Jamie Braddock
Encyclopedia
James "Jamie" Braddock Jr. is a fictional character
appearing in the Marvel Comics
universe
. The elder brother of the twin superheroes Captain Britain
and Psylocke
, he is a mutant
possessing the ability to manipulate reality in a variety of ways. Though his mutant powers are very powerful, he is limited in that he is also a schizophrenic
who believes reality to be his own dream. Originally a supporting character in his brother's solo comic book series, the emergence of his superhuman powers and subsequent mental illness have led him to become a super-villain associated with both Captain Britain and various X-Men
comics.
He made his name as a financial genius and was also a successful race car driver. He headed Braddock Industries, a company that flourished under his leadership. Eventually, Jamie came to know of his brother's secret identity as Captain Britain
and assisted him on several occasions. In his spare time, however, Jamie started to make illegal bets and his debts grew. Soon he became involved with various illegal activities in order to pay his debts. Starting out with minor crimes, Jamie eventually became involved with robbery, murder, and slave-trading in Africa
, resulting in him being kidnapped by Doctor Crocodile, an African scientist (also a former R.C.X.
agent). Horribly scarred and mangled by the explosion of a "warpy
" mutant baby, he sought vengeance for his injuries through Jamie, whose siblings were involved in the incident. He forced Jamie contact his brother, thinking that Brian was involved with Jamie's crimes as well. Crocodile's witch-doctor created a hallucination for Brian so that she and Crocodile could observe Brian's reaction to the crimes Jamie had committed. Convinced that Brian was innocent, Crocodile told Brian the truth about his brother's actions. Shocked and furious, Brian abandoned Jamie to his fate.
Jamie's treatment at the hands of Doctor Crocodile eventually fractured his mind, leading him to believe that the world around him was merely a dream. The torture and hallucinations forced upon him also awakened his latent mutant power; the ability to warp and restructure reality in his immediate environment. Sat-Yr-9
, in the stolen identity of Courtney Ross
, learned of Jamie's recently emerged powers, and hired the interdimensional mercenaries known as the Technet to free him. When confronted by the Technet, Crocodile revealed Jamie's crimes to the Technet. The group turned on Jamie, attacking him, but he defeated them easily and erased their memories of these events. He then used his power to transform Doctor Crocodile into an actual crocodile and departed with Sat-Yr-9. Jamie was taken to his family home, Braddock Manor, where he used his reality warping powers to change things back to the way they were in his youth, even resurrecting his family's housekeeper (who was also his childhood nanny), Emma Collins.
Sat-Yr-9 used Jamie's reality warping powers to turn the London criminal known as Vixen into a fox. Moments afterward, he turned her assistant Nigel Frobisher (who had also been sent by Sat-Yr-9 to hire the Technet to free him in the first place) into a duplicate of Vixen. While Frosbisher had wanted to take over Vixen's criminal empire and had told Jamie as much, this was not how he had hoped to do so. After Frobisher got over the initial awkwardness of his situation, he and Jamie used their newly acquired resources to ambush Excalibur
, a superhero team Brian had joined. During the ambush, Jamie killed Alysande Stuart
and took most of Excalibur and his sister Elizabeth (now the X-Man
called Psylocke)captive, torturing them with his powers. He was defeated when Brian's girlfriend Meggan
managed to override his powers, allowing Psylocke to break free and incapacitate him with her psychic blade. Sat-Yr-9 retrieved Jamie's unconscious body as she escaped. After these events, Jamie would remain comatose for some time, apparently abandoned by Sat-Yr-9 and taken to Muir Island
for treatment. His brother and sister attempted to restore him and heal his fractured psyche using Psylocke's telepathy, but he ultimately rejected their offer, expelling them from his mind and returning to a catatonic state.
Jamie was briefly seen in Uncanny X-Men
#462-465 in the tie-in story of House of M
, in which Mad Jim Jaspers
, another British villain with reality manipulation powers, also mysteriously reappeared. In Uncanny X-Men #472, he reveals that he was the one who resurrected his sister Betsy one year to the day after she was killed in Spain. In restoring her to life, Jamie also manipulated the quantum forces making up his sister, granting her complete immunity to psionics, magic, and reality-warping. Uatu the Watcher
also appears inexplicably, implying that something of cosmic significance is about to happen. Jamie mentions a "cosmic threat", now known as the Foursaken (one of whom is Jamie's former girlfriend, Amina Synge
), that has recently reappeared on Earth. He is pulled through a mysterious portal which the X-Men follow him through. Most of the team is captured, with the exception of Psylocke, who was invisible to the Foursaken thanks to Jamie's alterations. During the conflict that follows, Jamie decides that he cannot allow his sister to be used as a pawn again, sacrificing himself instead to save the universe from the First Fallen, the Foursaken's master.
Jamie appears briefly in Captain Britain and MI: 13
, helping Brian
find his way through a illusion created by the demonic Lord Plokta. Whether this was actually Jamie, or an illusion created by Plotka or Brian's own mind is unknown.
possessing the ability to warp reality in his immediate environment. Unlike most mutants, whose powers manifest at puberty or even younger, Jamie's power remained latent well into his adulthood, only emerging as a result of extreme mental duress due to Doctor Crocodile's mystical torture. Jamie's power allows him to perceive the universe
as a mass of quantum
strings which he can pull and twist to alter the fabric of reality to his whims. Originally, his reality warping was relatively limited; he could only affect dense forms and needed to be close enough to pull on the quantum strings surrounding them. Over time, however, the strength of his power and his control of it have increased substantially; he is no longer limited to dense forms or his immediate surroundings.
Jamie's reality-warping power is immense in scope, limited only by his imagination and fluctuating sanity. He can create portals out of ordinary objects that can transport him across the planet or into other dimensions instantaneously, transform living beings into entirely different forms, grant others various superhuman abilities (though they tend to fade over time), and can even resurrect the dead.
's Ultimate Fallout
, Nick Fury is told that the European Union has reconstituted the Super-Soldier Program which will be led by Jamie Braddock
as the new Captain Britain.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
appearing in the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
universe
Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe is the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place, including those featuring Marvel's most familiar characters, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and the Avengers.The Marvel Universe is further...
. The elder brother of the twin superheroes Captain Britain
Captain Britain
Captain Britain , briefly known as Britannic, is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, he first appeared in Captain Britain Weekly, #1...
and Psylocke
Psylocke
Psylocke is a fictional character depicted in comic books published by Marvel Comics, most notably those comics featuring the superhero team the X-Men. The character has also appeared in licensed adaptations. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Herb Trimpe, she first appeared in the UK...
, he is a mutant
Mutant (Marvel Comics)
In comic books published by Marvel Comics, a mutant is an organism who possesses a genetic trait called an X-gene that allows the mutant to naturally develop superhuman powers and abilities...
possessing the ability to manipulate reality in a variety of ways. Though his mutant powers are very powerful, he is limited in that he is also a schizophrenic
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
who believes reality to be his own dream. Originally a supporting character in his brother's solo comic book series, the emergence of his superhuman powers and subsequent mental illness have led him to become a super-villain associated with both Captain Britain and various X-Men
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...
comics.
Fictional character biography
Jamie is the oldest son of Dr. James and Elizabeth Braddock. Nearly a decade older than his siblings, the twins Brian and Elizabeth ("Betsy"), Jamie had a relatively isolated childhood.He made his name as a financial genius and was also a successful race car driver. He headed Braddock Industries, a company that flourished under his leadership. Eventually, Jamie came to know of his brother's secret identity as Captain Britain
Captain Britain
Captain Britain , briefly known as Britannic, is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, he first appeared in Captain Britain Weekly, #1...
and assisted him on several occasions. In his spare time, however, Jamie started to make illegal bets and his debts grew. Soon he became involved with various illegal activities in order to pay his debts. Starting out with minor crimes, Jamie eventually became involved with robbery, murder, and slave-trading in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, resulting in him being kidnapped by Doctor Crocodile, an African scientist (also a former R.C.X.
R.C.X.
The Resources Control Executive is a fictional British intelligence agency in the Marvel Comics universe. It first appeared in Captain Britain vol...
agent). Horribly scarred and mangled by the explosion of a "warpy
Jaspers' Warp
"Jaspers' Warp", also known as "Crooked World", was a Marvel UK storyline featuring primarily the character Captain Britain. It was originally published between 1982 and 1984 in Marvel Superheroes, #387-388, The Daredevils, #1-11 and The Mighty World Of Marvel, volume 2, #7-13.The story is a...
" mutant baby, he sought vengeance for his injuries through Jamie, whose siblings were involved in the incident. He forced Jamie contact his brother, thinking that Brian was involved with Jamie's crimes as well. Crocodile's witch-doctor created a hallucination for Brian so that she and Crocodile could observe Brian's reaction to the crimes Jamie had committed. Convinced that Brian was innocent, Crocodile told Brian the truth about his brother's actions. Shocked and furious, Brian abandoned Jamie to his fate.
Jamie's treatment at the hands of Doctor Crocodile eventually fractured his mind, leading him to believe that the world around him was merely a dream. The torture and hallucinations forced upon him also awakened his latent mutant power; the ability to warp and restructure reality in his immediate environment. Sat-Yr-9
Sat-Yr-9
Opul Lun Sat-Yr-9 is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe.-Dictator:Opul Lun Sat-Yr-9 was a dictator who ruled Earth-794 with her lover Kaptain Briton. When he fled from her, traveling to Earth-616 where he knew he had an identical looking counterpart, Earth-616's Captain Britain, she sent...
, in the stolen identity of Courtney Ross
Courtney Ross
Courtney Ross is a fictional character from Marvel Comics originating in the Captain Britain comics as Brian Braddock's college girlfriend. She was created by Chris Claremont and drawn by artists Herb Trimpe and Fred Kida...
, learned of Jamie's recently emerged powers, and hired the interdimensional mercenaries known as the Technet to free him. When confronted by the Technet, Crocodile revealed Jamie's crimes to the Technet. The group turned on Jamie, attacking him, but he defeated them easily and erased their memories of these events. He then used his power to transform Doctor Crocodile into an actual crocodile and departed with Sat-Yr-9. Jamie was taken to his family home, Braddock Manor, where he used his reality warping powers to change things back to the way they were in his youth, even resurrecting his family's housekeeper (who was also his childhood nanny), Emma Collins.
Sat-Yr-9 used Jamie's reality warping powers to turn the London criminal known as Vixen into a fox. Moments afterward, he turned her assistant Nigel Frobisher (who had also been sent by Sat-Yr-9 to hire the Technet to free him in the first place) into a duplicate of Vixen. While Frosbisher had wanted to take over Vixen's criminal empire and had told Jamie as much, this was not how he had hoped to do so. After Frobisher got over the initial awkwardness of his situation, he and Jamie used their newly acquired resources to ambush Excalibur
Excalibur (comics)
Excalibur is a Marvel Comics superhero group, an off-shoot of the X-Men, usually based in the United Kingdom. Conceived by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer Alan Davis, the original Excalibur first appeared in Excalibur Special Edition , also known as Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn.The...
, a superhero team Brian had joined. During the ambush, Jamie killed Alysande Stuart
Alysande Stuart
Alysande Stuart is a fictional character appearing in X-Men stories in the Marvel Comics universe. She first appeared in Excalibur #6 and was created by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis...
and took most of Excalibur and his sister Elizabeth (now the X-Man
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...
called Psylocke)captive, torturing them with his powers. He was defeated when Brian's girlfriend Meggan
Meggan
Meggan Puceanu is a fictional character, a mutant superhero in the . She first appeared in Mighty World of Marvel #7, , and was created by Alan Moore and Alan Davis....
managed to override his powers, allowing Psylocke to break free and incapacitate him with her psychic blade. Sat-Yr-9 retrieved Jamie's unconscious body as she escaped. After these events, Jamie would remain comatose for some time, apparently abandoned by Sat-Yr-9 and taken to Muir Island
Muir Island
Muir Island is a small, fictional island off the northern coast of Scotland in the Marvel Comics universe. It plays a prominent role in the X-Men comics and its related series.-History:...
for treatment. His brother and sister attempted to restore him and heal his fractured psyche using Psylocke's telepathy, but he ultimately rejected their offer, expelling them from his mind and returning to a catatonic state.
Jamie was briefly seen in Uncanny X-Men
Uncanny X-Men
Uncanny X-Men, first published as The X-Men, is the flagship Marvel Comics comic book series for the X-Men franchise. It is the mainstream continuity featuring the adventures of the eponymous group of mutant superheroes...
#462-465 in the tie-in story of House of M
House of M
House of M is an eight-issue comic book limited series and crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics in 2005. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Olivier Coipel, its first issue debuted in June 2005 as a follow-up to the events of the Planet X and Avengers Disassembled...
, in which Mad Jim Jaspers
Mad Jim Jaspers
Sir James Jaspers is a fictional character created by Dave Thorpe and Alan Davis for the Captain Britain stories in Marvel UK comics and later developed by Alan Moore....
, another British villain with reality manipulation powers, also mysteriously reappeared. In Uncanny X-Men #472, he reveals that he was the one who resurrected his sister Betsy one year to the day after she was killed in Spain. In restoring her to life, Jamie also manipulated the quantum forces making up his sister, granting her complete immunity to psionics, magic, and reality-warping. Uatu the Watcher
Uatu
Uatu, often simply known as The Watcher, is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and designed by artist Jack Kirby, he first appeared in The Fantastic Four #13 ....
also appears inexplicably, implying that something of cosmic significance is about to happen. Jamie mentions a "cosmic threat", now known as the Foursaken (one of whom is Jamie's former girlfriend, Amina Synge
Amina Synge
Amina Synge grew up with the rest of the Foursaken. She was the girlfriend of Jamie Braddock. She gained her powers whilst entering a rally with Jamie in the desert...
), that has recently reappeared on Earth. He is pulled through a mysterious portal which the X-Men follow him through. Most of the team is captured, with the exception of Psylocke, who was invisible to the Foursaken thanks to Jamie's alterations. During the conflict that follows, Jamie decides that he cannot allow his sister to be used as a pawn again, sacrificing himself instead to save the universe from the First Fallen, the Foursaken's master.
Jamie appears briefly in Captain Britain and MI: 13
Captain Britain and MI: 13
Captain Britain and MI: 13 is an American comic book series from Marvel Comics, written by Paul Cornell, with art by Leonard Kirk. The series centers on the fictional British government agency MI: 13, which is dedicated to protecting the United Kingdom from supernatural threats...
, helping Brian
Captain Britain
Captain Britain , briefly known as Britannic, is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, he first appeared in Captain Britain Weekly, #1...
find his way through a illusion created by the demonic Lord Plokta. Whether this was actually Jamie, or an illusion created by Plotka or Brian's own mind is unknown.
Powers and abilities
Jamie Braddock is a mutantMutant (Marvel Comics)
In comic books published by Marvel Comics, a mutant is an organism who possesses a genetic trait called an X-gene that allows the mutant to naturally develop superhuman powers and abilities...
possessing the ability to warp reality in his immediate environment. Unlike most mutants, whose powers manifest at puberty or even younger, Jamie's power remained latent well into his adulthood, only emerging as a result of extreme mental duress due to Doctor Crocodile's mystical torture. Jamie's power allows him to perceive the universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
as a mass of quantum
Quantum
In physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude can take on only certain discrete...
strings which he can pull and twist to alter the fabric of reality to his whims. Originally, his reality warping was relatively limited; he could only affect dense forms and needed to be close enough to pull on the quantum strings surrounding them. Over time, however, the strength of his power and his control of it have increased substantially; he is no longer limited to dense forms or his immediate surroundings.
Jamie's reality-warping power is immense in scope, limited only by his imagination and fluctuating sanity. He can create portals out of ordinary objects that can transport him across the planet or into other dimensions instantaneously, transform living beings into entirely different forms, grant others various superhuman abilities (though they tend to fade over time), and can even resurrect the dead.
Ultimate Marvel
In Ultimate MarvelUltimate Marvel
Ultimate Marvel is an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring reimagined and updated versions of the company's superhero characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. The imprint was launched in 2000 with the publication of the series...
's Ultimate Fallout
Ultimate Fallout
Ultimate Comics: Fallout is a comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics that debuted in July 2011 as part of the second re-launch of the Ultimate Universe...
, Nick Fury is told that the European Union has reconstituted the Super-Soldier Program which will be led by Jamie Braddock
Jamie Braddock
James "Jamie" Braddock Jr. is a fictional character appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. The elder brother of the twin superheroes Captain Britain and Psylocke, he is a mutant possessing the ability to manipulate reality in a variety of ways. Though his mutant powers are very powerful, he is...
as the new Captain Britain.
External links
- Jamie Braddock's profile in the Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe