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Truth: Red, White, and Black #4 Review

Summary

Faith Bradley is mad! Her husband was killed in an explosion, and her she is with an infant to care for. To add injury to insult, even though the military is saying her husband was “burned beyond recognition” what she had in her words was someone who was “charred into a skinny dead white man.” Meanwhile overseas; the Super soldiers went into action. Cries of “Afrikaner” rang out through the jungle as the seven attacked a military convoy. Even Larsen cornered himself a Nazi soldier, and proceeded to do that which he so looked forward to, but to his dismay, he would be denied. Once the deed is done, only Maurice, Isaiah, and Sgt. Evans remained. Upon checking the trucks, what the men found upset them, and turned their celebration sour. The next day, Isaiah is reading a Captain America comic he got from some soldiers who worked the Red Ball Express, and is questioning Sgt. Evans about the white “super soldier”, whose exploits mirror theirs, but are done while he is dressed in what they considered a gaudy uniform, when Lieutenant Merritt walks up, and stirs up trouble. Maurice attacks Merritt when he slips and says something about Maurice’s parents; information that Maurice did not himself know; and when Isaiah and Sgt. Evans tried to restrain him before he did further damage to Merritt, an enraged Maurice threw Isaiah over a wall, and after a scuffle with Sgt. Evans, grabbed a piece of debris and struck down and killed Sgt. Evans. A battered Merritt managed to upholsters his weapon, and in return shot Maurice point blank, killing him. In the aftermath, the mission commanders inform Isaiah that now instead of having them back up the American secret weapon, which himself was detained in the Pacific due to a storm, it was a suicide mission that he had to carry out himself. After careful thought, Isaiah grabs the “gaudy uniform” and deploys.     

 

The Good

Story– The troops are in action, and Larsen gets to kill him a white man; but at a cost. The super soldiers make short work of their enemies, but at a cost of over half their squad. Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Faith is engaged in a struggle to uncover what really happened to her husband. Although a weak explanation is offered by a black soldier, it doesn’t sit well with Faith, who is determined to get to the bottom of things. The remaining super soldiers are overheard by Lieutenant Merritt wondering aloud how they fit in with the person portrayed in the comic, and how they were getting their hands dirty, but the other guy is getting the spotlight. This infuriates Merritt, who is a racist, and Merritt in turn incites a fight that ends in the death of two of the remaining three super soldiers. Isaiah, thinking only of his wife and child, grabs the uniform meant for the white super soldier, and the legend was born.

Art- see issue #1 review

Historical Significance- The Red Ball Express was an enormous trucking convoy which operated after D-Day while the French railway system was being repaired. Primarily staffed with black soldiers, the convoy only operated for three months, but was very effective. Its name came from the use of red balls that marked the roadways and adorned the trucks. The author explains that the Captain America comic that Isaiah was reading appeared in 1940 by Timely Comics, and it’s use help bring the story into the main marvel universe continuity.

Cover- The image of the black soldier holding what we assume to be one of his officers over his head and ready to toss him, conjures up thoughts of these soldiers resisting becoming unthinking, unfeeling robots, and not standing for the status quo.

The Bad

No complaints

The Ugly

Things are starting to pick up. 5/5

Review submitted by Black Heroes member Marcus .H. Roberts