Betsy Braddock: Psylocke Appreciation 2018

[Drey]

It's good, great even, but Alan Davis is just starting out as a writer and it's not as smooth as it could be (not helped by Delano and Davis not meshing). I really like the character interactions, Brian and Betsy in particular - they're both stubborn and prone to arguing with one another like family has a tend to, and I think that works really well. The art is very good, and it is still very much in the British tradition of comics like Judge Dredd where not everyone is idealised to the point of physical perfection; when Alan moved to US Marvel he adopted the standard good=pretty housestyle, which I do like but which is less interesting.

It's not as epic as Moore's run, nor as well plotted, but I think it is warmer in tone - the relationships between the characters get more focus, and they feel... sweeter? Maybe that's not the right word, but I think they are a little more positive in nature. Betsy's relationship with Gabriel has more nice moments in it than Moore showed in her relationship with Tom Lennox, for example. I kind of think of Alan Moore and Alan Davis being like the Lennon and McCartney of British comics, with Moore being a little more cynical and having a strong line of black humour running through his work, whilst Davis was more optimistic and light-hearted. One theme that carries on through both runs is that whenever a character gets cocky or overconfident the narrative slaps them down for their hubris - from Saturnyne labeling CB' as an amateur for his lack of effectiveness against the Fury, only to watch as the cybiote totally ignores her Avante Guard's attack ("welcome to the amateur hour Your Whyness") to Brian being unceremoniously flushed out into the sewers in the middle of his big, threatening speech to the Vixen, the CB strip really enjoys pulling the rug out from under characters' feet just when they feel they're on top. As I hate posturing and speech-making I love this aspect of the strip.

There are some awkward bits, imo: Davis seems to be all over the place when it comes to continuity involving Brian's powers. Moore moved Brian's powers from the costume to being innate, and whilst I think that itself was wrong as only the powers of the staff were transferred to the costume (I think - it's all very confusing!), it does mean that the amplifier costume shouldn't do anything for Slaymaster, not even amplify his strength. Then we have the revelation that Brian and Betsy are of Otherworld descent and that the power lies within them... but that doesn't jibe with CB's continuity at all. You can come up with ways to make that work, but it requires a lot of mental gymnastics and adding scenes and motivations that were not shown.

And that leads us to Betsy and her powers. Alan has her grow from tactical support like she was in the Moore run, to having an aggressive power in her own right - the psycho-blast. This pretty much replaces her precog ability for the rest of the run as her ability to see the future just isn't used. She never says she has lost the ability, but effectively it is gone until Claremont moves her to the X-Men.

As for the psycho-blast, it's cool to see her take out a room full of soldiers, and it's a great moment to show how she's grown, but it's also problematic due to limitations of the comic. Alan's given her an attack that can't be blocked or evaded by most enemies - it's essentially a one shot, one kill kind of deal; this is true of most telepaths in comics, and comic-book audiences want fights to be long, drawn out, and visually exciting. Consequently the next time there is trouble at the manor house Betsy has her powers dampened, because it's a Captain Britain book and you don't want Betsy one-shotting every threat that walks through the door. Even in a Betsy-centric book you don't want that, because it is boring. That's why I think the psychic knife/martial arts change was smart, because it is visual and allows for big fight sequences.

She gets a great sequence where she destroys Kaptain Briton, and it's amazing that Alan fits that in as essentially a b-story in a comic that is only 11 pages in length. I'm not sure what's going on with her powers at that point as they seem to have shifted from telepathic attack to psychokinetic, with KB's body seeming to rot at an exaggerated rate after death, and I'm not sure Alan gave it much thought.



As I said, it's a great sequence, but it's one of those scenes where a character displays a level of power needed for a very cool moment, but then has to backslide a little in future storylines. It's like the Neo at the end of the first Matrix film - he's totally unbeatable and can do anything, but when they decided they were going to do sequels he suddenly became a lot less impressive in order for them to have interesting fights. Alan does the same thing with Meggan, giving her undefined powers presumably greater than those of the title character, but then having to keep her in the background. For a lot of the characters it's one step forward, two steps back, which is what happens when a writer wants big victories and cool scenes but ends up painting himself into a corner. By the end of the book Captain Britain himself seems to have quietly lost his force-field (his costume gets shredded and he's shown bleeding after the warpie attack), presumably because it makes him too invulnerable and is difficult to write around, and I think if you're finding the main character has more powers than you can deal with, adding extra power to his supporting cast is... ambitious? I think this is a big danger when writing about super-powered characters and nearly all characters suffer from it at one time or another. I think the run works really well, but I don't know how successfully Alan would have juggled the characters in a strip with only 11 pages to play with a month. It must have been very challenging to write.

Anyway, it's one of my favourite books, and it really managed to give Betsy some time to shine. It's pretty amazing what was done with Betsy considering her pre-Moore appearances were not very interesting.

That was a truly good analysis Panic. All of Betsy's power displays since her early days is why I'm ok now with her being both telepathic and telekinetic. It seemed like her abilities kept getting stronger, growing, and changing to where she was on her way to being both anyway in the Marvel UK comics as shown when she killed Kaptain Briton. CC even continued to use the psycho-blast when he brought her over to American Marvel comics, which was described as telepathic force projection after she blasted Wolverine, knocking him across the room. Not to mention an issue or two earlier when she did the same to Sabretooth and shattered Cerebro in the process.

As for Brian and Meggan, yes they've had ill-defined powers at many points in their comic book histories. Meggan especially, which is why I think some writers don't want to use her. She's an empathic, shapeshifting, elemental, matter manipulating, fae mutant. That's a lot of powers lol.

[Drakeon]

The cover looks like its homaging Uncanny #319

Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_319.jpg

[Psy]

The cover looks like its homaging Uncanny #319

Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_319.jpg

Oooh good catch. Is that the issue where they broke up or am I misremembering?

[Psyknight]

Haha, I can understand that lol. I'm just going to chalk it up to basic self-defense she had to learn, but wasn't that proficient at it. During her fight with Sabretooth, she did hurl some hefty weights at him and even grabbed a knife to attack him while she was already weak from cracked ribs (Colossus fell on her the previous issue), falling through a sky glass window, and her powers were weakened due to the psychic overload from Cerebro.

And it was great to see that when she went up against him a second time while at 100%, she easily fried his brain.



Thanks. And yeah nowadays ages don't really matter lol. They all get retconned.




Fantomex never did anything for me character-wise since his introduction in Morrison's New X-men. I'd take AoA Sabretooth over him and I wasn't a fan of that relationship either. As for Warren and Betsy, it's sad because I used to love them together. When I first started reading comic books, the Crimson Dawn LS #1 and #2 were a couple of my first comic books. They were 2nd to Scott and Jean, IMO. I was happy they reconciled in Remender's Uncanny X-Force and even loved the Dark Angel Saga. After killing Warren and bringing him back as a blank slate, I began losing interest and shortly after I took a hiatus from comics. I know snippets of Bunn's Uncanny X-men regarding The Apocalypse Wars and it sounds kinda meh and then Soule had a chance to do something with them in his Astonishing X-men run and nothing so I'm kinda over it now.

They feel stagnant right now. Or at least Warren does. Someone needs to do something with him that doesn't involve Apocalypse or transformations. Let him have his Angel and Archangel forms, without Archangel's personality (though it should be gone as X got rid of it) maybe some healing abilities I dunno, and be done with it. Move on to new stories. Maybe down the road they can reunite but they need to stand alone first because I'm on Warpocalypse overload right now and it's annoying.

As for Betsy's hair, I'm gonna pretend that she dyes her hair different shades of purple/lavender.

I’ve neved liked or disliked them as a couple, but I totally agree that Warren is super stagnant and I’d rather not see her get roped into his stagnation.

That’s what I’ve been assuming about her hair for years.

[Drakeon]

Oooh good catch. Is that the issue where they broke up or am I misremembering?

Its actually the issue where they become offically a couple

[Havok83]

Oooh good catch. Is that the issue where they broke up or am I misremembering?

thats the issue that solidified their relationship

[Drey]

I’ve neved liked or disliked them as a couple, but I totally agree that Warren is super stagnant and I’d rather not see her get roped into his stagnation.

That’s what I’ve been assuming about her hair for years.

Even though I prefer purple, I believe it was during Revolution, she had shoulder length black hair, but with purple highlights for an issue or two. I liked that look for that time period. Would I like to see it again? Nope.

[Tazirai]

Haha, I can understand that lol. I'm just going to chalk it up to basic self-defense she had to learn, but wasn't that proficient at it. During her fight with Sabretooth, she did hurl some hefty weights at him and even grabbed a knife to attack him while she was already weak from cracked ribs (Colossus fell on her the previous issue), falling through a sky glass window, and her powers were weakened due to the psychic overload from Cerebro.

And it was great to see that when she went up against him a second time while at 100%, she easily fried his brain.



Thanks. And yeah nowadays ages don't really matter lol. They all get retconned.

Fantomex never did anything for me character-wise since his introduction in Morrison's New X-men. I'd take AoA Sabretooth over him and I wasn't a fan of that relationship either. As for Warren and Betsy, it's sad because I used to love them together. When I first started reading comic books, the Crimson Dawn LS #1 and #2 were a couple of my first comic books. They were 2nd to Scott and Jean, IMO. I was happy they reconciled in Remender's Uncanny X-Force and even loved the Dark Angel Saga. After killing Warren and bringing him back as a blank slate, I began losing interest and shortly after I took a hiatus from comics. I know snippets of Bunn's Uncanny X-men regarding The Apocalypse Wars and it sounds kinda meh and then Soule had a chance to do something with them in his Astonishing X-men run and nothing so I'm kinda over it now.

They feel stagnant right now. Or at least Warren does. Someone needs to do something with him that doesn't involve Apocalypse or transformations. Let him have his Angel and Archangel forms, without Archangel's personality (though it should be gone as X got rid of it) maybe some healing abilities I dunno, and be done with it. Move on to new stories. Maybe down the road they can reunite but they need to stand alone first because I'm on Warpocalypse overload right now and it's annoying.

As for Betsy's hair, I'm gonna pretend that she dyes her hair different shades of purple/lavender.

I chalk up the Weights to just over under 50 lbs and Adrenalin lets real humans lift cars, then Immediately pass out lol. But I'd assume at least a tiny bit of basic training. I mean If it wasn't for my Martial arts training Pre-military. I'd get my ass kicke da lot.
Air Force basic combat training is 100% TRASH! It's literally designed for you to last long enough to call for help. High kicks and jumps? nah! Lol.

You're right a full strength Psylocke would have Fried him immediatlely, as it was Instinctual defense, kinda like how she punished Brians evil twin.

I do hope they move on past her being the focus of a relationship. I actually preferred it when she and Cables 50 billion clones were just shagging up for release of sexual urges.

Agreed. I loved it when Warren wasn't the most powerful, but was a capable fighter and tactician.
I actually miss the days when the Heroes weren't always suffering (My Term) from Power creep.

Remember when Wolverine could take on a room of Gun toting morons? He'd get stabbed and shot to hell. But he'd win, then it would take a few hours to recover.

I miss the pre- OMEGA OMEGA OMEGA OMEGA days.

[Tazirai]

It's good, great even, but Alan Davis is just starting out as a writer and it's not as smooth as it could be (not helped by Delano and Davis not meshing). I really like the character interactions, Brian and Betsy in particular - they're both stubborn and prone to arguing with one another like family has a tend to, and I think that works really well. The art is very good, and it is still very much in the British tradition of comics like Judge Dredd where not everyone is idealised to the point of physical perfection; when Alan moved to US Marvel he adopted the standard good=pretty housestyle, which I do like but which is less interesting.

It's not as epic as Moore's run, nor as well plotted, but I think it is warmer in tone - the relationships between the characters get more focus, and they feel... sweeter? Maybe that's not the right word, but I think they are a little more positive in nature. Betsy's relationship with Gabriel has more nice moments in it than Moore showed in her relationship with Tom Lennox, for example. I kind of think of Alan Moore and Alan Davis being like the Lennon and McCartney of British comics, with Moore being a little more cynical and having a strong line of black humour running through his work, whilst Davis was more optimistic and light-hearted. One theme that carries on through both runs is that whenever a character gets cocky or overconfident the narrative slaps them down for their hubris - from Saturnyne labeling CB' as an amateur for his lack of effectiveness against the Fury, only to watch as the cybiote totally ignores her Avante Guard's attack ("welcome to the amateur hour Your Whyness") to Brian being unceremoniously flushed out into the sewers in the middle of his big, threatening speech to the Vixen, the CB strip really enjoys pulling the rug out from under characters' feet just when they feel they're on top. As I hate posturing and speech-making I love this aspect of the strip.

There are some awkward bits, imo: Davis seems to be all over the place when it comes to continuity involving Brian's powers. Moore moved Brian's powers from the costume to being innate, and whilst I think that itself was wrong as only the powers of the staff were transferred to the costume (I think - it's all very confusing!), it does mean that the amplifier costume shouldn't do anything for Slaymaster, not even amplify his strength. Then we have the revelation that Brian and Betsy are of Otherworld descent and that the power lies within them... but that doesn't jibe with CB's continuity at all. You can come up with ways to make that work, but it requires a lot of mental gymnastics and adding scenes and motivations that were not shown.

And that leads us to Betsy and her powers. Alan has her grow from tactical support like she was in the Moore run, to having an aggressive power in her own right - the psycho-blast. This pretty much replaces her precog ability for the rest of the run as her ability to see the future just isn't used. She never says she has lost the ability, but effectively it is gone until Claremont moves her to the X-Men.

As for the psycho-blast, it's cool to see her take out a room full of soldiers, and it's a great moment to show how she's grown, but it's also problematic due to limitations of the comic. Alan's given her an attack that can't be blocked or evaded by most enemies - it's essentially a one shot, one kill kind of deal; this is true of most telepaths in comics, and comic-book audiences want fights to be long, drawn out, and visually exciting. Consequently the next time there is trouble at the manor house Betsy has her powers dampened, because it's a Captain Britain book and you don't want Betsy one-shotting every threat that walks through the door. Even in a Betsy-centric book you don't want that, because it is boring. That's why I think the psychic knife/martial arts change was smart, because it is visual and allows for big fight sequences.

She gets a great sequence where she destroys Kaptain Briton, and it's amazing that Alan fits that in as essentially a b-story in a comic that is only 11 pages in length. I'm not sure what's going on with her powers at that point as they seem to have shifted from telepathic attack to psychokinetic, with KB's body seeming to rot at an exaggerated rate after death, and I'm not sure Alan gave it much thought.



As I said, it's a great sequence, but it's one of those scenes where a character displays a level of power needed for a very cool moment, but then has to backslide a little in future storylines. It's like the Neo at the end of the first Matrix film - he's totally unbeatable and can do anything, but when they decided they were going to do sequels he suddenly became a lot less impressive in order for them to have interesting fights. Alan does the same thing with Meggan, giving her undefined powers presumably greater than those of the title character, but then having to keep her in the background. For a lot of the characters it's one step forward, two steps back, which is what happens when a writer wants big victories and cool scenes but ends up painting himself into a corner. By the end of the book Captain Britain himself seems to have quietly lost his force-field (his costume gets shredded and he's shown bleeding after the warpie attack), presumably because it makes him too invulnerable and is difficult to write around, and I think if you're finding the main character has more powers than you can deal with, adding extra power to his supporting cast is... ambitious? I think this is a big danger when writing about super-powered characters and nearly all characters suffer from it at one time or another. I think the run works really well, but I don't know how successfully Alan would have juggled the characters in a strip with only 11 pages to play with a month. It must have been very challenging to write.

Anyway, it's one of my favourite books, and it really managed to give Betsy some time to shine. It's pretty amazing what was done with Betsy considering her pre-Moore appearances were not very interesting.

Remember this scene?
There's more to this Scene, but I just added in the important parts. But it starts off with her Getting Dazzler to distract the Freedom Force, and then She proceeds to nearly solo the Others. They had to give Crimson Commando a Telepathic immunity to even take her down, pre ninja. To ME, this was a nice display of her potential. But the panels were dynamic with her being the focus. But it also showed her lack of actual experience, because instead of patting herself on the back, she shoulda been worried about sneak aTTACKS.

The cover looks like its homaging Uncanny #319

Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_319.jpg

Good catch my dude.

[WhiteQueenEmmaFrost]

The cover looks like its homaging Uncanny #319

Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_319.jpg

That was the first comic I ever bought...I thought "why does Jean have purple hair and why is she kissing Archangel?" my experience was only through TAS before this lol

[LoganAlpha30X33]

They actually haven't been a couple in years, and who knows what could spin off from the fight, maybe they're both back to their old selves or something like that and neither is stagnant...

As for that issue, if memory serves it's also the issue where Betsy sings at a restaurant and the pair then skip out on the bill, but it's okay because Warren owns the place, then make some jokes about X-relationships and finally get together with a kiss in the air...

[Havok83]

That was the first comic I ever bought...I thought "why does Jean have purple hair and why is she kissing Archangel?" my experience was only through TAS before this lol

Jean Grey would never walk around with her ass hanging out like that! LOL

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Well different artists give her more coverage in that area than others so it's all relative...and Jean's Black Queen outfit wasn't that different...

[Havok83]

Well different artists give her more coverage in that area than others so it's all relative...and Jean's Black Queen outfit wasn't that different...

That wasnt Jean but the Phoenix clone. Even if one wants to ignore the retcon, that was a brainwashed Jean, not her in her right mind and it lasted about 1 issue. So I stand by my original statement in that Jean would never

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Unless Logan asked her nicely... Logan hides behind his shield...