The Fresh Prince of – America?

MTV’s Splash Page is reporting a huge movie rumor that Marvel Studios has offered Will Smith the coveted role of Captain America. That bombshell fell from the lips of Miracle at St. Anna’s Derek Luke who called the rumor a sign that “times have changed.”

The concept of a “Black Captain America” would surely rock the film world, but is not without a comic book precedent. In the Marvel Comics storyline Red, White and Black it was revealed that the government used a group of American-American soldiers to replicate the Super-Soldier experiment that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. Only one man, Isaiah Bradley, would survive to go on that group’s most important mission into Nazi territory.

Bradley was later imprisoned before receiving a full pardon from President Dwight Eisenhower. In the Marvel Universe, Bradley’s history as a “Captain” is well known among African-American characters but largely unknown to White characters. When Bradley attended the wedding of Black Panther and Storm, Panther was surprised and honored to see him. Wolverine, who was around during World War II because of his slow aging, had no idea who Bradley was.

So it is conceivable that if Marvel offered Smith the role, they’re using the Isaiah Bradley origin and not the Steve Rogers origin. There’s precedent here as in the Ultimate line of books Nick Fury went from an old, grizzled White WWII vet to a guy that looked just like Samuel L. Jackson. That fanboy dream became a reality when Jackson had a post-credit cameo as Fury in Marvel’s summer blockbuster Iron Man.

Readers would you buy Hancock as Captain America? Or should he be a White character because that’s what he has been through decades of comic stories?

Image courtesy of Buzzfoto.