Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #1: "Returns Home, Having Changed."

[alliterator]

"First of all, it's really exciting to finally be able to say, 'okay they're in a relationship,'" Howard says of Betsy and Rachel. "They're staying together. But the fact is, they both work really hard jobs and they probably don't have as much time to sit around and catch up on Bake Off or whatever. So it's really important to balance that stress. This has always been the thing for Betsy: You have the thing you want, but can you let yourself enjoy it? That's a very Betsy thing, to think 'maybe I don't deserve this.'"
-- Entertainment Weekly

Comments

[shakalooloo]

Always good to see Faiza around!

[giraffesforever]

I don't know her real well, is she always this... I don't know what to call it, teenager-ish?

[alliterator]

She's been a superhero fangirl since day one, similar to Kamala (but predating her).

[cygnia]

Have Kamala & Faiza ever met yet?

[deh_tommy]

Superheroes and cricket. Who could be more worthy of Excalibur than her?

[shakalooloo]

Her character descriptionn originally was basically 'superhero fangirl', and it's up to the writers how far to go with that. You'da thought she'd have gotten more used to being around superheroes since she became one herself.

[thehood]

Las time I remember seeing her was in Al Ewing's Might Defenders.

[shakalooloo]

She popped up in Valkyrie to point out how NHS healthcare is great.

[deh_tommy]

The last time she appeared (to my memory anyway) was in a tie-in to The Death of Doctor Strange.

[cainofdreaming]

The Black Knight tie-in to be precise.

[deh_tommy]

Betsy going “maybe I don’t deserve this” would work a lot better if she wasn’t a morally and nationally compromised imperialist apologist stooge who’s proved time and again why she shouldn’t have this title and hasn’t bothered to do her dang duty until now.

And please don’t drag Faiza Hussain into this, she doesn’t deserve when things inevitably go sour and her weird “ZOMG isn’t it awesome that you guys are actually all mutants? Total Stan right here lol” vibe is already super weird.

[alliterator]

"Betsy going “maybe I don’t deserve this” would work a lot better if she wasn’t a morally and nationally compromised imperialist apologist stooge who’s proved time and again why she shouldn’t have this title and hasn’t bothered to do her dang duty until now."

My dude, I'll say this once: you don't have to keep posting the exact same thing over and over again every time I post a few pages from a Betsy Braddock comic. We already know how you feel. Everyone knows how you feel. It's pretty obvious. And I don't feel like getting into the exact same arguments about why you are wrong.

The fact that you can't just read what the *actual pages* are showing and discuss that is just silly.

[laughing_tree]

They're not saying the same thing over and over again. They're responding specifically to what's in the scans (Betsy's dialogue, Faiza).

It's no more repetitive than the repeated complaints about Spider-Man/MJ being apart in Wells' run, and a lot less so in fact.

[alliterator]

Please show me in these scans where Betsy is a "morally and nationally compromised imperialist apologist stooge who’s proved time and again why she shouldn’t have this title."

"It's no more repetitive than the repeated complaints about Spider-Man/MJ being apart in Wells' run, and a lot less so in fact."

Yeah, I'm fucking tired of that shit, too. Get over it.

[laughing_tree]

They're not saying that's in the scans. That's the outside context for their response to the quoted line, which *is* in the scans. The pages don't exist in a vacuum.

[alliterator]

That's bull and you know it. There is no context for Betsy being a "morally and nationally compromised imperialist apologist stooge who’s proved time and again why she shouldn’t have this title."

But sure, if you can prove to me that Betsy is a "morally and nationally compromised imperialist apologist stooge who’s proved time and again why she shouldn’t have this title" then go right ahead.

[deh_tommy]

We’re at an impasse again and I don’t want things to escalate any further because we’ve all made ourselves clear on where we stand. I’ll just say that, in my opinion, she lost all respect from me when she destroyed the amulet so no one else could ever take the title from her.

[alliterator]

So you are basing this on a fundamental misunderstanding of what happened? Oh goody.

Betsy destroyed the Amulet so that Saturnyne wouldn't take the title away, but that was also a ploy; she actually did it so that Saturnyne would offer Brian the Starlight Sword and she and Brian could steal it and use it in the Tournament of Swords. She knew this was the only way to get the Starlight Sword and she knew she needed the Starlight Sword to participate in the Tournament.

Hell, the person who wields the Starlight Sword is Captain Britain and Brian clearly makes sure Betsy has it without a problem:

[deh_tommy]

Saturnyne was going to give them the sword anyway because she had to, there was nothing stopping Brian from just... you know, giving it to Betsy like he already did. The ploy was nonsensical and pointless when held under scrutiny. She still destroyed the amulet. She’s possessive of the title, when she goes “maybe I don’t deserve to be Captain Britain” and someone else goes “yeah you don’t” then she’s suddenly all “Well screw you, you won’t take this from me without a fight!”.

That same issue is also where she rescues Jamie from Saturnyne and makes friendly banter with him after learning he was tearing apart his own pocket dimensions so he could build his own private Corps and personally witnessed him murdering Captain Jubilee when she didn’t fall in line. And was making Brian brandish the Sword of Might part of their plan? Because there’s so many ways that could have backfired as well, especially with how much pain and anguish she knew it was causing him.

[alliterator]

"Saturnyne was going to give them the sword anyway because she had to, there was nothing stopping Brian from just... you know, giving it to Betsy like he already did."

No, she wasn't. She was going to give Brian the Sword after making him Captain Britain again, which he did NOT want to be. "Oh, but he could have just given it to Betsy," no, that's not how magic works. It would have bonded him to the Sword and job forever.

I mean, that's why when Saturnyne performs the ritual to return the Captain Britain Corps later on -- the explicit love spell, which she thinks will bring Brian to her -- it doesn't work and instead creates a corps based on Betsy: Brian never agreed to be Captain Britain for Saturnyne. If he had, this entire thing would have been different.

"She still destroyed the amulet."

An amulet which does not matter anymore.

"She’s possessive of the title, when she goes “maybe I don’t deserve to be Captain Britain” and someone else goes “yeah you don’t” then she’s suddenly all “Well screw you, you won’t take this from me without a fight!”."

...I don't understand, you're angry that she's insecure and then when people try to play on those insecurities, she gets angry and pushes back against them? That's...bad to you?

"And was making Brian brandish the Sword of Might part of their plan?"

She didn't make Brian wield the Sword of Might, he agreed to do it himself. The issue ends with them firmly cementing their bond as siblings.

Once again, you are fundamentally misunderstanding everything that happened.

[deh_tommy]

What I am is just tired. You win again. Let’s just agree to disagree regarding our feelings and unless it’s directly relevant to the scans I’ll stop giving out about her.

[laughing_tree]

FWIW, I appreciate your comments on this particular topic.

[iamrman]

Hey, it's those S.T.R.I.K.E. psychics from those old Marvel U.K. comics. Now, they are deep cuts!

[alliterator]

Pete Wisdom got them resurrected in the last Excalibur series, so it looks like we're finally picking up that plotline.

[panthyr]

p2p4 - What's that in front of the moon?!

[giraffesforever]

If I had a nickel for every artist who had no idea what a crescent moon looks like, I'd have probably a couple dollars I bet.

[bruinsfan]

Maybe it's just the googly eye of one of the Mole Man's giant monsters peeking in the window?

[sabertoothlotus]

"That's no moon..."

[julian]

This is what comes of not keeping up.

Or: RACHEL SUMMERS JUST KISSED A WOMAN, THE ME WHO READ X-MEN #207 IS JUMPING UP AND DOWN EXCITEDLY.

Sorry, sorry, I'm fine now. (For one thing, she's been doing it for awhile.)

[nyadnar17]

I absolutely ADORE that Rachel Summer's having shit taste in partners is such a core part of her character.

Its so much fun to watch these train wrecks.

[super_fly]

It's still weird seeing phrases like "cape-scene" when historically, how many Marvel characters actually wear capes for it to be a trend?

[cainofdreaming]

Doom wears one. That is enough.

[deh_tommy]

Off the top of my head, there’s been Doctor Doom, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, Black Panther used to wear one, Storm, Mister Sinister, Magneto, Thor, Spider-Man and Black Bolt used to have those little armpit gliders, Nightmare, Hobgoblin... it’s more of a villain thing these days, but there’s probably a good number of heroes from the 1930s-50s or so who wore capes as well.

[cainofdreaming]

Blue Marvel, Sentry, Hyperion, and Gladiator can be added to the list too. And, going by the last three, any other Superman 'inspired' character.

[super_fly]

Some of these seem more like cloaks than capes though.