Source (purchased/given/ borrowed/the wife's): the wife'sDate Acquired: July 26, 2007
Original Review: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: The original miniseries ran monthly in 2003, with the trade collection issued in 2004. I know I overlooked it at the time, but I don't know when I realized that it was Kyle Baker, one of my favourite comic book creators, handling the art chores. Anyway, since I realized that, this has been one of those "on the list" books to buy, but I also just never got around to it (it's $29.00 Canadian price tag was also a hindrance) until recently when the wife and I found it for 1/2 US cover at the San Diego Comic Con. Aden being the big Captain America fan she is, and me, the Kyle Baker aficionado, she spotted it and made the purchase. Somehow it got shelved upon return from San Diego instead of filed on the "to read" pile, and it was really only a week ago I rediscovered it in our collection.
Review - Like many truths, this Truth is shocking, absolutely shocking. In the backmatter of the book, writer Robert Morales documents his inspirations, which come from history books, periodical articles, war films, comic books, folkloric rumours. He uses his dozens of sources, most of which present a truth of sorts, to create this fiction about black soldiers during World War II used as guinea pigs to test a super soldier serum.
Unlike typical Hollywood fare that deal with stories African-American history, Truth takes less pains to whitewash the, well, truth, and makes fewer concessions to make the story more palatable. The protagonists of the story, five young black men without much choice but to enlist in the army, and their commanding officer. All are from different walks of life, but all winding up in the same place, and effectively treated by everyone but each other as homogenized "black soldier".
Morales details how each of these soldiers came to be in the Army, most under some unjust legal or racist pretext. He shows how they are treated by their white brothers-in-arms, and holds nothing back (the blace officer's urinal is outside, around the back of the white officer's lavatory). Mirroring rumoured events from history, all the black soldiers from the particular camp are gathered and loaded up on a handful of trucks, the remaining, it's implied, are shot dead. The transported soldiers are then experimented upon with the a reconstructed super soldier serum, most with obvious results. Their families, whether they survive or not, are told their dead. And those that do survive, whatever their condition, are sent out into the field to fight, not for any specific objective, but just to test them out.
There's atrocity after atrocity in this book and it's truly shocking how... cruelly people were treated and how the culture at the time implied them to be inferior human beings, to the point where blood was separated out as "Negro blood" and "Caucasian blood", despite having been identified as otherwise indistinguishable. I imagine Morales paints a more disturbing overall picture of the race relations of the era in highlighting the worst of it, but so much of it stems from actual accounts that even under one banner, they're stories that need repeating.
The book takes an unusual turn in the fifth and six chapters, as one of the soldiers steals a prototype Captain America costume and shield and heads out into the field. He stumbles upon a concentration camp, the parallels of the captives plight and his own story not escaping him, but in the end he's captured, and it's in the sixth chapter, where he encounters Hitler, that the book truly hits a bizarrely surrealistic moment. Hitler expresses sympathy towards the African-American peoples' plight, and in fact promises liberation for black people were he to triumph in his quest, rather than inferiority and oppression. It's almost incendiary to think, but Morales actually backs up this characterization of the most loathsome man in history.
In the final chapter, Captain America seeks to learn the truth about these brave soldiers who were pushed and prodded and demeaned, connecting with family of the "Black Captain America" and subjecting himself to more than a little humility. If somewhat awkward, the sudden shift to modern day, there's some powerful moments that aren't about alleviating "white guilt" but honest acknowledgment of the sacrifices and the wrongs that were put upon the black soldiers. The book isn't about "the Black Captain America" but the African-American soldier's experience during the time, and in the end it pays tribute to their contributions and hardships, not singled out enough.
If the book has a failure, and I never thought I'd say this, it's Kyle Baker's art. Working in the loosest style I've ever seen him use, Baker's art is lumpy and clunky, his figures stiff and awkward, and his characters too often distorted (sometimes intentionally, other times not). Baker knows how to move a story, he understands flow and momentum and in that capacity he definitely serves Morales' tale, but the awkward cartooning style makes for underwhelming reading. As intelligent an illustrator Baker is, it was obviously a cognizant choice to work that way, juxtaposing the weight of the book's events with something that was visually less severe. The racist Lieutenant Merritt has the appearance of the old Bob Hope caricature, which I'm not sure the message, unless it to contrast the image of a treasured(?), recognizable troop supporter with a vile, narrow-minded individual and thus make him all the more conflictingly ugly. Meanwhile, his Cap is almost absurdly portrayed, constantly in Kirby-esque stride or posturing with a protruding glass jaw. I'd have preferred a tighter art style from Baker (something more akin to his Frank Miller-esque work he's using now in Special Forces or even preferably an artist whose work skews more realistic, like Tommy Lee Edwards.
The power of Morales' work overcomes any disappointment of Baker on the art front, and news of the duo's forthcoming reunion is still much anticipated.
Rating (buy/sell/keep): keep