Elizabeth (Betsy) Braddock: Captain Britain Appreciation 2020

[CRaymond]

Not too stray off topic but... when we’re Magik’s portals portrayed as skeletons

After AvX, the P5 all had wonky powers. Cool idea barely lasted.

[Ferro]

Not too stray off topic but... when we’re Magik’s portals portrayed as skeletons

Bendis uncanny after her mini arc, for several issues her signature was a really neat bunch of orange demons and hellfire

[houndsofluv]

The Moore/Davis/Delano trades. New Mutants Annual 2, Uncanny Annual 10, Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants, the second Brood Saga, the story where she gets body swapped. The Psylocke/Revanche storyline, Archangel/Psylocke mini, Psi-War, X-Men Revolution, Claremont’s Exiles, the Yost Psylocke mini just to name a few.

Start with Uncanny X-Force. Read the whole run(especially Otherworld arc). Then go back to start reading Mutant Massacre and then read the Lee/Claremont's Lady Mandarin and Psy War X-Men Volume 2 etc.

whew plenty to dig into!! thanks

Is it bad I want Betsy and Kwannon to merge into one being? I'm not feeling either one of them atm and I think it would be better. Neither is dominant, they are just 2 in one body making a more powerful being...

after they finally just fixed this mess...no thanks. It's just not very tasteful imo and making them their own separate entities was the right step

It would be cool if they gained the ability to merge together and separate at will. Maybe in the heat of battle they fuse together dragon ball Z style to become more powerful.

loll this is killing me

[gifted]

Betsy is one of those characters that actually isn't as deep a character as we sometimes make it seem. There are moments here and there throughout her years (all of the fabulous people here mentioned those specific issues and arcs), but nothing that really pierced the depth that some other characters have received.

The Outback was probably the run with strongest characterization for her. There are also a few instances of good characterization in the mid-2000s, but it wasn't until Second Coming and after Second Coming up to now where she received great emotional depth. Aka Remender's run and the following X-Force runs after that.

A lot of who she is is more reader implied characterization. She's a lot like Colossus and Iceman (up until recent years for the latter) in which she has very surface-level characterization. Which is sometimes unfortunate when it feels like the readers care more for and have a better understanding of a character than the office does. In other media, she is an A-listing X-Man, but in comics, she's still riding on B-List and there is still a lot of literary growth she needs to have to be considered an A-Lister with character-defining stories.

[Selene]

yes, you should, because the change was stupid in the first place and threw her into 15 years of terrible stories where the writers put her ass in the front more than her face, and when I came to apreciate her and learn of that I had to accept Betsy was going to forever be a complicated, messy characther that is wearing another body and culture instead of getting a story that frees her from a cycle of abuse, manipulation, control and trauma.
oh wait, she got one! and If you truly belive being a white lady in an asian body was a plus to her characther you only cared about her looks and aesthethics, wich are valid mind you but now you have kwannon now.
Go stan her, dont expect betsy to become the poster child of how comic writers had a streak of orientalism in the 90's once more.

If you consider her transformation to have been nothing but a cycle of abuse, manipulation, control and trauma, it seems to me you don't understand her character. Keep telling others what they should like and why they do in that attitude if you must, but I can say for myself that I wouldn't have been a Psylocke fan, if those stories hadn't given her unique character development.

You can't spam stuff like she is written as the real Betsy Braddock because she returned to her birth body and people who see things differently are only interested in aesthetics, without seeing the contradiction in that.

betsy also lost her butterfly for the majority of her ninja days btw...

She no longer had the butterfly when she became a telekinetic.

It was very much present during the ninja days.

[Ferro]

If you consider her transformation to have been nothing but a cycle of abuse, manipulation, control and trauma, it seems to me you don't understand her character. Keep telling others what they should like and why they do in that attitude if you must, but I can say for myself that I wouldn't have been a Psylocke fan, if those stories hadn't given her unique character development.

You can't spam stuff like she is written as the real Betsy Braddock because she returned to her birth body and people who see things differently are only interested in aesthetics, without seeing the contradiction in that.

She no longer had the butterfly when she became a telekinetic.

It was very much present during the ninja days.

but IT WAS a cycle, she wasnt an active player or agent in her narrative, just thrown around like a rag doll by the mandarin, spiral, jaimie, the red queen, archangel, everyone had a hand in manipulating and causing her damage, damage that only started to show in uncanny x-force, she was nothing more than a punching bag for constant manipulation and trauma.
None of that "development" was organic since kwannons influence was a canonicall presence in her personality and actions until the sisterhood arc where we got the true comfirmation she was completly gone, only when writers understood that it was Betsy Braddock stuck in a nightmarish scenario did she start to get good writting

[Ferro]

Betsy is one of those characters that actually isn't as deep a character as we sometimes make it seem. There are moments here and there throughout her years (all of the fabulous people here mentioned those specific issues and arcs), but nothing that really pierced the depth that some other characters have received.

The Outback was probably the run with strongest characterization for her. There are also a few instances of good characterization in the mid-2000s, but it wasn't until Second Coming and after Second Coming up to now where she received great emotional depth. Aka Remender's run and the following X-Force runs after that.

A lot of who she is is more reader implied characterization. She's a lot like Colossus and Iceman (up until recent years for the latter) in which she has very surface-level characterization. Which is sometimes unfortunate when it feels like the readers care more for and have a better understanding of a character than the office does. In other media, she is an A-listing X-Man, but in comics, she's still riding on B-List and there is still a lot of literary growth she needs to have to be considered an A-Lister with character-defining stories.

thank you, you are completly right, you can skip most of the 90's and early 2000's and jump from the siege perilous to second coming witout a single thing of value lost.

[Thirteen]

She no longer had the butterfly when she became a telekinetic.

It was very much present during the ninja days.

Wasn’t there an issue of one of her pre-reversion to Caucasian body series where Psylocke reconciled the use of the psi-blade/sword vs the butterfly? They had different significances. X-Force maybe?

[Psychic_Butterfly]

While being locked away in isolation I've been doing bits and pieces to keep my brain busy. One of those things is making a sort of digital museum of my Betsy collection on Instagram. I'm a pretty die-hard stan so it's been fun. If you guys wanna check it out its @Psychic_Butterfly

LINK:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xEZOeg...=1wssu73h190g6

[CRaymond]

Let's see...

1. Pre-X Betsy, job-hopping twin Sister Britain of Marvel UK.

then Mojo happened

2. New-X Betsy, fearless cradle-robbing novice telepath

then Adversary happened

3. Outback Betsy, cloaked and armorclad psychic lieutenant

then Siege Perilous happened

4. Asian Betsy, freshly minted ninja and melee action junkie

then Kwannon happened

5. Worthington Betsy, Archangel paramour and reckless badass

then Crimson Dawn happened

6. Creepy Betsy, teleport-via-shadows ninja telepath

then Revolution happens

7. Telekinetic Betsy, loved by Shaara and killed by Vargas

then Reload happens

8. Jamie Betsy, resurrected with Jean powers

then ?

9. Exiles Betsy, I know very little about

then ?

10. X-Force Betsy, murder addict

then ?

11. X-Women Betsy, finally some great costumes

then Sapphire Styx happened

12. Disassembled Betsy, traumatized cocoa drinker with a pink jumpsuit and a psychic sword & board

then Hickman happened

13. Captain Betsy

We've had 13 "Betsy"s. Some people have favorites. Some were more successful than others. I'm interested in the character throughline, the character arc: is there one?

To Ferro's point, a majority of these character changes aren't Betsy's choice, but reactions to others' actions upon her body and mind. I'd wage that 3 is sorta her choice, 5 definitely is, 9 might be, 10 & 11 could be, and 13 should have been, but so far hasn't really been digested.

[Selene]

None of that "development" was organic since kwannons influence was a canonicall presence in her personality and actions until the sisterhood arc where we got the true comfirmation she was completly gone, only when writers understood that it was Betsy Braddock stuck in a nightmarish scenario did she start to get good writting

How so?

She was purged of Kwannon's influence way back in Adjectiveless #32. Have the writers now established Kwannon having not only been present but also influenced her actions?

Wasn’t there an issue of one of her pre-reversion to Caucasian body series where Psylocke reconciled the use of the psi-blade/sword vs the butterfly? They had different significances. X-Force maybe?

That's the short story Mike Carey wrote in which her loss of the butterfly effect paralleled her lack of 'finesse' with her telekinesis. The butterfly respresents finesse, whereas the blade raw power.

[Rnap22]

I always like during the Outback era how she was always kind of mysterious. This was a great moment for her
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[Selene]

The last few moments before the Siege Perilous along with the Psi War story are Psylocke in a nutshell for me. I can't decide which one I like best.

[Psychic_Butterfly]

The last few moments before the Siege Perilous along with the Psi War story are Psylocke in a nutshell for me. I can't decide which one I like best.

Both amazing choices. People always seem to forget about Betsy's growth or arcs or even power feats. Shes always been the "underdog" character who in all honesty is rarely given props to what shes achieved

[Dipter]

While being locked away in isolation I've been doing bits and pieces to keep my brain busy. One of those things is making a sort of digital museum of my Betsy collection on Instagram. I'm a pretty die-hard stan so it's been fun. If you guys wanna check it out its @Psychic_Butterfly

LINK:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xEZOeg...=1wssu73h190g6

Your collection is really cool!