CAPTAIN BRITAIN

 

CAPTAIN BRITAIN

Real Name: Brian Braddock

First Appearance: Captain Britain (Vol. 1) #1, October 1976 (First UK); Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 1) #65, January 1978 (First US)

Powers: Originally a baseline human, Brian Braddock was a scientist working at a research lab when it was attacked by criminals. Fleeing them on his motorcycle, Brian went off the side of the road and crashed. As he lay dying, Brian was visited by Merlyn and his daughter Roma, who offered to save his life and make him their champion. Brian was given a choice between two talismans to serve as his symbol: The Sword of Might and the Amulet of Right. Brian chose the latter, and was transformed into Captain Britain. He normally possessed no superhuman powers, until he touched the amulet on his neck and mystically summoned his costume and staff. Then he would possess superhuman strength (no more than Class 1 at first), speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes, along with instinctive fighting prowess. His original quarterstaff fit snugly on his back in a collapsed state, and had three buttons built into the handle. The first caused the staff to extend to its full length for combat usage. The second button generated an invisible force field over his body, protecting him from physical impact, explosions, flames, and energy blasts (but not gas, apparently). The force field could be projected over him only when he was touching the staff somehow, but could be produced when the staff was in its collapsed state on his back, and not in his hands. The third button sent a tingling vibration through his body, resulting in a powerful explosion striking whatever the staff was pointed at that moment. Later, after once more meeting Merlyn and Roma, Captain Britain's staff was replaced by a star-sceptre, composed of mystical circuitry. Instead of being a normal telescopic pole, the sceptre magically lengthened itself whenever Brian started using it for close combat. It has no more blasting-power, and the force field was redesigned as a type of energy barrier projected from the tip of the sceptre into mid-air, creating a simple shield of different sizes for protection in one direction. The main new feature, though, was the power of flight -- by holding the sceptre, Brian could now fly at over 100 mph for up to 15 minutes at a time. All these powers were summoned by a mystical link between the amulet and the sceptre; no one could fly or form force fields just by touching the sceptre and willing it except Brian. It has also been said that the sceptre provided Captain Britain with a constant supply of mystical energy, giving him literally inexhaustible stamina so long as he held the weapon.

Later in his career, Brian's sceptre was disassembled by Merlyn and its mystical circuitry was incorporated into a new Captain Britain costume, costing him use of a personal weapon but making his powers much closer to him. This reverted his force field to a personal body shield, like it had been with the quarterstaff. Shortly thereafter, though, Brian first encountered Saturnyne and was devolved, then re-evolved using a "life-enhancing fluid." He began manipulating his costume's personal force field more readily at this point, such as expanding it outwards to protect other people as well, or projecting it as a hand of energy to move or manipulate objects. An encounter with the Fury, however, left Captain Britain very much dead. Merlyn and Roma rebuilt Brian's body from the inside-out on both physical and spiritual levels, and in the process incorporated his powers into him as natural abilities. Brian now possessed considerable superhuman strength, enhanced endurance and reflexes, the power of flight, and natural invulnerability even without the suit. He was also given "para-senses" which were never truly expanded upon, thought at one point he was able to perceive illusory images. During this time, his strength level increased dramatically as he began benching in the Class 90-95 range. Also, because of the nature of the Omniversal energy matrix, its energies (and therefore Brian's inherent powers) would fade beyond the borders of the United Kingdom. This is where the suit was still useful: It acted as an antenna, broadcasting the matrix's energy to Brian if he was elsewhere in the world. The suit could still generate its force field, but Merlyn had greatly limited it when he rebuilt Brian and the suit. The field mostly just acted as an extension of his invulnerability now, and could not be manipulated in other ways.

This basically set the stage for Brian's "classic", more well-known powers and remained that way for years. After taking the costume of Captain Marshal during the events of the Cross-Time Caper, Brian eventually found that suit to be operating on a slightly different wavelength, which caused his powers to become unbalanced and unreliable for a time. Roma ultimately fixed the problem. After being cast adrift into the timestream, Brian bounced from the beginning of the time to the end and back for months until he was eventually grounded back in the present. This changed him personally, and he adopted the identity of Britanic. It may also have changed him physiologically: Britanic was seen operating for extended periods of time in the United States, Genosha, and continental Europe without wearing his Captain Britain suit and without showing any marked loss to his powers. Finally, his trip through the timestream had caused Brian to literally experience the entire span of history. This knowledge could not be fully contained in his mind, but occasionally snippets of his journey came to him as "flash-forwards", visions of the future or possible futures. As he resettled into the timestream, the flash-forwards ultimately stopped occurring. Brian eventually dropped the Britanic identity in favor of returning to being Captain Britain. He reprised his old costume and tinkered with the force field a bit, reactivating its ability to alter its shape. He could now once again expand the force field's size, or lash out with it as a strike of pure energy. Brian lost his powers for an extended period of time after a clash with the Crimson Dawn, but when he was named ruler of Otherworld, Brian's power was potentially at cosmic levels, to a scale that was never fully explored. The House of M effect disconnected him from Otherworld, though, and his powers were apparently back to what they were before as "classic" Captain Britain. Brian was killed during the Skrull invasion, and resurrected by Merlin as a spiritual representation of the British people. Because of this, Brian's power levels are inherently variable. His strength, endurance, flight speed and invulnerability fluctuate with his emotional state, particularly his self-confidence and assuredness. His sister, Betsy, has recently undertaken the mantle and costume of Captain Britain while Brian is now Captain Avalon.

Brian Braddock holds a Ph.D. in physics and is a brilliant scientist with expertise in physics and engineering.