Patriot

Eli Bradly (aka the Patriot) is in class giving a history report on the Tuskegee Experiment. Although he gets an A on his report, his classmates think it is un-American. He then trades barbs with one of them leading to a fight and a three day suspension. As he heads home, he wonders what got into him and how his guardian, Isaiah Bradley, will be pissed at him for getting into a fight. He considers himself lucky that he didn’t put the kid in the hospital with his super soldier enhancements. As he walks home he sees someone has spraypainted “Captain America lives!” on the side of a building.[1] Eli knows that the only person alive who went by that name is Isaiah, but in his current state he can’t do anything for the world.

When he arrives at his apartment, he sees a young man on a motorcycle and thinks it is Bucky Barnes, Cap’s old partner from World War II. But the man speeds off before Eli can get a chance to get a closer look. When he goes into the apartment, he asks Faith what a young white guy would want visiting the Black Captain America.[2] Faith doesn’t know what they talked about, but she remarks that Isaiah said more than usual, which is nice since he speaks so little these days. When Eli presses her for more answers, she tells him that he can as Isaiah directly while he brings him his lunch. That’s when Faith realizes that Eli is home from school awful early, and he asks her if they can hold off on talking about it until later. When he gives Isaiah his sandwich, he asks who his visitor was. Unfortunately, Isaiah struggles to remember, only saying that it was a soldier who came to talk to him. Eli tells him its okay and goes up to his room.

Eli thinks about how Isaiah briefly was Captain America during World War II and it was that heroism that convinced Eli to become a Young Avenger. However, with the state of things right now and America’s history of treating African-Americans, he finds himself at odds being a Black superhero who calls himself the Patriot. However, he remembers something that Captain America (Steve Rogers) told him before he died. One night while on patrol, Steve told him that there was nothing patriotic about corruption or cover-ups and exposing them takes a hero. Now that Steve is gone, Eli finds himself hating how he resented Captain America for what happened to his relative. He decides to do something about it and calls Kate Bishop (aka Hawkeye) and asks if she wants to sneak out tonight for an important mission.

She does, and so the Patriot and Hawkeye pay a visit to their fellow Young Avenger, Billy Kaplan (aka Wiccan). They try to get him to tag along, but Billy is under the close watch of his mother, who insists that if he is going to use his powers he should sign up for the Initiative like Stature (Cassie Lang) did.[3] Still, Billy wants to help and so he casts a spell that will send both Eli and Kate to wherever Bucky Barnes happens to be that evening. Once the pair are teleported away, Billy’s mother Rebecca goes upstairs to check on him because she heard a strange noise. When she enters his room she finds him hard at work on his homework.

Patriot and Hawkeye end up materializing outside of a warehouse and Eli instantly recognizes the motorcycle he saw earlier that day. They go inside and they find Bucky (aka James Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier) in the middle of a battle with the Advanced Idea Mechanic’s MODOC Squad. They join the fight, much to the Winter Soldier’s annoyance because he wasn’t expecting to have to protect a pair of kids in the middle of the battle. However, Patriot and Hawkeye are able to hold their own and soon the MODOC Squad is put down. He tells them that he was after AIM but this is the third abandoned hideout he has discovered in the past few days. For some reason the group is going underground harder than usual. When Eli asks what James is up to, he says he is trying to figure out what the Red Skull’s plans are.[4] When Eli offers his assistance, Winter Soldier turns him down flat out, saying that he doesn’t want someone that inexperienced getting that close to Cap’s deadliest foe.

With that, Winter Soldier gets on his motorcycle and takes off before Eli can get a chance to talk about what he really came out for. Luckily, Kate managed to hide a tracking device on Bucky’s bike so Eli can follow him back home. Eli follows the signal back to Captain America’s old apartment where Bucky has been staying the past few weeks. He found the tacker and wants to know what Eli has come to talk about. First, Patriot wants to know why James went to see Isaiah. Buck explains that he wanted to pay his respects and wanted to meet someone else who wore the Captain America uniform. He figures Steve would have respected the man had they met back during the war. But this isn’t really what Eli wanted to talk about and James gets him to spit it out.

Bradley explains how he became the Patriot to honor his father, and how he feels at odds calling himself the Patriot given America’s poor treatment of Black people in the past. He finds himself even more conflicted now that Steve is dead and the Super Human Registration Act being the law. James admits that this was more Steve’s thing, but he tells the boy that Steve’s vision of America went beyond the governments of the past and the present. It was the idea of America. He says that Steve always tried to see the good in everyone and that America isn’t just one thing. Yes, it has a history of slavery and genocide and all manner of evil, but America also has some good, like the New Deal, the Civil Rights Movement. He understands how Eli would have a hard time calling himself the Patriot. Especially since he knew the original Patriot, Jeff Mace, a man who even stepped in for Captain America for a time.[5]

James recalls a recent editorial that was published during the civil war that suggested that Captain America was out of touch with modern America. Barnes disagrees, thinking that America is out of touch with Steve. He says that if there were more people like Isaiah and Steve, perhaps it would be a little easier and that’s why Eli should still call himself the Patriot. Both men then agree that they really miss Cap. Eli then asks to know more about the original Patriot and James invites him to have a seat so he can tell them.

Recurring Characters

Young Avengers (Patriot, Wiccan, Hawkeye), Winter Soldier, AIM (MODOC Squad), Faith Bradley, Isaiah Bradley, Rebecca Kaplan, (in flashback) Captain America

Continuity Notes

1. At the time of this story, everyone believes that Captain America was assassinated in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. In reality, he was shot with a chronal bullet and is now trapped reliving his life in an endless loop. He will remain in this purgatory until Captain America: Reborn #1-6.

2. Isaiah Bradley was a test subject for an attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum and briefly operated as Captain America in 1942. The process was flawed and it eventually affected his cognition as a result, see Truth: Red, White, and Black #1-7. Here, Eli refers to Faith and Isiah as his grandparents, however this becomes in increasingly impossible due to the Sliding Timescale. In lieu of an explanation (as of this writing in May, 2024) I posit a theory in the index entry of Young Avengers #3.

3. This story occurs shortly after the superhero civil war which took place in Civil War #1-7, where a new law was passed requiring heroes to register with the government. When the anti-registration side lost the war, Cassie joined up with the Initiative, a program that trained young heroes to become government sanctioned superheroes. As seen in Avengers: The Initiative #1. This law will remain in effect until Siege #4.

4. At the time of this story, the Red Skull has taken possession of the body of a Russian arms dealer named Aleksander Lukin after Lukin sent the Winter Soldier to kill him in Captain America (vol. 5) #1. The Skull was responsible for Cap’s “assassination” in issue #25 and is now trying to use the chronal bullet in a complex scheme to take possession of Steve Rogers’ body. Again, see the Captain America: Reborn limited series and basically every issue of Captain America volume 5 up to issue #600.

5. Jeff Mace was crime fighter during World War II, first appearing Human Torch Comics #4. He operated as the Patriot until Steve Rogers went missing in action in 1945 (per Avengers #4). The role was briefly passed to William Nasland who was killed on an early mission and Mace took his place, as seen in What If? #4. At the time of this story, Mace has been dead since Captain America #258 after succumbing to cancer. As of this writing (May, 2024) Mace is still considered among the deceased.

Topical References

• Eli’s report on the Tuskegee Experiment would not be considered topical as this is a history report.

• However, when one of his classmates says his neighbor was impacted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, this would be considered topical. As the Sliding Timescale moves the Modern Age forward it will become impossible for Eli and his classmates to have been alive for that event, let along be affected by it on such a personal level.

• James refers to his motorcycle as an Indian, which was a brand of motorcycle that were produced between 1901 to 1953. Bucky is clearly driving a vintage motorcycle harkening back to when the motorcycles were used during World War II. As such, this would not be considered a topical reference.