Should Betsy Braddock stay as Captain Britain forever?

[JB]

Big yes to more exploration of their father. There's so much that can be done with their family's history.

Honestly I say we ignore the retcon that he worked for Weapon Plus in the World. It was never mentioned again and doesn't track with the mission Merlin sent him to earth for.

[Celestialbodies]

IDK


What I will say is, I do think she can make this work, some of the problems for me were Howard. I do not think she was the correct writer for this particular story, nor do I feel her narrative choices have really highlighted the change in CB or the settings. CB has always been a series that's struggled to find an audience, and with so many changes, and a fairly nebulous plot, with a nebulous lead, with a nebulous cast has hurt her standing. I don't relate to current Bets, I don't feel like I know who she is anymore however with the right team I personally feel like this could turn around. Personally, I think Bets is a better lead than Brian, plus the familial connections to Otherworld, with it's extensive lore is a great series waiting to happen. But the focus needs to be streamlined, we need a better look into the happenings of Otherworld and how that directly affects the cast, and finally the CAST! Has been the single biggest problem, the characters initial chosen didn't feel organic to me. I'm all for new characters interacting and forming new relationships, X-men under Duggan, and Red under Ewing have highlighted this! But Excalibur is hurt by not being able to utilize some of its biggest former star, no Kitty nor Kurt have to return to the series. But a focus on some of the characters that really formed the original series and how the relate to Bets in the new roles and the adventures they could have together would be for me more interesting than anything I've read in the series thus far!

[Knightmare]

Too much damage has been done to Betsy, with 3 title flops. She needs a reset, so as not to dig herself into an even deeper ditch. Let's face it, UK/Otherworld stories are so far removed from the Krakoan ones that you'd need a major miracle at this point to make Betsy work in the Captain Britain setting. This is because Captain Britain is not an X character. What I mean by this is that the character will always be on the periphery of the X-Men world and only really makes sense to be included when there is an event or something specific forcing the characters to interact. For me that's fine, but for X fans who love Betsy and wish she'd be part of the main stories going forward it's just not going to happen. In this case, you can't have your cake and eat it. It would be better to return the title back to Brian and have Betsy take on an adjacent role within the main X cannon as some sort of ambassador representing UK/Otherworld on the inside of Krakoa(maybe the quiet council). That way she doesn't have to tied down outside of the action going on in the main stories and can dip her toes into the UK/Otherworld when a story can make use of those elements.

I mean this is all very contingent on Krakoa being a thing a year and a half from now. When Tom Brevoort comes in, I wouldn't be surprised if he threw a match on the whole thing and just started over. Since it's been on life support ever since Hickman departed.

[whitecrown]

Marvel and that hack of a writer have single-handedly sent Betsy back to the dark ages of obscurity by making her Captain Britain. Get rid of this nonsense and have her become the real Psylocke again with her trademark butterfly.

[Agent Grayson]

This is a tough question to answer because - and I say this solely as my own opinion as I know some people enjoyed Howard's work on Excalibur, Knights of X and Captain Britain: Betsy Braddock - I don't think we've seen a well-written version of Betsy as Captain Britain yet. There is potential for this mantle to be a really interesting shift for the character, but it's been buried under a mess of confusing 'mutant magic' (whatever that actually is), revisionist character work on Apocalypse, a forced and cringeworthy relationship with Rachel...the list goes on.

While I'd like to see Betsy given a fair shot at being Captain Britain, I think at least this version of it is too closely linked to a bunch of concepts that just didn't land. It would be better to take her out of the role and put her firmly back into the X-Men's world. I wouldn't mind seeing her reclaim the Psylocke codename - this would give Kwannon a chance to become a more distinguished character as well.

[Malachi]

I didn’t expect it but I would say that Kwannon is in a better place than Betsy atm. Betsy is just stuck in a concept neither the majority of readers or seemingly marvel asked for. There is nothing wrong with it, it’s not that it doesn’t have fans. It’s just not something that seems to have a place, for whatever reason.

Tini Howard had a lot of good ideas but she failed in establishing Betsy as a character you got invested in during Excalibur and KoX. It just skipped many of these small moments that are the glue. These moments that makes you care for a character.

Probably having Rachel on the team from the start would have been better. Time to build both of them and their relationship. Kitty would have been good as she is Excalibur for many. Kurt too.

I think Marvel needs to decide what they want from Betsy long term and then invest in that. Even if the answer is having Kwannon as priority or even to divorce Betsy from the X-office.