drawn on him by cops, denied bank loans, even the microaggression of being referred to as Steve Rogers' sidekick by John Walker are just a small sampling of the indignities Sam has had to endure simply for living while Black.

Yet Falcon has also gotten to experience being an Avenger, being a globally recognized hero. It's an honor and right that Isaiah never got to have, not in the 1950s when Black men, even Super Soldiers, were still pushed to the back of the metaphorical bus - the military wasn't even integrated until 1948. In modern times, a Black superhero isn't a strange thing to see; Falcon, War Machine, Black Panther, Luke Cage, and others have shown the world what Black heroes can do. Sam exists in a time where white and Black, male and female heroes have fought side-by-side – he's fought next to various magical beings, demigods from other realms, and aliens from other planets. So, while he isn't naive – he knows the world will always see him as a Black man first, hero second – Sam also knows that things can and have changed for the better and he, unlike Isaiah, has not given in to bitterness and rage.

Does Sam Betray Isaiah Bradley By Taking Up The Shield?

The question of whether or not Sam is betraying Isaiah by taking up Captain America's shield is the wrong question to ask. Isaiah has made it clear he believes Sam taking up the shield would be a betrayal of not just him but of all Black men, including Sam himself. Instead, the real question is whether or not Sam would be betraying himself. That's the real crux of the series, after all. Both Sam and Bucky are figuring out who they are now that they're no longer under the enormous shadow of Steve Rogers and reinventing themselves as different versions of the heroes they were before. Sam's relationship with the shield is still evolving, much like his relationship with America itself. If and how the idea of Captain America still fits into the world – and whether or not he'll be the one wearing that mantle – is ultimately up to Sam and Sam alone to decide how he wants to live as a Black man in America.

Isaiah isn't wrong for having allowed his bitterness to consume him – but neither is Sam wrong for still having hope that America can be better. Isaiah's story is horrific; it's almost impossible to believe he could feel any sort of love for or allegiance to the United States after what he's endured at its collective hands. America doesn't deserve his loyalty or faith. Even so, he's shut himself away from the world while Sam is the one who still has to live in it. It's unlikely Isaiah Bradley will ever condone Falcon being Captain America, no matter how respected Sam is and no matter how much America loves him for it. But Sam's decision to be or not be Captain America by the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a wholly personal one; taking one's power always is. If Sam betrays anything, it can only ever be a betrayal of what he himself really wants. In taking the shield from Walker, it appears Sam has finally figured out what that is.

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