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Captain Britain’s old enemy Slaymaster may have been short-lived, but he was one of the deadliest foes the Braddocks ever confronted.
Although Brian and Betsy Braddock are most associated with the X-Men today, both of those heroes had careers long before they met the rest of Marvel’s mutants. And during that time, the Braddock family encountered one of the most brutal mutant killers in the Marvel Universe, the assassin known as Slaymaster.
In Excalibur #22 by Tini Howard, Marcus To, Erick Arciniega and VC’s Ariana Maher, Pete Wisdom was able to discover evidence that his long-dead allies, the S.T.R.I.K.E. Psi-Division, counted some mutants among their number, which means that these victims of Slaymaster could be revived by the Five. Now, that could also set up the return of this lethal villain.
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The man known as Slaymaster never had his full origins confirmed — only that he was a skilled assassin who had trained across the globe, and who debuted in Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #243 by Jim Lawrence and Ron Wilson. Although he didn’t possess any powers himself, his natural abilities as an assassin made him a formidable mercenary. Eventually making his way to the United Kingdom, he quickly became a foe of Captain Britain, with his mastery of stealth and disguise allowing him to escape the superpowered hero each time. Eventually, however, Captain Britain caught up to him and, in their battle, Slaymaster was forced off the side of the yacht they were fighting on and landed in shark-infested waters.
Presumed dead, Slaymaster escaped and further trained himself for future encounters with Captain Britain. He would later return at the behest of Vixen in Daredevils #3 by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. Fearful that the Psi-Division would detect her plans to usurp control of S.T.R.I.K.E, Slaymaster was hired to attack the group and kill them. Slaymaster made quick work of much of the group, with one of the only survivors turning out to be Betsy Braddock, the future X-Man best known as Psylocke. Given an upper edge by the technology provided by Vixen, Slaymaster came close to killing Captain Britain before the telepathic Tom Lennox stepped in and saved the day. Dedicating himself to defeating Captain Britain, he escaped S.T.R.I.K.E. containment and eventually found himself working with Vixen once again.
Augmenting his strength with a special suit of armor provided by his fellow villain, Slaymaster targeted Captain Britain for revenge in Captain Britain #13 by Alan Davis and Noel Davis. Instead, he found Betsy, who had taken up the mantle during a time her brother had left the role. Enraged that his rival had been replaced, Slaymaster savagely attacked Betsy, catching her by surprise, and ended the fight by ripping out her eyes with his bare hands. The psychic anguish this caused in Betsy called out to her brother, who arrived and in a rage beat down the villain. Ultimately, despite his belief that Brian Braddock wouldn’t have the strength to kill his enemy, Slaymaster was proven wrong when the former Captain Briain crushed his head with a large rock in revenge for what he’d done to his sister.
Slaymaster was quietly one of the most fearsome foes Captain Britain had encountered in his career, even though he was a simple and deadly man compared to the reality-warping and mystical adversaries Braddock otherwise confronted. But his dedication to defeating the hero pushed him to embrace a brutal edge that made him memorable despite his relatively short-lived rivalry with Braddock.
While Slaymaster himself may be long dead and gone, it wouldn’t be surprising to have someone new take up the mantle (following the short-lived replacement who was killed by Union Jack). With Betsy serving as Captain Britain again and the Psi-Division somewhat restored, the perfect counter weapon for someone like Orchis or XENO to utilize could end up proving to be a new incarnation of Slaymaster, a villain as dangerous as the reality warpers that the Braddocks usually face.
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