Courtney Ross

Courtney Ross
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Captain Britain Weekly #3 (1976)
Created by	Chris Claremont Herb Trimpe Fred Kida
In-story information
Alter ego	Courtney Ross
Team affiliations	Excalibur
Notable aliases	The Ice Queen
Abilities	None

Courtney Ross is a fictional character from Marvel Comics originating in the Captain Britain comics as Brian Braddock's college girlfriend. She was created by Chris Claremont and drawn by artists Herb Trimpe and Fred Kida. In her first appearances, Courtney was a brunette, but it was later revealed that she dyed her platinum blond hair, so she would be taken seriously.

Fictional character biography

Courtney Ross came from a wealthy family and went to Thames University, London, where she met and started to date Brian Braddock, not knowing that Brian was in fact the superhero Captain Britain. She later found out about his secret life, but the two remained lovers. Captain Britain went missing shortly afterwards and Courtney assumed that he had died. When he returned, Brian fell in love with the mutant Meggan and it would be years before he would meet Courtney again.

Courtney met Brian Braddock again, when he had become a member of Excalibur. She had become a successful city banker nicknamed The Ice Queen.^[1] She now no longer dyed her hair, and Brian was surprised that Courtney with blond hair looked exactly like his old acquaintance Saturnyne, her counterpart from another universe.

Courtney Ross is killed by Sat-Yr-9, who takes her place. Art by Alan Davis.

Brian and Courtney resumed their friendship, shortly before she was attacked by Arcade and the Crazy Gang. Confronted in her offices, she manages to fight through the Crazy Gang's forces and escape the building, but Arcade, hiding in a fake police car, captures her and takes her to a new Murderworld. There she was forced to improvise comedy in order to survive, surprising both herself and Arcade by being sufficiently entertaining to survive until she was rescued by Excalibur.^[2] Returning home after surviving Arcade's assassination attempt and enjoying the thrill of danger, she was vaporized by another counterpart from an alternate universe, Opul Lun Sat-Yr-9. Sat-Yr-9 took Courtney's Ross identity and when last seen still used this identity.

New Excalibur

Someone claiming to be Courtney Ross has been seen in issues of Uncanny X-Men during the House of M crossover, as well as in the early issues of New Excalibur. Upon meeting Captain Britain during the House of M event, she was attacked and was accused of being her impostor, Sat-Yr-9, but upon revealing that she did not possess a tattoo on her thigh, was believed to be the true Courtney Ross (possibly resurrected as a side-effect of House of M). She is then shown sacrificing herself to save Captain Britain from an attack by the Omega Sentinel.

Retcon

• Saturnyne was not originally created as a duplicate of Courtney Ross. This revelation was a retcon.

References

1. ^ Excalibur 02 (1988)
2. ^ Excalibur 04-05 (1988)

• Courtney Ross at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Courtney Ross at the Comic Book DB