A NEW 'Ultimate' Captain Britain?

So there's this new artwork going around online tonight for the upcoming relaunch of The Ultimates (Marvel's Ultimate Universe version of The Avengers) which has got me a little interested as to what it might be leading to...


The new creative team for Ultimates is writer Jonathan Hickman (The Nightly News, Pax Romana, Fantastic Four) and artist Esad Ribic (Loki, X-Force, Silver Surfer Requiem). Which is exiting enough. I've enjoyed both their work, and Hickman's use of the Ultimate Universe's Professor James Braddock and Captain Britain in his Ultimate Thor series was definitely appreciated. It did actually leave me wondering whether Ultimate Brian Braddock might not figure in his run, having recently been revealed to have survived being part of the colossal bodycount of heroes from Jeph Loeb's Ultimatum event a couple of years back.


But then, I saw this...

Now that clearly IS a Captain Britain uniform. But it certainly doesn't appear to be Brian Braddock in it.


Is it just me, or could that actually be Brian's older brother Jamie in the threads?

And wouldn't THAT be something? 


For those who aren't aware Jamie Braddock was the older brother of Captain Britain and the X-Men's Psylocke, who didn't originally show any evidence of having powers. He was race car driver, and international playboy.


Unfortunately, Jamie got in with the wrong kind of crowds. The money corrupted him, and he ended up involved with some very unsavoury characters, even being involved with slave trade by the end.


Brian left Jamie to be punished by Doctor Crocodile, during Jamie Delano's run writing Captain Britain. A tenure which resulted in Jamie being left completely detached from reality  by the next time we saw him.  These days he has very much became the black sheep of the family, who turns up every once in awhile to do something truly bonkers with his reality warping powers. He even ended up killing Alysande Stuart during Alan Davis' Excalibur run, when he was manipulated by Sat-yr-9.


Bad times.


But of course, in the Ultimate Universe none of that ever happened...

In the Ultimate Universe Sir James Braddock makes superheroes for use by National Governments. His son Brian has been Captain Britain via these very means.

But who is to say he was the ONLY son of Sir James to be enlisted in his superhuman projects? If Jamie never went down that darker path who knows what he could have achieved? And isn't the Ultimate Universe the perfect place to explore exactly THESE kind of ideas?

I know there's no guarantee, but I'm excited. I need to know more. :)

Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates #1 is out in August.