Whatever Happened to Elijah Bradley?!
Every character from the first volume of Young Avengers v1 has gotten room to breathe and grow except for Elijah Bradley, Patriot. Iron Lad is Kang, an entire bundle of stories and confusion. Billy and Teddy, Hulkling and Wiccan, have had truly excellent adventures in New Avengers. Cassie Lang, previously Stature, has been brought back to life and got a new code name as Stinger. Kate has her own solo book as Hawkeye. Elijah was one of the original members, one that jumped at the call to heroism, one that had a history and heritage of heroism. But since the end of Avengers: Children’s Crusade neither hide nor hair has been seen of the third generation Super-Soldier. He retired to Scottsdale and works in voter registration? Bull.
There aren’t so many black superheroes that you can’t remember them all, Luke Cage once remarked, and the world of Marvel would be diminished without their gallantry. But the name of the game for teen books is Tokenism. It gives the illusion of diversity without actually attempting to be diverse. It allows writers to use the tropes and art associated with black culture without actually depicting the reality of being black in America. Elijah was Young Avengers’ Token and connection to the Captain America lore. African American heroes are all burdened with the responsibility to represent all of us in the medium and the most common way that is accomplished is by putting one black person on the team regardless of if they are African American or not. Patriot was no different, he was the heroic vehicle for the black readership.
African American leaders in the public eye understand that they have that representative duty, the duty to be visible, to stand up and make certain that we are heard. During the recent Secret Empire event there was a call for heroes who resisted fascism to stand up and fight. It is unrealistic that an heir of the Captain America legacy would step down from the call of duty during such a dark hour in Marvel’s American history. That isn’t Patriot. But what is obvious is that Nick Spencer didn’t want to go back to the Bradleys, he would rather give the mantle to Sam Wilson than the Super-Soldiers they already have. Nick Spencer would rather the WWII Black Captain America, his Son, and his Grandson be forgotten in the fight against fascism.
The origin of the Bradley Legacy is rooted, of course, in black creators. Kyle Baker and the late Robert Morales were responsible for the creation of Isaiah Bradley in Truth: Red, White, and Black, a controversial story which gave the origin to the Super-Soldier Serum that mirrored the Tuskegee Experiments. Then later that same year Christopher Priest and Benedito José Nascimento, Joe Bennett, created Josiah al hajj Saddiq, Isaiah Bradley’s son, Elijah’s uncle in The Crew. So when Patriot is sidelined so firmly it is erasing not just a black teen super-hero but the legacy of black creators in Marvel comics. But it’s simple to see the why, explaining a black Muslim Captain America might make some people uncomfortable. So Prodigy replaced Patriot as the token in Young Avengers v2.
In Young Avengers v2 issue 12. The team gathers the Avengers Academy, Generation Hope, Academy X, Power Pack, and even some Runaways to fight interdimensional copies of themselves but for some reason they don’t think to call their backbone, their actual Captain America. It was established early on in the series that Elijah was contactable by phone but not once in months of space and dimension hopping adventures did they reach out. In fact it is incredibly suspect that in the hordes of the mayfly universes the only Patriot we see is the antagonist of the piece. In that climactic last battle we could have had the heroic return of a dear friend. Why didn’t we? The book could have at least attempted to pass the ‘Racial Bechdel’ but it didn’t.
Elijah Bradley is an example of the cost of color, the cost of Islamophobia, and the cost in loving teen characters at all. Infinitely more replaceable than their iconic counterparts teen heroes die just as often as their adult counterparts with far fewer resurrections. More importantly, as in Elijah’s case, they just don’t show up again sometimes, forgotten or purposefully avoided. To Marvel editorial or any other creative who may read this and be convinced: Please, do not ignore or sideline the contributions of black creators in comics. It is being respectfully requested that we learn what has happened to Elijah Bradley, that the character be given the same respect and opportunity as every other member of Young Avengers v1.
Find out more about Young Avengers on our podcast here.
Written by Everett Christensen, Young One’s Lead Editor
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #8 of 9, cover by Jim Cheung and Justin Ponsor
Young Avenger Presents #1, W: Ed Brubaker, P: Paco Medina, I: Juan Velasco, C: Nathan Fairbain
Young Avengers #1, W: Allan Heinberg, P: Jim Cheung I: John Dell C: Justin Ponsor
Truth: Red, White, and Black #5 . W: Robert Morales, Artist: Kyle Baker
The Crew #6 W: Christopher Priest P: Benedito José Nascimento
Young Avengers Special W: Allan Heinberg, A: Pasqual Ferry, I: Dave McCaig
