Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #1 - Review/Spoilers

[Dream Boy]

I also enjoyed this first issue. I'm digging the set-up and nice to see so many blasts from the past.

[pkingdom]

Tini Howard has had a track record of ok-to-pretty good first issues that go downhill from there. That said the story is much better being a solo book in fact rather than a solo book in practice like Excalibur and Knights.

There are tons of legit reasons for people in-universe to dislike her. She basically conquered the Otherworld for Krakoa and has consistently taken their side over Great Britain. She worked with Apocalypse when his actions caused a brief monster invasion, and claimed a chunk of the British landmass for Krakoa. Even using STRIKE like this could be cause for concern. After all, Krakoa basically revived a squad of British intelligence officers and put them to work for themselves.

[Solitaryhawk]

Ugh, why did this writer have to go and make Micromax an *******. This is completely out of character for him. Glad I didn't buy this.

Micromax was always an *******. There was good reason why Shatterstar almost killed him during that whole Civil War / The 198 debacle.

[Krakoa]

Tini Howard has had a track record of ok-to-pretty good first issues that go downhill from there. That said the story is much better being a solo book in fact rather than a solo book in practice like Excalibur and Knights.

There are tons of legit reasons for people in-universe to dislike her. She basically conquered the Otherworld for Krakoa and has consistently taken their side over Great Britain. She worked with Apocalypse when his actions caused a brief monster invasion, and claimed a chunk of the British landmass for Krakoa. Even using STRIKE like this could be cause for concern. After all, Krakoa basically revived a squad of British intelligence officers and put them to work for themselves.

This is perhaps the biggest set of bad faith takes on I have ever read.

[Nicoclaws]

One fun fact : apparently, people know about the body swap ? It makes me wonder what celebrity press look like in the Marvel Universe. "Today's ressurected :", "Body changes : arms are out, tentacles are IN" ...

[JB]

I also enjoyed this first issue. I'm digging the set-up and nice to see so many blasts from the past.

It's like a great reunion of these classic characters and I love that. Tini said we'll be seeing Betsy work her spy roots again so I hope she's on a mission with S.T.R.I.K.E. like old times.

One fun fact : apparently, people know about the body swap ? It makes me wonder what celebrity press look like in the Marvel Universe. "Today's ressurected :", "Body changes : arms are out, tentacles are IN" ...

Yeah they keep using it against her and it's funny because to your point, we see people changing appearances all the time in the MU. I'm sure some magazines and blogs are posting Trend Alerts every time someone transforms into something else lol

[carmoc1234]

This is perhaps the biggest set of bad faith takes on I have ever read.

not really. taking the chunk of landmass is definitely something that should be seen as an act of war.
the taking over of otherworld might be a stretch, but she has allowed mutants from 616 to take over parts of otherworld.
and the STRIKE agents and pete wisdom would be a concern on a global scale for anyone who has mutant operatives. the fact that krakoa keeps psychic back ups of all mutants would mean you couldn't trust giving any of them classified info.

[The BaRoN]

I liked this issue more than I thought I would, so that's something. A bit too exposition heavy in parts (forgivable for a first issue, to be fair) and I'm in the camp that isn't buying Betsy/Rachel so their scenes fell flat for me but I did ultimately enjoy the book.

Yeah, its a forced, fake, headline grabbing, twitter clout relationship and they have zero chemistry.

The rest was a bit "ok" and better than knights but for Petes sake, let someone else write the UK stuff.

[Thievery]

I thought that the first issue of Betsy's new series was only average. I didn't particularly care for the Alternate Reality Captains that were shown. I also thought that most of the Betsy/Rachel scenes fell a little flat and weren't very interesting to read. I liked their interactions in both Excalibur and KoX better and this issue made them feel less interesting to me.

A problem with the comic that I had that probably isn't shared by most other readers is that I don't know much about S.T.R.I.K.E and I don't find them to be all that interesting.

On the plus side I thought the scenes with all of the members of the Braddock family interacting were really good. The ongoing problems between Betsy and the tabloid press are still fun to read about.
I also enjoy seeing seeing Morgan La Fey whenever she shows up and I thought that she fit this comic perfectly.

The Reflector said that Betsy operated with the Xmen for decades. LOL...how old do they think she is?

And that people from britain grew up with brian as their captain. Such an amateur mistake

One fun fact : apparently, people know about the body swap ? It makes me wonder what celebrity press look like in the Marvel Universe. "Today's ressurected :", "Body changes : arms are out, tentacles are IN" ...

I took the Reflector pages to simply be an attempt to explain Betsy's history in a way that readers new to the character would have an easy time understanding. Her history is pretty confusing even to long time readers. It was a good way to explain Betsy's history while playing into Betsy's problem with the British media. I thought that it worked all right.

[Agent Grayson]

I gave this a try and it didn't work for me. I think if you like Howard's previous work, you'll like this, and if you didn't, you won't. While it's not my cup of tea and I wish that another writer could be given a chance with Betsy, I'm glad for those that are enjoying it that Marvel are sticking with it and giving it a third iteration. It's rare to see that kind of editorial commitment.

[JB]

not really. taking the chunk of landmass is definitely something that should be seen as an act of war.
the taking over of otherworld might be a stretch, but she has allowed mutants from 616 to take over parts of otherworld.
and the STRIKE agents and pete wisdom would be a concern on a global scale for anyone who has mutant operatives. the fact that krakoa keeps psychic back ups of all mutants would mean you couldn't trust giving any of them classified info.

The Otherworld stuff is neither here nor there because it’s very history is about conquest and take overs. Morgan only moved to take Avalon when Otherworld fell into disarray with the destruction of the Corps. Betsy gave it back to Arthur at the end of KoX. Half of the current provinces didn’t exist until said disarray and as we see in this issue, she is allowing them to self-govern rather than forcing them to answer to her like Saturnyne.

The drama around Braddock Isle is one of my favorite things. There’s never discussion over why Rictor did what he did. Coven destroyed the original lighthouse and faced zero repercussions. That was Brian’s property. Instead they move up the ranks in the government. The mutants build a second lighthouse and after two attempts by Coven to destroy it, Rictor moved it. Boy could have done a lot worse. Even then they still destroyed it. Now the manor is there and that brings me joy. And while I would understand why the soldiers would be afraid of Jamie, they fired the first shots in this issue. The tension of copters overhead and media outside is delicious.

STRIKE is interesting because as another poster said they’re essentially blank slates especially Kevin and Vicky. I hate to say it because I love them but I haven’t ruled out a possible double cross. They only recently learned that they’re mutants so I’m not yet convinced they’re all loyal to Krakoa over Britain.

[JB]

Some nuggets from yesterday's Cerebro podcast episode:
- The talk show "Cross of Swords" got its name from a fan Tini met at a con who thought that's how "X of Swords" was pronounced. Cute.
- Brian is in the book a lot. He won't just be in the lab, we'll see him in action and "he gets some of the sickest moments in the whole book."
- Faiza shows up several times in the series.
- We'll see more of Betsy's spy roots in action.
- We'll see Betsy pop up in other books with info from Otherworld.

[Nicoclaws]

Some nuggets from yesterday's Cerebro podcast episode:
- We'll see Betsy pop up in other books with info from Otherworld.

Ok that one is definitely about Red and Apocalypse returning, isn't it ?

[JB]

Ok that one is definitely about Red and Apocalypse returning, isn't it ?

Hmm, I can definitely see that. I have to imagine he'll want to know the status of Otherworld since he left. Then there's also the Redroot plot which Duggan recently mentioned will be coming back into play.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Some nuggets from yesterday's Cerebro podcast episode:
- The talk show "Cross of Swords" got its name from a fan Tini met at a con who thought that's how "X of Swords" was pronounced. Cute.
- Brian is in the book a lot. He won't just be in the lab, we'll see him in action and "he gets some of the sickest moments in the whole book."
- Faiza shows up several times in the series.
- We'll see more of Betsy's spy roots in action.
- We'll see Betsy pop up in other books with info from Otherworld.

I'm especially excited about points 2, 4 and 5! Love to see Brian in action and also love the idea of exploring Betsy's past as a spy... it's been way too long since that was last used.

I'm also very excited to see the Captain pop up in other books and wonder what those could be...