New Captain America Is an African American From Harlem

If only comics were like the real world, then the second-in-command who has been valiantly putting in the work and learning the trade would get promoted regardless of color.

On Wednesday, Marvel Comics announced just such a promotion as Falcon, the African-American character born and raised in Harlem, will become the new Captain America. (Comic book aficionado and The Root’s Grapevine editor, Yesha Callahan, does not believe that Falcon’s rise to Captain America makes him the first, since she notes that Isaiah Bradley, widely regarded as “Black Captain America,” held that position.)

“It’s about time,” Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort told the New York Daily News. “In 2014 this should be a thing that we shrug off. It shouldn’t be seen as revolutionary, but it still feels exciting.”

The Daily News notes that news of Falcon’s promotion comes a day after Marvel brass took to ABC’s The View to announce that the new Thor would be a woman.  

For those not in the know, Falcon’s predecessor Steve Rogers, aka the current Captain America, has been unable to fulfill his crime-fighting duties after being turned into a 90-year-old man, according to Brevoort, who also told the Daily News that fans didn’t need to be worried that the old hero was being killed off.

Falcon—who is played by Anthony Mackie in the movie version—looks to don the starred-and-striped new suit in the first issue of a new comic series, All-New Captain America, set to launch in November, the Daily News notes.

Read more at the New York Daily News.