Captain Britain: Betsy Braddock

Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain (2023) #1-5

by Tini Howard, Vasco Georgiev (Illustrator), Erick Arciniega (Colourist)

Collects Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain (2023) #1-5.

The Captain comes home! With Otherworld settled, Braddock Manor restored and a blossoming relationship with Rachel Grey, you'd think things were looking pretty good for Betsy Braddock. But it turns out that good ol' Britain doesn't want a mutant menace as its Captain, and Betsy has made more than a few enemies in recent years! Quest-less and country-less, she must define a new role for herself. But Morgan Le Fay is back for vengeance, and Captain Britain is first on her list! Luckily, if one captain fails, another may suffice - and Peggy Carter has a right hook that would inspire the devil herself! And is the furious Forgemaster General the Captain Britain that Earth truly deserves? Magical machinations and feral fisticuffs abound - but what role does Doctor Doom play in it all?

Genres: Comics, X Men, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Lesbian

145 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2024

Reviews

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hot off the heels of Knights of X, which I inexplicably liked, we get this cash-grab trash. I say "cash-grab" not because it's a tie-in with any recent Marvel TV series but because it was very clearly written on the back of a napkin as a plot outline and then expanded into a mini-series because $$$.

The deal: Morgan le Fay decides she wants to be a powerful villain again, so she just kinda does that, and the Scooby-Doo gang (Betsy Braddock and her many, many English superhero friends) weakly fight back. These limps battles keep taking place for no real reason until the end, when Doctor Doom is brought on board in an obvious attempt to spice things up. It fails.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain" is a fun fast paced Marvel adventure with a highly personable protagonist. Betsy Braddock really comes into her own as Captain Britain in this book and the cast of supporting characters shine as well. The major drawback is that the book really depends on the reader being familiar with the latest developments in the "Excalibur" series. As such, this book is not as accessible as it might be and many readers will want to (re)visit "Excalibur" prior to reading this book.

Expect, lots of Braddock family drama, a new role for Rachel Grey, lots of fun in the Otherworld, bad robots, a slew of amazingly bada$$ British superheroes and a very satisfying cameo from Captain Carter and Lizzy Braddock.

[Michael Church · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I grew to love Excalibur in the Krakoan relaunch and Tini Howard did some really excellent and interesting things with the characters. Then it pivoted to Knights of X, which was not as good, and now we are here with Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain. I do think there were seeds of something that could have been great if Tini Howard was given the runway and support to build up to it.

Instead, we have a book that is both rushed and repetitive. It is so steeped in lore and history that it is hardly legible without fully understanding all of that. At the same time, it spends so much time reminding you who Captain Britain is and who Askani is that it wastes a quarter of each issue. If it truly was planned as a miniseries from the beginning, there are severe problems with its execution. It reads as something that was shortened around the time issue 2 was being written.

It’s been a while since I read Knights of X, and I remember being excited that Rachel and Betsy finally got together, but this skips over a lot of relationship development in favor of making it seem like they’re an old married couple in some ways. With it being the first (I think?) canonical same sex relationship for both characters, I expected a little more time to be spent on fleshing that out. After I found Rachel’s last love story with Nightcrawler to be similarly underdeveloped, it would be unfair to ignore this. All for the sapphic pairing, just give us a little more. The most we get is a weird semantics argument about trust and how the two of them do (or don’t) use their telepathy on each other.

Which is another weird part of the story. I have a hard time following what each of their powers are supposed to be, as they both seem to have whatever the story calls for. It was one thing when the focus of the book was on Otherworld and the magical distortions it created, but now they are squarely located on Earth. They’re also constantly up against the Furies, but they’re supposed to be nigh unbeatable, yet they beat them every time. The Furies are supposed to never stop, yet they stop every time. It just doesn’t really add up to anything meaningful.

In all, I’m not sure what the point of this story was other than to keep saying “yeah, we made Betsy Captain Britain, now accept it and get over it.” Which…I had done 4 years ago.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.
I did enjoy this story, especially finally seeing Rachel Summers (used to be Phoenix, now goes by Askani) be happy, having started a relationship with Betsy, but this feels like almost every other recent Captain Britain story. I did enjoy when they brought Captain Carter in, and would have loved to have seen more there.
Overall, just kind of a mid story that I wonder will have any effect on the X-Books at all.
Recommend if you love the characters, but otherwise seems very skippable.

[Larakaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Captain marvel, you most likely enjoy this one, too.

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

De las miniseries que he leído hasta el momento es la más floja, desde luego, porque depende de haber leído toooodo Excalibur y media saga de mutantes. Además de esto, la trama en sí es muy simple.

[Aisling · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Matthew McElroy · Rating 1 out of 5]

It made a late surge at the end to become more interesting, but in the end... I am not better off for having read this, even from the library. Someone described this as a "money grab". Probably not. Who is buying this?

Betsy Braddock is largely uninteresting as Captain Britain, who wields the sword of Britain, which apparently is not Excalibur.
The British mutant group Excalibur still exists, but it isn't these heroes, from what I can tell.
There is a whole family of Braddocks, some of which are heroes, some of which are... what is Jamie? An antihero? A villain?
Betsy is in a relationship with Rachel Summers, also known as Ashkani, who is the daughter of Jean Grey and Cyclops from another universe.
There is much more than this, but rather than create an interesting, intricate story, it all just feels unwieldy and overdone.

You are working with a second tier hero, at best. Tell us a straightforward story, and introduce the character in a way we can appreciate.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this more than I liked both runs of Excalibur but I still can’t get into this story line. It’s so complex and has so many players. As long as it’s connected to the Krakoan Age then I’ll keep reading it, but damn do they make it hard to do that. Hopefully we’ll have a bit of a break before any of these stories come back next.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

betsy and rachel are too cuteee. telepath 4 telepath :')

i do love the idea that britain has magic inherent within it and that all the king arthur stuff is true and still around

the magazine interviews are a fun way to do those insert pages

also butterflies (the knifeee) really go with betsy's hair colour

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing a string of disappointing x books, This one has no urgency Even though there seems to be great peril for the country of England and the people, everyone just goes about their business having chats at the dinner table and pillow talk, making it all feel very inconsequential.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Howard’s Excalibur story comes to an end. By now the end feels merciful. But it feels like ratings had things stripped from her overtime, which probably lent to the fizzled end.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Betsy Braddock is unexceptional, but only in the totality of what is expected of her, what she is capable of, and what one can reasonably anticipate she will encounter at the close of each adventure. Crossing the rivers of space and time that bind multiversal discontent, the current Captain Britain is a psychically-powered adventurer who never knows when to quit. Perhaps it's a good thing she has telepathic abilities, because tending to the fields of intergalactic warfare, domestic xenophobia, and the whims of ancient magecraft would surely push anyone to the edge of her sanity.

BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN is an archetypal Big Two book: beautiful art, relatable characters, and a story that wends and bends in odd and conveniently inconceivable ways until it somehow makes sense. In narrative terms, readers encounter an awkward plot from Morgan Le Fay involving dimension-hopping and mutant-hunting cyborgs as well as some good old fashioned dark-hearted nationalism; a plot that takes its sweet time coming to fruition.

At least the art is nice. The book's color theory is incredible: sumptuous and hale greens and grays accompany series villain Morgan Le Fay; and vigorous oranges and orange-reds accompany mutant pal and live-in girlfriend Rachel Summers (via Earth-811).

The challenge with this book rests in the story's lumbering inevitabilities: Morgan Le Fay never uses her full power and resorts to petty schemes; cross-dimensional battles are key narrative points, yet feel short-lived or underexplored; the Phoenix-powered Summers lady's abilities are inscrutably vague; and so forth. Readers won't find clarity through a work-obsessed Braddock who, through no fault of her own, struggles to balance her public façade, her personal life, and her interdimensional heroine duties.

Would it be so bad if a historically magical foe like Le Fay ceased low-key power grabs and simplified things by battling more directly? Would it be so bad if, instead of gifting readers a single-issue cameo of Earth-76 Peggy Carter, the creative team made the badass Nazi-smasher a mainstay? Would it be so bad if Marvel hazarded explaining what the hell Rachel Summers is, beyond a sparse, encyclopedic inset page that assumes everything and reveals nothing?

The book succeeds in a few small but meaningful ways. The age-old criticism of psychic X-characters meets its match with this script, as Braddock fights with her fists far more often than she does with her psionic abilities (a huge improvement). Elsewhere, Braddock and Summers' relationship sees them smooching someplace quiet in each issue; it's nice.

BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN is a patient book about heroes, villains, and political subterfuge that would be twice as intriguing if the characters didn't talk as much and if everything was out in the open. For example, Le Fay pledges to unite Britain by reconnecting with the land, but true to the medium, she delays, plots, and manipulates in roundabout ways that monopolize everyone's time. If she's as strong as she says, then why not lay waste to everyone in her way? Such is the way of things.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I read this one because Betsy Braddock and Excalibur team have been some of my favorite comic book characters for a long time so I was excited to see that she was getting her own comic. I have to say it feels like a letdown though. I’ve been trying to catch up on things because I’ve missed quite a few of the comic books recently, but the thing that I think failed the most in the story was the relationship between Betsy and Rachel.

Both characters were hands-down, some of my favorite growing up reading these comics and reading the newer comics. The romantic relationship between the two of them feels incredibly forced. I wish I liked the relationship because they’re characters I enjoy and I think it’s nice that Marvel is putting in a lot of effort to really give people Representation in romance that they didn’t traditionally used to do. But I think pushing these characters into that mold just isn’t working. It feels false and that the writers are trying too hard. So it ends up making me wonder if there’s gonna be a storyline that reveals the whole relationship was a set up from the beginning for some major plot twist.

Other than the kind of craptastic push for romance, the story wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible. It got a little bit confusing with the reality hopping into the reality where Peggy Carter is the super soldier instead of Steve Rogers. So if you haven’t read any of her comics, it’s a little bit weird. The artwork was OK. Not the greatest but not terrible either. I’d say it was just kind of a so so read, which was a letdown.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you read Excalibur in its most recent incarnation? Yes? Here's more of the same...

No?
Oh, man. You might be able to pick this up and get the gist of the group dynamics. This leans HEAVILY on the past (the past Excalibur series and the other recent renamed series that gave us the rebooted Betsy Braddock). Morgan le Fay is back, mutants are a spell component(?), and Betsy Braddock is dating Rachel Summers (now with a new codename for the... 5th(?) time. Askani)

I'm surprised there isn't a Captain Brexit, with how they portray the MU England. They didn't even pull out Union Jack? C'mon now...
-------
Bonus: I keep forgetting that Excalibur is real and wielded in the Marvel Universe
Bonus Bonus: I still don't agree with Brian Braddock being a light version of Captain Britain as the new creation... Captain Avalon.

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no strong affinity for Captain Britain of yesteryear or under Betsy’s tenure. I’ve enjoyed the overt queerness of these comics (which honestly strike a balance given Brian and Meggan’s hetero marriage), and I think I’ve mostly kept up with them as a result of investing time into reading X of Swords and then wanting to better understand some of this Otherworld nonsense. I still feel like the stories that undergird this series just aren’t that interesting. Rachel’s transition to Askani still doesn’t mean anything to me as a reader, and I’m not sure if that’s ignorance on my end or just bad writing. The inconsistency in the art (some of the stylings were edging way too close to manga for my liking, but that’s just a personal reference for these stories) was also notable in terms of quality. Maybe…just maybe…I’m ready to stop reading some of these offshoots finally.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is something very impressive about this book.

That Tini Howard can possibly get worse as a writer as she goes on. I mean, there wasn’t much scope for that to happen, but she’s somehow managed it.

Turgid, cringeworthy dialogue. An unstructured mess of a story, if you could even call it that. So many of the characters act and sound the same. Worst of all, it’s incredibly boring. This is the death rattle of Howard’s Marvel career as it is finally snuffed out and rather than go out with bang she goes out with a whimpering wet fart.

A decent editor would have red penned the hell out of the script, but sadly for the Krakoan era, Jordan White and his team of clueless assistants are so far out their depth that this isn’t even close to be the worst book of the line.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Tini Howard's Excalibur, and the Knights Of X follow-up, but this final mini-series feels disappointing after all that.

Morgan Le Fay's threat doesn't feel as big as it should, and even bringing in Doctor Doom doesn't up the stakes in a way that you'd think bringing in Doctor Doom would. In fact, it feels like Howard had five issues to wrap up everything she'd set in motion over the last few years, and she wasn't quite sure how to do it all in a way that would be satisfying overall, so she just focused on a few points instead.

A sad state of affairs after all the good that came before it. Still readable, but not the ending I'd hoped for.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Howard's books have all been slow and dry. Some of them improved on rereading, as you could appreciate the long-term plots she was setting up. This one was a struggle to get through the first time, so I can't imagine trying it again.

Is it a capstone on her Excalibur run? Maybe. Was it really needed? Maybe not. I'll be thrilled to never hear mutants referred to as witchblood or whatever it was again.

[Russ Spence · Rating 2 out of 5]

found this ultimately disappointing, I've been re reading a lot of the comics I used to read in the 90s and thought this would be a good way of catching up. Turns out that not a lot actually happens in this, I wasn't exactly expecting too much, but still less happened than I expected. I should imagine Alan Moore, for one, will be turning in his grave at some of the liberties taken with characters he created.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just terrible. A miniseries should be able to stand on its own. This instead requires you know 30 years of Marvel UK history to know what's happening. I know most of it and this book is still just a mess. There's Furies from other dimensions, Morgan Le Fey, nonsense press trashings, STRIKE and STAKE. None of it is explained. It's the exact opposite of the Stan Lee approach where every comic could be someone's first comic. This requires that you've read every comic taking place in the UK of Marvel for the last 30 years.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not good. So much standing around and talking, instead of actually doing something. Howard seems to have inverted the old saying of "show, don't tell." And this story just seems padded. The ending was very anticlimactic and didn't require five full issues to get there. Knights of X seemed rushed, but this is just bloated. And the artwork is no great shakes, either.

[Thomas Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots to enjoy for Captain Britain and Excalibur fans here.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Excalibur and Knights of X but this just didn’t have it.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because Marvel Unlimited is really feeding my completionist side, but honestly Otherworld stuff rarely hits for me.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The resolution of the main problem is clever. The way that the non-Betsy characters feel a little underdeveloped is disappointing.

[Ava Palmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

i understand superheroes are powerful and have a lot of responsibilities, but you’re telling me that captain britain has to watch over her people AND every captian britain in the multiverse?

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doesn’t quite recapture the fun of Excalibur. The tension of possible war made me tense.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

this wasnt bad per se, i just feel like. nothing happened........

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

gayest marvel book i’ve ever read and god bless for that