The Endgame Easter Egg That Might Have Teased A New MCU Hero
The MCU may have another Captain on the horizon.
A seemingly throwaway line from Avengers: Endgame had comic fans' ears perked up, as it just may have teased the arrival of a classic hero for the MCU's Phase 4 — Brian Braddock, the superpowered protector known as Captain Britain. Be advised that major spoilers for Endgame follow.
The moment comes during Tony Stark and Steve Rogers' sojourn back to 1970, which they are forced to take — using the last of the Pym Particles which enable time travel — after failing to secure the Tesseract during the Battle of New York in 2012, per their original plan. The duo infiltrate Camp Lehigh, the facility where Rogers became Captain America, now a S.H.I.E.L.D. base housing the Tesseract and other dangerous artifacts (not to mention more Pym Particles). During his stealth mission, Rogers finds himself in the office of S.H.I.E.L.D. director Peggy Carter. He's taken aback by his proximity to his long-lost flame and the picture of him lovingly displayed on her desk, and let's be honest, so was the audience. It's a poignant, heartstring-tugging moment, so it's pretty easy to miss what Peggy is saying as Rogers gazes at her through the office window.
It's difficult to make out, but according to an intrepid Reddit poster who claims to have seen the flick with closed captioning, the line is: "Braddock hasn't checked in. I'm not a meteorologist and it's not lightning." Now, we here at Looper have not directly confirmed this, and since you're obviously familiar with the internet, you probably know to take your average Reddit post with a grain of salt — but if accurate, the line speaks volumes. If you're a fan of the MCU, then you know that virtually nothing is done for no reason. While Captain Britain isn't the only prominent hero by that name in Marvel comics lore — the other is his twin sister, which we'll get to in a moment — he does seem like the most likely candidate for a future appearance in the venerable franchise, due to his long publication history and fan-favorite status. Since the exchange in question takes place in 1970, Agent Carter may not be making reference to the Captain himself — his father, perhaps — but it could still be Marvel's way of "planting seeds" for the character to appear in the future, as they are wont to do.
Making his first appearance in Captain Britain #1 in 1976, Brian Braddock was a precocious graduate of London's Thames University, a physicist at work on an experiment involving antimatter particles under Dr. Hugo Travis. When the villainous mercenary Reaver descended on Travis' facility to steal his research, Braddock fled to get help, but crashed his car and sustained what would have been fatal injuries — and that's when his story took a turn for the weird.
On the verge of bleeding out, Braddock was discovered by none other than Merlin, the legendary wizard of English folklore, and his daughter Roma. Sensing the heroism within the dying man, Merlin gave him a choice of two objects: the Sword of Might, or the Amulet of Right. Not believing himself to have the heart of a warrior, Braddock chose the amulet — and upon receiving it, he was transformed into Captain Britain, with his own snazzy costume and a formidable power set.
As Braddock's powers are drawn from interdimensional energies which are concentrated in the vicinity of the U.K. (in every reality), those powers wane if he ventures too far from the area, unless he uses a special suit. Fully powered, he has superhuman strength on par with Captain Marvel, the requisite enhanced durability, reflexes, and stamina, sharpened senses allowing him to see with clarity for miles and hear a pin drop a continent away if he so chooses, and — just for good measure — the power of flight.
In other words, despite the similarity between their names, Captain Britain is not simply the British version of Captain America (although a Union Jack-sporting Cap shouting "Cheerio!" while he kicks your butt does sound hilarious). Braddock is very, very powerful, and if indeed the Marvel Studios brain trust is planning on having him pop up in the MCU, it could be seen as the continuation of a trend started by the introduction of Carol Danvers (whom we have seen is capable of taking down entire starships all by her lonesome).
It's worth noting that, as we previously mentioned, Braddock's twin sister Betsy (gotta love those alliterative names) is also a Marvel hero — the mutant and X-Man known as Psylocke, who was portrayed by Olivia Munn in the Fox Marvel outing X-Men: Apocalypse. Yes, yes, we're all very anxious for the X-Men to make their entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Disney's acquisition of the film and television assets of Fox, but we wouldn't bet on Betsy being the "Braddock" getting name-dropped here. For one thing, Avengers: Endgame was shot well before the Fox acquisition was even a sure thing, let alone completed; for another, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige has gone on record stating that the X-Men won't be folded into the MCU for quite some time. He has, however, expressed interest in introducing Captain Britain. In 2017, during the press tour for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Feige said that not only had it crossed his mind to use the character, but that several (unnamed) actors had come to him about possibly taking on the role.
While the case could be made that the MCU already has enough Captains, Braddock is a pretty sweet character who would give the franchise a little more of the international flavor it's been delicately seasoned with by Black Panther and his home nation of Wakanda. His introduction would also present Marvel Studios with the opportunity to cast an English actor who isn't forced to use an American accent (we love you, Benedict Cumberbatch, but everyone knows that your Doctor Strange sounds like Dr. House with fewer painkillers and more magic amulets).
We'll have all the news that's fit to read on Marvel's Phase 4 plans as it becomes available.