Recap 2022 • This was a year that Betsy Braddock fans will not miss. Our Captain Britain had only 5 full comic book appearances in the entire year, which is unheard of for character that was once so popular and beloved. Tini Howard has written yet another chapter in her Otherworld saga that ultimately saw Betsy Braddock's popularity wane even further. Knights of X, which had been conceived as an ongoing book, ended up canceled after 5 issues with low sales and mixed reception from fans and critics alike. Howard continued her tendency to write Betsy as if she were a brand new character while ignoring the last 30 years of characterization and developments with her preference for a "struggling" Betsy prevailing. Meanwhile, the character became increasingly isolated from the main X-Men line and ignored in other major events like Inferno, the second Hellfire Gala and Judgment Day. Perhaps as a consolation prize, we saw the debut of Agent Lizzie Braddock, an alternate version much more in line with the Betsy we know and love, written as a competent hero for a change by the brilliant Jamie McKelvie. Refresh your memories and talk about your favorite stories, writers, artists, quotes, etc. Happy New Year!
JANUARY
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X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #18
• Paradise Lost, Chapter 6: Kinda Nice to Merit
[Behind the Scenes] Betsy resists against a biotoxic and psionic assault which rendered all mutants on the island of Krakoa inert.
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Uncanny X-Men #9
• Paradise Lost, Chapter 8: The Stupidest Plan Ever
Betsy Braddock, Charles Xavier and Kwannon are the only mutants awake in Kwannon following the Human Adaptoid's attack.
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MARCH
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Captain Carter #1
• Chapter 1
[Alternate] Agent Lizzie Braddock is paired with super soldier Captain Carter as a liaison between her and S.T.R.I.K.E.
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Life of Wolverine Infinity Comic #9
• Chapter 9: A Better Path
[Flashback] Recap of the "Fall of the Mutants" event.
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Dark Ages #6
• Chapter 6
[Alternate] Psylocke is mind-controlled by the Purple Man to fight Deadpool. She's ultimately released.
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APRIL
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Captain Carter #2
• Chapter 2
[Alternate] Agent Lizzie Braddock and Captain Carter manage to foil a smuggling operation and apprehend the criminal leader Georges Batroc.
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X-Men '92: House of XCII #1
• Chapter 1
[Alternate] Psylocke meets human ambassadors from all over the world to explain what Krakoan medicines and technology are capable of.
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Knights of X #1
• Part One: Hated and Feared
After months leading the Corps and rescuing mutants in Otherworld, Betsy returns to Krakoa to gather the Knights of X and accept Roma's quest to find the Siege Perilous.
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MAY
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Captain Carter #3
• Chapter 3
[Alternate] Agent Lizzie Braddock thwarts an assassination attempt on her and goes into hiding while growing suspicious of her fellow S.T.R.I.K.E. agents.
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Knights of X #2
• Part Two: Never Split the Party
Captain Britain takes Rictor, Shatterstar and Mordred to Blightspoke to investigate the source of the blightswill liquor and the whereabouts of Sheriff Whitechapel.
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JUNE
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X-Men '92: House of XCII #2
• Chapter 2
[Alternate] Psylocke joins the newest iteration of Krakoa's X-Force.
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Knights of X #3
• Part Three: Kill Your Darlings
Captain Britain and her team make their way to Sevalith and reach Death to learn more about the kingdom of Mercator. They later face Merlyn in the Crooket Market.
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JULY
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Captain Carter #4
• Chapter 4
[Alternate] Agent Lizzie Braddock and Harley Davis uncover the vampire conspiracy behind the Prime Minister’s fabricated life.
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Knights of X #4
• Part Four: The Seat Of The Self
Captain Britain enters Mercator, which is the Siege Perilous itself, and sees the Captain Britain Corps blaming her for her failures. She then reunites with Rachel and kisses her.
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AUGUST
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X-Men '92: House of XCII #3
• Chapter 3
[Alternate] Psylocke joins the Swordbearers of Krakoa in a contest against the champions of Polemachus for the fate of Arakko.
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Captain Carter #5
• Chapter 5
[Alternate] Agent Lizzie Braddock reveals she is a mutants, defeats other S.T.R.I.K.E. agents and frees Captain Carter from prison. She is then promoted to Deputy Director General.
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X-Men '92: House of XCII #4
• Chapter 4
[Alternate] Psylocke attends the Hellfire Gala.
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Knights of X #5
• Part Five: Fort Krakoa
Captain Britain defeats and ultimately kills Merlyn with the aid of the Knights of X and the X-Men ending the battle once and for all.
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SEPTEMBER
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X-Men '92: House of XCII #5
• Chapter 5
[Alternate] Psylocke joins the X-Men in the final battle against Nimrod and Orchis.
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DECEMBER
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X-Treme X-Men #1
• The Ghost That Just Won't Die!
[Hallucination] Kitty Pryde has a nightmare about all her X-Men friends dead.
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X-Terminators #4
• This Book is Your Favorite Book Now, isn't it? Be Honest
Captain Britain leads the Knights of X in a baseball match against the New Mutants in Krakoa.
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“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.
23 comments:
Every new year Betsy gets less. Free her from Howard before doomsday hour. She's stuck in a kettle rut. From day one CB Betsy was game over. Her Psylocke can't compare to her CB and has fans running away 100MPH. Wish 2023 breaks the cursed loop.
Truly a heinous year for our Betsy. Only TH's blind supporters would think of five appearances as something good. Next year will be the same, with five issues of BB:CB and one more book cancelled.
nathan whats ur favorite betsy story? i pray that it not when she sex up nathan clones
tini howard wont let that stuff happen ever again
In 2023 Tini writes Betsy's journey of transition. The story of a FTM mutant caught in a lesbian love. Hormones will come to blows with mutant and magic powers for epic story about 100 issues long.
In TH's first X-Position she was asked "was anyone concerned becoming CB might actually hurt Betsy in the long run since Psylocke is a far more popular brand than Captain Britain?" and she replied "That brand thing never came up once. We didn’t seek to ‘prioritize the Betsy brand’ or anything." And now we're facing the consequences. Betsy being reduced to an irrelevant C-Lister who can't sustain any book and is largely ignored by all the other books. It's really sad.
@Nate the problem I think is I don't think they see her that way. I think all they see is that she's leading a team and gets her own books.
What astounds me is that Tini seems to know so much about Betsy's history, but has never really captured her voice. That paired with her disjointed writing style has just been a very sad disappointment.
Dissasembled Betsy/Psylocke was awesome. I hope Tini is done writing her after this, maybe go back to Apocalypse "A". She wanted to really write for him after all and actually give him some somewhat interesting backstory as I recall.
I will thank Tini for somewhat salvaging the Kwannon/Betsy mess the Fallen Angel writer created, but I definitely hope she moves on from Betsy after this. She knows Betsy's history but still imho doesn't understand her.
Like when she tried to insinuate that Betsy as Psylocke wasn't a hero, but someone that messed with peoples minds and snuck off in the shadows smh lol. Ignoring all the times Betsy has risked her life trying to save others.
I'm not giving up hope on Betsy though, I think any good writer can turn anything around if they are creative enough.
tobi you hate tini howard but better stop your slick anti lgbtq stuff
xman happy new year!!
Happy new year!!
It's really hard to read the comment about Howard saying that the Betsy brand thing never came up and was never a priority, that kind of illustrates the problem, it seems like they didn't care about the history and wanted to create something new. So the question is, why didn't they just create a new CB character? Because the Betsy Braddock "brand" was reduced to a tool to lure in fans, and then they gave us something that was not even recognizable as BB. I say that because speaking for myself, if they just introduced a new character in the CB suit, unless it was in the hands of a really good writer, it would have been DOA and because it would of been in the hands of Howard, we would not even be talking about it or Howard right now. So in other words, the brand did matter, at least for promotional purposes and the cavalier attitude that "we didn't even talk about it" shows a clear lack of any kind of reverence for all the writers that came before them and what they added to the Betsy Braddock story.
I imagine that being handed a legacy character like BB/Pyslocke would be kind of like being responsible for a painting in a museum, in the idea that it would be kind of stewardship. I mean you can preserve it, hang it with other paintings to give it a new context, re-interpret it, bring new life to it via research and maybe yes, touch it up a bit if its starts to deteriorate. But what you shouldn't do, is take your personal box of paints and paint over something new over it because you believe that the original artist and all the stewards before you got it so completely wrong and that people will come to see the brilliance of your new creation and understand that it is so much better than it was before.
But dont lose hope friends, I know from personal experience, that in the right hands, art can be restored.
Happy New Year and thanks to all of you who post regularly here, I dont post much, but I do read what you have to say all the time because it's usually pretty spot on with what I think.
@Banquo40 agreed. The thing with Tini i believe is that she definitely knows Betsy's history. Very well actually, but #1. She made it clear that she wanted to write a story for Apocalypse that involved magic etc etc & Betsy was an afterthought when her pitch kinda sounded like Excalibur to TPTB.
#2. She is so obsessed with magic and sorcery etc etc that she is just putting any character in those scenarios despite those characters not fitting in those stories (yes Betsy has a magic family heritage, as does Storm I believe, but first and foremost they are mutants & X-Men imho. We enjoy them in X-Men themed storylines. Otherworld was not it for me. Smh).
I feel like Tini's stories would fit someone like Dr Strange much more. I hope this is Tini's last hurrah with Betsy and she gets Apocalypse back and Betsy gets a fresh new writer (and maybe give Brian his mantle back, cause she's a powerful enough mutant without the CB abilities).
Time will tell lol.
I'm Tobias. Tobi is for dogs. Show me the anti. Won't you buy a Tini story with FTM Betsy Rachel? Betsy fantasizing about Cyclops, Havok and Cable when kissing their relative. Keeping it in the family is sexy. Tini likes the kinky things.
Betsy was perfect before Krakoa. Captain Britain is a bad coat of paint chipping away. Betsy is onion dressed putting ID's on ID's forgetting her real ID. She's bloated with bad writing and style.
Beautifully said, @X-Man and @Banquo40. Captain Britain Betsy was an afterthought in a story TH wanted to tell about Apocalypse. They thought this would take off, but it didn't. And now Betsy is left in a difficult position. Her place as Psylocke taken by a replacement character who's being written as she used to be. Her place as CB being a fiasco on a never-ending quest to find herself which never comes to a satisfactory conclusion. All in all, TH's biggest problem is still a literary agent who thinks of himself as the ultimate Betsy expert and who clearly influences some of her decisions. Hopefully 2023 will be her last year and a better writer comes along. Happy new year friends.
One thing which should return is the mail/letters section at the back of comic books. We've discussed how Tini and others creators avoid Twitter which can be like a battlefield. Perhaps if Marvel started doing letters columns again, the books with poor sales like KoX would get viable, productive feedback from readers? Specifically, because Marvel would not print attacks on the creators but if they stick to their previous formula, they could showcase feedback that reinforces strong writing techniques and/or redirects the not-so-strong writing techniques. Both are invaluable to making writers better. In the letters columns of the 80s and 90s, readers were very forthright in the mail they'd send in. I recall one of my letters being published and answered by Harras and Claremont in the immediate post-Outback era when the team was scattered. The problem with the writing as many of you have asserted is that many of the current x-writers exist in echo chambers.
One thing that I love about Image's Saga (aside from it being a superbly written comic book) is that they still do publish letters columns. Not every issue but periodically. The creators directly interact with fans, including fans who don't always like what is happening in the book.
And AIPT's X-Men Mondays don't really count to me as a letterstand-in for the old X-Mail section as the feedback there is so curated as any of us who have sent in questions know quite well.
@Lindsay, I saw you mentioned in a previous post giving Kwannon her due. I take issue with that akin to what Kiki stated. For Kwannon to get said due, she should be portrayed as an original character and unfortunately she like Elizabeth these days is uninspired and even worse she is egregiously hackneyed. I saw some panels of her in the new brood story and I saw zero distinction between her personality and Elizabeth as Psylocke, including her speech pattern. I actually don't understand why this is okay with fandom or the editors.
These are the kinds of details that would be made apparent in a letters page and in turn, we could get some rationale for why these things are happening or even better an acknowledgment of why they're flawed writing and some assurance of improvement. Like when readers would get no-prizes for calling attention to continuity errors. Also, with letter pages, I think people are less prone to the kind of vitriol we see on media like Twitter as people would have to send down and form and edit their thoughts in a more intentional way.
Agreed @Rahsaan. I saw more differences in their personalities when they were in each other's bodies as Revanche & Psylocke. I actually liked Revanche/Kwannon a lot more back then. She seemed a lot more mature in some ways.
I also would love the mail section to return as well. I think that's a great idea.
Happy New Year Rahsaan dapper and lucid as always. The Stan's Soapbox Marvel bulletins and Letter section made Marvel stand out.
What I was talking about the other day Revanche was way original in the 90s than in her body today running around as Betsy cloner to the tee. She ain't got nothin redeemable and original for her she is drowned in Betsy's essence.
rahsaan why we need letters when we got tweets and insta and cerebro podcast???? its 2023 and 1984 long time ago
Are some problems with that. The first one that i see is tini could say that she know-how betsy's story (wich is actually hard to buy seeing how she wrote her) , but The thing is she wrote betsy as himself. And we had that confusing character all tru excalibur. And the romance based in a one story with multiple lasers envolve fantomex.. but anyway... Marvel writers today lives in a bubble of a half dozen of Twitters accounts that pray their work. However at The same time this half dozen doesn't consume comics, doesn't like the characters, but they like to praise virtues. Só for them is all right..
Agreed. Xtwitter is gross and toxic and shapes the stories because that's the only feedback Marvel accepts
Cuz twatterers are illiterate hobos juicin coupon codes clapping like seals in a circus jerk
X-Twitter thrives on toxic positivity and this particular group of writers at the X-Office are confortable living in this bubble where they're only praised and the slighest criticism is taken as "hate" or "trolling". TH herself said the only fan feedback she gets are screenshots of a certain podcast discord channel where people love everything she does. She has no idea what people actually think about her work and that's why the writing will never improve.
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