Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1
“Returns Home, Having Changed”
Writer: Tini Howard
Arist: Vasco Georgiev
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN. This series is the continuation of Excalibur and Knights of X, both also written by Tini Howard. It’s solicited as an ongoing, but Amazon has it listed as a five-issue miniseries. That may just be to do with the season break for Fall of X.
COVER / PAGE 1. Betsy, Rachel and Brian in (presumably) Avalon.
PAGE 2. Betsy appears on television.
Reginald Cross appears to be a new character, obviously representing the likes of GB News. The name of his show is obviously a play on “X of Swords”, though since “X of Swords” has no actual relevance, I’m not sure that invoking it is a particularly good idea.
“You’ve been a supermodel…” Betsy’s modelling career originally comes from the Captain Britain story in Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain #243 (1977). I think the idea of her being actually famous as a model comes from X-Treme X-Men vol 1 #3.
“…a charter pilot…” No, seriously, she was. That’s her job when she first appears in Captain Britain #8.
“…a ninja, a body snatcher…” Both referring to her lengthy period when she was body-swapped with Kwannon, though “body snatcher” implies she had any choice in the matter.
“…a mutant…” Well, obviously.
“…and a twin.” With Brian.
“[M]ad Wiccans and teenagers at Glasto trying to upset their parents…” The Glastonbury Festival does traditionally attract a Wiccan contingent, but it doesn’t particularly have a reputation as somewhere to find rebellious teenagers. It’s more a classic rock kind of place.
Micromax is a character from the Alan Davis run on Excalibur in 1991, who was indeed a DJ – the name “Scott Wright” clearly positioned him as a thinly-disguised Steve Wright, though he didn’t really have much to do with Wright’s on-air persona. He was (very) briefly a member of Excalibur. He’s generally written as vaguely clueless and irritating. (Making him a long-established Radio 1 DJ in 1991 was basically a shorthand for implying that he was a self-important has-been – there was a massive clearout of dead wood a couple of years after that, though Wright was one of the survivors.)
“Without Britain, what are you even a captain of?” Giving this question to Cross is obviously intended to delegitimise it, but it is a fundamental point raised by Howard’s whole set-up. It’s never been at all clear what she thinks the concept of representing Britain actually means in practice. Or rather, the villains in this series have a pretty clear and defined, if highly traditionalist, idea of what they understand by Britain. The heroes don’t offer any alternative vision of Britain so much as a repeated appeal to progressive values, but a single universal value is not a national identity .
To be fair, this inability to articulate any competing vision of Britishness or even Englishness – and vague disdain for the idea that it might be worth attempting – plagues the English centre and left generally. But it’s not as easily dodged when you’re writing, well, Captain Britain.
PAGE 3. Data page. “The Reflector” is presumably meant to be a stand-in for the Daily Mirror, though that would be odd choice since although it’s a tabloid, it’s generally considered to be left-wing.
The first three paragraphs are an unsympathetic but basically accurate recap. Faiza Hussain, who’ll show up later, is the currently holder of Excalibur, introduced in the 2008 series Captain Britain & MI-13 #1.
The suggestion in this article that Betsy’s ascent as Captain Britain is both a subject of great national controversy and completely unnoticed by 82% of the population is obviously incoherent, but it’s probably meant to be.
PAGES 4-8. Captain Britain and Askani help Britannica Rex fight a Fury.
Britannica Rex first appeared in X of Swords: Destruction #1, along with the rest of the new Betsy-themed Captain Britain Corps. For fairly obvious reasons, she’s one of the more recognisable background Captains who’ve appeared in subsequent issues as part of the pack.
“When I left to join the rest of the Captain Britain Corps to fight in Otherworld…” Since the footnote is to Excalibur, this is presumably referring to the Corps being gathered to help fight Merlyn’s forces towards the end of that series, and continuing through Knights of X.
Askani is now being used as a codename by Rachel Summers; it was originally the name of the quasi-religious philosophy founded by an alternate Rachel in the future timeline where Cable grew up. “Earth-811” is the Days of Future Past timeline.
The Furies. In the current Otherworld cosmology, a whole load of Furies live in the “Everforge” domain. In Knights of X the Furies had been remodelled as stand-ins for the Sentinels, making them much bigger. Brian theorises later that this was the main reason why they got weaker. This version is a callback to the original Fury from Captain Britain stories in the early 1980s, which travelled between worlds slaughtering superheroes (and specifically Captain Britains).
PAGE 9. Recap and credits. The title, “Returns Home, Having Changed”, is positioning Knights of X as a transformative hero’s journey.
PAGE 10. Data page – the Mothermind comments on the Fury.
The Mothermind is presumably a new and improved version of Mastermind, the sentient computer in Braddock Manor (which eventually became a supervillain).
Fury-238 is the original Fury, from Earth-238 – the “Crooked World” ruled by Jim Jaspers.
A little unusually, this page doesn’t just quote directly from a previous data page, but actually references the earlier comic itself within the text. So don’t take it too literally as an in-universe object. At any rate, we’re told that the Fury overthrew the previous inhabitants of the Everforge and obtained its “Celestial heart”, allowing it to create an entire nation of duplicate Furies. For whatever reason, these duplicate Furies turned out to be rather more stable and predictable than the original, which wound up being subsumed in the hivemind.
PAGES 11-12. Betsy, Rachel and Brian discuss the Furies.
“Yes, I remember that, Brian.” Betsy was in the original Fury arc as a supporting character; she didn’t fight the thing, but she did get run away from it.
Reasonably enough, Betsy concludes that if the Fury who attacked Britannica Rex wasn’t traceable as coming from any particular timeline, it must be one of the Furies created outside time in the Everforge.
PAGES 13-14. Jamie Braddock moves Braddock Manor to Braddock Isle.
Braddock Isle was created by Rictor in Excalibur #21 when he split the part of the land with Braddock Lighthouse on it away from the mainland. There was an initial suggestion that this somehow made it not part of Britain, but evidently someone has figured out that territorial waters don’t work that way. Curiously, there’s no sign here of the lighthouse; page 23 confirms that it’s gone.
Jamie is still wearing his crown, despite control of Avalon having presumably been returned to Arthur at the end of Knights of X.
The two unnamed characters are Brian’s wife Meggan and their daughter Maggie.
PAGE 15. Betsy and Rachel discuss the plot and head to Otherworld.
Betsy clarifies that it’s been “months” since the end of Knights of X.
PAGE 16. Micromax is imprisoned by Morgan Le Fey.
Micromax is evidently gullible enough not to notice that Coven Akkaba is an anti-mutant organisation and has been, very openly, for Howard’s whole run. But he is a bit dim.
PAGES 17-18. Morgan Le Fay explains her agenda to Reuben Brousseau.
Morgan Le Fay was the villain of the first arc of Excalibur, but spent most of the time after that as a prisoner of Jamie Braddock before escaping to Earth in Excalibur #21. From the look of it, she’s only just got around to hooking up with Coven Akkaba.
Her plan is apparently to create a competing Captain Britain with greater mass appeal who, in some unclear way, will enable her to restore her vision of Britain. Maybe it’s something to do with popular sentiment being a source of magical power.
Some of this, honestly, comes across as a little defensive.
PAGES 19-22. Betsy and Rachel visit the Everforge.
“With no Starlight Citadel, the provinces of Otherworld have no obligation to even let me in any more.” Betsy rejected the Starlight Citadel and any formal link with Roma or Saturnyne at the end of Knights of X as part of her agenda to act independently.
Merlyn was killed by Betsy in Knights of X #5.
Apparently the flag is supposed to indicate that the Furies are allied with Coven Akkaba (or similar), though that brings us back to the point that we’ve got a Captain Britain book in which all British iconography is used in an exclusively negative way.
PAGES 23-24. Pete Wisdom visits Braddock Manor.
S.T.R.I.K.E. This is a plot from the tail end of Excalibur, where Pete Wisdom and Betsy’s former colleagues in the psychic intelligence unit S.T.R.I.K.E. were resurrected and… then nothing happened, because the story moved exclusively to Otherworld. Now that we’re back on Earth, we’re returning to the S.T.R.I.K.E. plot.
“Well, I’ve been dead lately…” Wisdom was killed in Excalibur #21 and resurrected in the following issue.
“…what’s happened at home in the time since they’ve been dead…” Howard’s Excalibur has set up the current British government as wildly anti-mutant and, for some unclear reason, under the influence of Coven Akkaba. It generally seems to be intended as a Brexit analogy, though not a terribly convincing one.
PAGES 25-26. Betsy and Rachel in bed.
PAGES 27-28. S.T.R.I.K.E. meet Faiza Hussain.
Doctor Destiny. This wasn’t a codename, but the stage name Mulhearn used as a stage magician when he was on the run from Vixen in Daredevils #3.
PAGE 29. Morgan identifies another Captain Britain to attack.
PAGES 30-33. Captain Britain and Askani help Captain Pretani.
Captain Pretani makes her debut here, though presumably she was somewhere among the crowd in some earlier stories. “Pretani” was the Common Brittonic name for Britain (from which “Britain” is derived). Basically, this is a Bronze Age world. Like Britannica Rex earlier, Captain Pretani sees it as a sign of personal failure that she needs Betsy’s help to defend her world.
The Fury offers to leave her world alone in exchange for her agreeing to help Morgan. So Morgan’s plan seems to be to find an alternate Betsy Braddock who is willing to be a more pliable Captain Britain. Which… seems odd, if they’re going to be put forward as a competitor to Betsy, but okay.
Most of the Captain Britains on page 33 are generics, but Britannica Rex is obviously recognisable. The big dragon is another semi-regular, and goes by the name Captain Plumdragon.
PAGE 34. Trailers.
As someone who dropped this when it was still Excalibur….
1) Does Brian have the Sword of Might? Did they ever go into that more, because isn’t it kind of the asshole’s choice for Captain Britain?
2) Have they gone into how weird it is for Psylocke and Rachel to be dating when Psylocke used to try to bang her dad?
Seems very much like this series, or at least this issue, is aimed at trying to clear up some of the plot holes and other problems with the prior runs. Especially since Captain Britain is now in the title. Still seems ill advised to have a book about Britain written by a writer who isn’t convincingly familiar with the culture or able to handle the social issues with any sense of nuance (or indeed to make any kind of actual point about anything).
This issue did make me think that a better approach for this book might have been something akin to the time travel stories in the Spanish TV series El Ministerio del Tiempo (the Ministry of Time). The plot mechanics of time travel in that series allows for some clever stories about Spanish history (colonial and otherwise) without falling into nationalist revisionism, and quite often presenting critiques that range from humorous to pointed. But again, the writer should probably be from the UK. Why do they keep giving this role to Howard? Just let her go write a magic book that has nothing to do with Captain Britain or Otherworld.
Or, for that matter, for Betsy to be an all-in lesbian (relatively) all of a sudden? I was also kind of irritated to see Rachel adopt yet another codename (and a kind of stereotypical lesbian hairdo) in this issue.
How many tries are they going to give Howard at writing a British book with seemingly no working knowledge of the place?
Rachel has had a stereotypical lesbian haircut since her debut appearance. When she lands in the present day in UXM #185, it’s all anyone talks about.
FWIW, I’m pretty sure Betsy being a supermodel predates X-Treme X-Men. Claremont had that set up by the time the original Excalibur formed.
As for the lighthouse, maybe it moved back to Liverpool?
“Askani.” Well, she’s had worse.
Betsy’s the cover model for three magazines in Excalibur Special Edition #1: The Sword is Drawn. One’s called Chic where she’s billed as “Britain’s Most Beautiful Woman”, one has its full logo obscured but it’s clearly meant to be Vogue, and the third’s also partially cut off but clearly “Woman”. I’d call that a supermodel.
Oh right, glad “Prestige” has finally been abandoned. It stuck around far too long. X-Men: Gold Vol 2 #1 Was six years ago! Jeez. At least Askani has come connection with the character’s past (and future).
And come on, Betsy’s been canonically bisexual for ages. Just because she’s dating Rachel doesn’t make her “all-in lesbian,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.
Tini Howard hyped up this book as a thrilling new adventure for Betsy, promising to take her “on her greatest ride yet” and “introduce her to the wider Marvel Universe”. Sadly, the book falls far short of these promises.
Instead, we get a predictable continuation of the cancelled previous series, with the tired plot of “Britain hates the new mutant Captain Britain” dragging on for the fourth year. Even making it a solo book doesn’t change much, as Excalibur and Knights of X were always the Betsy show, with the supporting cast serving only as plot enablers for her.
The interactions between Betsy and Rachel are flat and awkward, with cringey dialogue. We’ve jumped from their first kiss to their happily ever after as a married couple in just one issue without any interesting development in between.
The Marvel UK-related callbacks and cameos feel like shallow fan-service, lacking any real significance. The Reflector datapage is particularly telling, as it shows that Howard isn’t as familiar with Braddock lore as she claims. Brian was always the one keeping a low profile, while Jamie, a popular car racer, and Betsy, the fashion model, were the family celebrities. A British tabloid would have more juicy stories about Betsy’s modelling days than simply labeling her a “shady” character who happens to be Brian’s sister.
Overall, this book seems more like an attempt to tie up loose ends from previous runs rather than a new chapter in Betsy’s journey. It feels like the end rather than the next step forward.
“And come on, Betsy’s been canonically bisexual for ages”
With whom? All I remember are her on and off relationships with Warren, her relationship with Fantomex, her flirtation with Neal Shaara, and her lets-pretend-it-never-happened flirtation with Cypher…granted, I haven’t read all of her 2010s appearances, so I guess it must have happened in one of those stories…
@Jerry Ray: Would be very interested to hear what would be appropriate behavior for a bisexual person to be depicted and not be “all-in lesbian.” What would do you think is even the threshold for that?
@wwk5d: Joseph S. is right. Betsy confirmed her bisexuality in Uncanny X-Force with Lady Fantomex (the key part of Fantomex’s personality that Betsy actually fell in love with), which at this point was 9 or 10 years ago. Really cleverly and elegantly written, I remember.
Betsy and Lady Fantomex/Cluster kiss for the first time in Uncanny X-Force (2013) #7, part of the Sam Humphries run that was less popular than the preceding Remender run. The Humphries run has some forgotten storylines like Bishop being possessed by the Demon Bear. X-Force runs post-Remender and pre-Percy are a bit of a continuity backwater.
But it is indeed canonical that Betsy’s been bisexual since 2013/14.
You could just about figure Rachel’s hair in the early appearances was meant to be punk, or Claremont’s weird bondage fetish. It wasn’t as much the “look, I am a lesbian” as her appearance in this issue.
The “all-in lesbian” thing is well described by Nathan above – skipping right to the mid-relationship period feels pretty forced. (Plus I’m just kind of tired of established characters becoming gay despite prior portrayals.)
It’s also a sad commentary on the book that this is the most interesting thing to discuss about it.
@Jerry Ray: That feels disingenuous to me because your specific criticism was that it was “all-in lesbian,” as in your specific problem is that Betsy was made to be queer in the first place. There are examples of rushed romances everywhere but no one ever accuses them of being “suddenly all-in hetero.”
Howard–for all of her faults–did actually seed elements of the Betsy/Rachel romance towards the end of Excalibur, and all throughout Knights of X, before it was unceremoniously canceled at 5 issues. If we’re going to be needling her for what some are interpreting as an undercooked romance, let’s also at least acknowledge that editorial had significant impact here.
Also, what’s wrong with established characters coming out of the closet? Have you never had a friend come out as gay or bi before? That’s what I liken this to.
In Rachel’s first appearance, she runs away from Selene into a nightclub, and the bouncer immediately calls her a lesbian based on nothing more than her look. Rachel then spends the next decade cycling through buzzcuts, mullets and rattails, all iconic lesbian looks.
Also, fwiw, Kitty calls her “my love” before sending her back to the present. The intention was always there (one regrettable fling with a giant bird-man aside…).
What some people are describing as Betsy and Rachel’s “first kiss” didn’t read that way to me. It was a significant kiss, worthy of a splash page, because a) they’d been kept apart from each other by circumstance for a while, and b) (on a meta level) Howard had finally gotten permission to show the relationship on page. But I took it as very strongly implied that they had been a couple for a considerable time before that.
Part of a loooong X-Men tradition of “We aren’t allowed to say this clearly, but we are totally writing these characters as gay / bi / sleeping with each other.” Heck, as a relatively clueless young person, even I noticed Northstar’s gay coding in the very early issues of Alpha Flight.
X-Trivia :
1) Betsy B.-in-Kwannon’s-body was actually in a short-loved relationship with Neal S. from the time that Warren W. dumped her (after he noticed that she was now getting along much better with NS than she did with him) until she got killed by Spanish crimelord* Vargas, and this whole storyline happened because Chris Claremont on-record disliked WW and thus hated his romance with BB (one of his own personal pet-characters of his own creation , most of whom were canonically bisexual 1980’s Girrrl-Power Glamazons) LOL
* Vargas is supposedly “genetically pure-baseline human” yet somehow still have physical stats be at all-around superhuman-levels high enough so as to be able for him to effortlessly beat Ape-Beast into a coma (which necessitated Sage to heal him by triggering his secondary mutation into Cat-Beast [since CB has apparently much more faster healing] and which arguably was the direct Start of Darkness for Henry McCoy which ultimately led to what he is now in Ben Percy’s X-Force)
In my headcanon , Vargas is a result of an experiment that is either the precursor or the spin-off to the Children of the Vault
2) Rachel had a brief sexual relationship with 616 Kurt during the post I vs X Bill Rosemann’s X-men Gold era (when the Jean Grey Institute was in New York City’s Central Park of all places) , though it was later revealed to be the result of brainwashing by Mesmero (who was mysteriously repowered post-Decimation) who for some reason wanted to ship the two together , though both Kurt and Rachel never complained about it afterwards anyway
In Days of future past, Rachel and Franklin Richards was a couple. Hyperstorm (from DeFalco’s FF run) is their child from 967, which is supposed to be divergent from 811. Though that doesn’t contradict her being with Betsy since she can be bi/pan/closeted.
There is a stereotype about lesbians being very quick to move in together, “u haul-lesbians”. Maybe this arc is supposed to be a comment/joke on that in some way.
Uncanny X-Ben > 1) Does Brian have the Sword of Might? Did they ever go into that more, because isn’t it kind of the asshole’s choice for Captain Britain?
Yes, Brian still wields the Sword of Might as Captain Avalon. Presumably he splits his time between Braddock Manor on Earth and protecting Avalon on Otherworld.
Tini Howard’s restructuring of Otherworld doesn’t present the choice between the Amulet and Sword as the choice between good and evil though. Here, the Amulet of Right represents Roma Regina whereas the Sword of Might represents Merlin, and the choice between them reflects the equilibrium of power in Otherworld between Merlin and Roma.
Post-Secret Wars, Saturnyne broke the old Roma-Merlin power structure of Otherworld and instated herself as the Omniversal Guardian. She did away with the now irrelevant AoR/SoM choice and constructed the Starlight Sword, a symbol that represents her. It was intended for Brian but Betsy ended up with it instead.
(At the end of Knights of X, Betsy removed the CB Corps from under Starlight Citadel’s leadership so the Corps are now free agents.)
I’m personally convinced that *all* of the X-women were coded as bi, because Claremont found it sexy rather than it being any kind of representation. So yeah, they all liked boys while also having special rapports and tender moments and whatnot. You can build a character’s modern-day sexuality on it, no reason why not, but I don’t think it’s worth citing as precedent.
And I don’t think Rachel’s hair was code for anything but post-apocalypse punk. She was introduced the same year as Mad Max 2, after all.
It still seems odd that when the three biggest books in the line are written by British writers immortal red and legion (Including legion in the top three as it’s in the crossover so more central. xforce or murders may sell more but are more stand alone) That they can’t have UK writer on this book or at least give clearer pointers to Howard about modern Britain.
Supermodel, charter pilot… but no mention at all of her S.T.R.I.K.E. days?
“Rachel has had a stereotypical lesbian haircut since her debut appearance.”
Half the girls in my sixth-grade class (this was back in 83/’84) had haircuts similar to Rachel’s.
Rachel’s hair was short because she was an prisoner in a concentration camp. It was supposed to evoke Auschwitz. It’s kind of gross to take it as an indication of sexual preference. Presumably it was artistic license that let Storm and Kitty keep their long hair so the audience could recognize them, the same way Rachel kept her short hair (and also to distinguish her from Jean Grey).
IIRC, Humphries claimed on Twitter that he didn’t intend for Betsy to be bisexual, just attracted to Fantomex’s personality in a female body. Masters and Johnson wouldn’t consider her to be canonically bisexual with just one kiss.
“Supermodel, charter pilot… but no mention at all of her S.T.R.I.K.E. days?”
Well, that wouldn’t be public knowledge.
Uncanny X-Force #8 opens with Betsy and Cluster naked in bed together, having not left their hotel room in two days, being physically affectionate with each other and call each other “hunny” and “darling.” They’ve very clearly been having sex. For two days.
She claims in the next issue (#9) that she never fell for Cluster, and was indeed attracted to Fantomex’s personality. But I’d argue that a) two days of having sex with Cluster is a pretty clear-cut signal that Betsy is sexually interested in women, and b) even if we make the carve-out due to the Fantomex weirdness, her having sex with a woman repeatedly is firm ground for a later attraction to Rachel.
Masters and Johnson wouldn’t consider Betsy to be canonically bisexual with just one kiss. Having sex with that woman for two days afterwards on the other hand?
“Well, that wouldn’t be public knowledge.”
Ohh… *slaps forehead* it’s a tv interview. I really should make a point of reading all the words in these articles and not just the words in bold.
At least with ‘Knights of X’, there was a clear mission statement that sort of justified the relaunch. That’s not the case here. All the pieces of Excalibur are back in play. We have the same supporting cast, the same antagonists, and a straightforward continuation of the plot in Excalibur’s first arc. Even Morgan Le Fey’s plan is the same. This is the cheapest relaunch of the X-line since the Hickman era began. Clearly, the only purpose was to boost sales because nothing here warrants a new #1. Truly a shame.
I always assumed that Claremont’s art direction for Rachel in the present was “like Days of Future Past but 80% more Annie Lennox.” At least that’s what I thought when I saw her drawn by Sienkiewicz in New Mutants #18. Romita, Jr. toned down the likeness a tad in UXM, but definitely kept the big, dark eyelashes.
1984 was the height of Lennox’s “Sweet Dreams” style androgyny, which had to be attractive to Claremont given everything mentioned previously in this discussion.
Finally, I don’t think “genocide survivor,” “queer,” and “punk” are mutually exclusive categories. I like how one haircut can signify any/all of those depending on the circumstances.
“At least with ‘Knights of X’, there was a clear mission statement that sort of justified the relaunch.”
Well, this is completely different from Knights of X, which was a team book set in Otherworld.
What’s undoubtedly odd is the fact that Knights of X was obviously rushed in order to get to this point, but at the same time it’s returning to unresolved plots from Excalibur (which were themselves hastily dealt with at the end of that series).
Btw fyi , Betsy B NEVER canonically had all-the-way sex with Scotty S , as she kept on trying to seducing him while she was in Kwannon’s body , which was from 1991 to 1993 IRL , the farthest she got though was just that she deliberately fell into his lap and literally licked his face immediately afterwards , but Scott couldn’t bring himself to go further with her even if part of him indeed wanted to do so more than anything else LOL, since Marvel at the time was still serious about monogamous OTL relationships (it was the first half of the 1990’s and United States of American Popular Culture , especially Hollywood , was all about the Hetero-Happily Ever After”)
There’s language throughout the issue that refers to Saturnyne and the Starlight Citadel as being “gone” alongside Merlyn’s being dead. Can we expect to discover the status of Saturnyne and the Citadel while the Corps operate separately? I’m wondering how Saturnyne is doing and to what extent she is “gone.”
Until proven otherwise, I think we can probably agree that both Betsy and Rachel now, if not before, identify as some form of queer–bi or pan, given their long history of romantic and physical entanglements.
With Betsy’s previous relationship with the female Fantomex, and Rachel’s own close relationship with Kitty Pryde (and Claremont’s apparent strong subtext) both established history, there’s clearly no reason why they can’t be attracted to each other.
Most importantly, we’re talking about two -telepaths- and one might just assume that they’re most used to seeing people on a mental/psychic level than physical! I mean, for all we know, the mutual attraction comes from whatever they share on a psychic level, and the physicality isn’t even a serious factor.
I’ll admit to being a little disconcerted at first when the relationship was established if only because Tini Howard’s writing (pacing/development/etc) can be really uneven, and I never really saw these two as pining for one another throughout the years… I mean, how much time did they ever spend on the same team at the same time? I don’t recall a lot of serious overlap between team shuffling, the occasional death/resurrection, and so forth. But at least this makes a minimum of sense compared to some of the X-relationships we’ve seen over the years.
In my opinion, every appearance of the Fury after the initial storyline has just watered it down. The original Fury story was terrifying–it was relentless, unstoppable, capable of murdering Miracleman-level heroes and surviving the destruction of entire universes. Once it was dead, it should have stayed dead rather than pop up every now and again as a watered-down punching bag. (Kind of like Mad Jim Jaspers himself, y’know?)
Does anyone know when Brian Braddock’s identity as Captain Britain became public knowledge? I can’t recall if that happened during his Excalibur days or just stopped mattering by default. I remember it was still an issue during his pre-Excalibur days, a plot point when Dai Thomas was researching him.
Yeah, the Fury, like Galactus, is poorly served by repeat appearances. It’s this unstoppable existential threat that somehow still has to be thwarted repeatedly by the heroes (ahem, Dazzler vs Galactus).
Regarding the relationship stuff, part of the problem is that without thought bubbles and Claremontian monologues (and in modern storytelling where things are more decompressed, leaving little room for character development in between advancing the plot), we have no insight into the inner lives of these characters. That probably makes it harder to make changes to major character traits convincingly for a good writer, and Howard hasn’t really proven to be one of those in general.
I’m enjoying her run on Catwoman which I only picked up to compare to this. I really don’t understand how this title can be doing badly enough that it get cancelled, restarted with a new title, cancelled again before management can know how well it is or isn’t doing, then restarted for a third time. When are we likely to know the shape of the line post-Sins to know if either this or Tini will be continuing in the X-verse?
I’m personally convinced that *all* of the X-women were coded as bi, because Claremont found it sexy rather than it being any kind of representation. So yeah, they all liked boys while also having special rapports and tender moments and whatnot.
This^^^
Let’s also keep in mind that right now Emma-Scott-Jean-Logan is a thing. So if any characters had sublimated LGBTQ+ leanings, they’d be coming out now.
Whoever thought we would see the day when Scott and Logan would be porking each other, with or without Jean present in the room…
All kidding aside, it is nice to see both Betsy and Rachel in a happy, functional relationship. I just wish it was happening in a better book with a better writer…
“Yeah, the Fury, like Galactus, is poorly served by repeat appearances. It’s this unstoppable existential threat that somehow still has to be thwarted repeatedly by the heroes (ahem, Dazzler vs Galactus).”
I will say, Claremont did get away with it a couple of times with Nimrod during the Romita Jr era.
Regarding Betsy and Rachel, regardless of whether or not they were canonically portrayed as sapphic in the past, Tini has been building up to the Betsy/Rachel relationship since Excalibur began:
– Rachel, astral projecting as a hound, appeared in Betsy’s dreams to guide her in the first arc of Excalibur
– Betsy saves the last Warwolf pup and gifts it as a pet to Rachel. Betsy discusses job prospects with Rachel.
– Betsy dances with Rachel at the first Hellfire Gala, where she asks her to come around to the Lighthouse more because ‘Betsy’s lighthouse’ misses Rachel.
– Rachel came around to the Lighthouse at the end of the book, where she kissed Betsy on the cheek. They have a tearful goodbye scene as Betsy gets trapped in Otherworld.
That is a lot of panel-time devoted to someone who wasn’t even part of the cast, so it’s obvious Howard was building something. Of course, Rachel did join the cast in Knights of X, where she and Betsy started a relationship.
One area I do agree was rushed was the conclusion of the Saturnyne/Betsy/Rachel love triangle. Because while Howard was building Betsy+Rachel, she was also building Betsy+Opal:
– Saturnyne’s spell misfired and chose Betsy as the basis of the new CBC because she had actually fallen in love with Betsy over Brian but couldn’t admit it.
– Betsy was clearly attracted to Opal when they both fell into the Sea of Secrets
– The Betsy/Opal dynamic at the end of Excalibur was of Knight + Lady of the Lake, one which is rife with the potential for romance
My suspicion was that this would have developed into a slow-burn love triangle in Knights of X that resolved itself as the quest went on. Unfortunately, that book was cut short, so I believe Howard cut the triangle and jumped to Betsy choosing Rachel.
@Nu-D, wwk5d: Jean Grey, Logan and Scott are obviously in a throuple, despite a large portion of the X-fanbase being in denial over it. They live together most of the time, they go on family vacations together, they even show up together in the Pride annuals and Valentine’s Day special issues. Al Ewing even modeled his Star-Lord + Gamora + Nova throuple in GOTG (another relationship fans are largely in denial over) on Logan + Jean Grey + Scott.
I don’t think Emma is part of the polycule, though she’s probably still good friends with Scott. She doesn’t live near them, she claims she is single during the Hellfire Gala and Duggan has been hyping up an upcoming Tony Stark + Emma Frost wedding in his Iron Man book.
Wfrosty > There’s language throughout the issue that refers to Saturnyne and the Starlight Citadel as being “gone” alongside Merlyn’s being dead. Can we expect to discover the status of Saturnyne and the Citadel while the Corps operate separately?
When we were first reintroduced to Saturnyne in Excalibur, she had reformed the Starlight Citadel into a school for magic for her new disciples, the Priestesses of the White. Presumably now that the Otherworld provinces are independent of Starlight Citadel, my headcanon is that Saturnyne went back to teaching magic to her followers.
Regardless of the specifics, I’m just sayin’ the Krakoa era looks a lot like the church in Book 5 of Stranger in a Strange Land. Whatever cultural mores were pigeonholing people into cis-het pairs before, they ain’t now.
“Jean Grey, Logan and Scott are obviously in a throuple”
I know, Hickman set it up early in his run.
“Duggan has been hyping up an upcoming Tony Stark + Emma Frost wedding in his Iron Man book”
Wait, what? I’m not really reading much outside the x-books, but…when and how is that happening?
Re: Brian’s secret ID, Brian’s going around maskless with Excalibur as Britannic back in Excalibur v1 #76 and following so he’s not exactly hiding his secret identity back in the mid-90s. At the latest, he’s going around maskless as Captain Britain, in public, while directly meeting with the Prime Minister and others in Captain Britain and MI13 in 2008.
Btw , as I noted before in the comments of another post on this blog , the “throuple” experiment is apparently already over by corporate editorial mandate * as of Hickman’s departure from the X-books , marked by Duggan’s X-Men 1 when Scott and Jean moved together away from the Summers House on the Moon to the X-TreeHouse in New York City’s Manhattan Island Central Park .
* I believe it was never going to last for very long , the USA is not yet that progressive to have Big Two superhero MARQUEE A-list characters be in an actual polygamous/polyamorous relationship , for instance , Japanese manga is much more liberal in such matters , and yet even in the “harem”-genre (whether it be MF+ or FM+ or M+F+) which is marketed/targeted specifically/precisely to audiences who are already predisposed to be receptive to such matters, they still cannot be openly vocal about it in the official stories (unofficial-but-tolerated fanworks or “doujins” are an execration)
I meant to type “exception” , sorry for the typo
@Allan M- But we’ve seen other examples where heroes go around maskless and it’s still treated like they have a secret identity. Amazingly, we’ve seen Storm and Rogue go around in civilian clothes without anyone recognizing them. (Are there really that many black women with white hair and blue eyes and white women under 30 with a stripe in their head in the Marvel universe?) At Jean and Scott’s wedding in X-Men 30, Xavier comments that some of the guests don’t know Jean is a superhero, even though she stopped wearing a mask some time ago. Can anyone remember when Brian’s identity was first CLEARLY public?
I’ve always wondered how much the general public knows about the X-Men. I assume the original 5 who were at Reed’ & Sue’s wedding were at least recognized in their super-hero identities, but the “all new, all different” team weren’t really public super-heroes. I figure the post-‘60s X-Men were an underground team until at least Days of Future Past (when they fought the Brotherhood in Washington D.C.). From there, I don’t recall the team being identified in any public media until they temporarily moved to San Francisco in the ‘80s. The next big media awareness would probably be the Fall of the Mutants, but I don’t remember most of the team being named on camera.
Beyond the O5. I figure the government-run X-Factor team were also publicly known. But, was Storm a public figure before being engaged to Black Panther? Were Wolverine or Rogue before they became Avengers? Can the average citizen of the MU recognize Psylocke or Bishop or Marrow or Armor? I tend to think the average American Marvel Universe denizen knew the X-Men were out there but couldn’t name most of the post-‘60s roster prior to Fall… and then not again until Astonishing or Utopia.
My thinking is that for the most part, the average citizen doesn’t necessarily know who’s who in the superhuman community beyond immediate concerns, the way many people can’t name athletes or musicians outside of a small subset (their favorite genre/band, local team… or else the superstars you become aware of through osmosis.)
So yeah, everyone knows the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man (though maybe thinks all the Iron people are Iron Man, right?). The Avengers tend to have press conferences to announce their rosters, and/or be household names.
The X-Teams? Always shrouded in mystery and controversy. The Australia-era team “died” in a very public way on camera, so chances are good all of them became general knowledge to anyone who cared to investigate. Having someone like Dazzler, well-known in her own subset of pop culture, probably helped.
My thought is that at the very least, the MU would have superhero enthusiasts who pore over media, watch videos, post YouTube videos, host blogs, and keep up with the minutiae in a way most people don’t. Places where they keep up with roster changes, costume/name changes, deaths and resurrections, and all that other stuff–and get a fair amount of it wrong. And as we moved into the digital/surveillance age, and characters got less diligent at maintaining secret identities, it was even easier to figure many of them out.
Someone like Logan would have been conspiracy theory gold, as they tried to track him throughout the 20th century, trying to figure if he’s one guy or a whole lineage, or what. Rogue was probably better known as a mutant terrorist before she joined the X-Men.
But Cable? Bishop? Gambit? Maggott? Yeah, I doubt most of the younger/less public/less active characters are of any interest to the general population, especially in a world ever more saturated by superhumans.
But back to where I started, with Captain Britain… as one of a very small number of public, active heroes in the UK, he’d have been of great interest and study, so as soon as he stopped trying to actively maintain his ID, it probably ceased to be of any real concern. And this most likely was during the Excalibur days… I guess it wasn’t a big deal.
Isn’t Kamala Khan’s gimmick she was a superhero/Avengers Superman, who knew all about these heroes?
You’d undoubtedly have them for the X-Men, not to mention villains, the same way some folks are obsessed with serial killers.
Michael: It’s worse than that. Not only was Jean not wearing a mask at the time, she wasn’t even using a secret identity!
The Other Michael: I’m trying to think back to Captain Britain’s old UK series to see who knew Brian was Captain Britain. I know Dai Thomas figured it out, but I’m not sure anyone else did. I think the only people who knew his secret identity were Thomas, Mastermind, Brian’s siblings, a couple RCX agents, Courtney Ross, and Meggan. I think Alan Davis retconned it later on that the Scott family knew his secret identity, but it doesn’t seem to have been widely known. I’m not even sure Emma Collins knew about it.