Welcome to Cover Girl! For this feature, we gather a team of WWAC contributors to analyze a new or recent and notable comic book cover featuring one or more women. This month, Kat Overland, Carrie McClain, Masha Zhdanova, Nola Pfau, and Kayleigh Hearn discuss the Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #1 variant cover by Peach Momoko.
What is your initial reaction to this cover as a piece of comic art?
Kat Overland: I LOVE the rose petals/blood droplets here, it’s very hardcore and pastel in a way that’s very Betsy. Extreme Revolutionary Girl Utena vibes.
Carrie McClain: Ohhhhhhh, I’m feeling “Speak Softly and Carry a Big Sword, the Magical Girl Edition”.
Masha Zhdanova: I don’t know her, but she looks nice 🙂 I love all the flowing shapes, the petals, the blood drops, the cape, and the way everything is swirling around Captain Britain. The watercolor texture adds a sense of gentleness against the bold, black ink lines.
Nola Pfau: I enjoy the way her telekinesis is forming here, with the flower shape behind it. It’s a great composition!
Kayleigh Hearn: I close my eyes and I picture Peach Momoko’s cover blown-up to poster dimensions and hanging above a teenage girl’s bed, right above her shelf of crystal unicorn figurines and dog-eared Tamsyn Muir paperbacks. It’s a very lovely and evocative piece of fantasy art.
What do you think the artist is trying to achieve?
Carrie: This is a COVER, COVER. I do like that this cover centers Bets. I think back to a previous Cover Girl post where a lot going on: Sharks, Sea Turtles, Oh My! Fresh from the Otherworld, here’s a woman making the best of what she’s got.
Kat: I think Peach Momoko is trying to bring the beauty and strength of Betsy into one knightly image.
Nola: I really like the magical girl aesthetics going on here. They fit the character’s story in the last few years too. The only way it could more strongly evoke that is if Peach were doing some super direct Revolutionary Girl Utena callouts.
Kayleigh: This is a classic “Chosen One” cover. The heroine striking a dynamic pose, wielding a mighty sword as psychic energy and rose petals swirl about her. She’s She-Ra, she’s King Arthur (though that isn’t Excalibur she’s holding, but the Starlight Sword), she’s Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain.
And I really must praise Peach Momoko’s watercolors. Since she was first revealed as Captain Britain, I’ve thought that Betsy’s color scheme — the purple hair on top of the red, blue, and white costume — was distracting and overbearing. But then, I’ve always had a soft spot for Betsy’s gravely underappreciated and unfairly underused (Curse you, Slaymaster!) original Captain Britain costume, and while armor and practical shoes are the opposite of a down-grade, I do love that tri-color wig. That is a long, rambling way of saying: I love Peach’s shades of lavender melting into the blue and red. This is the most I’ve ever liked Captain Britain’s current character design.
What does this cover tell you about the character?
Carrie: I feel like yelling out THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE! Also, she’s got the power pose down. Give me this limited edition action figure that doesn’t exist, please, and thank you! If this was attached to a real-life animated show, it would be canceled because of “toys sales” cause you know…girls don’t buy action figures.
Masha: I feel like this is the point in the narrative where she’s coming into her full powers and ready to kick ass. Like Arthur pulling the sword from the stone. I have no idea if this is accurate, because I just discovered this character exists today.
Kat: I love the contrast between the boldness of her body language and the almost unsure expression on her face despite that strength inherent in her.
Nola: Honestly, maybe it’s because I do know the character so well, but I feel like this doesn’t tell me much about her at all? This cover doesn’t feel like an informative piece of art to me, it feels like “X-Men character, but manga styling,” and I don’t see much of her character coming through beyond that.
Kayleigh: I love the composition, the colors, and the psychic sword, but the weakest element for me is, as Kat says, Betsy’s “unsure” facial expression. It’s telling that magical girls and Revolutionary Girl Utena have been invoked multiple times in this roundtable discussion, even though this cover is not a direct reference to the anime series. She looks very young and waifish for a character who’s previously had “ninja assassin” and “member of multiple covert X-Men kill squads” on her resume, dare I say, a little too green for someone decked out in blue, red, white, and purple. This cover features Captain Britain — but does it feature Betsy Braddock?
