@Poetry, it's the legit psychic knife! That at least is nice to see. I wonder if we'll see a psycho-blast or telepathic illusion sometime soon! Or even a psychic bow and arrow!
The writing still is blah, but I'm at least happy to see this. Still not buying though as I need more change.
Looks to be the case. And it can't have been an unintentional error by the artist, since the script says "I haven't done this in a while".
And it also looks like this is another carefree adventure-driven comic, with no significant character development to speak of or compelling dialogue. Plus ça change, as we say in French.
Incredible! The return of Betsy's psychic focused totality knife with the butterfly signature.
Tini is capable and knowledgeable after all. However could Tini Howard be restricted from using the Psylocke aspect of Betsy due to editorial ban. If so, will Howard reveal backstage truths when her Marvel contract ends? I'm beginning to think Howard is used as the punching bag for Psylocke fans to attack instead of the editors and editor in chief.
@Rahsaan it is the psychic knife! Seems that Betsy still can form it when in proximity to the enemy.
Betsy could form the psychic knife right after recreating her birth body from psionic energy. Why would she ever forget that skill.
I believe the purple blasts the Betsy corps shoot might be a form of psycho blasts and not generic magic. The Captain Britain magic is contained in the suits themselves granting the users superhuman strength, flight, magic immunity and healing.
Half the plot points that TH visited in Excalibur had already been predicated by her publicist in that nauseating CEREBROCAST podcast focusing on Betsy Braddock two (?) years ago. For me, TH's hubris, beyond reasonable doubt, is that she hasn't written one compelling story ever since Betsy became Captain Britain in 2019. Yet, if you go back and double check the team behind her books, you'll see an editor going by the name Sarah Brunstad, whose name also appears on other failed comic book series, including the recently cancelled Captain Marvel. I've often wondered whether Marvel hire writers with the purpose of scripting stories mandated by editors and managers.
@PoetryInMotion very nefarious using talent this way. Sheds light on how Tini Howard reads nuanced and mature in her indie creations and phony in the Marvel properties. Although everything is already scripted by the CEREBROCAST and editors there were instances of Howard slipping in the real voice of Betsy in the Malice arc and other parts of the Excalibur run.
TH's Catwoman is just as bad. If you search her name on Twitter, all you'll see are Catwoman fans complaining about Selina's mischaracterization and self-insertion. The editors are at fault for not intervening and allowing her to get away with mediocre writing, but the truth is that she simply isn't a good writer.
Things like this make me think Tini is a troll. LMAO.
Granted, I do like when Elizabeth does not overuse feats like the psi-dagger which got played out, but the fact that she really doesn’t use her powers in interesting ways at all except at random times like this bugs me too. I think Tini does stuff like this to show us she is aware of our grievances and she DGAF.
@Nate X I fell behind what is DC related for the same bad quality of stories I experience from Marvel at the moment. Catwoman is a bat villain and somewhat of a sociopath therefore the damage is lesser to the damage a hero like Betsy receives.
@PoetryInMotion ever since the mantle change Brian is very out of character and treated as the plot device or irrelevant commentary for the story to reach its end. I think this issue won't be an exception.
@Rahsaan about the troll tactics the way Malice used Betsy's Psylocke skills (psi dagger/martial arts) while in control of her body you are right to point it out. One would have taken it as a jab against the body swap and a well deserved payback on Betsy based on the identitarian mentality of keyboard warriors.
@Jaime Betsy also did a martial arts flip on Kwannon (and also swing kicked a guard earlier in same issue) when Kwannon tried to grab her in that alternate universe where Betsy was Queen & she and Warren were together. So I think that they def showed she still knows martial arts, Tini just barely uses it smh lol.
Question though. Is Lizzie using telepathy in one of the panels in the beginning in her house? I thought she was tk only, so was kinda confused lol.
I may be nitpicking, but is the fact that Lizzie is depicted with purple eyes another example editorial oversight/laziness? It seems that this variant never lost her eyes to Slaymaster. Nor had her her eyes replaced with bionic implants by Mojo. Nor had to ever recreate her body (eyes included) from soul energy of Sapphire Styx’s other victims. Thus, shouldn’t her eyes be blue?
@Rahsaan I noticed that too, in addition to it looking like Lizzie was using telepathy. However I have also seen in the past artist giving original British Betsy and "Asian" Betsy purple eyes at times so I just overlooked it. I prefer the purple anyway lol.
@X-Man, recall that Asian Betsy actually did have purple eyes because her eyes were implants from Mojo and Spiral. That was both before and after the Kwannon retcon because either way that body had bionic eyes.
Liz’s eye color is pure laziness on editorial’s part. I like the blue eyes better to offset all the purple, but to each their own. I feel like now Bets looks like a straight-up She-Ra, Princess of Power cast member.
Spiral was spying on the Xavier mansion through Revanche's eyes, i.e., the original bionic eyes Mojo outfitted Betsy with; she could no longer do so after Kwannon regained her memories and extracted them. Betsy in Kwannon's body must have been using Kwannon's biological ones, although I vividly remember their being blue in colour in Larroca and Madureira's artwork, either by mistake or as a reference to Psylocke's new body still carrying part of the DNA of the old one.
I psi dagger with a butterfly? Seems like this is a response to the comments made here, but Ill take it, it gives me hope that Betsy can be come back from all of this.
But at the risk of sounding overly critical, here is where I think the writer gets it all wrong again. An always self doubting Betsy, which is the biggest miss, she stripped Betsy of that confident in control persona. For me, one of the most fun aspects of Betsy were her bad ass one liners when delivering the killing blow that no one sees coming. Howard almost got it here, but then:
I think I can kick her out of of Peggys mind I haven't done this in a while I could really hurt someone Go on now drop the lady
And then she needs Rachels help to close the deal
I mean, Betsy is one that worlds most powerful telepaths, that used to use her wits and confidence to out maneuver any telepath,
I wish there was some kind of app where the people here could re-write some of these panels and replace the text.
I think here Betsy might say something like
Enough
I dont need special armor to defeat the likes of you
Getting to close to me was a mistake, or have you forgotten about my telepathic abilities?
Let me remind you
(Knife Strike)
Now get out of her head
(Does not need Rachels help)
So I am reduced to playing fantasy comic writing, but its a fun game.
Anyone else want to take a shot at re-writing that panel? I am sure that you all know Betsy well enough to do better.
Yeah, using two characters with the exact same power set (i.e., Psylocke and Rachel) is only one of the numerous reasons this series was dead on arrival.
I know it's TH, but I feel like more people would have been invested in the book, had it been about an adventure with the Braddock twins instead.
Wokini Chillhard makes them look Barbie assembly. They ain't. Betsy is a telepath loving to battle body to body with her TK armory for thrills. Betsy is a mirror reflecting the blows double the power back to whoever. Rachel takes the blows and makes the pain into power it's her hound instincts.
Morgan, Luv, I once told the Shadow King that this trick had gotten old, but I've changed my mind. The focused totality of my telepathic power is just the fix for a cow as basically trite as yourself.
@Banquo @Kiki, I’m enjoying this game. I hope others will join in. It’s way better than the actual dialogue we are getting on page!
@Poetry, I would have definitely preferred a book with Betsy and Bri as the leads if we must have these fairy tale stories. I think Tini writes Rachel even worse than she writes Betsy. Her Rachel is so one-nut in mooning over Captain Britain. Nothing at all like the fierce Rachel we had in the late 80s. Granted, Ray’s healed from the trauma we first met with her but this iteration of her is like a shallow, lovesick husk.
Rachel's inclusion in this book is bringing down Betsy's character. Betsy always comes across as stupid and clueless, and Rachel has to guide and mentor her every step of the way. Rachel is the Scrappy-Doo to Betsy's Scooby Doo. TH is known for not being able to write powersets properly, but having two characters with the same powerset only highlights the mediocrity of her writing.
What I meant to say was that pre-retcon when there was only one body, Asian Psylocke still had the purple bionic eyes. Then with the retcon she was still depicted with purple eyes, and it was implied they were that color due to Spiral tweaking Kwannon’s DNA. When Larroca and Madureira depicted them as blue that actually made more sense as European Psylocke’s natural eye color was blue and if Spiral gene-spliced traits from the European body into the Asian one that would make sense. However, I highly doubt Larroca and Madureira were thinking that scientifically and instead were just coloring her eyes blue because they were being lazy and Eurocentric like most Marvel artists who whitewash the features of non-white characters all the time. We all know that Asian Psylocke was still drawn to loom European by most artists including Larroca and Madureira a significant portion of the time.
Keeping Revanche as Psylocke is useless cause they whitewash her face and hair anyways. Giving her the Betsy eyes and powers make her a western clone referencing Japanese culture. Kitty is ten times better ninja than Revanchelocke. And Shadowcat makes the comeback!
@Kiki, I have to agree. Under Wells, Kwannon showed promise despite being trapped in Bets’ hand-me-down clothing. However over time, it seems that all the writers that have followed have literally written her persona to be identical to Betsy’s (pre-Tini) and many of the artists have gotten lazy in depicting her phenotype as distinctly East Asian.
This is why I cannot bring myself to spend money on Marvel Comics. The Editing and Writing are so crazy most of the time these days.
@Poetry, it's the legit psychic knife! That at least is nice to see. I wonder if we'll see a psycho-blast or telepathic illusion sometime soon! Or even a psychic bow and arrow!
ReplyDeleteThe writing still is blah, but I'm at least happy to see this. Still not buying though as I need more change.
Looks to be the case. And it can't have been an unintentional error by the artist, since the script says "I haven't done this in a while".
ReplyDeleteAnd it also looks like this is another carefree adventure-driven comic, with no significant character development to speak of or compelling dialogue. Plus ça change, as we say in French.
It's a nonconsequential filler alright.
ReplyDeleteMorgan devises a plan > TH sets up a battle > Betsy and Rachel thwart Morgan's plan > Morgan retreats > Morgan comes up with another plan.
Repeat 10 times.
Lmao you're right though 🤣
DeleteIncredible! The return of Betsy's psychic focused totality knife with the butterfly signature.
ReplyDeleteTini is capable and knowledgeable after all. However could Tini Howard be restricted from using the Psylocke aspect of Betsy due to editorial ban. If so, will Howard reveal backstage truths when her Marvel contract ends? I'm beginning to think Howard is used as the punching bag for Psylocke fans to attack instead of the editors and editor in chief.
@Rahsaan it is the psychic knife! Seems that Betsy still can form it when in proximity to the enemy.
ReplyDeleteBetsy could form the psychic knife right after recreating her birth body from psionic energy. Why would she ever forget that skill.
I believe the purple blasts the Betsy corps shoot might be a form of psycho blasts and not generic magic. The Captain Britain magic is contained in the suits themselves granting the users superhuman strength, flight, magic immunity and healing.
@Jaime 100%.
ReplyDeleteHalf the plot points that TH visited in Excalibur had already been predicated by her publicist in that nauseating CEREBROCAST podcast focusing on Betsy Braddock two (?) years ago. For me, TH's hubris, beyond reasonable doubt, is that she hasn't written one compelling story ever since Betsy became Captain Britain in 2019. Yet, if you go back and double check the team behind her books, you'll see an editor going by the name Sarah Brunstad, whose name also appears on other failed comic book series, including the recently cancelled Captain Marvel. I've often wondered whether Marvel hire writers with the purpose of scripting stories mandated by editors and managers.
@PoetryInMotion very nefarious using talent this way. Sheds light on how Tini Howard reads nuanced and mature in her indie creations and phony in the Marvel properties. Although everything is already scripted by the CEREBROCAST and editors there were instances of Howard slipping in the real voice of Betsy in the Malice arc and other parts of the Excalibur run.
ReplyDeleteTH's Catwoman is just as bad. If you search her name on Twitter, all you'll see are Catwoman fans complaining about Selina's mischaracterization and self-insertion. The editors are at fault for not intervening and allowing her to get away with mediocre writing, but the truth is that she simply isn't a good writer.
ReplyDeleteBTW, judging by the spoilers posted below, was Brian once more completely tossed aside?
ReplyDeleteThings like this make me think Tini is a troll. LMAO.
ReplyDeleteGranted, I do like when Elizabeth does not overuse feats like the psi-dagger which got played out, but the fact that she really doesn’t use her powers in interesting ways at all except at random times like this bugs me too. I think Tini does stuff like this to show us she is aware of our grievances and she DGAF.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Poetry No Brian, no Jamie, no Meggan and no Maggie.
ReplyDelete@Nate X I fell behind what is DC related for the same bad quality of stories I experience from Marvel at the moment. Catwoman is a bat villain and somewhat of a sociopath therefore the damage is lesser to the damage a hero like Betsy receives.
ReplyDelete@PoetryInMotion ever since the mantle change Brian is very out of character and treated as the plot device or irrelevant commentary for the story to reach its end.
I think this issue won't be an exception.
@Rahsaan about the troll tactics the way Malice used Betsy's Psylocke skills (psi dagger/martial arts) while in control of her body you are right to point it out. One would have taken it as a jab against the body swap and a well deserved payback on Betsy based on the identitarian mentality of keyboard warriors.
@Jaime Betsy also did a martial arts flip on Kwannon (and also swing kicked a guard earlier in same issue) when Kwannon tried to grab her in that alternate universe where Betsy was Queen & she and Warren were together. So I think that they def showed she still knows martial arts, Tini just barely uses it smh lol.
DeleteQuestion though. Is Lizzie using telepathy in one of the panels in the beginning in her house? I thought she was tk only, so was kinda confused lol.
another captain britain costume better than betsy´s...
ReplyDeleteI may be nitpicking, but is the fact that Lizzie is depicted with purple eyes another example editorial oversight/laziness? It seems that this variant never lost her eyes to Slaymaster. Nor had her her eyes replaced with bionic implants by Mojo. Nor had to ever recreate her body (eyes included) from soul energy of Sapphire Styx’s other victims. Thus, shouldn’t her eyes be blue?
ReplyDelete@Rahsaan I noticed that too, in addition to it looking like Lizzie was using telepathy. However I have also seen in the past artist giving original British Betsy and "Asian" Betsy purple eyes at times so I just overlooked it. I prefer the purple anyway lol.
Delete@X-Man, recall that Asian Betsy actually did have purple eyes because her eyes were implants from Mojo and Spiral. That was both before and after the Kwannon retcon because either way that body had bionic eyes.
ReplyDeleteLiz’s eye color is pure laziness on editorial’s part. I like the blue eyes better to offset all the purple, but to each their own. I feel like now Bets looks like a straight-up She-Ra, Princess of Power cast member.
@Rahsaan oh dang, didn't consider that. That legit.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSpiral was spying on the Xavier mansion through Revanche's eyes, i.e., the original bionic eyes Mojo outfitted Betsy with; she could no longer do so after Kwannon regained her memories and extracted them. Betsy in Kwannon's body must have been using Kwannon's biological ones, although I vividly remember their being blue in colour in Larroca and Madureira's artwork, either by mistake or as a reference to Psylocke's new body still carrying part of the DNA of the old one.
ReplyDeleteAsian Bets pre-Kwannon conception:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pinterest.com/pin/psylocke--137008013643794071/
I psi dagger with a butterfly? Seems like this is a response to the comments made here, but Ill take it, it gives me hope that Betsy can be come back from all of this.
ReplyDeleteBut at the risk of sounding overly critical, here is where I think the writer gets it all wrong again. An always self doubting Betsy, which is the biggest miss, she stripped Betsy of that confident in control persona. For me, one of the most fun aspects of Betsy were her bad ass one liners when delivering the killing blow that no one sees coming. Howard almost got it here, but then:
I think I can kick her out of of Peggys mind
I haven't done this in a while
I could really hurt someone
Go on now drop the lady
And then she needs Rachels help to close the deal
I mean, Betsy is one that worlds most powerful telepaths, that used to use her wits and confidence to out maneuver any telepath,
I wish there was some kind of app where the people here could re-write some of these panels and replace the text.
I think here Betsy might say something like
Enough
I dont need special armor to defeat the likes of you
Getting to close to me was a mistake, or have you forgotten about my telepathic abilities?
Let me remind you
(Knife Strike)
Now get out of her head
(Does not need Rachels help)
So I am reduced to playing fantasy comic writing, but its a fun game.
Anyone else want to take a shot at re-writing that panel? I am sure that you all know Betsy well enough to do better.
Real Betsy: The crone doesn't know when to leg it. She leaves me no choice... Up yours my focused totality you minging sod and back to your burrow.
DeleteYeah, using two characters with the exact same power set (i.e., Psylocke and Rachel) is only one of the numerous reasons this series was dead on arrival.
ReplyDeleteI know it's TH, but I feel like more people would have been invested in the book, had it been about an adventure with the Braddock twins instead.
Wokini Chillhard makes them look Barbie assembly. They ain't. Betsy is a telepath loving to battle body to body with her TK armory for thrills. Betsy is a mirror reflecting the blows double the power back to whoever. Rachel takes the blows and makes the pain into power it's her hound instincts.
Delete@Banquo, I gotchu:
ReplyDeleteMorgan, Luv, I once told the Shadow King that this trick had gotten old, but I've changed my mind. The focused totality of my telepathic power is just the fix for a cow as basically trite as yourself.
Praise just gold. Your Betsy voice is the real thing
Delete@Banquo @Kiki, I’m enjoying this game. I hope others will join in. It’s way better than the actual dialogue we are getting on page!
ReplyDelete@Poetry, I would have definitely preferred a book with Betsy and Bri as the leads if we must have these fairy tale stories. I think Tini writes Rachel even worse than she writes Betsy. Her Rachel is so one-nut in mooning over Captain Britain. Nothing at all like the fierce Rachel we had in the late 80s. Granted, Ray’s healed from the trauma we first met with her but this iteration of her is like a shallow, lovesick husk.
The last time Elizabeth exorcised someone she was way more confident and had a better outfit:
ReplyDeletehttps://comicnewbies.com/2019/01/19/psylocke-vs-storm-x-men-disassembled/
Amen
Delete@Rahsaan @Kiki,
ReplyDeleteLove your alternate entries and yes I hope more people play this game, its so much better than getting depressed over how Betsy is currently written.
Its like with every issue that comes out should think about What Would Betsy Really Say. WWBRS?
I also like the game of pointing out a better knife strike or better Betsy moments that show how other writers got it right.
Rachel's inclusion in this book is bringing down Betsy's character. Betsy always comes across as stupid and clueless, and Rachel has to guide and mentor her every step of the way. Rachel is the Scrappy-Doo to Betsy's Scooby Doo. TH is known for not being able to write powersets properly, but having two characters with the same powerset only highlights the mediocrity of her writing.
ReplyDelete@X-Man @ Poetry,
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant to say was that pre-retcon when there was only one body, Asian Psylocke still had the purple bionic eyes. Then with the retcon she was still depicted with purple eyes, and it was implied they were that color due to Spiral tweaking Kwannon’s DNA. When Larroca and Madureira depicted them as blue that actually made more sense as European Psylocke’s natural eye color was blue and if Spiral gene-spliced traits from the European body into the Asian one that would make sense. However, I highly doubt Larroca and Madureira were thinking that scientifically and instead were just coloring her eyes blue because they were being lazy and Eurocentric like most Marvel artists who whitewash the features of non-white characters all the time. We all know that Asian Psylocke was still drawn to loom European by most artists including Larroca and Madureira a significant portion of the time.
Keeping Revanche as Psylocke is useless cause they whitewash her face and hair anyways. Giving her the Betsy eyes and powers make her a western clone referencing Japanese culture. Kitty is ten times better ninja than Revanchelocke. And Shadowcat makes the comeback!
Delete@Kiki, I have to agree. Under Wells, Kwannon showed promise despite being trapped in Bets’ hand-me-down clothing. However over time, it seems that all the writers that have followed have literally written her persona to be identical to Betsy’s (pre-Tini) and many of the artists have gotten lazy in depicting her phenotype as distinctly East Asian.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I cannot bring myself to spend money on Marvel Comics. The Editing and Writing are so crazy most of the time these days.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKiki M. Ishola said...
ReplyDelete"Kitty is ten times better ninja than Revanchelocke..."
Some would beg to differ:
https://www.cbr.com/xmen-best-fighters/
and...
https://www.cbr.com/marvel-comics-best-spies-infiltrators/