Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain Appreciation 2021

[Psycwave]

I’m really thirsty for many details regarding this side of the marvel universe, the greatest thing perhaps is that it leaves a lot if space for growth in regard to Betsy as character, she is uniquely positioned to benefit from some willingness to explore these new narrative grounds, she can be so much more than the usual tp/tk user because it gives her unique flavor and mystic\exotic characteristics.

I'd love a second title or mini series dedicated solely to the CB side. Tini is throwing a lot of plotlines out there with Betsy but I don't want her putting too much on her plate when she's finally starting to be more comfortable with the narrative structure of her comics. She birthed the idea and I think it'd be fine to let someone else execute the vision.

[Jwyatt]

Can someone tell me what the starlight sword even do ? Why should Betsy use it instead of her tk blade?

Malice gets a data page, but there is still no definition of what Captain Betsy can do.

[Psigal]

After reading Excalibur #1-20, I can confirm current Betsy is basically Betsy with her teenager personality. She isn't Asian Betsy or even 80s Betsy but is a younger self that has never been explored before. The lost of butterfly effect proves it because the signature still wasn't developed when she was a teenager. So, instead of having confident issue, her problem is lack of maturity.

I can think of three reasons for how it happened:

1. After Betsy recreated her own body, she decided to 'give up' those personality development when she was Asian and 80s Betsy because they have brought her too much pain(scratched eyes, killed, body swap...etc) so she decide not to bring those personality change to her new body. Ignore Disassembled and Age Of X and it will all make better sense.

2. After Betsy returned to her own body, she started to let those personality development fade away because she didn't want them anymore. She still has her complete personality in Disassembled but already lost the Asian personality in Age Of X so she was having issue with her body again. And at the beginning of Excalibur, she has lost all her personality development and back to her teenager personality.

3. No reason! Tini wants to write teenager Betsy so it just need to happen! Someone(Hickman) will explain for her!

One thing I am wondering after reading #20 that Betsy's body physicality maybe affected by her personality and mental age so her current body is at teenager stage instead of well developed supermodel body or even her ideal body in Disassembled. It is possible she gained this 'ability' without knowing it after she rebuilt her body with the soul energy.

And I doubt Betsy is still her complete self even after #19, I estimated only 10%-20% original Betsy is restored and the rest of Betsy's story in this Krakoa era is about completing CB 'quests' and at the same time restoring/rebuilding herself again. I think if Excalibur continues, it will have around 40 to 50 issues before the end of this Krakoa era(less than 4 years).

To be honest, I think I have lost interest in Betsy...for now. What I expect is a completely developed Betsy getting the Captain Britain role doing some great things but instead, we have teenager Betsy getting the Captain Britain role and try to rebuild herself...

[Celestialbodies]

Copied from the issue thread:

This issue was more disappointing for me I thought Malice could have a MUCH better origin story than told here especially with such topics as identity and displacement or even self love. I also agree this could have been a wonderful opportunity for more diversity, but more importantly Malice could have been used much better in this story. Everything about Bets and Kwannon motivations for saving her were contrived and could have been expanded upon in the previous two issues thus giving this issue more payoff. Malice as a parallel to Bets and Kwannon is such a good idea but the execution was horrible, it did nothing for Malice and in some places Bets came off looking like a fool imo.

I genuinely get what Tini is trying to do and the last few issues have highlighted that but she has no grasp at all of pacing or how to elicit emotion from her audience. She had 22 issues to craft a really complex and emotionally resonating story between Bets and Kwannon and she continues to fail in that regard, nothing she's done with them has any meaning or long term ramifications things are simply happening. Which is unfortunate because no issue for me more than this demonstrates how much potential is there if she did a better job executing her ideas.


That said Kwannon has continued to be a standout under her pen, she understands the character in a way that she simply does not get anyone else in her cast, outside of when she wrote Apocalypse. I kept waiting on that moment where Bets shows her strength of self and identity and for me it never came her Bets continues to read bland and uninspired which is a stark contrast to how vibrant, in control her Kwannon continues to be.

She was just a "disembodied psyche" metaphor to bring Kwannon and Betsy together.

A bit clumsy, really.

The concept of this issue is nice.

The execution is not.

They never address why Alice is suicidal. They never even really hint at it.

And then they kill her and just resurrect her and go "Job well done." and it's like... what?! NO SERIOUSLY WHAT?!

Seriously, what was the point of this? If they were going to do a Malice story, it should have been in X-Factor and it absolutely should have included Lorna.

Doing this kind of random, out-of-the-box storyline requires finesse and an accurately thorough knowledge of history and continuity. Howard has neither. Mike Carey was someone who did this well.

All of this!!

[Celestialbodies]

Absolutely not.

Mutant massacre Betsy was not a ninja to begin with. It simply wasn’t her. Though she wanted to be a better fighter she never asked to be an Asian ninja.

That woman in X-Force was simply not her.

Elizabeth is a woman from a wealthy background and politically connected in both Britain and Otherworld. Absolutely no reason for her to join people who are basically scum in X-Force. Her brother Brian barely tolerates them and in her true mind Elizabeth is the same. Notice there was no reaching out to that crew move she returned to her real body.

Um did you read X-force a great deal of that run death specifically with Betsy body and Kwannon and revisiting the opportunity to return to her original body...like you're more than welcome to interpret comics how you want but you can't rewrite history to suit your whims.

Betsy smiled today and had some bite! It was nice.

I still don’t dig the “She didn’t like her original body” take that Leah introduced. I know her and Tini are homegirls so I’m sure she’s putting that bug in her ear.

I feel like the whole "Betsy's Body Dysmorphia" thing is a misreading of her story about desperately wanting to have the body of a warrior so she wouldn't be a liability in fights - which obviously dovetailed nicely into Claremont turning her into Lady Mandarin.

All of this is why I can never enjoy Leah's work she forces her idea who characters are onto already established characters. It would different if she wanted to add a different faucet to their personality but instead she goes out of her way to force her interpretation of the character without any regard for their history which makes her writing very hollow and uncomfortable for me.

[CGAR]

Although I don't like the "not liking her body/dysmorphia" issues that Leah introduced and Tini mentioned in this issue. It is a female perspective that we never got from the male writers. And something they would never really delve into. Nobody ever went into what it would really be like for her to be in a new body. So we had what 20 years for wrtiers do something substantial but all we got was surface level stories for Betsy and Kwannon. And now we're getting this and unfortunately stuck with the not liking her original body story beat.

[Daedra]

Although I don't like the "not liking her body/dysmorphia" issues that Leah introduced and Tini mentioned in this issue. It is a female perspective that we never got from the male writers. And something they would never really delve into. Nobody ever went into what it would really be like for her to be in a new body. So we had what 20 years for wrtiers do something substantial but all we got was surface level stories for Betsy and Kwannon. And now we're getting this and unfortunately stuck with the not liking her original body story beat.

It’s like she’s devolving in front of my eyes, I’m having difficulties reconciling this new Betsy with the opinion I had of her before Excalibur, I’m having flashbacks of the time Rachel assumed the name marvel girl during the latest claremont run.

[Psycwave]

I would like the perspective from a woman who actually likes Betsy. Well, I think Tini does like Betsy she’s just not an avid comic reader so she takes a lot of notes from Leah and I don’t think Leah has good ideas about the X-Men as a whole.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

I'm almost hoping for some big event in Betsy's life to happen to her at the end of this whole run that changes her back into a version that is better than this one...

[Psycwave]

We need that Humphries energy back. Talk about an iconic era.

[Havok83]

I'm almost hoping for some big event in Betsy's life to happen to her at the end of this whole run that changes her back into a version that is better than this one...

A new writer. The problem is Tini

[Rang10]

I would like the perspective from a woman who actually likes Betsy. Well, I think Tini does like Betsy she’s just not an avid comic reader so she takes a lot of notes from Leah and I don’t think Leah has good ideas about the X-Men as a whole.

It's very clear Tini lacks some knowledge on comics and Leah too lol. Both didn't read one of the most important story for betsy and Leah went with her awful headcanon

[CGAR]

We need that Humphries energy back. Talk about an iconic era.

OMFG. I hope you're joking. LOL

Give me Mike Carey. Si Spurrier. Keiron Gillen.

[Selene]

I would like the perspective from a woman who actually likes Betsy. Well, I think Tini does like Betsy she’s just not an avid comic reader so she takes a lot of notes from Leah and I don’t think Leah has good ideas about the X-Men as a whole.

Right. Tini is a fan of pre-X-Men / S.T.R.I.K.E. Betsy.

[Psycwave]

OMFG. I hope you're joking. LOL

Give me Mike Carey. Si Spurrier. Keiron Gillen.

LMAO it was her Hot Girl Summer era! She hated men (and women) and was just trying party with her best friend.

Carey or Gillen will always be the dream! I wouldn't mind Rainbow Rowell taking a crack at Betsy either. I've picked up a few issues of her Runaways and she's really great at character voices and developing relationships.

Right. Tini is a fan of pre-X-Men / S.T.R.I.K.E. Betsy.

Lol! There's some good stuff with S.T.R.I.K.E Betsy that could be mined.