The Weirdly Similar Trajectory and History of Betsy Braddock and Carol Danvers: a thread 1/8 #XSpoilers

The superheroes now known as Captain Britain and Captain Marvel have had more than a few parallels. Both started off as spinoff characters of blonde, super-strong, male characters using those names—Betsy’s brother Brian and Carol’s colleague Mar-Vell 2/8

In their role as supporting cast, both women are associated with an armed governmental service. Danvers is in the Air Force, Betsy is a spy for STRIKE (British SHIELD) 3/8

Eventually both women get upgraded from supporting cast to supers in their own right. Betsy briefly dons the Captain Britain persona and Carol becomes the first Ms. Marvel! 4/8

Both characters then proceed to get unceremoniously written out. Carol gets pregnant and mind controlled by a man named Marcus in a near-universally reviled Avengers story. Betsy gets her eyes removed by Slaymaster and left alone and blind in Switzerland. 5/8

Chris Claremont, Betsy’s creator and the longest lasting writer on Ms. Marvel, was angered by the mishandling of both of these women. In the pages of Uncanny X-Men he brought both women in separately to reinvent them; Carol as Binary and Bets as Psylocke 6/8

We end up in a world where both women eclipse their male counterparts in popularity and importance. Eventually Carol becomes Ms Marvel again; Bets swaps bodies w/ an Asian mutant named Kwannon. Despite the writing both are most known for sexy costumes that have much in common 7/8

Finally, after way too long—Carol takes the name Captain Marvel once and for all. Betsy gets restored to her original British body; and returns to her Capt Britain persona! Both women cover up, get less sexualized, and are helmed by female writers (DeConnick and Howard) 8/8

P.S.
As Captain Marvel, Carol becomes “boss” of space and aliens with Alpha Flight, and Betsy leads Excalibur and becomes “boss” of magic and fantasy in the X-books
9/8

Thanks to @CerebroCast for making me come to this realization while listening to the Brian Braddock episode discuss the “fridging” of Betsy and the Captain Britain mantle overall 10/8