Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: Betsy Braddock, kwannon, Psylocke, tom brevoort

Tom Brevoort On Betsy Braddock Being Hard & Messy For Marvel To Handle

Tom Brevoort on it being hard and messy for Marvel Comics to handle Betsy Braddock and Psylocke

I'm British, you may have noticed. Reading the Captain Britain stories by Alan Moore, Jamie Delano, and Alan Davis was a significant moment in my comic book reading life, and it included an attachment to the Brian Braddock and Betsy Braddock world that is hard to explain to anyone other than Chris Claremont. Well, Tom Brevoort, Senior Vice President, Executive Editor and X-Men Group Editor at Marvel Comics, just gave a big interview to AIPT, which saw readers get answers to a few questions, and for Brevoort to answer them as thoroughly and forthrightly as he felt able to, something I always appreciate from him. Including what's happening with Betsy Braddock, Psylocke, Captain Britain and Brian Braddock on the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary in 2026. Tom Brevoort told the eager mob,

"Betsy turns 50 along with Captain Britain, so we'll definitely be doing something for Captain Britain's 50th, and Betsy will definitely be a part of that. Beyond that, it's kind of wait and see. I like Betsy Braddock. But Betsy Braddock is hard and kind of a messy situation."

This will be the time when Betsy Braddock was reinvented as a "sexy Asian ninja" trope, then for that to be revealed as the body of an actual "sexy Asian ninja", Kwannon, only for that to cause problems with continuity, so not everyone was on the same page, leading to increasingly more convoluted retcons, and then when the idea of an Englishwoman stealing an East Asian' woman's body and identity was seen as even more problematic, managing to untangle it all, culiminating in the Age of Krakoa. With Kwannon to be Psylocke and Betsy Braddock to be the new Captain Britain, a role she first played back in the eighties. Tom Brevoort explains;

"Everybody was well-intentioned throughout all of her storytelling, but that whole thing is a mess. And in coming to the table where it was set when I got here, I made what, to me, felt like the only choice I could make at that point, which is, Kwannon is Psylocke, that's the state of play. That's what we're going to commit to. Psylocke is Kwannon, and she's in X-Men. Betsy is Captain Britain, she's with Rachel Summers, and she'll be in X-Force. And X-Force ran its course, but it's not as simple as just putting Betsy in the other book, or the name is really hers, and the Psylocke history is really hers. It kind of is, but 30, 40, 50 years later, here's where we are now. And the other problem is, even among the Betsy fans, when you actually listen to what they say, they're all over the road, too. We want her back, but we want her back in this iteration, and we want her back, but not like this. So even they're trying to figure out what's the right thing for the character and the story. What's the story that somebody walks into my office, shows up in my email, or calls me on the phone and pitches me about Betsy Braddock that makes me go, "That's a great story. I want to see that. I want to make that." There's no point in just bringing her back into a book if she's going to be furniture."

Challenge.. accepted, anyone?

"So it's kind of all of that, which again, is cold comfort and no comfort to people who love that character or any of the characters that haven't gotten as much spotlight as we'd like. Over the churn of history, every character gets their day or gets their moment. So it's not that there isn't a genuine effort, it's just that the genuine effort isn't necessarily dedicated to just that one character, but to all the characters that people like or have ideas with."

So instead, we are getting the Psylocke: Ninja comic book in 2026, set in the past. When things were only slightly complicated. And presumably having new comics with Betsy Braddock as Psylocke set before the reversal will not confuse anyone at all.

Psylocke: Ninja (2026) #1 (of 5) by Tim Seeley, Nico Leon
BETSY BRADDOCK: MUTANT, X-MAN…NINJA! Flashback to a time when Psylocke was reborn into the ultimate killing machine. What sacrifice did Betsy make to save the X-Men? Why did the Hand choose Psylocke to be their weapon? And what does it have to do with their former assassin…Elektra?! Discover the answers to these questions and more in a lost story from the X-Men's past!

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