{"id":8785,"date":"2023-02-24T19:09:30","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T19:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8785"},"modified":"2023-02-24T19:09:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T19:09:30","slug":"betsy-braddock-captain-britain-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8785","title":{"rendered":"Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1<\/strong>
\n“Returns Home, Having Changed”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Tini Howard<\/strong>
\nArist: Vasco Georgiev<\/strong>
\nColourist: Erick Arciniega<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Ariana Maher<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Sarah Brunstad<\/strong><\/p>\n

BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN.<\/strong>\u00a0This series is the continuation of\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> and\u00a0Knights of X<\/em>, 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\u00a0Fall of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Betsy, Rachel and Brian in (presumably) Avalon.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong>\u00a0Betsy appears on television.<\/em><\/p>\n

Reginald Cross\u00a0<\/strong>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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“You’ve been a supermodel…”<\/strong> Betsy’s modelling career originally comes from the Captain Britain story in\u00a0Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain<\/em> #243 (1977). I think the idea of her being actually\u00a0famous<\/em> as a model comes from\u00a0X-Treme X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #3.<\/p>\n

“…a charter pilot…”<\/strong> No, seriously, she was. That’s her job when she first appears in\u00a0Captain Britain<\/em> #8.<\/p>\n

“…a ninja, a body snatcher…”<\/strong> Both referring to her lengthy period when she was body-swapped with Kwannon, though “body snatcher” implies she had any choice in the matter.<\/p>\n

“…a mutant…”<\/strong> Well, obviously.<\/p>\n

“…and a twin.”\u00a0<\/strong>With Brian.<\/p>\n

“[M]ad Wiccans and teenagers at Glasto trying to upset their parents…”\u00a0<\/strong>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.<\/a><\/p>\n

Micromax\u00a0<\/strong>is a character from the Alan Davis run on\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> in 1991, who was indeed a DJ – the name “Scott Wright” clearly positioned him as a thinly-disguised Steve Wright<\/a>, 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.)<\/p>\n

“Without Britain, what are you even a captain of?”<\/strong> Giving this question to Cross is obviously intended to delegitimise it, but it\u00a0is<\/em> 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 .<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.\u00a0<\/strong>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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first three paragraphs are an unsympathetic but basically accurate recap.\u00a0Faiza Hussain<\/strong>, who’ll show up later, is the currently holder of Excalibur, introduced in the 2008 series\u00a0Captain Britain & MI-13<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGES 4-8.<\/strong>\u00a0Captain Britain and Askani help Britannica Rex fight a Fury.<\/em><\/p>\n

Britannica Rex\u00a0<\/strong>first appeared in\u00a0X of Swords: Destruction\u00a0<\/em>#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.<\/p>\n

“When I left to join the rest of the Captain Britain Corps to fight in Otherworld…”<\/strong>\u00a0Since the footnote is to\u00a0Excalibur<\/em>, this is presumably referring to the Corps being gathered to help fight Merlyn’s forces towards the end of that series, and continuing through\u00a0Knights of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Askani<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

The Furies.<\/strong>\u00a0In the current Otherworld cosmology, a whole load of Furies live in the “Everforge” domain. In\u00a0Knights of X\u00a0<\/em>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).<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The title, “Returns Home, Having Changed”, is positioning\u00a0Knights of X\u00a0<\/em>as a transformative hero’s journey.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page – the Mothermind comments on the Fury.<\/p>\n

The Mothermind<\/strong> is presumably a new and improved version of\u00a0Mastermind<\/strong>, the sentient computer in Braddock Manor (which eventually became a supervillain).<\/p>\n

Fury-238<\/strong> is the original Fury, from Earth-238 – the “Crooked World” ruled by Jim Jaspers.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-12.\u00a0<\/strong>Betsy, Rachel and Brian discuss the Furies.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yes, I remember that, Brian.”<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-14.\u00a0<\/strong>Jamie Braddock moves Braddock Manor to Braddock Isle.<\/em><\/p>\n

Braddock Isle was created by Rictor in\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #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.<\/p>\n

Jamie is still wearing his crown, despite control of Avalon having presumably been returned to Arthur at the end of\u00a0Knights of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The two unnamed characters are Brian’s wife Meggan and their daughter Maggie.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong>\u00a0Betsy and Rachel discuss the plot and head to Otherworld.<\/em><\/p>\n

Betsy clarifies that it’s been “months” since the end of\u00a0Knights of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE<\/strong> 16. <\/strong>Micromax is imprisoned by Morgan Le Fey.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0is<\/em> a bit dim.<\/p>\n

PAGES 17-18.\u00a0<\/strong>Morgan Le Fay explains her agenda to Reuben Brousseau.<\/em><\/p>\n

Morgan Le Fay<\/strong> was the villain of the first arc of\u00a0Excalibur<\/em>, but spent most of the time after that as a prisoner of Jamie Braddock before escaping to Earth in\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #21. From the look of it, she’s only just got around to hooking up with Coven Akkaba.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Some of this, honestly, comes across as a little defensive.<\/p>\n

PAGES 19-22.\u00a0<\/strong>Betsy and Rachel visit the Everforge.<\/em><\/p>\n

“With no Starlight Citadel, the provinces of Otherworld have no obligation to even let me in any more.”<\/strong> Betsy rejected the Starlight Citadel and any formal link with Roma or Saturnyne at the end of\u00a0Knights of X<\/em> as part of her agenda to act independently.<\/p>\n

Merlyn<\/strong> was killed by Betsy in\u00a0Knights of X<\/em> #5.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Captain Britain<\/em> book in which all British iconography is used in an exclusively negative way.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.\u00a0<\/strong>Pete Wisdom visits Braddock Manor.<\/em><\/p>\n

S.T.R.I.K.E.<\/strong>\u00a0This is a plot from the tail end of\u00a0Excalibur<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

“Well, I’ve been dead lately…”<\/strong> Wisdom was killed in\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #21 and resurrected in the following issue.<\/p>\n

“…what’s happened at home in the time since they’ve been dead…”\u00a0<\/strong>Howard’s\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

PAGES 25-26.\u00a0<\/strong>Betsy and Rachel in bed.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 27-28.\u00a0<\/strong>S.T.R.I.K.E. meet Faiza Hussain.<\/em><\/p>\n

Doctor Destiny.<\/strong> 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<\/em> #3.<\/p>\n

PAGE 29.\u00a0<\/strong>Morgan identifies another Captain Britain to attack.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 30-33.\u00a0<\/strong>Captain Britain and Askani help Captain Pretani.<\/em><\/p>\n

Captain Pretani\u00a0<\/strong>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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGE 34.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0This series is the continuation of\u00a0Excalibur and\u00a0Knights of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8788,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8785\/revisions\/8788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}