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.
@Mark Coale: I take it you mean that Kamala was a _superfan_?
I agree that there ought to be at the very least a solid and well spread group of those in the MU. I make a parallel with astronomy amateur enthusiasts and even ufologists; they exist in sufficient number in our world, and it does not make sense to me that superheroes would leave less of a mark.
On the other hand, there ought to be a lot of conspiracy theorists and worse wanting nothing to do with superheroes as well.
As for the visibility of the X-Men, it seems to me that editorial and authorial takes oscillate quite a bit. As one would expect; keeping a foot on each side of the fence makes for the widest range of possible stories, and the “feared and mistrusted” turn of phrase comes all the way from the earliest Stan Lee scripts.
The X-Men always existed in an arguably unstable space between the obvious need for privacy and even secrecy and the willingness to be perceived (fairly or otherwise) as good will ambassadors and heroes. They have secret identities, but those are not treated very consistently at all; Warren in particular has always had a very public identity and can hardly hide it. It does not really make sense that the Westchester mansion is at once headquarters of a very secret team and the known residence of a well-known expert on mutants with solid government connections, but that combination enables a wide variety of stories.
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.
“Oh, not the ‘only one Wolverine’ conspiracy theory again, when there’s all these sightings in multiple places at the same time….”
““Oh, not the ‘only one Wolverine’ conspiracy theory again, when there’s all these sightings in multiple places at the same time….””
“Chad, I don’t CARE what your model says; it is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for one person to exist in that many locations at once and to have that many old friends get killed. Unless he’s a time traveler or something, and that’s just… oh. Oh God. Quick, get me a whiteboard!”
In the Marvel Universe, Paul is a well-known “One Wolverine” truther, who carefully explains to everyone else on r/superhumans that, yes, Wolverine sometimes leaves an adventure with his fellow X-Men to go do three other adventures in various places around the world, then comes back to the team before they finish, and it totally makes sense.
Wiccan was a superhero fan as well. Gwenpool probably doesn’t count. But way back when, the X-Men visited Japan and some kids knew who they were. I think they had superhero flipbooks and all. I may be misremembering, the 80s were a long time ago.
Oh, and Gomi and Bill the lobster from the original Fallen Angels miniseries got their powers from two Jean Grey fans who wanted to recreate her. I can’t remember if they knew her real identity.
Si-I believe you are referring to Uncanny X-Men #181 with the reference book. That is actually a Kaiju handbook which the children are using, not superhero related. The dragon from Battleworld follows the X-Men home, and the kids attempt to find the monster in their book. They decide this is a new Kaiju.
So out of curiosity, how many X-Men are actually publicly known?
It seems like Professor X, Magneto, Angel, Dazzler, M, Namor, Beast, Storm, Betsy, and Northstar are definitely known to the public. Longshot, Firestar, Emma, Sunspot, Forge, and Box are maybes?
The Astonishing team faces the press in the first couple of issues, so add Cyclops, Shadowcat and Wolverine to that list (also Wolverine was an Avenger).
The government X-Factor was presented to the public, so Havok and Polaris would be known as government agents. Who knows if they’re also known as X-Men.
Also Havok held the one press conference as an Avenger and Rogue killed a guy there, so she’s also known as an X-Man who joined the Avengers.
Not sure if Sunspot and Cannonball were presented to the public in a similar way, but they also had a prolonged Avengers phase.
But also – there were several times during the whole San Francisco / Utopia era when the X-Men were doing very public things with the press present.
I recall members of the press being invited to the school shortly after Cassandra Nova outed Xavier as a mutant. I think they got a tour, didn’t they? The issue where Beast dropped the “I think I might be gay” line to Trish Tilby.
As far as I can tell, X-Men/X-team member known to a good portion of the general public in the Marvel Universe pre-Krakoa include:
Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, & Beast: they were at the FF wedding and publicly defeated Magneto in their first issue.
Prof. X: outed by Cassandra Nova in the Morrison run
Sunfire: national super-hero of Japan
Wolverine: an Avenger
Storm: Black Panther’s wife
Nightcrawler, Kate Pryde, Colossus, Rachel Summers, Brian Braddock, Meggan, Douglock, Wolfsbane, Pete Wisdom: Excalibur was a publicly-operating super-hero team. I listed the members who served longest and/or during the attack on London in Excalibur (v1) 100.
Havok, Polaris, Multiple Man, Strong Guy, Quicksilver: members of publicly-operating X-Factor team
Wild Child, Northstar, Aurora, Madison Jeffries: members of publicly-operating Alpha Flight team
Dazzler: celebrity
Rogue, Sunspot, Cannonball: Avengers
Longshot, Betsy Braddock: members during Fall of the Mutants, possibly named on camera
Magik, Namor, Emma Frost: members of the “Phoenix Five,” publicly restructured world societies
A few maybes-
Mystique, Sabretooth, Forge, Random: members of X-Factor in the government-sponsored days, but I don’t know if they operated in public.
Cable: a member of the Uncanny Avengers, but I don’t know if he operated with the team in public.
I’m probably missing a few. As others have noted, there’s probably a line between the ones everyone knows of and the less prominent characters (Storm as opposed to Douglock) but I tried to list all the X-characters that could have been identified in public.
Now that I think about it, the Extinction Team was supposed to be openly, publicly scary to make people think twice before starting anything with mutants. The members are mostly covered by other instances of being in the public eye, but maybe we should take Magneto, Hope, Danger, Magik and Colossus under consideration? (Also Scott, Emma and Storm, but: see above).
@Chris V- Si is thinking of Uncanny X-Men 222, where the X-Men meet those kids AGAIN and they have a book of superheroes this time. They recognize Rogue from their last meeting and Dazzler is in their book.
Also, in Uncanny 181, one of the kids recognizes the X-Men and one of them refers to Logan as “Wolverine-san”.
Longshot’s a weird one. Being semi-officially the world’s prettiest man, he’s bound to get attention. And he was a stuntman, listed as Longshot, in a movie (in the original Longshot limited series). He had a big effect on the cast and crew, so they’d all have stories to tell.
After having his memory wiped, he saw the movie and remarked on the stunt man having his name (in X-Men). So the name is out there, his face is out there, Reddit is out there. He’d almost certainly be widely known, perhaps as a series of memes, despite only being involved in one single big public superhero event.
To be fair, it’s possible to be an Avenger and still have a secret identity. It was years before Tony Stark was conclusively identified as Iron Man, for instance.
So I’m pretty comfortable saying Beast’s widely known as Hank McCoy because he never really tried to hide his identity. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that Rogue, Cannonball, Firestar, and Wolverine may not have been publicly known as Anna Marie LeBeau, Sam Guthrie, Angelica Jones, and Logan.
It’s the same with Sunfire and the X-Factor members. Were Havok, Polaris, and Wolfsbane ever publicly identified as Alex Summers, Lorna Dane, and Rahne Sinclair? Is Sunfire widely known as Yoshida Shiro?
Either way, for definites, we have Xavier, Beast, Angel, Storm, Nightcrawler, Kate, Dazzler, Magneto, Betsy, Emma, Northstar, Sunspot, Aurora, Box, Namor, Forge, Box, and M are publicly known.
For maybes, we have Cyclops, Jean, Polaris, Havok, Colossus, Wolverine, Sunfire, Banshee (Interpol and Muir Island?), Askani, Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Magik, Firestar, Cloak, and Dagger.
Sound about right?
To be fair, it’s possible to be an Avenger and still have a secret identity. It was years before Tony Stark was conclusively identified as Iron Man, for instance.
So I’m pretty comfortable saying Beast is widely known as Hank McCoy because he never really tried to hide his identity. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that Rogue, Cannonball, Firestar, and Wolverine may not have been publicly known as Anna Marie LeBeau, Sam Guthrie, Angelica Jones, and Logan.
It’s the same with Sunfire and the X-Factor members. Were Havok, Polaris, and Wolfsbane ever publicly identified as Alex Summers, Lorna Dane, and Rahne Sinclair? Is Sunfire widely known as Yoshida Shiro?
Either way, for definites, we have Xavier, Beast, Angel, Storm, Nightcrawler, Kate, Dazzler, Magneto, Betsy, Emma, Northstar, Sunspot, Aurora, Box, Namor, Forge, Box, and M are publicly known.
For maybes, we have Cyclops, Jean, Polaris, Havok, Colossus, Wolverine, Sunfire, Banshee (Interpol and Muir Island?), Askani, Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Magik, Firestar, Cloak, and Dagger.
Sound about right?
@Taibak – my list was characters that would be identifiable to the public by their codenames & appearances. Secret identities are another matter, and I have little idea of what information would be out there for the average Marvel citizen.
I know they’re not X-team members, but the “reformed” Freedom Force that was actually Mystique’s Brotherhood would all be publicly known as mutants, right? If we’re working on the theory that government funded teams are public facing.
Honestly, I can’t remember if Freedom Force was supposed to covert or not. Although why call yourself Freedom Force if you’re not trying to impress the public?
Didn’t the X-Men die in front of public TV cameras in Dallas at the end of Fall of the Mutants? That probably made Longshot better known than any movie he might have been a stuntman for. Claremont actually introduced a press cameraman character in that story – Neal Conan, was that his name?
Who else was there? Storm, Psylocke, Rogue, Dazzler, Havok, Colossus, Wolverine, Madelyne Pryor. Also Forge. And Mystique’s Freedom Force too? (Mystique herself, Destiny, Pyro, Crimson Commando, Stonewall, Super Sabre).
Yes, his name was Neal Conan. Conan was a real person, a reporter for NPR who was friends with Claremont.
Scott and Jean introduce themselves to the press as Jean Summers-Grey and her husband Scott early in the Morrison run so they are definites.
Havok takes off his mask and announces himself as Alex Summers in Uncanny Avengers #5. Definite.
Rahne, Rictor, and Boom-Boom are captured by the Genoshans and researched by the media during X-Tinction Agenda. Their nationalities are confirmed, there’s a TV interview with Boom-Boom’s father, and Moira confirms on TV that Rahne’s her ward. It’s not expressly on-panel that their secret IDs are out, but I’m not sure how the press found their families if they don’t know who they are.
Cable becomes world-famous during Nicieza’s Cable & Deadpool during the Providence storyline, and does interviews with the press where he’s referred to repeatedly as Nathan and confirms that he’s Cyclops’ son.
X-Statix, obviously.
Juggernaut has a criminal record and the government and authorities clearly know who he is (see: Trial of the Juggernaut during the Austen run), but whether the public knows he’s Cain Marko, not so clear. It should be public record like in the real world, but hey, superhero universe.
And yes, Freedom Force was definitely public. Mystique is doing interviews with Neal Conan during Fall of the Mutants, for example.
Bishop and Madrox went by their own names as the cop and detective of Mutant Town, I’d call that pretty definite. Not widely known, but not a secret identity.
“And yes, Freedom Force was definitely public. Mystique is doing interviews with Neal Conan during Fall of the Mutants, for example.”
Msytique and the then Brotherhood (Destiny, Blob, Avalanche, and Pyro) also attacked Senator Kelly during a public event with live cameras during Days of Future Past. Plus they also brawled publicly with the X-men during that same story. And Warren was recognized as the Angel in his civilian identity before the Brotherhood’s attack in that story as well.
Angel revealed his identity as a mutant and a superhero to the world in Champions, or possibly Defenders, way back in the 70s. He might have been the second superhero, after Captain America, do do so.
Yes, it was when the Champions team was founded. Angel didn’t join the Defenders until 1983.
There was also the fifth week “Marvel Comics” event, which showed supposedly in-universe Marvel Comics. IIRC, the in-universe X-Men comic was portrayed was anti-mutant conspiracist stuff.
Marvels #2 shows that the general public did not think anyone besides the Avengers attended the FF’s wedding, and didn’t know about any super battle there. The ending of Fantastic Four Annual #3 has Reed Richards and trhe Watcher rewind time, banish gthe civilains, an derase everyone’s memories of the big battle.
Indeed, the comic treats the wedding as the peaceful inspiring superhero event and contrast it with growing anti-mutant paranoia and public support for the Sentinels.
The OG X-Men are seen mostly as mysterious, terrifying figures, and it takes most ot he story for the narrator, Phil Sheldon, to get over his own ani-mutant prejudices thanks to his kids sheltering a mutant child.
Correction: Marvels #2 also shows Daredevil and Doctor Strange among the superhero guests at the publicly remembered and recorded version of the wedding.
@Allan M: I forgot about the Cable & Deadpool series (what I read of it was good) and Cable becoming a public figure. How weird would his backstory sound to the public, even the MU public?
@Omar Karindu: I kind of hate questions as to what is canon and what isn’t, but I don’t think there’s any way Marvels taking place between the ’30s and the ’70s can possibly line up with 616 continuity. In my head, Marvels is a separate universe, even though there’s a Phil Sheldon in 616.
That said, I know 3/4 pf FF Ann 3 was retconned out of existence within story. I might be wrong that the X-Men were publicly photographed in that issue. They’re in costume in the wedding itself, however.
@Allan M, Mike Loughlin- The weird thing is that Ben Urich in Duggan’s X-Men run seems unsure how Scott is related to “Nathan Summers”- and that’s BEFORE Synch mind wiped him, so you can’t blame it on the minhdwipe.
I don’t think that the idea of a “secret identity” really applies anymore. Just about every mutant’s identity is known to the government, and many are known to the public to a greater or lesser degree.
Obviously, some mutants are more widely recognized than others, in both civilian and non-civilian identities. But with very few exceptions, I’d venture that almost none have an actually secret identity.
I wonder to what degree the Hellfire Galas are publicized to general public. They’re kind of presented like red carpet events, but is it the 1% hobnobbing or the mutant equivalent of the Oscars? If the latter, it’s entirely possible that the way many mutants are best known to the world at large now is as fashion icons.
This is the kind of thing that may be interesting to explore in X-Men Unlimited Infinity or a similar title. I don’t hate the X-Men Green stuff, but there’s room on the table for a lot more worldbuilding.
Way back in Uncanny #221, the X-Men are fighting the marauders in San Francisco. There’s a fat man on a beach reading a book about mutants, and his thought bubble says something along the lines of “super powers? No way.” Then Rogue, Dazzler and Longshot crash land on the beach next to him.
Even back then I thought it stretched disbelief too far to think an average Joe in the MU wouldn’t know about superheroes.
Wasn’t there a storyline in Uncanny just before Wolverine’s latest death that was a consequence of Charles Xavier leaving his inheritance to Scott Summers?
There’s an extended interview between Cable and Irene Merryweather that’s serialized in the form of text pages each issue starting in C&D #7 (usually double-page spreads, no less) that’s released to the public in C&D #11. And it goes in on Cable’s backstory. How time travel works (and doesn’t work), Apocalypse, soldier from the future, techno-organic virus, even an Askani namedrop.
The next few arcs are about thousands of refugees coming to Providence and then Cable being allowed to take over a country, so apparently people weren’t too weirded out by his backstory!
As for Ben Urich, I read the quotation marks around “Nathan Summers” as an indication that Urich’s playing a bit dumb to get at the question of who was buried in that grave given that Cable’s alive and well. Considering that Irene was a Daily Bugle reporter who frequency discussed Cable and referred to him as Nathan, Urich should 100% know who Nathan Summers is.
How much of the MCU or mutant history does the average Krakoan know? Does a middle aged man from Iowa with the mutant power of gardening who moved to Krakoa after hearing Xavier’s call know about Empath, or the Shadow King, or have a particularly clear idea of who Cassandra Nova was?
I’d put Cassandra Nova’s notoriety about equal to Slobodan Milosevich.
Was Cassandra Nova’s responsibility for the Sentinel attack on Genosha ever made public knowledge?
Also, since Cassandra wouldn’t have any legal identity or even a birth record because of her unusual nature, would it even be possible to do this?
Before she went after Tony Stark and SHIELD in X-Men: Red, it’s not clear whether anyone outside of the X-Men and SWORD would have even known Cassandra existed.
Considering that Xavier made humanity’s genocide on Krakoa a major aspect of Krakoan nationalist propaganda without anyone retorting, “Wasn’t it your parasitic twin sister who did that, not humanity?”, I’d have to conclude that only a small number of people know about Nova.
I guess the public thinks the Genosha genocide was done by Trask/Sentinels. Fair enough.
I wouldn’t assume anyone has heard of the Shadow King, and Empath is probably about as famous as a locally corrupt school board member.
Jean has had a handful of televised moments, and the school was named after her. I’d say she’s just about as well known as a local person who makes the national news for one cycle. Remember that lady in New York who ran that school and was on the TV one time?
Everyone n Earth knows who Magneto is the same way everyone knows who Osama bin Laden is; they might not know his biography, but they know what he’s done and what he stands for.
I haven’t read original X-Factor – weren’t they publicly embraced by New Yorkers after saving the city at one point?
In the Claremont/Buscema Wolverine story in Marvel Age Annual #4, there’s a kid hawking copies of (the 616 version of) “Classic X-Men”: “all their adventures, right up to the point they got killed in Dallas!”
@Krzysiek Ceran: yes, the city threw the original X-Factor a parade at one point. I haven’t read much original X-Factor, but I have no idea how that lines up with the whole X-Factor: Mutant Hunters/X-Terminators: Mutant Freedom Fighters deception from the first few issues of the title.
I would be interested in a Marvels-style comic focusing on public perception of mutants. It could be a story arc or series of back-up features in X-Men Legends. Track a series of humans through ten years of X-people changes, see how their awareness of the team changes and what impact it has on their lives. I’d read it, although I don’t know if there’s any market for such a book.
@Allan M: “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?” IIRC, their threshold was three separate sexual encounters with the same sex, so it depends on what they consider separate.
@Rob “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 about Franklin Richards and Nightcrawler? Calling people “love” is a Britishism that Claremont reverted to. In the same issue Rachel describes her Kate as “part surrogate mother, mostly best friend”.
#Alexx Kay “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.” That hasn’t been true since Northstar literally screamed he was gay in Alpha Flight #106. Jim Shooter was long gone, and the Comic Code Authority approved it. In Mechanix, Claremont had his character Karma come out as a lesbian with an unrequited crush on Kitty Pryde. There’s no need to apply Frederick Wertham-like microscopic analysis for hidden messages.
@ Thom H “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.” Her appearance in New Mutants was a guest shot, and Sienkiewicz has his own unique style. Claremont had her in a French maid uniform in Uncanny, and made her a sex bomb in Excalibur. The haircut is the evidence people cite when claiming she was “queer-code” from the start.
@Si “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.” Claremont writes complex human beings with who form close relationships. Some people can only conceive of those as sexual. Creating Jean Grey’s bond with Ororo was removing her from being defined as someone’s girlfriend and giving her agency. Assuming they’re bisexual is a step backwards.
Claremont has outright said that in his The End series, Kitty was meant to be married to Rachel, hence no mention of any father to her kids.
What’s funny is everyone keeps saying that “Claremont has outright said” or “stated” but nobody every provides the link to that interview…
But hey, it beats her and Pete Wisdom being endgame.
An old Comics Alliance article points to this audio interview as evidence of Claremont’s intention for a Kitty/Rachel relationship:
https://www.xplainthexmen.com/2016/03/100-unexpected-wonder-with-chris-claremont/
I haven’t listened to it, though, so I didn’t hear it firsthand.
Ultimately, though, when it comes to serialized fiction with dozens of creators, creator intent is far less important than what readers see on the page. The important question to me is whether the new reveal is internally consistent with the character’s prior presentations. Queer Rachel and Dani? Sure. Scott in a throuple with Logan? Not so much.
When they did that (skip week?) series of books supposedly published in the 616 universe (for lack of a better term), was there an X-Men book? I remember there being an FF book and a Spider-Man and maybe Thor. I presume there was an X-Men or Wolverine book. (I’m sure it would be in Paul’s Wolverine rundown, but I’m at work, so don’t have time to do the legwork at the moment)
What would even be the point of “secret identities” for some of these characters? I mean, the Blob, Juggernaut, Sabertooth… it’s not like they can slap on a pair of spectacles and blend in.
I think this goes all the way back to the original appearance of The Thing. A secret identity is impossible for some superhumans.
So, speaking of Kitty and Karma in Mechanix:
https://i.imgur.com/iGQSFjN_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand
Kitty is attracted to Karma. It’s subtext only in that she doesn’t literally say ‘I’m attracted to Karma’.
If someone told me *any* Claremont-era X-character was in a same-sex or poly relationship, I’d believe it. Cyclops and Wolverine? Ok. Blob & Pyro? I could see that. Polaris-possessed-by-Malice and Selene? Obviously! Nimrod, Valerie Cooper, and Deathbird? The slash fiction writes itself!