Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain Appreciation 2021

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Part of the change still reminds me of a publicity stunt kind of thing that the company then had to extend but doesn't know how to and then ends up doing it badly, I'd say that it's clear that past the new body Marvel cares very little for Betsy and much of Excalibur is them going out of their way to make her different than Kwannon, seemingly forgetting that Betsy is the far older character that should be getting more of a push than Kwannon...

[Psigal]

Part of the change still reminds me of a publicity stunt kind of thing that the company then had to extend but doesn't know how to and then ends up doing it badly, I'd say that it's clear that past the new body Marvel cares very little for Betsy and much of Excalibur is them going out of their way to make her different than Kwannon, seemingly forgetting that Betsy is the far older character that should be getting more of a push than Kwannon...

Come to think of it, Betsy seems always to be the 'unwanted' or 'loser' in most competition:

In Excalibur, Brian is chosen to be Captain Britain but not Betsy.

In X-Men, Jean is best student and Omega telepathy but not Betsy.

In Krakoa, Kwannon is clearly the favorite of current Marvel out of the two Psylocke but not Betsy.

In Otherworld, Saturnyne still choose Brian as Captain Britain but not Betsy and she can only get the role by 'stealing' the Starlight sword.

She is such a stepping stone in Marvel Comics and I guess it will keep going on...

(I actually think the main focus in Excalibur after Apocalypse left is Rogue but not Betsy.)

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Perhaps it would be best for Betsy to find a new team, perhaps after she returns and Saturnyne's plans come to fruition...where she will be written better...

[Psycwave]

Captain Britain Betsy may have a lot of potential. However, there are reasons we don't like her being CB up to now because it seems to neutralize all her previous development in the Asian body.

Firstly, her personality changed greatly as she is no longer being a bad ass and lack confident. I don't really see the reason in this because their bodies aren't so much difference beside the skin and hair color. Also, the other mutants have already known this issue for a long time so I don't think there would be much embarrassment. The only reason I can thought of is, does Betsy think the Asian body is better than her original White body?

Secondly, She seems to lose all the fighting skill of the Asian body and the prove is her 'fighting abilities' in the official power grid as Psylocke was 6 but dropped to 4 as Captain Britain. Does this mean she lost all her skill as Ninja as we have seen none in Excalibur?

Thirdly, Telepathy is her mutant power and best trait. Usually, mutants with powerful telepathy comes with a weak body like Xavier, Jean, Emma...etc, so they needs to rely on their mind as their bodies are weak. But right now when Betsy given the power of CB by the amulet or starlight sword, she rarely use her mutant power anymore(mainly just for communication or make her brother behave) but rely on the CB power completely(maybe she is still using her Psi-Weapons but is this really necessary as she has much more raw strength now? What I want to say is her mutant power contradicted to her CB power). Moreover, none of her CB power is impressive so far that many people actually wondered if Betsy has all those CB power until we saw the boost in power grid of the official handbook.

Lasly, remember her duel in X of swords? That is actually the most embarrassing and humiliating moment in Betsy's history...We don't mind that she lost but please at least give her a good fight. From what I have seen, she used her shield to push her opponent once and then got shattered into pieces by the starlight sword. What the hell? Tini Howard can never be a good writer in Marvel Comics if she can't understand mutant abilities and write some good fights or clever use of them.

So, unless the questions and issues above are answered and solved, I can't support her as CB. She was so great in Disassembled and that is the perfect Betsy/Psylocke in her original body that we have been waiting for but got abandoned.

Most of this is being addressed in story. Betsy doesn't "feel" like Betsy because that's how Tini is writing the story. We've had multiple characters even comment on how she isn't acting like herself and doing that thing where she goes inward. She just recently fought in an Excalibur issue and commented on how she still has all of her stealth tactics and it's no surprise they finally come out at a time where she's always been most comfortable: shadow work. Things like handbooks and "official power grids" are arbitrary because they change like the wind. She's had to deal with getting to be CB, people not wanting her to be it, seeing Kwannon running around in her old suit, her finally realizing that Warren might love her in her original body, etc etc. We are literally coming to the head of all that in the current arc.

The power thing I'll give you but that's more of an issue with Excalibur as a whole. Tini doesn't really write action scenes well and when she does they aren't that quick. We rarely see anyone on the team using their power. It's nothing to do with her as CB. The fight with Isca also falls into the same regard. The fight sucked but that doesn't mean the actual narrative of Betsy's story is bad.

I can agree that the story could be better told in certain regards but completely disagree that CB Betsy neutralizes any previous development. It uses it as a springboard to take Betsy into new territory. Disassembled Psylocke was a moment but CB Betsy is about how she's grown from that. She leaned too hard into it and left everything she was and now she's coming to terms that she didn't have to to be the hero she wants to be. We probably haven't gotten introspection on Betsy like this since Remender's UXF.

[Kingdom X]

Perhaps it would be best for Betsy to find a new team, perhaps after she returns and Saturnyne's plans come to fruition...where she will be written better...

Not gonna happen... at this point Betsy IS the driving force of Excalibur. Rictor is the only other character with some ongoing arc.

[Havok83]

Not gonna happen... at this point Betsy IS the driving force of Excalibur. Rictor is the only other character with some ongoing arc.

I dont see why the book needs to exist....

[Psycwave]

Not gonna happen... at this point Betsy IS the driving force of Excalibur. Rictor is the only other character with some ongoing arc.

Agreed.

How Excalibur navigates from here on out will be very interesting as it's a whole new ball game. Do we get cross time caper shenanigans with the Betsy Corps ala the Thors of Hickman's Secret Wars? How does Betsy prime handle being the main CB, protector of Britain, AND defender of Krakoa? We've seen her on multiple teams before but this new one comes with greater responsibility and more people to account for than ever before. Do they become the occult detective going after supernatural threats against mutants? Will we start an Otherworld world tour and check up on the mutants ruling the lands and Kingdom politics? What's mutant life like in the worlds of the other Corps members? Does she add new members to the team to better fit the focusing of energy for mutant magic?

It's a very exciting time.

[Knightmare]

Come to think of it, Betsy seems always to be the 'unwanted' or 'loser' in most competition:

In Excalibur, Brian is chosen to be Captain Britain but not Betsy.

Betsy was never going to be Captain Britain. Brian became Captain Britain in his debut issue, Betsy wasn't even introduced as a character until 7 issues later. Successive writers have started the narrative that Betsy was salty about the whole thing.

[Knightmare]

Agreed.

How Excalibur navigates from here on out will be very interesting as it's a whole new ball game. Do we get cross time caper shenanigans with the Betsy Corps ala the Thors of Hickman's Secret Wars? How does Betsy prime handle being the main CB, protector of Britain, AND defender of Krakoa? We've seen her on multiple teams before but this new one comes with greater responsibility and more people to account for than ever before. Do they become the occult detective going after supernatural threats against mutants? Will we start an Otherworld world tour and check up on the mutants ruling the lands and Kingdom politics? What's mutant life like in the worlds of the other Corps members? Does she add new members to the team to better fit the focusing of energy for mutant magic?

It's a very exciting time.

You're hyping yourself up too much and I feel you're going to be very disappointed!

[Psycwave]

You're hyping yourself up too much and I feel you're going to be very disappointed!

I enjoy Excalibur so whatever comes I'll be fine.

Plus, I'd rather remain cautiously optimistic and discuss things to get excited for than complain.

[Knightmare]

I enjoy Excalibur so whatever comes I'll be fine.

Plus, I'd rather remain cautiously optimistic and discuss things to get excited for than complain.

Complaining is good for the soul! It stops you accepting the world as it is and injects some reality back into your life!

I would never say don't enjoy Excalibur. If you like, you like it. Got nothing to do with me. We're all just voicing our opinions here.

[Psycwave]

I dont see why the book needs to exist....

We should have more tbh.

- Excalibur
- Captain Britain Corps
- Captain Britain and M:13
- All New Captain Britain
- Captain Britan/Wolverine

More Betsy everywhere please.

[MentalManipulator]

Yeah, mutant CB with ties to Otherworld and maybe even branching out to fight supernatural threats against mutants is a solid trajectory with lots of potential. We've barely scratched the surface of this new status quo so I'm not ready to revert back to anything just yet. Especially considering that if Betsy did change her moniker right now we'd be right back to square one and having her go through yet another identity change trying to build herself back from the ground up.

I agree with you. 100%. But for the future I don't want her to be CB forever since the role takes aways from her being part of another team other then Excalibur. Patriotic heroes really make me uncomfortable and seems always off putting and silly IMO.

[MentalManipulator]

Most of this is being addressed in story. Betsy doesn't "feel" like Betsy because that's how Tini is writing the story. We've had multiple characters even comment on how she isn't acting like herself and doing that thing where she goes inward. She just recently fought in an Excalibur issue and commented on how she still has all of her stealth tactics and it's no surprise they finally come out at a time where she's always been most comfortable: shadow work. Things like handbooks and "official power grids" are arbitrary because they change like the wind. She's had to deal with getting to be CB, people not wanting her to be it, seeing Kwannon running around in her old suit, her finally realizing that Warren might love her in her original body, etc etc. We are literally coming to the head of all that in the current arc.

The power thing I'll give you but that's more of an issue with Excalibur as a whole. Tini doesn't really write action scenes well and when she does they aren't that quick. We rarely see anyone on the team using their power. It's nothing to do with her as CB. The fight with Isca also falls into the same regard. The fight sucked but that doesn't mean the actual narrative of Betsy's story is bad.

I can agree that the story could be better told in certain regards but completely disagree that CB Betsy neutralizes any previous development. It uses it as a springboard to take Betsy into new territory. Disassembled Psylocke was a moment but CB Betsy is about how she's grown from that. She leaned too hard into it and left everything she was and now she's coming to terms that she didn't have to to be the hero she wants to be. We probably haven't gotten introspection on Betsy like this since Remender's UXF.

Evertytime Tini talks about her ideas and the characters in the books it feels right, deep and makes sense...but...the thing is....when reading the book it feels, since the beginning, a little off, not only Betsy but in general.
So it's complicated when your work of art needs to come with explanations because the audience does not get it.

[CGAR]

I don't think Betsy changing back was a publicity stunt. It got no publicity. A few articles but that's it. It was put into a mini that focused on the Retun of Wolverine. Which was drawn out and took forever. It was one issue. And then it was dropped. No writer brought it up. Until maybe Leah Willaims in Age of X-Man. If they want publicity they would have made it a major arc in a A-List X-Title like: X-Men or Uncanny X-Men.

I am one of the ones that complains about Tini Howards writing a lot. It's just not for me. But I will say that when others who do like it point out things I may have missed I tend to give it an ounce more of appreciation. Also one thing I've always said is that I like how Tini talks about her approach to Betsy but it's just the execution or how it's written down in the issue that I have major problems with. There's much to be desired on my end. There are people that say what are you talking about its all there in the story. But no I want more of HER thought bubbles I want more of HER saying things. And people will say she is BUT I want MORE.

Another thing we forget is that this is the first time we've had a female perspective writing Betsy for more than 4 issues. Of course we won't agree with everything. Like the insecurities she has now. BUT this is a perspective that I do not think the male writers ever even thought about. So thats something to appreciate about Leah Williams and Tini Howard. It's a woman's take and they see things differently than there male counterparts.

I'm hoping this arc has her get more focused in telling Betsy's story. Like ALL the juicy bits are here. If you really think about it. We've been waiting for some REAL insight and introspection since before Extermination. And that was like what 2018.

I would like Rogue and Gambit to go to another title. Captain Britain to join the new X-Men team. Editorial promised that they would elevate her. And what better way then to put her on a title written by Hickman part of the new X-Men squad. WHICH CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG. Cyclops states will be the heroes of Krakoa. And what does Betsy's story beat seem to be currently. That she is adapting to a more heroic status and more responsibilities.

I also want a series with Captain Britain/Captain Avalon. Since there really is only a few Betsy fans (myself included) that actually enjoy Otherworld and omniverse story beats.

Rictory and Jubilee can go to New Mutants for all I care.

I also think that the Captian Britain title being patriotic will limit her in other X-Men titles BUT maybe we'll get a good writer to have her appear in the greater MCU. But please not Jason Aaron.