The spiritual follow-up to Origin, Truth: Red, White & Black is going to be the story of the black Captain America who was erased from history.  Or so we assume, since this first issue has no Captain America, and nothing with superhero overtones.

The premise, in the unlikely event that you haven't heard of it, is that the US military in the 1940s wouldn't have tested their super-soldier serum on a nice white chap like Steve Rogers.  They'd have used a black man, just like they did for everything new.  So (as the idea originally went), Ultimate Captain America should be black.

Now, that idea doesn't work, because while the 1940s US Army wouldn't have experimented on a white man, they certainly wouldn't have used a black man to symbolise the USA.  So in Truth we have - apparently - the middle ground, where they test on the black man and then throw him aside.

All of this is apparent from interviews but has next to bugger all to do with the content of Truth #1, which consists solely of introducing three characters who are black man in the 1940s, and establishing how they came to be in the army in World War II.  Isaiah is happily married, and a nice cheerful chap unless provoked.  He just enlists.  Maurice is one of the miniscule black upper middle classes, and a left wing campaigner.  He's forced to enlist after being arrested for sedition.  And Luke is already in the army, where his colour is proving not to be a career plus.

And... well, that's basically the entire first issue, really.  It introduces the characters, and tries to remind us what the treatment of black Americans was like in those days.  The risk with this approach is that it's ultimately not telling readers anything that they didn't already know, although the details do bear repetition.  The other risk, of course, is that really, nothing happens in issue #1.  No plot gets underway; no character conflict begins.  There's just these three guys.  The series might have done better to pick a later entry point into the story.

Kyle Baker is an interesting choice of artist.  With a very loose and sketchy line - and drastic distortions of some characters - he cartoons his way through the story.  Baker is an excellent cartoonist, but if Marvel are seriously trying to present this as the natural successor to Origin then they're certainly not making it easy for themselves.  Nonetheless, Baker does his best with the available material (which includes some lengthy talking heads scenes).  By the way, on the assumption that one of the three lead characters is the guy on the cover, it's pretty obvious whose silhouette it is.

If you're looking for the controversial Black Captain America story, you won't find it here, and if the pacing of Origin is anything to go by, I'd pencil it in for March 2003.  The pacing of this series certainly looks set to be equally glacial given the slender progress made this month.  It's an interesting project for Marvel to be doing, and the central concept is strong, but this is a very slow start. 

Rating: B

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