Jamie Braddock is a powerful reality-warper that uses his abilities for villainous acts, though as older brother to Brian Braddock, AKA Captain Britain, and Betsy Braddock, AKA Psylocke, he does his best to watch over his siblings even if it puts him in harm’s way.
Lord of the Manor
James Braddock Jr. is the eldest child of Sir James Braddock, the latter secretly one of Merlyn’s chosen guard, who had been sent to Earth-616 to father champions. Initially it appeared that this potential had missed Jamie, instead coming to fruition in his younger siblings, the twins Brian and Betsy. Ten years their elder, as a child Jamie was often expected to look after them, something he initially resented; despite this and his feeling somewhat excluded from their close rapport, he loved them both dearly, especially his extroverted sister.
Jamie spent much of his youth in boarding school, bonding with fellow students Ned Horrocks, Godfrey Calthrop and girlfriend Amina Synge; preferring to make their own rules, they were expelled from several schools, earning them the nickname “the Foursaken,” a sobriquet they wore with pride. Jamie becomes a Formula 1 racing driver, working for Hugh, Lord Quayne, and other racing teams, and winning the world championship twice.
In his early 30s, Jamie’s parents are murdered by the Mastermind computer Sir James had created under Braddock Manor; their deaths passed off as freak accidents. Unaware of the truth, Jamie becomes the new lord of the manor; a few months later Mastermind targeted Jamie too, through its pawn, Christopher Thorn, AKA Dr. Synne, a near miss that prompts Betsy to call Brian home from University. When Brian stopped a possessed Betsy from killing them both on Synne’s behalf, Jamie soon learns his brother is the Super Hero Captain Britain. Brian soon deals with both Synne and Mastermind, only to see Jamie and Betsy held hostage by Johann Shmidt, AKA Red Skull’s goons; Brian rescued them with Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America’s assistance. Concerned for Brian’s safety after witnessing news footage showing him battling Willard Scott, AKA Lord Hawk, Jamie tried to offer his assistance, only to be rudely rebuffed; despite being irked by this Jamie later assists Brian with information after his former employer, Lord Quayne, was murdered by Slaymaster. However, after Brian goes overseas and Betsy’s modeling career takes off, Jamie loses touch with both of them.
Addicted to his racing career’s rich lifestyle, Jamie takes a bribe from the criminal Maggia organization to lose a race, then wins anyway. To repay them he takes illegal jobs, using his racing as cover to travel the world; minor crimes became increasingly lucrative and immoral ones, until he was trading in human lives, arranging raids on aid convoys to steal their supplies for sale on the black market, and selling the aid workers into slavery. Aware of his activities and needing a way of luring Captain Britain out of the U.K., the British intelligence agency Resources Control Executive (RCX) learns Jamie is taking part in the Trans-Africa Rally and tipped off President Joshua N’Dingi, AKA Dr. Crocodile, of Mbangawi about Jamie’s crimes. Both he and gunrunners Jamie owed money to make plans to intercept Jamie during the race. Unaware of his misdeeds, his fellow Foursaken elect to join him, thinking the race would be a laugh. On the 7th day the gunrunners ambush the Foursaken in a desolate section of the Sahara, but their captives are rescued by the First Fallen, a cosmic being which wished to freeze reality at a point of perfection for all eternity, and which had sensed that within Jamie there lay the potential to achieve this goal. The First Fallen draws them to his realm, the Singing City, and offers to release the innate power he sensed within each of them, in return for them becoming his servitors; Calthrop, Horrocks and Synge readily agree, but Jamie, either afraid or, through his Otherworldly heritage, sensing something awry with the deal, refuses and flees, straight into Mbangawi custody.
Having been misled to believe Brian sponsored Jamie’s illicit pastimes, Dr. Crocodile then had Jamie call his brother to tell him of his plight; Brian and his girlfriend Meggan Puceanu, AKA Meggan, race to Jamie’s rescue, but upon discovering his crimes, they leave him to his fate. A just man, Crocodile tries to mystically cure Jamie’s evil nature, but his Witch Woman instead unlocks Jamie’s reality-manipulating powers, though the magic that held Jamie also bound these.
Reality Manipulation
Jamie sees the world as invisible quantum string constructs, like messy balls of wool full of loose ends and empty space, which he can pull to transform reality, reshaping people into other individuals, animals or grotesque caricatures, making them shrink or grow, redirecting energy, or changing memories.
He can also watch objects in other realities, even granting powers to them. Originally he could only manipulate dense forms (phased beings had some level of resistance), needed to be close enough to touch the “cosmic filaments” things were composed of, and if his concentration was disrupted some items or people changed would spontaneously revert to normal. There may be a correlation between his sanity and his power level, as both increase noticeably after he spends time in a coma.
With a simple act of will, he can now generate vast, complex illusions, redirect another’s teleport, and open interdimensional portals. He can raise the dead, and can render someone immune to external influences by tightening their quantum strings, removing the gaps; however, Jamie remains able to affect them at will, possibly because he knows which strings are left available to pull. He has created functional copies of the Fury, and could presumably copy other objects too.
Jamie appears to be largely impervious to physical damage; even having large holes shot through him causes purely cosmetic damage that swiftly vanishes. He is also able to listen in on telepathic conversations between his siblings, although this power may be unrelated to his other abilities.
After he dies and is later resurrected, he is able to perform incantations to control others and project defensive weapons against attackers.
Opposing Forces
Jamie clashes with other reality-warpers such as Alfie O’Meagan, as well as his siblings and their allies such as the Excalibur and X-Men teams. Though he ultimately sides with his siblings in the end, he dies at their hands so that a future Jamie never makes a deal with a Goat Devil intent on destroying Otherworld.
Family Ties and Criminal Allies
While Jamie’s siblings share a close connection, as they mature the adventurous Betsy grows close to Jamie. Jamie’s relationship with his brother Brian is tenuous but the twins believe Jamie to be caring at heart. While Jamie watches over his siblings and even resurrects Betsy after she dies, Jamie still vacillates between being a protective older brother and a criminal element. When he acts as the latter, his siblings either attack out of defense or abandon him altogether.
Jamie enters the service of the despot Sat-Yr-9 after their associate frees Jamie. Jamie then helps Sat-Yr-9 take over Vixen’s crime organization. This alliance leads Jamie down a criminal path that sometimes pits him against or abandoned by his siblings.
Reality-Warper’s Rap Sheet
Aware that the Jamie of her reality (Earth-794) possessed superhuman powers, dimensionally displaced despot Sat-Yr-9 hired the Technet to free Jamie, but his experiences had left him insane, convinced he was living in a dream where his actions had no consequences. Jamie entered Sat-Yr-9’s service, helping her take over the crime lord Vixen’s organization. Finding the Braddock housekeeper Emma Collins had died in his absence, he resurrected her, life and death no longer absolutes to him. He also targeted his brother’s team Excalibur, empowering his Earth-9019 counterpart to battle them.
Soon after, Jamie clashed with Alfie O’Meagan, an other-dimensional (Earth-8908) reality warper, which briefly put him off playing with alternate Earths. Eventually, Sat-Yr-9 ambushed Excalibur and Betsy, now the X-Man Psylocke, in Braddock Manor. Jamie slew their ally Alysande Stuart, and then tortured the captives for hours, distorting their bodies grotesquely, before Meggan broke free of his transformation and attacked him; his concentration broken, his victims returned to normal, and Psylocke rendered Jamie comatose with her psychic knife. Sat-Yr-9 ’s troops fled, taking Jamie with them. Under undisclosed circumstances the still unconscious Jamie eventually ended up at Excalibur’s Muir Island base, where his siblings attempted to reach him telepathically, hoping to find the caring brother they had both lost.
Eventually Jamie awoke, his sanity mostly restored, his powers having increased, and sensing the approaching threat of the First Fallen; he returned to Braddock Manor, finding it empty as Brian had emigrated to Otherworld. When several members of the X-Men visited the Manor looking for Brian, Jamie hid from their senses and tested them in battle against a simulacra of the hero-killing Fury; they defeated it only after much of the Manor was demolished, but Jamie discouraged further investigation using illusions of Brian, Meggan and a restored Manor, though he permitted the telepath Rachel Summers, AKA Marvel Girl, to catch a glimpse of him.
When another reality-warper, Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, transformed the Earth into the “House of M,” her changes caused a reality-wave tsunami that struck as far as Otherworld, threatening to destabilize the entire multiverse. To prevent this, Omniversal Majestrix Saturnyne (a counterpart of Sat-Yr-9 ) tried to destroy Earth-616 using a celestial nullifier, but Jamie revealed himself long enough to destroy the device. Brian and Meggan entered the House of M reality to seal the breach the tsunami had opened, but were immediately assimilated into the changed Earth, forgetting their mission; however Jamie helped remind Brian in time to prevent catastrophe.
Learning that Betsy had died while he was recuperating, an annoyed Jamie revived her and, intending to use her against the First Fallen, he made her immune to external manipulation, be it telepathic or reality-warping. Jamie continued to covertly observe his resurrected sister as she rejoined the X-Men, and monitored his brother Brian in Otherworld too.
Knowing the Foursaken were closing in on him, as they needed his power to bring the First Fallen to Earth, Jamie appeared outside the X-Men Mansion, casually disabling the government Sentinels guarding it, then tried to warn the wary X-Men of the impending danger. Before he could fully do so, the First Fallen opened a portal behind him and pulled him through; he was delivered to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park, where the remaining Foursaken were preparing a spell that would allow the First Fallen to fully manifest on Earth, a conjuration for which Jamie was a vital component. The X-Men pursued, but were easily captured, with the sole exception of Psylocke, who proved to be invisible to the other Foursaken thanks to Jamie’s alterations. As the First Fallen began to enter Earth’s dimension, Psylocke disrupted the spell; with the rift between dimensions rapidly closing again, the First Fallen pulled all present through to its realm. The X-Men were surprised to find the Singing City idyllic and the First Fallen seemingly benevolent, seeking only to bring perfection to each civilization it discovered, a goal, which was being blocked for Earth solely by Jamie’s intransigence. Jamie’s old friends tried to convince him to accept the First Fallen’s offer, but he resisted, certain there was a catch, one which Betsy soon divined; the First Fallen’s “perfection” required all but 4 members of each species to be eliminated. Though all the other Singing City residents were blocked from committing violent acts by the First Fallen’s psionic influence, Betsy’s immunity allowed her to attack him. Caught unprepared, the First Fallen’s psionic control was broken, restoring the free will and powers of all present; Ned attacked the First Fallen, and was swiftly slain. Betsy held the First Fallen at bay while Jamie returned the X-Men, Godfrey and Amina to Earth; ignoring Betsy’s instruction to flee, Jamie realized he could not sacrifice his sister, and sent her home too, closing the passage to Earth, leaving himself trapped to face the First Fallen’s wrath.
Jamie later reformed from criminal life and joined the Captain Britain Corps keeping the omniverse safe and logical. Alongside them, he defended Otherworld from an attack. The attacker was an older version of Jamie, James Braddock Jr. (Earth-TRN575) who made a deal with a Goat Devil Horoam’ce who desired self-propagation. Captain Britain could not kill his brother to erase the future version, so Psylocke mind-controlled him into doing so.
Resurrected later, Jamie returned with knowledge of sorcery. He chased after Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow, to acquire the Space Stone from her, and brainwashed children to help him. Jamie poisoned Black Widow but she defeated him and freed the children with Merlyn’s help.
