Was Isaiah Bradley the First Captain America?

Now that Steve Rogers aka Captain America is gone, the new Disney Plus series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is dealing with the aftermath. One of those issues is picking a new Captain. If you've seen Avengers: Endgame, you know that Steve gave his shield to Sam Wilson, but that doesn't mean that Sam is the only one to carry on the name.

The U.S. government also has a stake in Captain America since it basically created him. So it's also trying to find a new symbol of peace (and, unfortunately, All Might is already taken). But in the comics, Steve isn't the only Captain and the Disney Plus series seems to be giving us a look at a few of them. A man named Isaiah Bradley also held the title of Captain America. 

Short answer: Nope. Even in the comics, the first Captain was always Steve Rogers. But Isaiah was the first Black Captain America. In the comics, Isaiah was part of an all-Black military squad that was used in experiments by the U.S. government in the 1940s when they wanted to replicate the success they had with Steve. After the experiments, Isaiah was sent off to fight Nazis with the rest of the people in his squad.

In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Isaiah stays true to this backstory for the most part, but a few things are changed for the show. It takes place just a few weeks after the events of Endgame so here, he's now an older man who was sent to kill Bucky while The Winter Soldier was still under the effects of being brainwashed. Isaiah didn't succeed (obviously), but he did take a part of Bucky's metal arm. 

We know about Captain America, Bucky, and now Isaiah, but this new character's appearance on the show raises a good question: How many other super soldiers exist? Isaiah wasn't the only person in his squad to be experimented on, so we know any member of that group who's still alive could be one. There were a few people sent to kill Bucky before Isaiah, but we don't know if those are the same soldiers from Isaiah's group or if they're completely different.

And on top of that, it's safe to assume that the super soldier experiments didn't just stop when Steve initially went missing. It makes sense that the government would keep experimenting to replace him and continue to build an army of unbeatable soldiers. This is where Isaiah and his squad come in. Plus, we know that Bucky isn't the only Winter Soldier. Bucky was on the brink of death when HYDRA found him and experimented on him, but HYDRA had been doing these same things to others. 

The main difference between Bucky and the other people HYDRA experimented on is that Bucky is much more stable. The organization was able to use him in a way they couldn't use most of the others. They were all killed by Helmut Zero, but that doesn't mean all experiments stopped.

We're definitely interested to learn more about Isaiah Bradley's story as the series continues. Here's hoping we get even more backstory and find out what happened to the rest of his crew.