X-Men Monday #300 – Tom Brevoort on Betsy Braddock

To celebrate the 300th edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT, Senior X-Men Editor Tom Brevoort gave an in-depth interview touching on the future of the X-line — including key insights about Betsy Braddock following the end of X-Force. He acknowledged the passionate fanbase around her, the challenges of defining her current direction, and the reality of sales-driven decisions at Marvel.

As readers, it's more important than ever to keep emailing officex@marvel.com to demand a new book for Betsy and to show continued support for the character.

AIPT: Betsy Braddock in every book. That’s the answer [to make 80% of X-Men fans all happy in the same way].

Tom: If only. And not to poke it, but that very vocal segment of fandom was writing in before the last X-Force issue even came out, going, “When is she going to be in another book?” It’s like, she’s in a book right now, guys. It was a book that you guys liked, and a lot of other people didn’t pay attention to. So now it’s going to go away, and maybe there’ll be another chance. So you’re certainly showing me that there are a number of people who like that character or like this iteration of that character.

Although even within that, there’s a span of people who want her to be Psylocke again, there are people who want her to stay as Captain Britain, and there are people who want her to be some other new thing that’s neither of the two, but that speaks to her background. So right there, it’s sort of a multiple-choice question — which is the way to go? And the answer is: The best idea wins.

AIPT: So, my next question is actually inspired by Betsy’s fanbase. Obviously, you want to create comics that readers enjoy — but they also have to sell. So, what is the most effective and constructive way for X-Fans to express demand for a character?

Tom: Well, certainly showing up when those characters appear and/or when those characters appear in stories that are to people’s liking. Just because somebody likes Betsy Braddock doesn’t mean they’re going to love every Betsy Braddock story that gets done. It’s the monkey’s paw of being a comic book fan that people will be dying to have a favorite character show up again, and then they will, and it’ll be in some story or some usage they just don’t like at all. That’s a very familiar story.

But in addition to being vocal about it and bombarding me — all of that never hurts — you can also get the word out to other people. Like you said, we are a business, and the thing that’s going to move the needle the most is actual sales. Actual paying customers coming to the book and showing there’s an audience there that will put their money where their mouth is. It’s a difficult thing for any one fan, but for groups, it is possible to move the needle.

Honestly, it happens very rarely, in my experience. The greatest example of that I’ve ever seen were the fans of Spider-Girl, the Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Pat Olliffe series. That was a series that seemed like it was teetering on the verge of cancellation every six months. And whenever that word would go out, you would see that hardcore fanbase mobilized effectively in terms of getting stores to increase their orders, or in terms of getting book buyers to be more interested in carrying collected editions.

Those fans were incredibly clever and effective at getting their message across. They weren’t just telling you what they want, but showed an actual understanding that moving the needle is the whole game. Because while there are fans of Spider-Girl and Betsy Braddock, there are fans of every other character. You can’t name a character that doesn’t have their fans. But the Spider-Girl fans are the gold standard in terms of that type of activism.

AIPT: Are there any updates you can share on where Betsy Braddock — and Rachel Summers — might land following X-Force?

Tom: Right now, X-Force has run its course in its current iteration, and that means both Betsy and Rachel are sort of back to being active X-Men characters that could show up anywhere. Is there a specific plan yet? Not one that I’m ready to say anything about. 

We’ll see a couple of hints of Rachel in a few places. I read a script just this morning that had some Rachel activity in it. But I can’t direct you to a specific point where those fans will get exactly what they want. I don’t know that all of those fans can have exactly what they want, because like I said, it’s a span. But again, for all the Betsy and Rachel fans, there are all the fans of all the characters that weren’t in any of the initial launch books, who are also waiting their turn for their favorites to show up again. It’s like a line for resurrection.

AIPT: Before we move on from Betsy, as a follow-up, based on what you’ve read online and in fan mail, what are your biggest takeaways on why Betsy Braddock is so appealing to her fans?

Tom: That’s a fairly good question, and I’m not sure I could point to one specific thing. Certainly, she’s got history. She’s a character who has been around since the ‘70s in a variety of different iterations. I think people have definitely keyed into her as the champion of Avalon. I think people seem to be really invested in her relationship with Rachel, more so than I might’ve anticipated before getting into this. But I don’t know that there’s any one specific thing that I could point to yet.

And all the readers of X-Men Monday can now bombard me with the obvious thing that I’m not thinking of. And that’s fine. They should definitely do that — I have plenty to learn.

AIPT: Tom, is there anything else you’d like to share or tease?

Tom: I guess the only thing I could tease is it’ll be a big end of year, for good or ill. I’m hoping for good, but you can never predict these things ahead of time. But a big end of 2025 for the X-Men and the line in general.

AIPT: And the X-Men will never be the same again?

Tom: I don’t know about that, but it will certainly be catastrophic and earth-changing. And nobody will miss that it’s going on.

AIPT: And maybe we’ll see Betsy there.

Tom: Maybe. Maybe.