Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #5
“Thou Art More Near Thy Death”
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Vasco Georgiev
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Betsy and an assortment of other Captain Britains in action.
This is the final issue of the series, and this time round it doesn’t seem to be in line for a relaunch after the season break. While this book and Knights of X were more or less insta-cancelled, it’s only fair to note that between those two titles and Excalibur, Tini Howard’s run comes to 36 issues, which is a more than respectable total.
Taken together, this issue and the previous one show definite signs of racing to wrap up plots that were intended to play out over a much longer period, but that’s how these things tend to go.
PAGES 2-4. Captain Britain, S.T.R.I.K.E. and Excalibur make plans.
The pile of action figures and the doll’s house on the table belong to Maggie Braddock, who was using them to make plans for the attack on Morgan’s home at the end of the previous issue.
Faiza Hussain knows Pete Wisdom well – they were teammates in the Captain Britain & MI-13 series from 2008-9. She hasn’t met any of the S.T.R.I.K.E. characters before (since they were dead until they got resurrected on Krakoa earlier in the series). I’m not sure I buy the “gosh, you’re asking me for help” angle here.
Micromax was imprisoned by Coven Akkaba in issue #1, after appearing on a talk show with Betsy earlier in the issue. Pete Wisdom and Alison Double apparently found out about this in issue #2 while spying on the Coven, but for some reason didn’t mention it to Betsy in issue #3.
Blightswill has indeed been used by Coven Akkaba to interfere with mutant powers, and they’ve made it available to Orchis for that purposes – see e.g. Bishop: War College. That’s not how they captured Micromax in issue #1, though – on the contrary, he was using his powers to try and escape when they trapped him in a jar.
PAGE 5. Data page, reminding us of the names of all the S.T.R.I.K.E. characters (though honestly, they’re basically interchangeable for the purposes of this story). The codenames come from a data page in Excalibur #22.
PAGE 6. Recap and credits. The title, “Thou Art More Near Thy Death”, is a line from Malory’s Morte D’Arthur.
PAGES 7-9. Askani stops Captain Avalon destroying the Fury.
This picks up from the cliffhanger of the previous issue, which turns out to be basically a false start. Rachel was talking about the “Sacred Timeline” last issue, which seems to have been a scramble to get it into play in time for the finale. From the look of this issue, the idea was for Rachel to become increasingly dedicated to her Askani role of bringing about this destined (or at least desirable) timeline and for that to finally put her at odds with Betsy. There seems to be some echo also of the metafictional idea of things happening for no plot reason other than that story structure demands it, which was also nodded to in Knights of X. Obviously, in this truncated form, it does come across basically as “please drop this revenge angle which is about the only thing you’ve done on your own initiative all series – we only have half an issue left”.
PAGES 10-12. S.T.R.I.K.E. infiltrate Mongibel.
Presumably these “acolytes” are Coven Akkaba members.
Pete wants revenge on the Coven for killing him in Excalibur #21.
PAGES 13-15. Betsy enters Mongibel.
“…another five-hour episode about Dai Thomas.” Dai Thomas is a police officer and long-running Captain Britain supporting character.
PAGES 16-17. Betsy confronts Morgan.
Morgan apparently doesn’t understand the plot: Blightswill can affect Betsy’s mutant psychic powers but it has no effect on her Captain Britain powers, which are magical in nature.
“You thought Captain Britain could be without a master…” That’s the set-up established at the end of Knights of X, when Betsy rejects Roma and Saturnyne as potential leaders.
PAGE 18. Askani, Captain Avalon and Meggan visit the Furies.
“Morgan Le Fey reneged on our agreement.” Morgan did indeed promise the Furies a war at the end of issue #2 (or rather, she mentioned that she’d already done so). It’s not obvious when she reneged on that deal – she had a Fury with her as a guard when she approached Dr Doom at the end of issue #3, and never explicitly broke with them on panel. Perhaps the idea was that she kicked them to the kerb after forming her alliance with Doom. Most likely, this was intended to play out at greater length.
At any rate, the idea is that the Furies take out the Doombots, which is nice of them.
PAGES 19-21. Morgan is defeated.
Apparently, what Morgan really wants is simply to be reconnected to the land. The line about the “Britain of now” strongly suggests that this was all intended to be some sort of analogue for Morgan representing a backwards and conservative vision of Britain, and Betsy representing a contemporary one.
I’ve said this before, but it’s the last issue, so one more time:
One of the fundamental problems with the whole series – for me at least – is that this metaphor absolutely doesn’t work. Betsy’s side of it doesn’t work because the series has a tin ear for everything British. And Morgan’s side doesn’t work because… well, because of the tin ear thing too, but more specifically because the romanticised past of British reactionaries is mainly to do with lost glory, 19th century empire, and World War II. Maybe Magna Carta. Maybe some all-purpose regal tradition which probably only dates back to 1870 but feels like it might have been around indefinitely.
King Arthur and the whole Arthurian mythology is just… not a central part of anyone‘s sense of British identity. It’s for tourists. I realise it’s baked into the Captain Britain origin story – which is unfortunate from the word go, since it’s an English and Welsh myth with absolutely zero relevance to Scotland and Ireland. But even the English don’t talk about it much. And if you want to foreground it as a metaphor for Brexiteers you really need to make a much better argument for that connection than this book ever managed, or even seemed to realise that it required.
The whole concept is just… not recognisable as Britain to me.
PAGES 22-23. The Braddock Academy interest fair.
The Braddock Academy was a school for British superheroes, run by Brian and introduced in Avengers Arena back in 2012. I’m not quite sure when it closed – it was operating in Excalibur #1.
Earth-10248 is just a random number – it’s not been used before.
PAGE 24. Data page – notionally a letter from Betsy to the other members of the Captain Britain Corps, but obviously a thinly disguised letter from Tini Howard to the fans. Unusually (but quite reasonably) there’s no trailer section, at least in the digital edition.
This issue essentially has the same problem with Knights of X 5. We’re told King Arthur and Mordred have been redeemed in that issue by the magic of the Siege Perilous but it’s not really shown in the issue. This issue we’re basically told that Morgan has been redeemed by connecting her with the land but there’s no space to actually develop that.
Besides, aren’t there plenty of stories where people like Iron Man and Spider-Woman travel back to Arthurian times and encounter an evil Mordred? Isn’t she the witch that summoned Chthon to Wundagore in ancient times? Didn’t she murder her lover in a fit of rage when he tried to hide the Darkhold from her? The idea that Morgan’s connection to the land being severed is what turned her evil doesn’t work unless her connection to the land was severed when she was 12.
Also, at the end Betsy talks about how great a guy Apocalypse is. Apocalypse, who turned her former lover Warren into the Archangel and infected the brother of her current lover Rachel with a virus when he was a child. I guess Betsy really likes it when people do horrible things to her lovers.
Apocalypse was behind Doug Ramsey’s murder
Apocalypse was behind Doug Ramsey’s murder.
I thought that was (indirectly) Cameron Hodge, since it was Hodge who funded the Ani-Mator, the guy who shot Doug.
Apocalypse parks in handicapped spots.
Apocalypse is totally yandere for Betsy, stalking all her lovers and . Wait, he did that to everyone before Betsy dated them? Uh.. time travel.. prophecies.. Ozymandias! Apocalypse saw Betsy in one of her magazine shoots and demanded Ozy tell him all about the sorts of people Betsy liked. Then tried to destroy them before she could fall in love with them.
Dude had it bad.
Didn’t X-Force have a thing where Betsy was sleeping with every other Cable clone?
There was also that weird subplot where she tried to shag Cyclops, and Pooky merged with him.
Apocalypse never did anything to Neal Shaara, but he didn’t have to. Nobody cares about Neal Shaara.
Well, this was indeed a miniseries about Betsy Braddock, Captain Britain, and stuff happened.
I really felt the “oh no, gotta wrap all these plotlines up in a hurry” in this issue, especially when the Furies went to war against Doombots and… that was far less epic than it should have been.
And once again: One Fury was TERRIFYING. One Fury tore through an entire reality’s worth of superheroes INCLUDING the Young Miracleman variant, and survived the entire universe’s destruction. A whole army of Furies? Zzzzzz.
Sad thing is, Tini Howard is halfway decent on Catwoman. I don’t know why everything she does for Marvel is either tedious or rushed nonsense.
If we’re lucky, she’ll get a title more suited to her strengths, and be allowed to actually see it through to fruition at her own pace… or else she’ll learn to write for the miniseries.
@Michael: Shhh, we’re not supposed to talk about any of that, it’s only :A: now and he was always a hero
“Apocalypse never did anything to Neal Shaara, but he didn’t have to. Nobody cares about Neal Shaara.”
Little known fact, but Neal is actually Apocalypse’s fifth Horseman: “Indifference”.
It’s even worse than that; the popular take on the Arthurian mythos, all shiny knights and chivalry and Lancelot being a naughty dreamboat, is as much French as it is “British”.
Britain doesn’t need a captain, it already has its knights, ready to defend the realm against all threats: Sir Paul McCartney! Sir Richard Starkey! Sir Elton John! Sir Mick Jagger! Sirs Patrick and Rod, the battling Stewart Brothers!
I say this as a bisexual woman myself, so: I really don’t buy Betsy being bisexual. Everything I’ve ever read her in has her being the most straight woman possible. Rachel I can at least see, but not Betsy.
“And once again: One Fury was TERRIFYING. One Fury tore through an entire reality’s worth of superheroes INCLUDING the Young Miracleman variant, and survived the entire universe’s destruction. A whole army of Furies? Zzzzzz.”
That’s just the Law of Inverse Ninjas at work though, right? One ninja alone is an unstoppable fighting force (Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Raphael, Doctor McNinja, Mail Order Ninja, etc.); a horde of ninjas is a fun way to unwind after a stressful day for Daredevil or Wolverine.
@Jenny: Okay, this I’m genuinely interested in hearing more about. I found Betsy’s bisexuality to feel quite natural for her character because–unlike how, say, Iceman’s character orbits around his queerness depending on the writer–it seems a lot more incidental to Betsy (i.e., it’s part of who I am but not central to my identity). I’m also straight guy, though, so perhaps I’m not looking at this critically enough.
What would it have taken to make Betsy’s bị status more convincing for you? What would be examples of same-sex romances done right?
I will entirely admit upfront that I did not realize that this isn’t the first time she’s been in a relationship with a female character (I never read Remender’s X-Force), so apologies to Howard on that front and I’ll retract my criticism of that; I don’t think it’s fair to criticize an author for using something that’s been previously established by others. I think with here maybe the issue is more that she and Rachel have never exactly felt like close characters. If it was, say, Kitty Pryde, that I would get a lot more.
Were Betsy and Kitty ever that close?
I mean, in relationships that doesn’t matter much. If two characters are too close, too much of friends, getting involved in a relationship isn’t always the best idea. If Betsy and Rachel feel an attraction to each other, and they do have things in common, it would be easy for a writer to establish them in a believable relationship. If Howard was able to accomplish this or not, I have no idea. I don’t buy the idea that Betsy and Rachel couldn’t be established in a relationship anymore than Betsy and Warren were in the mid-1990s.
I meant Rachel and Kitty, should have made that clearer.
Betsy spent decades trapped in a Japanese woman’s body and has finally been restored to her original self through Krakoan resurrection. It seems natural that she would want to explore reclaiming her identity and Rachel, who’s always been coded as lesbian but never really all that explicitly, has been around her for a long time.
It never seems like a big deal when straight relationships come together (i.e. Daken and Aurora) so why’s it such a big deal that Rachel and Betsy are a couple now?
I’m with Jenny on this, though I’ll admit, I’m behind on the series. To me, the issue is that it SHOULD be a big deal that they’re a couple. Superhero comics are about big personalities and ideas bouncing off of each other in dynamic, interesting ways. I am interested in the Daken/Aurora relationship because there’s a clear way that they compliment each other, as two characters who have spent a lot of time searching for identity and found it in each other. Likewise, the Rachel/Kitty relationship would be interesting, because it’s the culmination of two characters who grew up around each other, occasionally as rivals, mostly as friends. Heck, even the Rogue/Magneto relationship worked on that level, because the seeming mismatch was front and center and, at the time, it was used as a means of exploring what taking greater control of her life meant for Rogue (IIRC how Carey and then Gage were writing her).
As a contrast, the relationship between Nightcrawler and Rachel never quite clicked. It didn’t say anything particularly interesting about the characters’ history, or about where they were at that point in their lives or the events around them. It felt like they were constantly telling us they were into each other and serious without showing what that meant. Kurt has a real chivalrous streak; Rachel is often depicted as non-traditionally feminine. Does that difference inform their relationship? Does it create tension? Have they worked through it, or incorporated it into their lives? I don’t know, because the story never justified any of that. (And I think part of the relationship was retconned to mind control or something anyway.)
Betsy/Rachel honestly isn’t coming off as badly as Nightcrawler/Rachel (from what I’ve seen at least) but there’s not a lot there to hook me into their relationship. It felt like an empty signifier.
This is all my opinion, of course; and I’ve now gone on way too long so I’ll stop before I start complaining about the Wolverine/Storm relationship from the 2012 run.
“It never seems like a big deal when straight relationships come together…”
Well, sometimes it is. I remember some readers being very annoyed with the ham-fisted way in which Claremont split up Warren and Betsy just to have her hook up with Neal Shaara.
That issue (X-Men vol 2 #109, I think?) did not do Betsy’s character any favors. She’s seen flirting with Neal in full view of Warren at the beginning of the issue. Mid-issue, Warren is about to break up with her and Betsy tries to counter by suggesting that he move in with her. Warren declines, they break up, and at the end of the issue, the X-Men are exchanging Christmas gifts. Neal opens up a gift from Betsy (“Something to remember me by”, she says) that isn’t shown, but is strongly implied to be her underwear (or possibly a nude photo of her.)
Yes, in the span of an issue Betsy goes from asking Warren to live with her, to giving Neal a naughty Christmas present. She’s a keeper, that woman.
… which leads to what might be the worst relationship in all of X-Men, Angel and Husk. I say “might” because I know Wolfsbane had the hots for a student, but I don’t know if that counts as a relationship.
Nightcrawler & Rachel makes no sense. They were on the same team for years, and never expressed interest in each other. Even if they never got together in Excalibur, that feels like writers didn’t know what to do with them.
@Moo- Claremont wanted to split up Betsy and Warren because he felt Warren “was not worthy of her”. The problem was that Betsy also has done plenty of questionable things in her past, such as not telling her friends about the Mojo eyes.
( I hope she didn’t see any of her female teammates undressed while the eyes were transmitting to Mojo.) So Betsy suddenly deciding to break up with a lover who was no more or less flawed than she was just made her look like a jerk.
Of course, the way Betsy and Warren’s relatrionship started was also weird. The last times we saw Warren with his girlfriend, Charlotte Jones, in New Warriors and Uncanny X-Men 299, they seemed happy together. But in X-Men 29, we’re told that things are “at a romantic standstill” between them just so Warren and Betsy can suddenly get together despite having no meaningful previous interactions.
@Jenny: It was post-Remender, in Sam Humphries’s Uncanny X-Force (at the time when there were two different X-Force teams in two different books, the other being Cable and X-Force).
@thewreath: Betsy restored herself through… plot contrivance… a bit before Krakoa, in the Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor miniseries written by Jim Zub.
It was the only thing of any importance that happened in any of the Hunt for Wolverine minis* and it didn’t have anything to do with Wolverine. (Well, a psychic echo of Logan said something vaguely encouraging at the time iirc).
*- the other would be the revelation from Adamantium Agenda that one of the X-Men is a mole who is not really a mutant, but nobody ever brought that up again.
@Michael – Well, Betsy didn’t actually decide to break up with Warren. That was all him. Betsy invited him to live with her right as Warren was attempting to end things. But you’re right that she still came off quite poorly in that issue.
And while I agree that Warren and Betsy’s initial pairing came a bit out of nowhere, readers seemed to embrace it, unless I’m mistaken (I never cared enough about either character to give a damn, tbh).
I think Claremont underestimated just how popular that relationship was with readers and therefore ending it (particularly the way he went about it) kind of backfired on him. He probably could have pulled it off given more time (which he didn’t have since he was getting shipped off to write X-Treme X-Men and wanted to bring Betsy with him) and if Neal Shaara had been an entirely different character altogether, but alas..
The funny part is the preview images for the Hellfire Gala just leaked and they appear to show Karima, who’s been possessed by her evil future self, being confronted by Xavier. And not her former love Neal, who’s just been forgotten about.
Yeah, Neal Shaara belongs to a very exclusive club of superheroes whose love interests went on to become more popular characters than they ever were. James MacDonald Hudson is the only other example that I can think of.
I’m actually a bit surprised that a writer hasn’t tried to do more with Neal given that there’s nowhere to go but up with him.
I just wonder where this will leave Besty now that she is no longer Psylocke and has become Captain Britain. I am less concerned about her relationship with Askani and more about her current status as Captain Britain. I wonder if another writer will be able to improve on Howard’s tenure on the character.
This mini seemed like less of a story – I’m lost on how anything Morgan’s trying to do accomplishes her nominal goals – and mostly just reasserting Howard’s status quo changes. Betsy is Captain Britain now because she says so and Brian agrees. She and Rachel are a couple now because they kiss and say they love each other every issue. And then, bizarrely, asserting that Apocalypse isn’t so bad, despite it being a plot point that he tortured Morgan Le Fay, as pointed out in this miniseries. Not progression, just repetition.
My guess is that Betsy remains Captain Britain indefinitely since there’s nothing readily obvious to do with her, the Krakoan era has really established Kwannon as a viable character to be Psylocke now, so Betsy might as well be Captain Britain. Captain Avalon’s barely different so Brian is fine. It was a 36 issue run about British identity and Betsy’s identity and had remarkably little to say about either.
Moo said: Yeah, Neal Shaara belongs to a very exclusive club of superheroes whose love interests went on to become more popular characters than they ever were. James MacDonald Hudson is the only other example that I can think of.
The only others I can think of are
“maybes:” Hawkman at DC might count, or at least counted for a while owing to Hawkgirl’s greater prominence in the Justice League cartoon. She took over the Hawkman book fully at one point.
The Black Widow is interesting for this, too. Technically Hawkeye was introduced — kind of — as her love interest, but I’d be hard-pressed to say which one is more popular, and it’s not really the same as the Heather Hudson and Omega Sentinel examples.
For one thing, there’s the complication that they were introduced as villains, not superheroes, and Hawkeye was a conflicted would-be hero from the get-go.
Going way back, there’s the Black Canary, who was introduced as a femme fatale character in the Golden Age Johnny Thunder strip, and almost immediately took it over and quickly became part of the Justice Society while Johnny was written out. But Johnny Thunder was never that popular a character to start with.
*smacks forehead*
I forgot Mar-Vell. It didn’t really go anywhere, but he and Carol were each other’s love interests years before she became Ms. Marvel. She planted a kiss on him back in Captain Marvel #8 (1968).
Moo said: I forgot Mar-Vell. It didn’t really go anywhere, but he and Carol were each other’s love interests years before she became Ms. Marvel. She planted a kiss on him back in Captain Marvel #8 (1968).
Oh, yes! That’s a big example. As you note, it’s easy to forget because of how briefly Carol Danvers was used as a love interest — especially with Mar-Vell mostly mooning over Una in those stories — but she has definitely eclipsed him as a character.
And it helps that no one cares that much about Mar-Vell beyond the Starlin stuff, which includes his iconic death story. That death has stuck in no small part because it was, at the time, a quite different kind of story.
I recall Marvel trying to revive Mar-Vell during Civil War, but quickly writing him back out as a Skrull imposter as of Secret Invasion.
It’s telling that the movie totally reimagined Mar-Vell into something other than a heroic predecessor and only showed the character in a few flashbacks.
Captain Marvel’s great. Imagine Jesus dying on the cross, everyone weeping and whatnot. Then after three days he rises, only to find Mary Magdalene is called Jesus now, she’s doing miracles all over, and everyone loves her, even the Romans. There’s even some kid calling herself Mary Magdelene out of respect for her. Half the population don’t even remember there being another Jesus, and half of those who do think it was that Monica Rambeau. Old Jesus just hugs Billy Batson and they cry together.
Anyway, I always thought Skrull Captain Marvel, at war with himself essentially, was a concept with a lot of legs. Not so much any more, with the Kree-Skrull alliance, but back in the day there was a lot that could have been done with him.
Maybe Big Barda and Mr Miracle? Prob not.
Also,this one doesn’t prob work but Lyta Hall and Hector Hall? She was introduced first I think in WW 300, before they were in Infinity Inc. And she got to live on when Hector got snuffed out in Sandman.
@Mark Coale – Hector’s Sandman snuffing wasn’t permanent. He later came back as a new Doctor Fate. Moot point though, since the gulf in popularity between Lyta and Hector is so minuscule that it’s virtually immeasurable. I don’t think either of them have made an appearance in at least a decade.
Nor was Lyta created just to serve as a “love interest” character either. Yeah, she had a relationship with Hector, but it wasn’t like she was a supporting cast member. She was a full member of Infinity Inc., same as Hector, and the child of a JSAer, same as Hector.
I was trying to think of instances wherein the Lois Lane character went on to become more popular than the Superman character, if that makes any sense.
Right. I was trying to come up with any possible examples.
Most of the DC Golden/Silver Age candidates don’t work – Iris, Carol Ferris., Jean Loring, Sue Dibny, any Batman candidate (Vicki Vale, Julie Madison, Silver St Cloud,…)
some of the Marvel candidates might at least have a smidge name recognition to the general public thanks to last deacde of electronic media: Mary Jane, Pepper, Karen Page,Sharon Carter.
Well, it’s a pretty exclusive club. Maybe Neal Shaara, Mar-Vell and Mac Hudson ought to get together and write a country song about how their love interests stole their thunder and then go perform it on “America’s Got Talent.” At least it’s something.
The non-mutant “mole” is obviously Ink * , who , or I’m remembering right (and I’m too lazy to check first right now) canonically was both 1) a member of an anti-mutant militia until his powers suddenly manifested (just like Elixir) , and 2) was revealed to actually be a mutate as
his powers were secretly unknowingly(?) granted to him by his regular tattoo artist , Leon Nunez ** , who was actually a mutant reality warper powerful enough to permanently grant powers to another human via tattoos , which at their peak could even approximate the power of the Phoenix Force itself! (Which is how Ink essentially resurrected Dust after she practically died due to a long/lengthy process of physical deterioration after she was literally turned into glass by a Donald Pierce-mindcontrolled-Magma) , and 3) an active member of the X-men during the XMen Gold Living In Central Park era , which was immediately and shortly before the Hunt for Wolverine storyline happened .
* obviously nobody bothered to tell Tony Stark about Ink ‘s backstory because as a non-mutant non-X-Man TS had no “need to know” anyway to begin with in the first place LOL
** both Ink and Leon Nunez fell into comas at the end of Young X-Men after Ink activated the Phoenix Tattoo in order to save Dust , but years later when their creator Mark Guggenheim became the head X-writer , he made Ink a regular active X-Man and LM his de facto support staff who gave him additional tattoos that enabled Ink to become the Gary Stu of MG’s XMen Gold LMAO
Also btw it was suddenly revealed by a gloating Mesmero in XMen Gold that it was he , Mesmero (who was inexplicably both repowered after Decimation AND powered-up to be able to single-handedly defeat Mark Guggenheim’s XMen Gold team such that he easily defeated Prestige/Rachel Summers) who mindcontrolled both Rachel AND Kurt to suddenly HOOK-UP with each other LOL this was most likely backpedaling by MG at the rabidly violent reaction from certain supposed X-“fans” (cough ‘Twitterati SJW’s* cough) who babbled the usual “pedophilia/grooming” claptrap since Kurt supposedly helped raise Rachel as a surrogate father/uncle figure in her home reality of DOFP, but this glaring asspull only made things worse as it made Mesmero inexplicably become a matchmaker/shipper of his fellow mutants/longtime foes For No Discernible Reason whatsoever . Now Mesmero did bad things to his fellow mutants when he was part of Frank Tieri’s Weapon X Program under Malcolm Colcord (and later Bret Jackson) , but being a psionic pornographer was not part of his MO at all (though he did have a one night stand with a glammed-up mutation-stabilized Marrow by using his powers to pose as a Japanese-American prettyboy she met at a disco)
* the prudish prudery of said “fans” is also the reason why Marvel editorial suddenly cancelled the mid/late-2010’s wedding of Piotr and Kitty (not yet Kate then!) at the last minute after hyping it for months , for the same reasons of “pedophilia/grooming” since they first got together/became attracted to each other/flirted with each other when he was 17/18 and she was 13 , but grossly hypocritically said “fans” said absolutely nothing when Piotr and Kitty were actually back together around a decade earlier IRL during Josh Whedon’s mid/late-2000’s Astonishing X-men (but of course this was when JW was still the can-do-no-wrong “male feminist” darling/idol-ally of said fans tsk tsk tsk who would ironically cancel him around this time or shortly after in the late 2010’s/early 2020’s due to the global MeToo movement)
“Sad thing is, Tini Howard is halfway decent on Catwoman. I don’t know why everything she does for Marvel is either tedious or rushed nonsense.”
I’ve just recently read her Death’s Head mini from just before Excalibur, and it was not bad at all, yes?
“Betsy spent decades trapped in a Japanese woman’s body and has finally been restored to her original self through Krakoan resurrection. It seems natural that she would want to explore reclaiming her identity…”
Not decades in-universe, of course. And she was fully adult when she got body-swapped.
You know, there may be plenty of mileage in Betsy Braddock as Captain Britain, but not if the idea is for her to explore her own identity. I mean, if she’s trying to figure out what it means to be Betsy Braddock as opposed to someone trapped in another identity, why on Earth would she take her brother’s codename? Wouldn’t it make more sense for *her* to have become Captain Avalon after following her own path?
The Death’s Head series was… fine? DH was more or less consistent with previous portrayals, but came across like a guest star in his own comic, which was weird.
And there was a lot of plotting nonsense. Important events seem to happen off-panel, the villain’s plan is never clear, and then there’s that strange ending where DH is both in space having adventures and also standing deactivated in Wiccan’s cupboard. I’ve read the series at least three times and it still makes very little sense.
Still, the art was good.
“I mean, if she’s trying to figure out what it means to be Betsy Braddock as opposed to someone trapped in another identity, why on Earth would she take her brother’s codename?”
One way to play this idea is that Betsy is insecure about her true identity so is hiding behind someone else’s, this time on purpose. It’s her emotional comfort zone after being inside Kwannon’s body for so long, after all.
I don’t think that’s what Howard was aiming at, but it would be an interesting take. Betsy tries out the Captain Britain identity, it doesn’t work because she’s still not being true to herself, she struggles and comes out reborn as…whatever she wants to call herself. And Brian goes back to being CB.
That sounds like an interesting inner conflict. But Howard and Marvel seem to be playing the Betsy = CB angle pretty straight. Maybe someone else will come along and make sense of it later.
I was under the impression that Betsy never knew that her bionic eyes were transmitting to Mojo. I don’t think she could read either his or Spiral’s minds. They then became non-transmitting after she went through the Siege Perilous the first time.
What’s the over/under on Brian reclaiming the Captain Britain name before the Arakki are wiped out to showcase the Next Big Threat?
@Sam- I’m sorry, I should have been more clear. Betsy didn’t know. What happened was this: At a time when Storm had lost her powers, Mojo took control of Storm’s mind, gave her back her powers and sent her to fight the New Mutants. Spiral was captured and Storm forced her to undo the spell that restored her powers. Then she decided to go to ask Forge to build a gizmo that would restore her powers. When Betsy pointed out it would have been easier just to keep the powers, Storm explained that those powers were a gift of Mojo and nothing good would come of them. Betsy then decided to keep her bionic eyes a secret from the X-Men, rationalizing that they might ask her to leave if they found out. The point is Betsy should have realized from what Storm said that there was something not kosher about the eyes. But she decided to lie anyway.
And to pull both these threads together, the last time Betsy became Captain Britain was when she lost her eyes in the first place. That’s an obscure bit of continuity, but I think that’s more of a reason why she wouldn’t take that identity again.