Cerebra's Files

Captain Britain

Real Name: Brian Braddock
Affiliation: Excalibur, Hellfire Club, London
Status: Married (Meggan)
Aliases: Black Bishop, Britanic
Relatives: Meggan (wife), Sir James, Sr. (father, deceased), Elisabeth (twin sister, Psylocke), James, Jr. (brother)
Alternate-X Versions: Brian Braddock (AOA), Captain Britain (Ultimate), Crusader X I, Lord High Justicer, Kaptain Briton, Hauptmann Englande, etc. (Captain Britain Corps), Albion
Codename Etymology: Pronounced kăp'tən brĭt'n [From Latin, caput: "head"].
Powers & History: Super speed, strength, and stamina, flight and in his last appearances, a suit with a manipulatable energy field. Brian is both a mutant and the son of another hero: his father was originally from Merlin's Otherworld. It's unclear which of Brian's powers are his own and which are his father's legacy. Brian was a college student in England when he got into a motorcycle crash, apparently due to some mob goons who were pursuing him. Bleeding to death, Brian was approached by Merlin and his daughter Roma, who told him that he could live if he became Britain's next great champion. They offered Brian a choice: The Amulet of Right (or Life) or the Sword of Might (or Death). Being a scholar and not conceiving of himself as a warrior, Brian chose the Amulet. He then became Captain Britan, complete with costume and super-powers, as well as a golden mace. Soon afterwards, Brian came to America on a study abroad program. By a strange twist of fate, he ended up rooming with Peter Parker at Empire State University. Parker also had a secret identity, namely Spider-Man, and the two began meeting for nightly patrols and training, each not knowing that the other was his roommate. This was about the time that Brian began to drink heavily, and it affected his performance both as a student and as a hero. He did get it under control enough to graduate with a doctorate in physics, but the demons of alcoholism would continue to haunt him for years. Some time after Brian returned to England, he gave up the Captain Britain identity, allowing his sister Betsy to take up the mantle. Unfortunately, Betsy was unprepared to be Captain Britain, and lost her eyes in a battle with Slaymaster. Brian heard his twin's pain through her telepathy and a special bond they share, and rushed back to fight Slaymaster, whom he then killed. Brian then resumed the mantle of Captain Britain, and fought evil as Britain's premier superhero. Then, when the X-Men appeared to die in Dallas (see Fall of the Mutants), Brian was disconsolate over his sister's death. He drank heavily, and scared away his lover Meggan, who went to find Nightcrawler, an acquaintance of hers on Muir Island. Meggan arrived at the same time as the Technet, an interdimensional band of mercenaries who were looking for Phoenix II. When Meggan and Shadowcat were captured by the Technet, Nightcrawler went to enlist Captain Britain's aid. However, Kurt found Brian deep in a drunken stupor, completely depressed and uninterested in doing anything anymore. So Nightcrawler pitched Brian over the edge of his lighthouse's balcony and into the ocean. When Brian recovered and flew back, Nightcrawler convinced him to help him find the women. At the succesful conclusion of that mission, Cap joined with the other mutants to form Excalibur, England's premier superteam. Although Captain Britain by rights began to lead the team, it was clear early on that he was not cutting it, and his teammates began to pick up the slack. Then, when Phoenix II flew off to America during Inferno, Captain Britain discovered that his powers were linked to England, and would diminish if he left he country for too long. This weakness was partially alleviated when Excalibur went dimension-hopping during the Cross-Time Caper when Cap received the magical costume of Captain Marshall (the CB of that world) which acted as a battery for his arcane power. Months later, Brian suddenly began to grow larger as his body absorbed more and more energy. When the team journeyed to Otherworld they found out that Necrom was planning to use the coming Cosmic Convergence to become omnipotent. Using Shadowcat's powers the team merged into Brian's enormous body and fixed the damage Necrom was doing across the multiverse. Then, on Roma's secret cue, Meggan drained Brian of all his excess energy, returning him to normal size, and fired it at the tower which was the linchpin through all the dimensions of the multiverse. Brian quit costumed advernturing for a time and concentrated on his science, building the Midnight Runner for the team's use. Then he and Meggan took some time off from the team and got engaged, but they and the rest of Excalibur were soon captured by the R.C.X. and Brian was severely beaten when he resisted. Dying, broken and bloody, he was healed by Roma, who fixed the arcane circuitry in his costume to match his body's frequencies, and who also removed a "blunder factor" she had cast over him, ensuring that he would need the help of a team until he saw the innate value in it. Immediately afterwards, Phoenix reappeared and Excalibur journeyed to the future to save it from the Sentinels. Unfortunately, on the way back Brian was lost in the timestream. No one had a clue how to find him until his body parts started appearing in the same space as Rachel's, first his arms, then his chest, for brief flickers. Meggan confronted Rachel about Brian's whereabouts and with Daytripper's help they opened a rift in which Brian and Rachel switched places. Rachel was flung to the far future to become the Mother Askani, and Brian returned home. However, he was flooded with memories of the far future and seemed disconnected for the real world. He called himself Britanic for some time, but eventually re-acclimated himself to his old life, although he did quit drinking. After receiving a message of impending danger from Jean Grey, who had found Alistair Stuart running from Black Air, and one from Shinobi Shaw regarding Mountjoy's infiltration into the London Hellfire Club, Brian went to the Club and claimed his father's position as Black Rook, defeating the contender for Red Rook with one punch. When Black Air and the Club made their move, Brian was attacked by the Black Queen and Scribe, who was possessed by Mountjoy. Luckily, Brian was in his newly-refurbished costume, complete with projectable forcefield, and he defeated them both. He appeared to have come to terms with both his scientific and superhero sides. Soon afterwards, however, in a battle with the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn, Brian expended all of his power to stop a dimensional portal from opening. He has not regained his powers, and it does not appear that he will at any point in the near future. He left the team for a while, but returned to fulfill his dream of marrying Meggan. At the ceremony on Otherworld, the rest of the team decided to return to the States, so Excalibur disbanded, leaving Captain Britain and Meggan as Britain's foremost heroes.

Brian soon went to work at the Darkmoor research facility, and it was during one of his tests (on the new blade and armor of his friend the Black Knight) that Widget reappeared with warriors who attacked him and Meggan, stating that Roma ordered it done. The heroes (including Psylocke, who was also visting in England) drove the attackers off, then followed them to Otherworld, where they discovered that that Captain Britain Corps had been decimated. Together with the survivors, Crusader X and Captain U.K., Brian and his comrades had to stop Roma from acquiring the Sword of Might, which together with the Amulet of Right (which had returned to Otherworld when Brian lost his powers) could remake the cosmos. Brian went in search of the sword, and ended up finding a computer-filled shrine in a cavern built by his father. A hologram of James Braddock, Sr. explained to Brian that he was the savior and rightful heir of Otherworld, and had the innate right to wield Excalibur. The hologram re-activated Brian's powers, and Brian drew the sword, which generated a fiery St. Andrew's Cross (from the British flag) as a mask on his face. Brian then confronted Roma, who was revealed to be his father's sentient and insane computer Mastermind, and defeated him together with the real Roma. Roma then relinquished control of Otherworld to Captain Britain, and he and Meggan remained in Otherworld as effectives rulers of the multiverse. Unbeknownst to Brian, the events leading up to his assumption of the Otherworld were orchestrated by Kang the Conqueror, for reasons yet to be revealed.

Recently, Brian and Meggan appeared to Kelsey Leigh, a British mother who had died protecting her kids and Captain America from the Wrecking Crew with Cap's own shield, and offered her the choice between the Amulet and the Sword, making her into a new Captain Britain upon her choice of Excalibur. Brian himself was captured by Morgan Le Fay, who hoped to kill him, thereby destroying England via Brian's mystical connection with the land, but since his power was transferred to Kelsey, the plan failed. Later, Brian invited some of the X-Men to his home, but he was attacked by the regenerated Fury first, though he survived.

When the House of M reality-warp began to destabilize the multiverse, Brian was back living on Otherworld with Meggan, and they were sent to Earth 616 to discover the warp's cause and stop it. Caught up in the warp on arrival, Brian was King of England, Britain having been ceded to him by Magneto some years before. However, Brian began having nightmares about Roma and Otherworld, and soon Meggan began to shift forms into Roma, Saturnyne and Jamie Braddock, all telling Brian to do his part to stop the warp, or Earth 616 would be annihilated by Otherworld's multiverse machinery.
While looking for an answer to his nightmares, Brian, along with Meggan, Betsy and Rachel Grey went to find a missing member of the House of M. They were attacked by the Marauders and then by Omega Sentinel Karima Shapandar, with her robotic Sentinel henchmen. Then, arriving at the location of (pre-HoM) Excalibur's Lighthouse, Meggan realized that the crack in reality located there was part of the warp. She absorbed tons of energy from the warp and said goodbye to Brian as she jumped inside, growing to enormous size as she somehow stabilized and close the crack from the inside. Brian and his companions sealed the rift and Meggan was seemingly lost.

Following the warp, Brian created a new costume and was living in England, seemingly without memory of Meggan, though he was having nightmares about the House of M experience. Just after former teammates Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and Marvel Girl III arrived in London with Psylocke, Nocturne and Juggernaut, they heard from Pete Wisdom that Dazzler had been murdered. The mutants raced to save her, and though successful, they were attacked by ersatz X-Men. Together they defeated the Shadow X-Men and Nocturne, Dazzler, Wisdom and Juggernat joined Brian in forming a new Excalibur, along with Sage. Captain Britain was the de facto leader, though Wisdom's government connections often made him take charge.

After defeating Albion, a cross-time version of himself who had chosen the Sword and not the Amulet, Brian and the team were throwing a party to celebrate saving England when Psylocke returned from the Exiles. Unfortunately the reunion was short-lived as the assassin Rougemort stabbed Brian through the chest. The visiting Exiles were able to get Brian to the Crystal Palace and save his life, but he was severely weakened. He sent Wisdom and Sage back to Earth to recruit Albion from prison as he was the only one powerful enough to stand up to the Jaspers, who had attacked the Captain Britain Corps. Soon, though, Brian recovered sufficiently to fight Jaspers himself, though it was Blink of the Exiles who struck the final blow. Brian was ready to resume his duties leading the Corps, but Saturnyne chose Albion instead, feeling that the Corps needed a dedicated and more aggressive leader to deal with threats like the Jaspers and Merlyn (who had returned and killed Roma). Brian then returned to Earth with Excalibur.

Captain Britain II (Earth 616)

Captain Britain III (Earth 616)