Review by Frank Plowright

In taking on the fantasy-based strand of the X-Men’s new worlds, Tini Howard heavily featured Betsy Braddock. She starred in both the engaging Excalibur and the disappointing Knights of X, and a plotline unresolved from those titles was the United Kingdom being usurped by the mystical Coven Akkaba’s influence behind the scenes. They’re now starting to manipulate other realities, and Betsy and her allies are unaware old enemy Morgan Le Fay is the mastermind.

That’s where Howard picks up, adding a tour through the other problems currently bothering Betsy emphasising how her duties encompass the entire pantheon of alternate realities. Also menacing are the Fury community, and here’s where many readers who recall Alan Moore’s Captain Britain stories might take issue with Howard. There a single Fury was a threat beyond belief, but here they’re robot cannon fodder. Howard is better when it comes to the treatment of UK superheroes, and remembering Morgan Le Fay’s past with Doctor Doom.

Vasco Georgiev typifies the artists found on so many Marvel series of the 2020s. He’s technically proficient and can dash off twenty unremarkable pages of superhero action a month, focusing on the figures and leaving the colourist to fill in the backgrounds. There’s a continuing improvement over five chapters, but much of the story is told without distinction or personality.

It’s a pity because Howard’s plot has personality bursting from the pages as Betsy and some surprising allies fight a covert battle to save Britain, while in amusing interludes they’re being eviscerated in the press. It may seem Betsy is pitted against a foe beyond her power set no matter how many allies she has, yet Howard cleverly brings everything to a satisfying and surprising conclusion. It also opens doors to possibilities in the future, so despite the early lacklustre art this redeems itself by the end.