Superman Analogue: Captain Britain (Betsy Braddock)

From model/assassin, to ninja, to mystic knight, Betsy Braddock has always been a hero destined for the big leagues. Now, as Captain Britain, she's proving herself as such!

Master Thread:   / 1346189702580342785  

Original Thread:   / 1465012179808178182  

Original Text (ABRIDGED): Betsy Braddock, twin sister of Brian, was originally introduced in the early days of Captain Britain to be a plot device. She was used as a bystander, pawn, or damsel to be saved often...
...When her precognitive powers weren't clueing our hero into some coming danger. ...When Chris Claremont brought her over to the X-Men, her unexplained, innate psychic powers were explained to be mutant powers. This is the point that tied the two franchises together, perhaps inextricably.
...She even had a run as Captain Britain for a bit. ...This was not a particularly good time for the character. ...
But she made it over to the X-Men where she filled the late 80s spot for a bitchy telepathic Head Bitch In Charge. ...
So originally, it was supposed to be a single storyline where Betsy was transformed by The Hand into an Asian woman and brainwashed to be an assassin for the Mandarin...
The thing is, this was about the time that Claremont was ousted from the X-Books. Whatever plans he had to revert the character to a posh British model/assassin were dropped and the character would be more or less in this form for the next 30 years.
Fabian Nicieza came on to pick up the pieces and decided to retcon the story as a body swap, rather than a mystical plastic surgery. He introduced an assassin named Kwannon, who's body Betsy mind was now inhabiting, while Betsy's body was inhabited by Kwannon's mind...
Presumably to simplify things, the powers that be decided to kill off Kwannon, leaving Betsy in the wrong body...
90s X-Men had a number of characters whose bodies had changed beyond their original forms. Betsy ended up pairing of with Warren Worthington, formerly Angel but transformed into the blue skinned cyborg Archangel. I thought their bond was rather sweet.
And this is about as good a time as any to mention that Betsy had a bit of a rivalry with Sabertooth, going back to her original self.
In the 90s, Sabretooth had a bit of a fake out redemption arc following his heroic turn in Age of Apocalypse. When he revealed himself to still be a warped sadist, Betsy confronted him to protect Boom Boom. Sabretooth revealed an immunity to psychic attacks and ripped the girl up
Warren saved her by tying her to the Crimson Dawn. This left her marked with an eye tattoo and gave her shadow teleporting powers.
This just so happened to be about the time they made the Capcom X-Men fighting game which would spawn a series of Marvel fighting games, and Betsy was featured in that game with teleporting powers and a psychic knife (I can't believe I haven't mentioned that yet!)...
When Claremont came back, her powers changed yet again to telekinesis. Supposedly this was because her telepathy was holding The Shadow King imprisoned, while a fragment of the Phoenix Force empowered her with telekinesis... I think. Her signature psychic blade now physical....
Then, shortly before the 2019 Dawn of X reboot, The Mystery in Madripoor story arc occurred, where Betsy's original body was reformed and she and Kwannon were able to reclaim their original bodies!
Entering the Dawn of X, Betsy ceded the Psylocke name to Kwannon, and was kind of just crashing on her brother's couch while going through an existential crisis of identity. But then Brian was captured by Morgan Le Fey and Betsy took up the role of Captain Britain to rescue him!...
We are left with a Captain Britain who is Champion of the Multiverse and a link between magic and mutantdom. She represents Otherworld, Krakoa, and Britain, a complicated hero for all.
With the Captain Britain powers, she's super strong and nigh invulnerable, and that's further augmented by her massive telekinetic abilities and formidable telepathic ones. Much like Meggan, she's not an Omega level mutant, but her mix of magical and mutant powers makes her close...
So that's Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock, Captain Britain, formerly Psylocke, Absolute Queen!

Music by Bret Eagleston - www.breteagleston.bandcamp.com

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