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.
@Michael: you may well be right. But considering that Uncanny #232 apparently had four editors instead of just Ann Nocenti and/or Bob Harras, and that it was just seven months before the first issue of Inferno proper, I feel certain that there was a lot more going on.
At the very least, Tom DeFalco would have had opportunity to chime in as the then Editor-in-Chief, and he had to approve Bob Harras taking over editorship of Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants instead of Ann Nocenti taking over X-Factor.
That it happened around the time of X-Factor #29 and not too long before an unavoidable full crossover is IMO an indication that editorial (including at least Tom DeFalco, but probably also Bob Harras and perhaps Ann Nocenti) realized that they were headed to a choice between displeasing Claremont or harming the coordination between X-books. A difficult choice that they hoped to postpone until it became easier or fully unavoidable.
@Michael: I hadn’t looked at Maddie’s arc in terms of PPD before, probably because I tuned into her feelings about Scott’s betrayal and the powerful dream imagery. Looking at it through that lens makes it even more tragic.
I still find her story and reactions believable (in the context of ongoing super-hero comics), and respond to tragedy of it all. It’s not a story in which she is treated fairly. Maddie didn’t deserve any of what happened to her. She’s a victim of her “father” Sinister and the demons, all of whom use her as a pawn. She breaks free in the end, but by then it’s too late.
I recognize that Maddie’s story is deeply flawed, though. The “woman turns evil = woman being more overtly sexualized” trope is problematic as hell, especially because, yes, her corruption is a form of psychic rape. She lacks true agency for much of Inferno, even if she perceives otherwise. I don’t think the fallout was particularly well-handled, either. I haven’t read a ton of original X-Factor, mostly because I think the original X-Men are boring, so I don’t know if the fallout there was anything beyond more angst. Claremont moved on fairly quickly, though.
@Mike Loughlin- I was thinking of postpartum OCD, not postpartum depression. I hate to be pedantic but postpartum OCD, postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis are three different disorders. Here’s an article explaining the difference:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2011/09/14/postpartum-psychology-depression-anxiety-ocd-and-psychosis/?sh=3b7d8a0d35a4
Notably, women with postpartum OCD are not likely to harm their baby. Women with postpartum psychosis on the other hand, can be dangerous to their baby.
@Michael: thanks for the information! I’d rather somebody clarify something I got wrong so I can learn than remain ignorant or mistaken.
Lots of interesting thoughts everyone! I’m left more convinced than ever that Maddie was treated very badly, and that the effort to paper over Scott’s role was misguided from a storytelling POV (in contrast to a sales and clicks POV)
It’s clear this was story by committee, and maybe CC was doing damage control. But I’m still a little baffled he didn’t try to find an out at an earlier stage that preserved Maddie’s integrity and didn’t re-victimize her.
It also makes me even more irked that they saw fit to bring her back all those years later. Leave the poor woman alone to RIP.
Also, a link to some behind the scenes info on the beginning of X-Factor through Inferno:
https://uncannyxmen.net/secrets-behind-the-x-men/jean-greys-return-in-x-factor
” Well, he had a wife. He got married in the mansion, everybody was there, he said, “Till death do you part,” they had a kid, and he walked out on them without a second thought and went to X-Factor. And then for various stupid and I confess, I had my part in this as well as anyone else plot reasons didn’t deal with it for a long time. The reason he didn’t deal with it was because he didn’t have a clue what to do with it. I mean, the guy was a cad and a bounder, no ifs, no ands, no buts.”
“In one fell swoop, he was destroyed as a character, as a heroic. He made a commitment to people and then walked out on them. And for various reasons, not Weezie (Louise Simonson), not me, we never dealt with that. We seem to take what seemed at the time to be the only sensible way out, which was we made Madelyne into the bad you know, we set up a situation where rather than have Scott face the consequences of his actions, we’d just sort of like kill them all. And everyone forgave Scott, because Madelyne was a bitch anyway. And then they gave the kid away. “Don’t deal with the fact that you have a child, Scott, we’ll just send him away to the future” and – shit happens.”
Jumping back in myself.
@nrh: re: who Betsy is:
After being prompted to reread parts of Excalibur–pre-Knights of X–one of the things I’m happy to give Howard credit for is how well she sets up Betsy’s central conflict after she and Kwannon are returned to their appropriate bodies. Excalibur #1 and subsequent issues consistently explore these identity themes: Who is she now that she’s not “colonizing” Kwannon’s body? What does it mean to be Captain Britain? Where does she go from here?
I think it’s safe to conclude that Howard is thoroughly butchering the Captain Britain portion of that equation. What I think she nails, however, is Betsy’s new, authoritative voice and sense of autonomy. She works as a credible field leader for me and is and has been making very deliberate decisions to assert her presence against other power players (e.g., Apocalypse, Saturnyne, Otherworld QC, Doom), and to thoughtfully and intentionally work through her body-swap trauma and guilt (issues #19 and 20, the former easily being the best and most elegantly written issue on the topic and my favorite from Howard’s run). Even in issue #13, when everyone is trying to persuade her to forego the CB mantle–including Brian–she digs and pushes back hard in a convincing manner that’s true to the voice that Howard’s established for her.
Genuinely, these themes of identity and preferred names are quite artfully woven all throughout Howard’s run: Apocalypse as A; Rictor as a Druid; Betsy as the Captain; Malice’s fresh start in her own body again as Alice McAllister; even Goldballs reasserting his new codename Egg in issue #1. If nothing else her run has a heavy focus on people making intentional choices and defending them, and demanding that everyone else around them respects those choices. I appreciate this reading greatly.
All of this is so well-done that, to its credit and detriment, Excalibur and its subsequent incarnations have basically feel like Betsy solo books overstuffed with depressingly minor (e.g., Bei, Kylun, Shatterstar) or tonally mismatched (i.e., Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee) characters.
Other observations:
• Upon review, Excalibur only started to unravel when Apocalypse exited the cast after X of Swords, and completely went off the rails once Howard suddenly decided she wanted to shove the book in a fantasy RPG/D&D direction centered on inter-Otherworld politics and border conflicts (oh, and Mordred). He was a great source of mystery and tension as he was clearing manipulating so many people for his own gain: Rogue (re: coma), Jamie (installing him as Monarch), Morgan Le Fay, Rictor, even the whole team to an extent.
• The switch from Apocalypse to Merlyn as the central antagonist also hurt the book, because Merlyn sucks.
• The fact that the last 5 or 6 issues of the run (ending w/ #26) only focus on Merlyn and the D&D stuff not only killed whatever momentum Howard had going; it’s all anyone really remembers of the run now, which is a shame.
• This shift also meant that none of the other genuinely interesting stuff was paid off: Morgan Le Fay, Coven Akkaba, Rictor’s subplot, etc.
• Rictor’s depression in the opening issues was REALLY well written and handled with care.
• Marcus To’s art is fantastic on this book.
• I was surprised to see signs of Howard seeding romantic tension not just between Betsy and Rachel, but Betsy and Saturnyne as far back as issue #11.
Now that I’m thinking about the Howard’s body of work as one giant Betsy solo book, everything reads much more charitably to me. Things might have turned out much differently if it was just called Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain from the beginning.
@Moonstar Dynasty: I agree with a lot of what you wrote, and that Excalibur was good through X of Swords. Issue 19 was also a standout. I hadn’t considered that the series was about everyone’s identity, not just Betsy’s.
My problem was that the plotting was often obscure and I thought a lot of real estate got wasted. There’s no reason the war with Merlin & co. couldn’t have been finished by the end of the series. There’s no reason more characters couldn’t have been given a bigger role. There’s no reason events couldn’t be better explained or even shown on panel. I would have liked reading Betsy’ and Rachel’s growing relationship, but it was crowded out by stuff I didn’t care about or couldn’t easily parse.
I feel like a bit of a hypocrite not dropping X-Force when it went off the rails, but it doesn’t give me the same sense of frustration Excalibur did for its last year of existence. I would drop Marauders for the same reason, but it’s ending soon & I doubt I’ll pick up a follow-up series if it’s by the same creative team.
Excalibur wasn’t a good read even before Swords of X. The art was nice, though.
I know I’m late on this, but what the heck: The thing about Maddie’s ultimatum to Scott is she already knows from Uncanny #201, that Scott rates her and baby Nate as less important than mutant-related stuff.
She talks to Storm about giving birth alone because the entire team – including Scott – rushed to Asgard to save Storm. But when they returned to Earth, several of the team called to check on Maddie. Not Cyclops, though.
Then, when she figures they’ll go off to be a family, he insists he has to stay and lead the X-Men because Xavier’s gone and Magneto’s around. What about Storm, Maddie asks? She’s a liability because she’s got no powers. When Maddie asks about raising their child, Scott outright says he figures that’s her job.
Storm even tries to give Scott a chance to not be a complete ass by asking him in front of Maddie to stand aside as leader rather than duel for the job, and he turns her down. Which says everything about what’s important to him. Even before Warren’s call in X-Factor #1, Madelyne knows Scott would rather be off with his friends than be a father and husband.
So I understand her making the ultimatum, making it clear she’s not going to sit around and willingly be 2nd place in his life, and so I’ve always rejected the X-Office’s attempt with Inferno trying to make her the villain to obscure Cyclops’ shitty actions. The fact Cyclops gets treated as a figure worthy of respect in the X-books really bugs me.
@CalvinPitt
Excellent summation. Interesting that even the issues Claremont penned portray Scott as reluctant to retire, since Claremont always says retirement was the endgame. Now I’m curious to go back further and see whether Scott was making different promises to Maddie from the wedding through Asgard.
So, to answer my own question, based on the Marvel Chronology Project:
Uncanny #176: On the honeymoon Scott is waffling about following Corsair into space or staying on Earth with his wife. They make it sound like Maddie would stay behind, and Scott might never return. Maddie’s oddly nonchalant about that possibility. But after fighting an octopus, Scott unequivocally decides to retire to domesticity.
Uncanny #181: He’s kidnapped to battle world, and when returned he’s dumped in Maddie’s lap. She chastises him for abandoning her, and his first defense was “I was kidnapped,” (reasonable), but his second defense is “I have responsibilities,” which is ridiculous. His absence was 100% involuntary, so it never had anything to do with meeting other responsibilities. Ergo, we’re see him already laying the groundwork for dividing his loyalties. He liked being back in action, so he’s setting himself up for it again.
In X-Men/Alpha Flight, Scott and Maddie are kidnapped while working civilian jobs, and they find out Maddie’s pregnant. They don’t really discuss Scott’s active status, and presumably he goes back into retirement.
In #197, Moira calls Scott to come be with Xavier because he’s sick. Maddie is 100% supportive.
In #199, Scott’s back in the danger room. Then he argues with Logan and Moira about whether Magneto can be trusted. No discussion of Scott returning to active status.
Annual #9: for some reason Maddie is in the mansion now. Scott’s leading a mission to Asgard to rescue Storm and the New Mutants. He’s upset by Rachel’s costume, but she reminds him he’s married and retired. Maddie tries to confirm, but Scott’s non-committal.
#200 — the X-Men appear in Paris. Scott promises Charles they’ll stay for the trial, and Charles gives Scott the mission. They’re there for a week, the other X-Men call Maddie, but Scott doesn’t. Baby is born.
There’s a bunch of stuff retconned into that timeline, but it’s much newer.
If I had to pinpoint where editorial pinned down CC, so he started changing the through line to lay groundwork for Scott to come back, it would be Annual #9. The appearances before that Scott isn’t talking about responsibilities and missions. But starting there he’s ambivalent about retirement. Then he’s deliberately neglectful of his marriage, and resisting going back into retirement.
Also, briefly, in Secret Wars Scott’s pretty torn up about being yanked from his honeymoon. He even mentions how worried Maddie must be at his absence. There’s some dialogue about who should be the X-Men’s field leader, but it doesn’t read like Scott wants to come out of retirement; only that he doubts Xavier is up to the job.
So at least Shooter was writing Scott like he’s sincerely retired at this early stage.
Is this the beginning of the Incomplete Maddie Pryor? Because I would read that.
Is this the beginning of the Incomplete Maddie Pryor? Because I would read that.
It would be a lot shorter than the Incomplete Wolverine.