This is a compilation of official Betsy Braddock designs, which ended up unused, reworked or altogether rejected by Marvel throughout the years. These unused costumes were edited and colored by us and will be added to our Costume Gallery in the next update.
Captain Britain by Alan Davis (c. 1985)
Alan Davis' original Captain Britain design had slightly different patterns; however, Betsy's wig was supposed to be shorter and wavier as opposed to the long, straight wig of the final design. Alan Davis' plot notes reveal that originally Betsy would become Captain Britain earlier in Captain Britain vol. 2 #9 (1985) during the battle with the Cherub Whirlwind warpies. Ultimately, Betsy's final Captain Britain design debuted in Captain Britain vol. 2 #12. This character design was published as an extra in the Captain Britain Omnibus (2022).
Outback Psylocke by Arthur Adams (dated November 5, 1987)
According to X-Men: Archives Sketchbook #1, there was a strong desire to update the X-Men's appearance at the time. Art Adams worked up several takes on those "new looks" and proposed a series of costume designs, particularly for the female X-Men members of the era. For Psylocke, Adams designed a black bodysuit covered by a one-piece bathing suit, with and without a cape/hood. His only note is that it should not be pink. This design eventually evolved into the "Australian Outback Armor", which debuted in Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #232 (1988). These character designs were published in X-Men: Archives Sketchbook #1 (2000) and Modern Masters #6: Arthur Adams (2006).
Lady Mandarin by Jim Lee (dated June 22, 1989)
According to X-Men: Archives Sketchbook #1, Jim Lee tried a dramatically interpretation of the "new" Psylocke when designing Lady Mandarin. Whereas the first design is similar to the final, approved Lady Mandarin costume, the second design is rather different. According to Lee's notes, it consisted of a black suit, black gloves, a protective "death" mask and weapons concealed within the boot. Both versions had a retractable blade attached to the fist. The final Lady Mandarin costume debuted in the cover of Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #256 and in the pages of #257 (1989). These character designs were published in X-Men: Archives Sketchbook #1 (2000).
Mystery Telepath by Salvador Larroca (c. 2002)
Legend has it that Chris Claremont originally planned for Psylocke's death in X-Treme X-Men to be temporary, with the idea being that when she returned, she would be stripped of the Crimson Dawn plus perhaps even returning her to her original body. According to Claremont's Facebook Group, Betsy was supposed to return as a psychic "ghost" circa X-Treme X-Men #19 where she'd fight the temptation to possess people. Salvador Larroca's notes reveal that Psylocke should have had a black costume, blue hair and yellow eyes. However, this was during a period where Marvel had decided that no characters would return from the dead, so Claremont's plans were squelched. This character design later surfaced online in the mid-2000s. A similar character with blue hair and yellow eyes was introduced by Larroca in X-Men vol. 2 #171 (2005) in Foxx, Mystique's disguise as a student at Xavier's. As for Betsy, she was ultimately resurrected in Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #455 (2005).
Uncanny X-Force/Marvel NOW! by Kris Anka (c. 2012)
When Kris Anka was approached to redesign the members of the Uncanny X-Force relaunch, he started with Psylocke. According to Anka, as the leader of the team he wanted to nail Psylocke's design first and allow that to be the foundation for the rest of the team. Anka worked up four different designs before the final design eventually picked. Anka published all his designs with notes on his Tumblr page in October 2012.
Design 1 - Anka: “I started off with a straight up tactical suit. The image in my head was her descending out of the ceiling into a dark room to assassinate someone; So I tried to create a design that I could believe in that situation.”
Design 2 - Anka: “With this one I tried to help break up all the black of the costume, and re-implement some of the skin-stripes that are so quintessential to the Psylocke-look. But I didn’t want them to be completely separated from the costume as per the Jim Lee design. I tried to take a page from the design Opeña designed for the first volume of the Uncanny X-force. But add a bit more “me” to the shapes of those cut-outs.”
Design 3 - Anka: “More of the same. Trying to break up the black.”
Design 4 - Anka: “Tried something way more stealth. Visually a lot more effective for an assassin in the dark.”
X-Force/All-New Marvel NOW! by Rock-He Kim (c. 2013)
Artist Rock-He Kim redesigned all X-Force members when the book was relaunched in early 2014. When USAToday announced the book in November 2013, Kim's original character design for Psylocke was revealed. Originally, Betsy's X-Force costume was more detailed with camouflage patterns resembling the leg and arm stripes of Jim Lee's classic Psylocke design. The final, approved design, albeit similar, was simpler, with less camo and less patterns, and debuted in X-Force (vol. 4) #1 (2014).
Mystery in Madripoor/Disassembled by Mahmud Asrar (c. 2018)
Artist Mahmud Asrar was tasked with redesigning Psylocke for Mystery in Madripoor, which would see Betsy reclaiming her original body once more. As far as we know, Asrar worked up two different designs. The design picked, known to fans as the "Disassembled" costume, debuted in Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor #4 (2018). A second, unused design was later published as an extra in the Director's Cut of Uncanny X-Men vol. 5 #1. This design was similar to Jean Grey's X-Men Red costume (also designed by Asrar) and resembled Psylocke's Outback armor, with similar elements, such as the hood, a cape and pieces of armor.
Captain Britain/Dawn of X by Marcus To (c. 2019)
Marcus To redesigned Betsy as Captain Britain when she claimed the mantle in Excalibur vol. 4 #1 (2019) as part of the Dawn of X relaunch. To later revealed that he had worked up different designs for Betsy. In April 2020, To published this unused costume on Twitter, which was reused for Brian Braddock in Excalibur vol. 4 #6 (2020). As opposed to the Union Jack design, this costume was mostly red and referenced Brian's original Captain Britain costume, with golden details and a golden Lion Rampant symbol on the chest.
“For so long, my life has been out of control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered, I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul, my self. But no more. Now I know who I am.” – Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Braddock, daughter of Otherworld, mutant, telepath, telekinetic, defender of the realm and, above all, X-Man.
6 comments:
Many of these unused designs look gorgeous! Still, most of the times, I'd say the artists made the right choice.
While the Disassembled uniform looks overall better than Asrar's unused design, I wonder if maybe he could have incorporated the hood from the unused design in it (I love when Betsy has a hood or cloak as part of her uniform). Then again, the uniform she ended up getting leaves part of her shoulders exposed, so perhaps the hood wouldn't fit with it.
And To's red armor for Betsy looks fantastic - but if she had it, I don't think the name "Captain Britain" would work for her... maybe "Lady Albion" or something would be a better codename for it. But it looks beautiful - and much more convincing as actual armor than the Earth version of the armor she ended up getting (the Otherworld version does look like armor).
Oooh I love these. I feel like the unused X-Force 2014 and Marcus To designs were better than what we got.
Come to think about it, if Tini Howard's next X-book involving Betsy has anything to do with STRIKE (she did show Pete Wisdom creating a new STRIKE team and didn't show it in action so far) and she somehow loses the Captain Britain mantle, Betsy could wear Asrar's unused design, as it looks more like a SHIELD-ish uniform for spies than something that a conventional superhero would wear. Only the hood/cloak would need some minor adjustment to avoid the risk of some people thinking the hood is a hijab and accusing her of cultural appropriation, and maybe the pieces of armor could be purple/magenta (and maybe the purple/magenta part in the torso could be an armored breastplate to reinforce the references to the Outback armor... even if it wouldn't fit with the spy theme).
...Yeah, I know that she'll probably continue being Captain Britain (which I don't mind) and that STRIKE will probably be left forgotten (now THAT I do mind). But one can always dream, right?
Such a great job with photoshop! Kudos. And I love the Asrar alt look as well. Even if we got that look it would be doomed as the pink suit we got sadly didn't last long at all
Love a lot of these. Especially pre-ninja stuff, and post "re-birth" stuff.
Post a Comment