In February 2010, a controversy arose with "Captain America" No. 602, which depicted a group of anti-tax protesters, understood by some readers to be a Tea Party, which was characterized by the Falcon as exclusively white and racist group. Brubaker and Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada apologized for the matter, explaining that although the group was not intended by Brubaker to represent any particular real-life group, one of the signs depicted in the scene read, "Tea Bag The Libs Before They Tea Bag YOU!", which was not written by Brubaker, but was added by letterer Joe Caramagna, who, under deadline pressures, added messages on signs that were found to still be blank, based on signs he saw on the Internet. Quesada further assured that the error would not appear in future reprints of the issue. In an interview following the controversy Brubaker stated that "I had to shut down my public email because I started getting death threats from, y'know, peaceful protesters."