InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "What are you doing Dave?"

proteus_lives (proteus_lives) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-05-03 21:35:00

Current location:	Outer Dark
Entry tags:	char: captain britain/brian braddock, char: cypher/doug ramsey, char: mirage/danielle moonstar, char: mojo, char: psylocke/betsy braddock, char: spiral/rita wayword, char: warlock, creator: alan davis, creator: chris claremont, publisher: marvel comics, theme: otp, title: new mutants

Doug Ramsey and Betsy Braddock: So Wrong yet So Right.
Greetings True Believers! In my last Doug Ramsey post I showed you his tragic end. In this post, let's visit one of his greatest triumphs. When he met, saved and perhaps won the heart of Betsy Braddock a.k.a Psylocke. Some backstory is required. At one point Betsy assumed the mantle of Captain Britain and was blinded by Slaymaster (One of her brother's old foes) She's blind but uses her telepathy to get around. In prologue (set a year in the past) she's hitting the slopes in Switzerland when she's kidnapped by Mojo and Spiral.....Enjoy!

(The art is wonderful.)

Mojo and Spiral were fucking creepy back in the day!

Mojo turns Betsy in the host of the world's most popular kid's show, "Wildways" It's beloved by all the children (Superpowered children most of all like Rahne, Sunspot and some superpowered tykes from Longshot's mini. Mojo has it in for them as well.) Meanwhile Doug is having doubts about being a New Mutant. He's unsure of his place on the team, being isolated from society at the mansion and other things. Dani gives him a pep-talk.

Brian Braddock a.k.a Captain Britain also saw the Wildways program and is scouring the globe for Betsy. He tracks down the transmission to a slum in New York but is attacked and overpowered by Slave-Betsy's psi powers. (Backed-up by Spiral's reality-warping and spells.)

The spell cast over the children takes effect and people like Sunspot and the Bratpack travel willingly into the Wildways. Sunspot is replaced by a double. The double is accidently killed by Doug and Warlock while clearing some trees. Doug goes to angst over the body when Warlock discovers something amiss...

The New Mutants go to investigate while we turn back to Mojo and Spiral messing with Betsy.

Those bionic eyes are creepy and they will haunt Betsy for years to come. Meanwhile Mojo takes the children he's seized and alters them into evil adult forms. (Rahne, Bobby, Karma's siblings and the Bratpack children.)

The New Mutants travel to the slum but they fucked by Betsy's psi powers and turn on each other and then they are attacked by the altered children. Doug and Warlock escape but watch as the New Mutants give into the lure of getting their hearts desires and are altered into adult forms. All except Magma who fights back and is instead regressed back to childhood. Then Doug finds out what happened to Brian Braddock...

Magma fights back and Doug convinces Braddock to go and rescue her. Then Doug and Warlock meet Betsy for the first time.

(It's really great how Doug and Warlock work as a team.)

BB and Magma continue fighting the Bratpack while Doug and Warlock make a dangerous and heroic decision.

Matrix/Borg time. Once again the art really works here.

Douglock's and Betsy's mind interweave and He sees what She and Mojo are doing to the kids. BB and Magma fight a losing battle. Doug tries to reason with Betsy but she attacks him with the help of Spiral. Douglock figures out how to psionically restore Betsy to her true self.

The art here is trippy, the story is cool and with a really wicked mindscape. I wish I could post it. Doug begins to rescue the trapped people. He's starting merge with Warlock intensely.

Spiral's spells and dances end but she tries one last trick to destroy everyone.

Warning! Angst and Doug/Betsy cuteness ahead!

Claremont so enjoys saying it without saying it.

Oh these two are so cute. Check it out!

Methinks Brian might have reacted differently if he realized his twin sister was basically the meat in a alien/boy sandwich.

In this era Doug and Betsy are ALWAYS a half a bottle of wine away from doing something that might put Betsy on another federal list. It's cute because Doug is heroic and so shy. Betsy is conflicted but full of emotions and desire. It's one of Marvel's great "If Only...."'s

What do you think? Betsy/Doug, OTP??? I liked them a lot better then Doug/Kitty or Doug/Rahne. Doug also beats the pants off of Warren, Neal or any of Betsy's other men.

The last lines of the Annual are, "It's hard to be a hero but, occasionally well worth the price." That is Doug Ramsey in a nutshell.

(It's 16 scans. The annual was giant-sized and 48 pages long. So I think I'm good.)

(Post a new comment)

	crinosg 2009-05-03 10:16 pm UTC (link)
	Hm. Betsy gets brainwashed and turned into a She Mojo. Sounds like Claremont alright. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	geoffsebesta 2009-05-04 06:12 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, isn't this what the Shadow King did to Karma? Hmm, Mister Claremont. Tell me about your mother. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	crinosg 2009-05-04 08:24 am UTC (link)
	No, Shadow King possessed Karma and made her incredibly fat. Which, as a fat fetishist, I must admit I found kinda cool. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlbarnett 2009-05-04 05:24 pm UTC (link)
	of course he did it the natural way. By pigging out on everything in sight. Why not try to watch his weight? He can tap all of his victims senses, right? So have everyone he's controlling eat, he gets to taste it and in the end no one gets fat. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	crinosg 2009-05-04 05:51 pm UTC (link)
	Claremont remember? What's the fun of having a female character go evil if you can't give them horns or turn them into a mannequin or something like that. You'll note Shadow King had never made any of the other people he possessed fat, only Karma. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlbarnett 2009-05-04 06:39 pm UTC (link)
	true. Except for himself. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

crinosg
2009-05-04 08:45 pm UTC (link)

Well, Farouk was a big eater, which was the reason he made Karma so fat.

Come to think of it, maybe the reason no one else ever blimped up when possessed by the King is because he never possessed them long enough to indulge his appetites like he did with Karma (Has he ever possessed someone as long as he did Karma?)

Also, think Betsy would have become as fat as Mojo if she had stayed Mojofied?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlbarnett 2009-05-04 08:52 pm UTC (link)
	no one but a guy who had just died of a heart attack. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	crinosg 2009-05-04 08:58 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, and I bet by then Farouk had gone from "Greedy disembodied crime lord" to "Sealed evil in a can mode", which seems to have become the preferred version of how Farouk is portrayed nowadays. If I ever write for X men, I'm bringing back evil gluttonous Farouk, maybe have him make someone fat again. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	pyrotwilight 2009-05-03 10:42 pm UTC (link)
	Ah Doug Ramsey so adorable. He doesn't even notice the naked girl in front of him until she's pointed out. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	geoffsebesta 2009-05-04 06:13 am UTC (link)
	Radioactive spiders and unstable molecules I'll buy, but not that. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-04 09:06 am UTC (link)
	Ummm.... It was a VERY dark room, and it's not like most of the people Doug knows don't wear such close fitting clothing that they might as WELL be naked. Nah, not sure I buy it either... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	proteus_lives 2009-05-04 12:53 pm UTC (link)
	Or his reaction was one complete amazement and discovery. Like the opening scene of 2001. This could have been Doug's ape-bone. (Plus Betsy would be far too English to point it out.) :) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	shanejayell 2009-05-03 11:25 pm UTC (link)
	I always liked these two and was sad it was never played out. On the other hand, with the rumors of Doug returning maybe we'll see more of Betsy/Doug (Reply to this) (Thread)

cmdr_zoom
2009-05-04 01:12 am UTC (link)

That would be nice, but I can't help being afraid they'll screw it up. ("This is why we can't have nice things!")

Also, of late, that line of Douglock's about strength in a mindscape being a function of will always puts me in mind of a certain quote of Morpheus' (no, not the skinny pale emo one):

"Do you think that my being stronger, or faster, has anything to do with my muscles in this place?"

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	ex_naela777 2009-05-03 11:39 pm UTC (link)
	Betsy/Doug's just a bit too squicky for me, but the Besty and Brian interaction made me go dawwww. Makes me realize how much I miss seeing those two together. I'm so glad she's back in 616, so here's to hoping a reunion between the twins sometime soon. (Reply to this)

	silicone_soul 2009-05-04 01:59 am UTC (link)
	Ah, that basement scene. Had quite an effect on me, as a young lad. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	proteus_lives 2009-05-04 12:54 pm UTC (link)
	As it did me the first time I saw it. Before as a young fellow I was very impressed by Asian-Betsy but after this comic I was firmly in the English camp. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	aaron_bourque 2009-05-04 02:25 am UTC (link)
	Ah yes. This is when I was first introduced to the concept of bondage. . . . Anyway, Alan Davis should always draw naked people. (Reply to this)

icon_uk
2009-05-04 05:24 am UTC (link)

I confess Doug/Betsy was always just a little TOO weird for me (Kitty and Doug forever! Or possibly Tarot and Doug, had that gone anywhere, as it has in a couple of really excelletn fanfics).

Doug's reaction to Betsy is obvious, he's a walking pile of teenage hormones with self image problems, and she's a supermodel who thinks he's cute. The fact he's capable of standing upright in front of her without a well placed desk between them is a remarkable testament to his self control. Her attraction to him just isn't quite right, for all the same reasons. I'm rather glad it never went anywhere.

So many great moments in this. The bit (not shown) where Doug admits to "Sunspot"'s body that had never really gotten on was a nice bit of honesty.

I love that Doug's reaction to Betsy's predicament, despite what she's done, is "poor lady", Wolverine this kid ain't.

Love the merging sequence, and Doug's reaction to it, and I think this issue was the start of Warlock referring to Doug (and only Doug) as "selfsoulfriend" rather than "selfriend", but he'd earned that I think.

The whole mindscape sequence is goregous, from Douglock ripping off the false face Spiral had given him (Again, sorry not shown), to Betsy's psychic form at the end.

"In a psychic environment, strength is a function of will and determination" is just an awesome line and so worthy of Doug and Warlock!

I wish though, that Betsy HAD removed her eyes, it made no sense at all that she would keep them (still less that she wouldn't tell anyone other than Doug and Warlock), and a telepath who can see through the eyes of others would have been an interesting twist.

Brian hugging Doug at the end SHOULD be slightly slashy, but it's so clearly an English-public schoolboy fraternal-style hug that it's not. The fact that it looks like it would take about six Doug's to equal one Brian in terms of bodymass is also cute, though considering he's got a bruised chest from his earlier punch I can imagine that Doug would be nursing some seriously squeezed ribs for a while

Ah... just such a great issue! Thanks for posting!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	unknownscribler 2009-05-04 08:05 am UTC (link)
	Betsy/Doug is far far less squicky than Piotr/Kitty (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-04 08:40 am UTC (link)
	Neither exactly win points for appropriateness. The age difference is a lot less with Piotr/Kitty (Piotr's 19 or so versus Kitty's 13/14) than Betsy/Doug (Betsy's mid to late 20's to Doug's 15 or so), but Kitty was younger when her's started.... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	aaron_bourque 2009-05-04 12:01 pm UTC (link)
	I wish though, that Betsy HAD removed her eyes, it made no sense at all that she would keep them Stockholm Syndrome? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cricharddavies 2009-05-04 03:15 pm UTC (link)
	I wish though, that Betsy HAD removed her eyes, it made no sense at all that she would keep them Lose your sight. Have it restored, with conditions. Voluntarily give it up again -- by clawing your own eyes out. Then you can talk about what someone else should do in that situation. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

icon_uk
2009-05-04 06:12 pm UTC (link)

She doesn't NEED to claw them out, there are doubtless less... visceral methods.

And if you knew that your new eyes were a gift of a real, live, sadistically violent malevolent god (essentially) who you had actually MET and loathed with every fibre of your being, and you KNEW it had strings that might bring death and destruction to your team-mates, and the cute blond kid who'd just risked his mind and soul to save you, that MIGHT swing things back around, no?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cricharddavies 2009-05-04 09:13 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, well. I'm sure that a less visceral method WOULD be available. But she'd still be in the dark afterwards! Until you are in that situation, you cannot possibly judge someone for what they do, what they endure, to get out of it! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-05 01:20 am UTC (link)
	She had already said in the past that as a telepath she was never truly blind, as she saw through the eyes of others, so she wasn't in the dark. And it's not what she was enduring which was the issue, it's what she's risking inflicting on thos around her. (Reply to this) (Parent)

proteus_lives
2009-05-04 01:34 pm UTC (link)

I wish I could posted all of the mindscape scenes, they were wonderful.

The merging/friendship between Doug and Warlock is one of the coolest things about the comic. There were so many bits I wish I could have posted!

Doug and Brian are cute pals! One of the reasons I would have hoped for an eventually Doug/Betsy relationship was this. After he get over the age difference I think he would assumed an "older-classmate/friend" dynamic with Doug. Also, Meggan would thought Doug was adorable and been such a fangirl for Doug/Betsy.

""In a psychic environment, strength is a function of will and determination" is just an awesome line and so worthy of Doug and Warlock!"

Agreed! It was their "There is no spoon" moment!

Betsy/Doug can be wrong. But I liked them for the future outcome. If Doug had lived I think they would have ended up together somewhere down the road. Did you ever see the movie Sandlot? They actually reminded my of this. Ok, a bunch of nerds/outcasts/dorks form a rag-tag sandlot baseball team. One of these boys (who are between 10-12) is a scrawny, bookish-nerdy type. In one scene they go down to the public pool on a hot summer day. The reason is the ultra-foxy 16-17 year old life-guard that the nerd is crushing on hardcore.
The others mock him for this crush and he makes a decision to do something about it. He jumps off the diving-board and pretends to be drowning. She dives in and pulls him out and starts CPR. He, of course uses this opportunity to steal a kiss. Everyone cheers him and the girl is furious and tosses them all out. They run off but the nerd looks back and the they see each other and she gives him a smirk.
In the epilogue of the film where they tell what happened to the sandloters as adults, this nerd eventually married the lifeguard and had six kids together.
Doug/Betsy should have been a "down-the-road" OTP.

Your posts are great too! Very inspiring!

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-04 02:46 pm UTC (link)
	Oh if Betsy was going to wait for Doug, then I have no real problem with it provided both were in their right minds (or maybe in Betsy's case, right brain... or body, with her the terms get terribly confusing). But as it was presented, nope. Likewise I can see Brian liking Doug, but wondering about his sisters choice of beau at this point as he IS so young. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	volksjager 2009-05-04 07:41 am UTC (link)
	When she wakes up they i bet she wonder what that stabbing pain was in her chest... (Reply to this)

wilde-shade.livejournal.com
2009-05-04 09:51 am UTC (link)

Huh, before these posts, I really only had a vague idea of who Doug Ramsey was (I've never read more than a few issues of New Mutants)... But, I couldn't help thinking, where do I know this guy from? I've seen him before, but it feels like I own something with him in it.

Sure enough, there he was in that AoA TPB I bought for the freaky Wade Wilson/Moonstar S&M... thing... goin' on. He just doesn't fare well against projectiles, does he?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-05-04 10:52 am UTC (link)
	He was zapped by an electrical mutant in AoA, poor little mite, and interestingly (Well, to Cypher-philes) had a slightly different powerset; His power was expanded so he let everyone in Avalon understand any language, which allowed the many different nations there to work together, effectively the glue that allowed the place to function. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	joseph_k101 2009-05-04 11:07 am UTC (link)
	Man, this is one of the first comics I read. I love this story and I loved the idea of Betsy and Doug hooking up in the future. (Reply to this)

	datcord 2009-05-05 01:49 am UTC (link)
	Oh, I do so love Betsy/Doug, I really do. Hell, even the age doesn't make me too freaked out, mostly under the "Hell, Doug's a crapload more mature than his actual age, etc etc" argument. OPT wuv. I'm so happy to see the awesome Doug posts being revived. I've always loved Doug Ramsey as a character. (Reply to this)

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