Real
Name: Brian Braddock
Identity/Class: Human augmented by magic
Occupation: Government agent; former ruler of Otherworld
Group Membership: Avengers, MI13, the Corps, formerly Excalibur, agents of Merlin, champions of Otherworld's Camelot, Pendragons, Hellfire Club Inner Circle
Affiliations: Merlyn; Roma; King Arthur; Black Knight; Captain Britain, Mastermind; Saturnyne; Captain U.K., Crusader X; RCX; S.T.R.I.K.E.; the Special Executive; Spider-Man, W.H.O., Jackdaw
Enemies: Reaver; Hurricane; Red Skull; Corruptor; Highwayman; Dr.Synne; Mastermind; Slaymaster; Vixen; Mad Jim Jaspers; Crazy Gang; Sat-yr-nin; Kaptain Briton; Hauptmanne Englande; Black Air; RCX; Gatecrasher's Technet; Fury; Doctor Claw; Lord Hawk; Necromon; Jamie Braddock;
Known Relatives: Sir James Braddock (father, deceased); Lady Elizabeth Braddock (mother, deceased), James Braddock Jr. (Jamie, brother, deceased); Elizabeth Braddock (Betsy, a.k.a. Psylocke, twin sister); Meggan (wife), William (father-in-law), unidentified mother-in-law
Aliases: Bee, Black Bishop, Britannic, Captain Britain-616, Captain Wakanda, Custodian, Fast Buck, Jungle Man, Lionheart of Avalon
Base of Operations: U.K., formerly Braddock Manor, formerly Excalibur's lighthouse, formerly Otherworld
First Appearance: Captain Britain #1 (Marvel UK, 1976)
Powers/Abilities: Captain Britain can lift well in excess of 100 tons, fly at supersonic speeds, and survive in space. He can visualize magical spells around him as words and physically break them, and sense the world turning. However, his power is dependent on his confidence, and if it is shaken badly enough, he can theoretically become no more powerful than a regular human.
Previous to his last rebirth Brian derived numerous powers from the friction between dimensions, focused in a matrix centered on the U.K., including superhuman strength, flight, enhanced reflexes, stamina and senses. Brian possessed numerous abilities including superhuman strength (lifting 90 tons), flight (up to 770 mph), enhanced reflexes, stamina and senses, all powered by interdimensional frictional energies focused in a matrix centered on the UK. Prolonged absence from this matrix weakened him, though this weakness may have been removed when he empowered Kelsey Leigh. Powerful magics could reverse this link under very specific circumstances, so that damage inflicted on Brian would cause energy surges in the field, resulting in damage to UK geography. As Britannic, he had prophetic visions, tied to memories of experiencing all of history while lost in the timestream.
Brian is a skilled physicist, engineer, roboticist and acrobat. Brian's uniforms, from the second one onwards, worked as both batteries and lenses, storing matrix energies for use when Brian was distanced from the UK, and magnifying the human body's impulses and energy fields. It generated a force field, which could sometimes be extended to provide ranged attack. His helmet provided control; keyed to Brian's specific brain patterns, he could remotely control his costume if another was wearing it. Brian originally wielded an extendable quarterstaff that could project both force field and flames. Merlyn later replaced this with a Star-Sceptre, which added short periods of flight to the above powers.
History:
Brian Braddock's life was planned for him from before he was even born; for
him there is no coincidence. Merlyn sent James Braddock to Earth-616 to sire
a champion who could defend the multiverse against the myriad threats facing
it; the studious Brian was his third child. Home on a break from studying
physics at Thames University, Brian was out dating Valerie Campbell when
his parents were killed, apparently in a lab accident but actually by the
computer Mastermind; Brian was overwhelmed with guilt that he had not being
present to prevent their deaths. He took a summer job at Darkmoor Nuclear
Complex, a secret research facility near the Scottish border, the summer
after his parents died, trying to keep himself busy, but the facility was
attacked by the forces of Joshua Stragg, the Reaver, who sought to kidnap
the scientists within and make it look like they had all died in a reactor
accident. At the urging of his mentor Dr. Travis, Brian fled on a motor bike
to get help. Forced over a cliff by his pursuers, he dragged his injured
body from the burning wreckage to witness a vision of Merlyn and the Lady
of the Northern Skies (Roma) above a ring of standing stones; told to choose
between the Sword of Might and Amulet of Right, Brian picked the latter,
feeling the sword was a symbol of death and that he was no warrior. He was
struck by mystical energy and transformed into the costumed hero Captain
Britain; the new hero swiftly gained the upper hand against the Reaver, who,
after grabbing the sword, had been transformed by the Nethergods, Merlin's
foes.
Brian's publicly debuted fighting the crimelord Vixen's minions in London, though some, such as Chief Inspector Dai Thomas of Scotland Yard, were not glad to see him; he also battled Hurricane (Albert Potter; another villain empowered by the Nethergods), and faced Dr. Synne near Braddock Manor. Brian learned Synne was Mastermind's pawn, and the truth about his parents' deaths; he confronted the machine, apparently switching it off, though in fact the computer simply faked its demise. Brian teamed with Captain America (Steve Rogers), Nick Fury, and Lance Hunter, Director of S.T.R.I.K.E. (Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies), Britain's equivalent to S.H.I.E.L.D., to battle the Red Skull; during this adventure Mastermind used holograms to fake Braddock Manor's destruction in a bomb strike. Brian fought Lord Hawk, after which Merlyn and Roma replaced his quarterstaff with the Star Sceptre. Following this he battling foes such as the mercenary biker Highwayman, deposed tyrant the Manipulator (Basil Crushstone), aliens beneath Scotland's Loch Ness and their mechanical monster, the hellspawned Black Baron, Dr. Claw and his mutations, and the assassin Slaymaster.
Brian visited America on a student exchange program, rooming with Peter Parker (Spider-Man), alongside whom he faced the assassin Arcade and the lycanthropic Litter; towards the end of this stay homesickness and stress saw him start to drink more than was wise. After a brief trip home, Brian returned to the States to complete his studies, and there joined other heroes congratulating the newly pardoned Hulk, as well as fighting against the shapeshifting Dire Wraiths.
Eventually Brian left America, but mid-flight realized the plane was under attack by the Nethergods, seeking to kill him; hoping to spare his fellow passengers, temporarily driven mad by psychic assault, and with King Arthur's spirit trying to protect and direct him, Brian leapt from the craft. He had a vision of washing ashore on an island with a trio of standing stones (where Arthur's body was held captive by Netherworld forces), then he came to, amnesiac, on the shores of the U.K. For months Brian lived as hermit in Cornwall, until Merlyn sent the Black Knight (Dane Whitman) to find him. With his memories partially restored Brian and the Knight, allied with Vortigen the Proud Walker, battled Mordred the Evil. Both Knight and Britain were snatched out of time to join the Grandmaster's contest of champions, where Captain Britain fought against the Arabian Knight, but they were soon returned to resume their quest. At the entrance to Otherworld Brian was slain by the spectral White Rider, and Mandrac, Nethergod lord of the slain and the Rider's master, claimed his corpse, though Merlyn and the Knight swiftly recovered it. Merlyn reunited Captain Britain's departed spirit with his body, resurrecting him. While the hero healed, Merlyn restored his remaining memories, and informed him of the Nethergod's involvement with his early foes. Now recalling Arthur's location, the Knight, Britain, and the elf Jackdaw, were sent to awaken the King. Arthur then sent Brian and Jackdaw magically away through the dimensions, stating Brian had a destiny to fulfil elsewhere.
As they slipped between realities, Merlyn took the opportunity to upgrade his champion, transforming his costume to enhance his strength and incorporate the powers of flight and forcefield previously part of his sceptre. The pair arrived on Earth-238, immediately encountering Mad Jim Jaspers and his Crazy Gang. Swiftly realizing he was not on his native Earth, Brian fought the Junkheap that Walked Like a Man, and met the highly evolved Algernon the Rat, followed by Saturnyne and her Avant Guard, representatives of the Dimensional Development Court. He also learned this world once had a Captain U.K., and fought the Status Crew, was devolved by the Avant Guard, then re-evolved again, further enhancing his powers. He aided Saturnyne in her mission to evolve this reality up to minimum standards, but after they believed they had succeeded, Jaspers unleashed his mental powers, plunging the world into an insane maelstrom. The authorities reactivated their hero killing cybiote, the Fury, which slew Jackdaw; Saturnyne fled, abandoning Captain Britain, whose arm the Fury broke without even trying. Brian gained a brief reprieve when Jaspers picked him up in a flying teacup and explained how he had engineered the destruction of every other superhuman on this planet, before dropping the shell-shocked hero in a superhero graveyard, where he found Captain U.K.'s empty grave. There the Fury caught up with him, and incinerated him on the spot.
Merlyn and Roma retrieved his remains; a rag, bone and hank of hair; and rebuilt him, placing the powers in his body and enhancing his senses, before returning him to his own world, Earth-616. Needing to touch base with something familiar after so long away, Brian returned to the site of the bombed Braddock Manor, discovering it was intact, with Mastermind having faked the destruction. Brian switched off and repaired the computer, but was then contacted by Betsy. He learned she had been recruited by STRIKE Psi Division, but that Vixen was now secretly in charge of the organization and had sent Slaymaster to kill the telepaths before they could expose her takeover. Brian fought and defeated Slaymaster in central London, and the surviving psis moved into Braddock Manor. Brian next fought alongside his old ally, Captain America, against the insane wizard Mordred the Mystic (not to be confused with his Otherworld foe, Modred); then he was kidnapped by the Special Executive, team of interdimensional mercenaries, who had been hired by Saturnyne to bring him to an alternate Earth as a defense witness at her trial - there Brian met two more of his interdimensional counterparts, Captain England and Captain Albion. Brian was outraged when prosecutor Lord Mandragon destroyed Earth-238 to prevent the infection spreading (and destroy the evidence which could clear Saturnyne). To stop Saturnyne's execution, he and the Executive battled their way out the court and fled to Earth-616, and the residents in Braddock Manor increased once more. Moments after entering the Manor, Captain U.K., sole surviving hero of 238, turned up on the doorstep, to inform them that the Jaspers of 616 was about to launch into his own campaign of hero genocide. At first CB refused to believe things would repeat the course of 238, but then the Fury, which had survived the destruction of its dimension and tracked down CB to 616, attacked. It slew some of the Executive before being temporarily immobilised in a cave in; the Executive left for other realities, while CB and his remaining allies fled into London. Jaspers took control of country with incredible speed, his powers hastening things along, and used Vixen's STRIKE to round up the country's superhuman population into concentration camps. During this period, Captain Britain encountered a time-traveling Iron Man (Tony Stark), helping him repair his time travel GPS and assisting him against STRIKE and Vixen so Iron Man could procure a missing part of Dr. Victor von Doom’s Time Platform. Iron Man eventually gathered Captain Britain together with other heroes from throughout the timestream and brought them to the present to stop the Phantom (Donald Birch) from using a time-displaced Dark Phoenix to destroy the world. Returned to his own time, Brian became increasingly horrified at the fascist state his country had become, and eventually went to confront the architect of the madness; as he reached Downing Street, Jaspers unleashed his Warp, twisting reality into an Escheresque nightmare. Brian's experiences over the years, carefully orchestrated by Merlyn to strengthen his mind and body, allowed him to stay sane under Jaspers' bombardment, but he was no match for his opponent powerwise, though he struggled valiantly on for as long as he could. Then the Fury arrived, beating him to a pulp, and would have killed him again, except that Jaspers caught its attention; it had been unable to attack its creator, something which had always irritated it, but this counterpart was not the same man. The Fury slew Jaspers after a prolonged battle; the battered Captain Britain tried to destroy the weakened cybiote, but it was only the intervention of Captain U.K. that finally did the deed. The two heroes and Saturnyne, who was also present, were then whisked off to Otherworld by Roma, to attend Merlyn's funeral, as he had apparently been killed while observing the conflict, and there Brian met many of his fellow Corps members for the first time. He and Captain U.K. then returned to 616.
Six
months passed after the Jaspers' Warp as the country returned to relative
normality. Brian encountered the vulpine mutant Meggan, fighting her, but
Micky Scott, a bystander and friend of Meggan, died in the crossfire. Guilt
ridden, Captain Britain threw himself into doing good deeds, then after Micky's
funeral, he approached the Scott family to apologise for Micky's death. They
forgave him, recognising it was an accident, and he was reunited with Meggan
too, learning she was not a monster, and was equally grief stricken over
Micky. Brian offered to let Meggan stay at the Manor, and help her find her
family, but then they were attacked by armoured opponents who appeared out
of the air; the subsequent battle destroyed the Scott's flat. Another attack
occurred at Braddock Manor a few days later, but the newly returned Betsy
repelled it with her strengthened psi powers. Later, in the space of a few
hours Brian faced the 616 version of the Crazy Gang; Slaymaster and the Vixen;
Sidney Crumb, a tramp who had been infected by the Fury and turned into a
monster; and Gatecrasher's Technet, another interdimensional mercenary outfit
similar to the Executive. They had been hired to retrieve Kaptain Briton,
Brian's counterpart from Earth-794, who had fled to 616 to escape his insane
lover, the tyrant Sat-Yr-9. Brian fought Briton in Braddock Manor, but lost,
and was mistakenly taken to 794; repulsed by the psychotic leader and her
regime, he convinced the Technet to take him home. He returned to find Briton
slain by Betsy. That night he learned from Mastermind that his father was
from Otherworld, and R.C.X. came to Braddock Manor to ask for refuge in housing
the Warpies, children transformed by the Jaspers' Warp; after a fight with
the Cherubim team of Warpies, during which Meggan learned of her transformative
powers and took on an appearance designed to attract Brian, RCX moved in
at the insistence of Betsy. For a couple of days Brian put up with sharing
his home with government covert ops and hundreds of mutated children, drinking
to cope, before learning that his brother Jamie had been taken captive in
Africa. With Meggan he travelled to Mbangawi to free him, only to learn that
Jamie had become a slaver and murderer, and deserved his punishment. Unwilling
to return home, Brian and Meggan travelled the world for several weeks, visiting
Bali, the Himalayas and Egypt, and romance blossomed between them, before
ending up in Russia where they fought the witch woman Baba Yaga. They were
then snatched through time to help Gatecrasher in fourteenth century Peru,
then returned home to Braddock Manor, where Brian witnessed Betsy in a Captain
Britain costume; angered that RCX had convinced his sister to replace him,
Brian decided to quit. He used Incan gold to buy a lighthouse, and he and
Meggan moved in; they spent nearly half a year there, during which time Brian
didn't wear his costume and felt his powers grow until he no longer needed
it to access them. His retirement ended when Betsy was attacked and blinded
by Slaymaster; Brian felt her pain, flew to her aid and killed Slaymaster.
Realising he could not deny his responsibility, he took up the mantle of
Captain Britain once more. A few months later he settled his long-standing
differences with Dai Thomas, when the policeman turned to him for aid in
capturing a superhuman killer murdering Glaswegian mobsters. Through undisclosed
circumstances he and Captain U.K. later briefly travelled to the interdimensional
port of Maruthea, and got involved in a bar room brawl.
Some time later discovered his sister had been kidnapped from Switzerland by Mojo, and turned into the spineless one's latest act, when he witnessed her as "Psylocke" on "Wildways", a television show. Though it took months, Brian tracked Betsy down to New York to rescue her, but was telepathically subdued, then transformed into a teenage boy. Doug Ramsey helped him regain his own mind and fight back, even with his powers depleted by his transformation, buying Doug time to break Betsy's conditioning; Brian was returned to normal as soon as their foes were vanquished.
A few months later Brian returned to New York with Meggan to check up on how Betsy was doing living with the X-Men, and fought Horde alongside them. Not long afterwards Brian heard that Betsy had been killed in Dallas, unaware that Roma had in fact been manipulating events to make this appear to be the case, as part of a long term plan to force Captain Britain and Meggan to join a carefully selected team of heroes which included some of the surviving X-Men. Distraught, Brian drowned his sorrows, verbally abusing Meggan when she tried to console him, before drinking himself into a stupor. He was awoken by Nightcrawler throwing him into the sea; the mutant then informed him that Meggan had come to Muir Island for help, only to be kidnapped by the Technet along with Shadowcat of the X-Men. Sobering up, Brian aided Nightcrawler and the others in overcoming both the Technet and extradimensional Warwolves, who had been hunting Phoenix (Rachel Summers) for Mojo, and afterwards, the five heroes formed Excalibur to carry on the X-Men's dream. Knowing he was powerful enough to normally function without a team, and to ensure he would stay with one, Roma secretly inflicted Brian with a "blunder jinx", which hampered his efficiency when acting solo.
The
new team worked closely with Dai Thomas, helping track down the escaped
Warwolves, and Brian renewed his friendship with old flame Courtney Ross,
confiding in her his doubts about being in a team and in his relationship
with Meggan. His new teammates moved into the Lighthouse, and soon confronted
him on his drinking habits - though initially annoyed, he recognised that
he was beginning to develop a tendency to turn to the bottle when stressed,
and decided to give up alcohol before it became a problem. Arcade then kidnapped
Courtney Ross, and lured Excalibur into trap, where they were confronted
by the Crazy Gang and Tweedledope used a device to switch their bodies and
minds round - Brian ended up in Tweedledope's body briefly. After escaping
Brian was briefly seduced by Courtney (actually her counterpart and murderer,
Sat-Yr-9, who used his doubts and her own powers of influence to do so).
The team followed Phoenix to New York to find it in the grip of the demonic
Inferno, and Brian was transformed by a possessed Meggan. His costume was
destroyed by Shadowcat using her Soul Sword, freeing him of this control;
however Brian later found during rest of stay that his powers were fluctuating.
Returned to U.K., he he fought Hauptmann Englande, another counterpart of
his, this time from a Nazi reality, and his Lightning Squad; Brian's powers
returned in full mid-fight now that he was home. He briefly adopted a costume
outwardly identical to his damaged one, but lacking Merlin's micro-circuitry;
Arcade attacked Excalibur again during this period, sending the robotic Loonies
to overpower Excalibur; he trapped Brian in a virtual world where he was
confronted by temptations to drink, but this fell flat as Arcade had not
realised this was not the demon he thought it was for Brian. Later Excalibur
worked alongside the X-Babies to defeat Mojo's Agent, battled the Demon Druid,
and Brian was briefly impersonated by the mutant Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde).
Interdimensional negotiations saw a prisoner exchange, with Lightning Squad
and their cohorts being returned to their own reality, but treachery on the
Nazi side saw the entire Excalibur team thrown through the timelines. Their
first stop was Earth-1193, a world of magic, where Brian picked up the costume
of Captain Marshall; then on through a panoply of worlds, where Brian encountered
a villainous Jamie secretly controlled by Brian's own brother back on 616,
battled the Jester King’s Laughter Assassins, and, three stops later,
on Earth-80522, Excaibur fought alongside several of the Destine family,
unaware they were from a few years in the future of Excalibur’s home
Earth, 616, to overthrow the mind-controlling Tral, who had used the Inhumans
to conquer the planet. On a world where Britain still ruled the Americas,
Brian encountered his Corps counterpart Crusader X, and he met another
counterpart; the Lord High Justicer, on a polluted world where he was the
law. Their trip came to an end on Otherworld, where Saturnyne (now based
there at Roma's command) sought to arrest Phoenix; Excalibur fought several
members of the Corps to prevent this. Finally returned to Earth-616 the team
immediately faced Galactus; Brian was then reunited with his old ally Black
Knight to fight Morgan le Fay's agent Dreadknight, then the extradimensional
ninja known as the Nth Man, confidence tricksters Cooter and Bash, fought
Nightmare alongside Power Pack, battled a possessed Meggan, and was hypnotised
by Mesmero to battle Fenris, fought the Shi'ar Imperial Guard alongside the
Starjammers, with Thor battled Wrecking Crew and pursued Juggernaut into
another dimension, temporarily merged with his Nazi counterpart Hauptmann
Englande, fought She-Hulk, fought alongside Plasmer, Black Knight and Captain
Kerosene against the Sleepers, alongside Silver Sable's Outlaws, took on
Arnim Zola, in Limbo battled Dr. Doom alongside the Avengers western branch,
and once more fight the Warwolves.
Meggan was again possessed, this time apparently by ghost of the Changeling, and in trying to exorcise her, Brian and Excalibur seemingly discovered Merlin alive and well and encountered Jackdaw's ghost - though much of this was later proven to be a deception. Excalibur later aided WHO against a reanimated Air-Walker android. The Technet targeted them, but were easily overpowered; abandoning Gatecrasher and Yap, the mercenaries moved in with Excalibur. A stressful and overcrowded week wore down Brian's temper, and his growing jealousy of Nightcrawler's obvious interest in Meggan led to a confrontation, where Brian broke Kurt's leg. He was snatched from 616 by the Corps for this crime, and put on trial on Otherworld for this and other transgressions against their code, with Captain U.K. as his defence council and Hauptmann Englande as his prosecutor; refusing to recognise the Corps' authority, he was sentenced to death, and battle ensued, soon to be ended by Roma's decree that Brian was to be released without charge. Captain U.K. explained to Brian that the Corps members' abilities were powered by the matrix between dimensions. Brian confronted Roma, who admitted to him her manipulations and removed her blunder jinx. Returned to Earth, Brian made peace with Nightcrawler, and with new allies adding their might to Excalibur, they faced Necrom, the foe the team had been created to fight; the original team members physically merged to undo the damage Necrom had done to the multiverse, then Phoenix defeated him. Later the temporal assassin Sidestep pitted Brian against Cyclops during the American Revolutionary War, then back in his own time, Brian fought Arcade alongside Spider-Man, and took on the Crazy Gang in a bizarre Wonderland. Betsy returned home for a visit, but at a reunion of Excalibur's friends, Sat-Yr-9 revealed that she had infiltrated their circle in the guise of the murdered Courtney, when her agents and Jamie Braddock attacked them, taking them captive; Sat-Yr-9 attempted to brainwash Brian to serve her, but when she ordered him to kill Meggan, he resisted. Sat-Yr-9 fled, but Brian vowed to track her down and avenge Courtney. Next Excalibur worked alongside the X-Men against the Asgardian Troll Associates, then Brian visited Wakanda, where he fought Icon in the guise of "Jungle Man" and "Captain Wakanda". Taking a break, Brian proposed to Meggan, only for them to be captured by the Cherubim on behalf of RCX, who tried to forcibly recruit Excalibur's members; when Brian subsequently refused to comply, he was beaten to a pulp, and would have died had Roma not stepped in to heal him. Phoenix, who had been absent since shortly after the Necrom battle, rejoined the team after they dealt with RCX, and after they briefly assisted the extra-dimensional Khaos against Ghath, the team travelled to the future to overthrow the Sentinels who ruled Rachel's timeline. However on the return trip Brian was lost in the timestream; Meggan acted as his anchor while Brian spent an indefinable amount of time being buffeted from future to past. He was drawn to Phoenix, a temporal anomaly, and eventually with the aid of Daytripper (Amanda Sefton), swapped places with her, returning to the present; however his experiences had changed him, and he took the new identity of Britanic. Initially cold and distant, unable to distinguish memories of the past from memories of the future, Brian's love for Meggan remained constant; as time passed his old personality gradually returned. The team faced the likes of Stryfe's lethal legacy, the Phalanx, and Brian and Betsy entered the comatose mind of Jamie to try and see if they could reach the loving brother they once knew. Excalibur faced the evil sorcerer Gravemoss, visited Genosha where they began to get the first inklings of the villainy of rogue covert ops group Black Air, then fought X-Man (Nate Grey) at Muir Island, their new base. One last prophetic dream warned Brian of a dystopian future forming, shortly before Shinobi Shaw prompted him to infiltrate the Inner Circle of the London Branch of the Hellfire Club, claiming his father's title of Black Bishop, and learning of their alliance with Black Air and plans to take over the U.K.; to face them, Brian resumed his identity as Captain Britain, and battled the body thief Mountjoy, helping to end the threat and thwart the terrible future he had foreseen. Subsequently Excalibur battled the Mutant Liberation Front when they attacked Muir Island.
Brian renewed his proposal to Meggan, seconds before he was kidnapped by the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn, who planned to use his energies to open a rift between the Earth and their realm; instead, with the aid of Meggan, he absorbed the power of the rift, closing it, but at the cost of his own powers. No longer Captain Britain, Brian took a sabbatical from Excalibur to figure out what he wanted to do with his life now. He returned a few months later, confidant in one thing; that he loved Meggan. Soon after they were married on Otherworld by Roma.
Brian
returned to scientific research, working out of Darkmoor, until the arrival
of Captain U.K., pursued by armoured warriors. Together with Meggan, Psylocke
and the Black Knight, Brian accompanied Captain U.K. to Otherworld, where
they rescued Roma from Mastermind and an army of Warpies. During this adventure
Brian encountered a hologram of his father which alleged his parents had
deliberately had Mastermind kill them, and then renewed Brian's powers. He
took up the Sword of Might, returned the Warpies to human, and ascended the
throne of Otherworld. Some time later he collected his sister's corpse, after
she was slain by Vargas. Learning of Morgan le Fay's latest plot against
England, to reverse his mystical connection to the Matrix by attacking him
in Otherworld with god-killer weapons, so that injury to him would cause
destruction in Britain, he passed his mantle on to a new 616 Captain Britain,
Kelsey Leigh, before Morgan could take him captive; without his connection,
Morgan could not use him against his home, and Kelsey proved her worth by
defeating Morgan. A recent reality storm saw him return to 616, to try and
avert disaster before Roma was forced to destroy the entire reality; there
he was briefly transformed into the King of Britain in an altered timeline.
After the original timeline was restored, he remained on 616 and formed a
new incarnation of Excalibur.
When the Scarlet Witch engulfed Earth-616 in a trans-temporal reality storm, the devastating ripples of which spread across the timelines and resurrected Mad Jim Jaspers, Roma sent Brian back to his homeworld to repair the damage, giving him 48 hours before she was forced to excise the entire reality to protect the rest of the Omniverse. With some assistance, Brian and Meggan sealed the dimensional rift through which the warp was infecting other realities, but Meggan was trapped in the interdimensional void when it closed, and possibly slain. After the original timeline was reinstated, Brian was left with only vague memories of how Meggan had been lost. He sought out his old Excalibur allies, as well as the other heroes who had helped seal the breach, Juggernaut (Cain Marko) and Nocturne (Talia Wagner), looking for answers; almost immediately the group crossed swords with the Shadow King and Earth-6141's Shadow X, who had been drawn to 616 by the recent disruptions. Believing that Britain desperately needed defenders, government agent and former Excalibur member Pete Wisdom tried to convince those present to reassemble Excalibur, but initially they declined. However after Brian discovered he was inexplicably blocked from returning to Otherworld, and was attacked by Kelsey (blaming Brian from being estranged from her family, and now calling herself Lionheart) and rogue Corps member Albion, he recognized the need for a new Excalibur (Brian, Wisdom, Juggernaut, Nocturne, plus Dazzler (Alison Blaire) and Sage). Within days of forming, the team assisted disaster relief at the Shepherd Cross Station bombing, and stopped Black Air freeing the Shadow King, though Shadow X escaped. During the Shadow King's subsequent escape attempt he lured both Excalibur and Psylocke to Crossmore Prison; Psylocke stopped him, but abruptly vanished into thin air, snatched to join the extradimensional Exiles, and leaving a distressed Brian believing she was dead. After attending Black Panther (T'Challa) and Storm's wedding in Wakanda, Brian accompanied his old ally the Black Knight and Excalibur in traveling back to Arthurian times, where alongside that era's Black Knight (Sir Percy), and younger incarnations of Brian's old allies Merlin and King Arthur, they prevented Camelot's premature destruction by Makluan "dragons." Back in the present, the USA instigated a Superhuman Registration Act; Brian and other prominent heroes consulted with British authorities over the likely implementation of a modified UK version. Despite memories of Jasper's superhuman concentration camps, Brian felt it better to work within the system to prevent the act's abuse, declining the Black Panther's request to join an alliance opposing the legislation. Brian helped Wisdom's MI-13 fight an extradimensional Martian incursion from Reality-691, before Albion and Lionheart returned, now leading a corps of Shadow Captains; they temporarily conquered the UK, but with Shadow X's assistance, Excalibur defeated them. Mere hours later Brian was reunited with Psylocke, who had returned home accompanied by her Exile teammate Thunderbird, but their reunion was cut short. In Otherworld, Jaspers had launched an attack on Roma, assisted by Merlyn, who claimed to be angered at his daughter and Brian usurping him; to prevent Brian's interference, Merlyn sent Rouge Mort and her Janissaries to slay him, though they only succeeded in severely wounding him before Excalibur drove them off. While the Exiles healed Brian and Wisdom recruited Albion to their cause, Jaspers decimated the Corps, turning many into psuedo-Furies; battling the Exiles, Jaspers learned too late he too had been infected by the Fury, transforming into the cybiote's new body, but before it could regain its former strength, Brian, Albion and the Exile Blink destroyed it. With Roma apparently dead, Saturnyne asked Albion to rebuild the Corps, insisting Brian's place was on Earth-616, containing the various menaces thereon. However, Albion turned her down, noting that his honour demanded he return to Earth-616 to fulfill the rest of his sentence.
After Captain Britain returned to Earth following the battle for Otherworld, Skrulls invaded Earth. Captain Britain joined MI13 under Pete Wisdom’s command, and was slain while protecting Otherworld from the invaders. Revived by Merlyn with greatly enhanced powers no longer tied to the Corps, Captain Britain used the sword Excalibur to battle the Skrulls, who were subsequently banished from Britain by the demon Satannish. Staying with MI13 Captain Britain helped capturing the demon Plokta and aided in fending off Dracula’s attempt to turn Great Britain into a vampire nation. During the latter mission Captain Britain was reunited with Meggan, now using the codename Gloriana after escaping from Hell. Soon after Captain Britain and Deadpool (“Wade Wilson”) captured the new Slaymaster (Jasper Bateman), and fought Satannish in Wales. At an official visit to Washington, DC, Captain Britain accepted an offer from Steve Rogers to join the Avengers, but Pete Wisdom only reluctantly agreed to work out a time-share agreement. Captain Britain later gathered with other heroes to celebrate the anniversary of their time-traveling younger selves’ stopping the villainous Phantom (Donald Birch) and Dark Phoenix from destroying Earth.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont.
Thanks to Barry Reese for supplying the image of Captain Britain as ruler of Otherworld.
CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with
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any other Captains
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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