Marvel announced that the next Captain America, taking over for Steve Rogers, would be Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon – the first black Captain America.

Sam Wilson Will Be The Next Captain America

Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada appeared on The Colbert Report Wednesday to announce the news, and even jokingly named comedian/host Stephen Colbert the new Falcon. On the show, Quesada told Colbert that Sam Wilson is becoming the new Captain America and debuted the first artwork showing Wilson in his new Captain America costume.

“Doesn’t that make him Captain African America,” joked Colbert after hearing the news.

This historic move in comic-book history follows Marvel Comics’ diversification of superheroes: in 2011, the new Ultimate Spiderman was revealed to be Miles Morales, a biracial young man who was half-black and half-Latino. The Falcon got a recent pop-culture boost when he was introduced on the big screen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, played by Anthony Mackie.

Female Thor

This marks the second huge announcement from Marvel Comics in two days, no doubt being used to create buzz for San Diego Comic Con next week. On Tuesday, Marvel announced that Thor, the God of Thunder, would be a woman in its next incarnation.

Comic book fans can expect to learn about what causes Thor to put down his hammer in the Original Sin series, and Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso hinted that the new Thor would be a woman already close to the God himself.

“For reasons that will be revealed in Original Sin, Thor won’t be able to pick up the hammer. Someone has to pick up the hammer. And someone does. And they become Thor…There are several women in Thor’s life, and one of them is gong to be the new Thor,” Alonso teased.

Sam Wilson will make his Captain America debut sometime in November, while the journey for the female Thor will begin in October.

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Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.