Psylocke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Psylocke | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Psylocke (Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock, sometimes Elizabeth) is a Marvel Comics superhero, sister to Captain Britain, and often associated with the X-Men. A mutant, she possesses telekinesis and excellent hand-to-hand combat skills. She formerly possessed telepathy.
Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Herb Trimpe, she first appeared in the UK-only comic book Captain Britain #8 (December 1976). She was originally a supporting character of her brother Captain Britain and briefly substituted for him in the role.
In issue #213 of Uncanny X-Men, she joined the X-Men. After passing through the Siege Perilous to escape the Reavers, she was discovered by the ninja group The Hand who, with the help of Mojo, switched her mind and body with that of the assassin Revanche (aka Kwannon) to save the latter’s life. Psylocke emerged with Kwannon’s body and ninjitsu skills, plus a severely complicated psyche.
Psylocke is one of the few Marvel superheroes to have been given an actual birthdate. In an issue of the original Captain Britain comic, it was stated that Elisabeth and Brian were born in the early hours of 23 April. Betsy was the elder of the twins by a few minutes. The original year of their birth was 1956, but, as with most comic heroes, this date is not canon in the Marvel Universe; therefore, she normally appears to be in her late twenties.
Contents |
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] The early years
Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock was born in and raised in England. Born in the small town of Maldon, Essex, Betsy and her brothers had a very privileged life. She is the twin sister of Brian Braddock, better known as the superhero Captain Britain and first appeared in his eponymous series. After working as a commercial pilot for some time, she dyed her hair purple (it has been suggested in previous story lines that her hair turned purple at the emergence of her powers during puberty, while her brother's hair remained blonde), joined the Psi-Division of S.T.R.I.K.E.[1] (the British equivalent of the U.S.-based espionage outfit S.H.I.E.L.D.), and went undercover as a fashion model. One of her assignments was to infiltrate the Hellfire Club, but Tessa forced her to abandon the mission. A British crime lord, Vixen, hired Slaymaster to destroy the psi-division and he managed to kill all but Betsy, her lover Tom Lennox and their friend Alison Double before Captain Britain defeated him.
When reality warped due to James Jaspers's powers, Tom sacrificed himself to delay a group of superhuman-hunters to let the Braddocks escape. Following the repair of the reality warp, an evil version of Captain Britain from another universe named Kaptain Briton switched places with Brian, handed him over to the Technet (who were after the Kaptain) and tried to rape Betsy. In self-defense, she attacked him telepathically, killing him.
Betsy assumed his uniform and received training from Captain UK, another alternate Captain Britain, to become the new Captain while Brian was away working for the covert British agency RCX, which had replaced the defunct S.T.R.I.K.E. Vixen lured Betsy into a trap, where Slaymaster beat her almost to death, gouging out her eyes. Summoned by his sister's telepathic distress call, Captain Britain crushed Slaymaster's head under a rock.
[edit] Joining the X-Men
She was later kidnapped by the other-dimensional television producer Mojo and his henchwoman, the six-armed, cyborg sorceress Spiral and implanted with bionic eyes. Giving her the name "Psylocke", Mojo made her the star of the Wildways TV program. The New Mutants, the teenage sister team of the X-Men, got involved rescuing Psylocke from Mojo and took her back with them to Westchester County, New York. She decided to stay with the X-Men and learn how to better control her powers. Psylocke assisted the X-Men in another battle with Mojo where the entire team was turned into children and mind-controlled into battling the New Mutants. The X-Men were reluctant to let Psylocke join them due to her being an unknown quantity. She had a chance to prove herself after the event known as the Mutant Massacre. Sabretooth, a member of the Marauders, invaded the mansion while the X-Men and New Mutants were away. Psylocke held her own against the deadly Sabretooth, keeping one step ahead of him until Wolverine arrived and kept Sabretooth locked in single combat. Psylocke took advantage of Sabretooth's distraction to read his mind and learn about the Marauders and their mysterious leader, Mr. Sinister. The X-Men were impressed by Psylocke and granted her membership in their team.
She was among the X-Men as they fought the Adversary in Dallas in the event known as The Fall of the Mutants, wherein she was killed, resurrected and subsequently transported to the Australian Outback by Roma. After a fight with the Reavers, Psylocke donned body armor to protect herself in physical confrontations. When Storm was thought killed in a fight with the entity called Nanny, Psylocke briefly took over as the leader of the X-Men.
[edit] Transformed
After going through the dimensional gateway known as the Siege Perilous, Psylocke was found by the Hand, a clan of ninja. Their leader, Matsu'o Tsurayaba, contacted Spiral to swap the soul of his brain-damaged lover, Kwannon, into Psylocke's body. Spiral not only swapped their souls but also mingled various memories and skills, as well as certain physical traits. With some physical and mental conditioning, Psylocke (whose persona inhabited Kwannon's body) became the Hand's prime assassin and took the name Lady Mandarin. As Lady Mandarin, she alternated between a new armored costume and a more revealing one, gained highly remarkable ninja fighting skills, and learned to focus her telepathic power into a "psychic knife" which appeared as a dagger of energy projecting outward from the back of her fist.
Lady Mandarin's first mission pitted her against Wolverine. Her psychic knife attack showed her his memories of who she used to be and broke the Hand's conditioning. Psylocke rejected her role as Lady Mandarin and escaped with Wolverine and Jubilee, eventually going with them to the island nation of Genosha (which built its wealth on the basis of mutant slaves).
In Genosha, Psylocke, Wolverine, and Jubilee discovered that the New Mutants had been kidnapped along with the X-Men's leader, Storm, by Cameron Hodge (a former advisor to the team of the X-Men's founding students calling themselves X-Factor). Psylocke, Wolverine, and Jubilee also encountered Havok, whom Psylocke had psychically nudged through the Siege Perilous, acting as a Magistrate (one of Genosha's gestapo-like military police officers). Following the defeat of Cameron Hodge, the X-Men reunited and returned to New York.
After the X-Men split into two teams in 1991, Psylocke joined Cyclops' Blue Team and eventually started flirting with him. When Phoenix found out, the two women started fighting, but were interrupted by the arrival of Kwannon -- now calling herself Revanche, in Betsy's former body. Revanche claimed to be the real Betsy, and not even Wolverine's enhanced senses could tell them apart. Further, attempts to gain an explanation from the Hand were unsuccessful. Eventually, Revanche revealed that she had contracted the Legacy Virus and explained to Psylocke what Spiral had done at Tsurayaba's request; dying, Revanche merged her mind with Psylocke's and the merger restored the full memories of both. Through as yet unexplained means, Psylocke was able to retain Revanche's martial arts skills upon Revanche's death. Afterwards, Phoenix trained Betsy in her telepathic powers and Betsy started a relationship with Warren Worthington III, the Archangel.
[edit] Crimson Dawn
In an attempt to save Tabitha Smith from Sabretooth (Victor Creed) who had been living at the Mansion while pretending to be mentally handicapped, Psylocke engaged the homicidal mutant in battle. Although a deadly martial artist, she was no physical match for Sabretooth. Finally realizing she had no other choice, she attacked him with her psychic knife. Unfortunately, Creed had been stabbed in the head by Wolverine, losing the part of his brain affected by psionic attacks and her knife had no effect on him. She was already exhausted from their battle and could not manage to fight back, and was consequently mauled by Sabretooth.
In a bid to save her life, Archangel and Wolverine went with Doctor Strange into the Crimson Dawn to retrieve a magical liquid that could heal her. The mission was successful, although the healing liquid produced side effects: a red dagger-shaped tattoo appeared over Psylocke's left eye, she gained the ability to hide in and teleport through shadows, and her personality took on a cold edge. The change in her personality and abilities created a distance between her and Warren. Meanwhile, the leader of the Crimson Dawn, Tar, was defeated by the demon Kuragari. Kuragari seized the throne of the Crimson Dawn and used the debt from the magical elixir to transform Psylocke into his undercloak queen. Shortly after, Gommur the Ancient (who had helped Archangel, Wolverine and Dr. Strange obtain the elixir) found a dying Tar and became the true leader of the Crimson Dawn. Gommur came to Warren and told him that the debt from the elixir was not Psylocke's to repay, but Warren's. Warren gave up a portion of his essence to free Psylocke from Kuragari's control, and the couple defeated him. Psylocke still retained the abilities associated with the Crimson Dawn due to the fact that she had been touched by the Crimson Dawn and therefore would remain so. The couple retired from active duty with the X-Men. (For further elaboration on her adventures concerning this, see the article "Crimson Dawn".)
[edit] Psi-War
Psylocke later battled the powerful telepath known as the Shadow King in a fight that caused telepaths across the globe to temporarily lose their powers, and resulted in the permanent loss of Psylocke's own telepathic abilities after she defeated and trapped the Shadow King inside her mind (as seen in X-Men #77-78).
The story began when Storm received a mystical message from her adoptive mother Ainet, who was desperately asking for her help. Storm called on Psylocke and they, together with Wolverine, and a group of untrained X-Men traveled through Psylocke’s teleportation-shadow. After arriving through the “shadow-port”, Psylocke and Wolverine found themselves fighting sand-warriors in the air. Landing on the ground, Psylocke and Wolverine began analyzing the situation until Logan disappeared into the sand. Psylocke then made her journey back into the village, where the Ananasi had taken all but Storm as his prisoner. Psylocke asserted herself by splitting the body of the Ananasi in two, using her psychic knife. She explained to a shocked Storm that she had been “up to her armpits” fighting sand-warriors. After a quick telepathic scan of Ainet, Psylocke concluded that their enemy was a high order telepath but was interrupted by an attacking Ananasi. When Storm asked Psylocke who he was, Betsy answered that she couldn’t breach his psychic defenses directly. The Ananasi then began to taunt Psylocke by bringing up all the times that she had been manipulated in one form or another, so she decided to take the fight directly to him, on the astral plane. There she and Storm encountered the rest of Storm’s people, who where arranged in a specific pattern. Once again, the Ananasi appeared and a mighty battle ensued between him and Psylocke, which ended up with Psylocke being lured into plunging her psychic knife into the slaved minds of the villagers, releasing an enormous shockwave throughout the psionic plane which crippled telepaths around the planet and disfigured Psylocke’s astral form. With victory at hand, the Ananasi took off his mask and revealed himself to be the Shadow King, one of the X-Men’s deadliest foes.
After their battle, the Shadow King destroyed Psylocke’s psychic form and left her for dead. Thanks to the Crimson Dawn though, Betsy survived and emerged in a new shadow form with new abilities. She helped Ainet escape from the Shadow King’s psychic prison and together they found and rescued Storm as well. Psylocke, sensing that her shadow form was invisible to the Shadow King, turned Storm and Ainet into shadows as well before going back for her final confrontation with the Shadow King himself. While Storm and Ainet set up to rescue the captured X-Men, Psylocke upheld the Shadow King as long as she could. When she couldn’t keep the others covered any longer, she sent them back into the corporeal world, claiming her alliance to the Shadow King. The Shadow King did not believe her and after taking Psylocke as his prisoner, he set up to take over the minds of all the people around the world. After tricking the Shadow King into over-extending himself, Psylocke created shadow tendrils that honed into the Shadow King's unprotected, personal nexus. Once the tendrils had separated the Shadow King from his power, Psylocke could contain his soul within the shadows of the psi-plane. To keep the Shadow King imprisoned, Psylocke had to keep her telepathic powers permanently focused on containing him and thus effectively lost the use of her telepathy.
[edit] Power switch
During the six-month story gap before Chris Claremont's second stint as X-Men scribe, Phoenix attempted to help Psylocke deal with the Shadow King, and ended up with the two switching powers, so Psylocke's telepathic powers were added to Phoenix's telepathy, and Psylocke gained Phoenix's telekinesis. Psylocke returned to active duty. She started flirting with Neal Shaara, Thunderbird III and Warren broke up with her.
[edit] X-treme X-Men and death
Psylocke then joined Storm's team, the X-Treme X-Men, to search for Destiny's diaries. On one of the team's first missions, she died fighting the man known as Vargas while protecting Rogue and Beast, who were badly beaten by the villain.
Her spirit appeared to Bishop in a vision, but she was attacked by a skull-faced apparition and pulled through a glowing gate.
Brian Braddock and Meggan collected Psylocke's body from Spain. She was buried at the Braddock family estate and a memorial was erected at the X-Mansion.
[edit] Back from the dead
In Uncanny X-Men #455, Psylocke made a miraculous return from the dead. The facial marking she gained from exposure to the Crimson Dawn was gone, and apparently so were the powers that came with it. Her telepathy was not restored, however. Instead, she still possessed the telekinetic abilities she gained from Jean Grey, but they had greatly increased in strength. Even Rachel Summers, a skilled and powerful telekinetic, could not overcome her. Shortly after her return, she and the rest of the X-Men found themselves in an adventure in the Savage Land. During this mission, Psylocke displayed more creative uses for her powers, most notably the augmentation of her physical strength by using her telekinesis to back up her attacks.
Upon returning from the Savage Land, medical tests by the Beast conducted at the X-Mansion proved that she was indeed Betsy Braddock. She officially rejoined the team and was reunited with her other teammates. When the Scarlet Witch's reality warp altered the entire 616 universe in the House of M, Betsy Braddock temporarily became Princess Elisabeth Glorianna Braddock, an adventurer and member of England's royalty. After the House of M ended, it was revealed that Betsy was one of the 198, the group of mutants who had retained their powers after M-Day.
[edit] The Foursaken
In the first part of The First Foursaken story arc, it was revealed that one year after her murder by Vargas, Psylocke was brought back to life by her eldest brother, Jamie Braddock. Jamie, a mutant who manipulates the quantum strings that comprise reality, claimed that when he resurrected his sister, he also made her immune to the reality warping abilities of other beings and impervious to mind control and psychic possession. Jamie claimed these steps were necessary in order to make Psylocke a weapon against the "Foursaken," who threaten all of creation, just before a mysterious portal opened and a horrified Jamie was spirited-away by strange, monstrous hands. Nightcrawler took Marvel Girl, Psylocke, Bishop, and Cannonball to Central Park. All but Psylocke were kidnapped by the Foursaken, the supposed end of the universe and Jamie Braddock's best friends. As Psylocke was the wild card (she could not be detected), it was up to her to stop this. She disrupted the Foursaken's magic with iron, and she, the X-Men, and the Foursaken were sucked elsewhere. She woke up in a strange city and met the First Fallen; a being who looked like an ancient Egyptian soldier with wings. He took her to the other X-Men, who were being lectured by the Foursaken, saying that they were trying to offer "eternal peace" to people on Earth, like the people of their city had. However, only four of each species existed, with the First Fallen saying any more would be redundant. They and all the inhabitants in the city were under the sway of the First Fallen, who they learned from the Watcher is actually the male counterpart to the Phoenix Force, an entity whose goal is eternal unchangeable perfection, who invades the worlds of those who wish for perfection, taking four of every species into his own world. He had also cancelled everyone's powers except Psylocke's, with her immunity. She, in turn, used her psychic katana to short-circuit his power, and everyone rebelled, when the First Fallen itself vacated its host body, preparing to attack them all. Jamie Braddock at that point decided to send everyone home and he locked himself in the First Fallen's dimension. Evidently, at the last minute, he felt he could not use Psylocke and her team as pawns.
[edit] The Shadow King returns
After accompanying the other X-Men to Africa to help Storm liberate the locals under the dictatorship of Shetani, Psylocke visited New Excalibur in London to talk with her brother Brian over what happened with Jamie. Meanwhile, the Shadow King had returned, and using the body of a Professor X from an alternate reality, lured Psylocke and New Excalibur to him. Suddenly aware that the others were under his influence, Sage tried unsuccessfully to stop them from ambushing Betsy and Captain Britain. With Sage down, and Captain Britain brutally beaten by his possessed teammates, Psylocke created a telekinetic bubble in Dark Xavier's brain to give the Shadow King's host body a stroke. This freed the others from his control, but when Psylocke delivered the killing blow with her katana, she vanished in a flash of light. Since then, no one has noticed her absence, except for Captain Britain, who believes her to be dead.
[edit] Exiles
- See also: Exiles (Marvel Comics)
In Exiles #90, Psylocke appeared in Panoptichron to replace Power Princess. However, upon arrival, she clashes with Sabretooth, thinking him to be the 616 Sabretooth that nearly killed her twice. They fight for a while, but eventually Psylocke catches on to the fact that Sabretooth is not there for a fight and Morph intervenes and makes an introduction. Surprisingly, Psylocke cannot be detected by any of Panoptichron's cameras. Heather teleports Morph, Sabretooth, and Psylocke down to Earth #1720 to save the other Exiles, who are currently beaten or brainwashed, courtesy of this world's Madame Hydra, Sue Storm.
[edit] Trivia
- In both her new and old bodies Elizabeth is 5'11" and 155 lbs.[1]
[edit] Powers and abilities
[edit] Original powers
Psylocke was originally a powerful telepath, able to perform the same feats as other telepaths of the time (Professor Xavier, Jean Grey, Rachel Summers, Emma Frost etc.) She could read and project thoughts, control minds, project mental illusions, generate psi-bolts to stun or injure the minds of others and astral project.
When using her powers (during her run in Uncanny X-Men), a butterfly-shaped energy aura would appear around her face. It was never made clear whether this was something that could be perceived by others, or was simply an 'effect' to show when Psylocke was using her powers to the reading audience. This 'butterfly' (sometimes depicted as having eyes in its wings) was also the form Psylocke chose when manifesting an astral form, instead of the usual illusory image of her physical body normally employed by telepaths when projecting their astral form.
In addition, she possessed an ability other telepaths didn't have; the ability to project a focused beam of directed telepathic energy called a 'psycho-blast'. Unlike normal telepathic attacks, this beam was able to affect the real world, physically knocking foes backward as well as attacking their minds, and was even shown to shatter metal (the Cerebro helmet Psylocke was wearing when she used her psycho-blast on Sabretooth in Uncanny X-Men #213). Her "psychoblasts" were even powerful enough to damage the Juggernaut through his metal helmet (Uncanny X-Men #218), whose mystical properties usually shielded him from psionic attack.
Psylocke also possessed limited precognitive powers that occasionally allowed her to envision probable future events. However, these flashes were random and infrequent, and she had no control over them.
While in her original body, Psylocke was given bionic eyes by Mojo and Spiral which instantly adjusted to any intensity of light, preventing her from being blinded by brightness, and presumably enhancing her vision in the dark as well (though the latter was never demonstrated). The bionic eyes were also cameras, transmitting to Mojo everything that Psylocke saw.
[edit] Body Swap
After her physical transformation into an Asian ninja assassin, she gained highly remarkable fighting skills in addition to her telepathy, which at this stage were not as strong as they had originally been before her transformation. Before Kwannon was slain by Matsu'o Tsurayaba, she merged her mind with Psylocke's and returned the other half of the psionic power she retained, thus restoring her full telepathic might. The most common usage of her powers was the manifestation of a "psychic knife," described as "the focused totality of her psychic powers," which she often used to disrupt the neurons of her foes by driving the glowing "blade" of mental energy into their heads. It is noted that during this stage, she chose to fight up-close most of the time, although she could still utilize distanced telepathic assaults.
After her exposure to the Crimson Dawn, she also gained the ability to teleport herself and others using areas of shadow as gateways. Although this form of teleportation was not as controlled or precise as variations of teleportation used by others, it could cover huge distances; on one occasion she transported the X-Men from America to Africa in a few seconds. She has not been seen using these powers since her return.
[edit] Current powers
To keep the Shadow King imprisoned in the Astral Plane, Psylocke sacrificed the use of her telepathy and power to teleport through shadows, but gained telekinesis thanks to Phoenix. At first, due to the relative newness of her telekinesis, she couldn't exercise fine control over her powers (she could blast an enemy through a brick wall, but couldn't levitate a small object). As time progressed, Psylocke grew more proficient at using her powers. Instead of her psychic knife, Psylocke can now manifest a telekinetic katana composed of raw psionic energy. At its lowest intensity her katana functions much like her psychic knife, short-circuiting the victim's nervous system. At its highest level, her katana can slice through almost any material. Her control over her sword is so great that she can slice an armored opponent and cut through the armor, but only leave her opponent stunned or unconscious. Psylocke's telekinetic manifestations produce visible radiance, unlike the powers of many other psionics. Thus, she can use her psychic katana as a makeshift light source in areas of darkness.
She can also, as seen in Uncanny X-Men #458, use her sword to shatter telepathic power-inhibitors imposed on others, despite her own lack of telepathy. With no telepathy to guide her when performing this task, she must rely on her instincts to give the blade the sufficient strength necessary to break the inhibitors, without doing permanent damage to the subject in question. During the timeline shift known as House of M, Psylocke showed the ability to summon two telekinetic katanas at the same time. It is unknown if she is capable of this under normal circumstances.
Aside from the blade, Psylocke can use her telekinesis to enhance her speed, strength and fighting skills to superhuman levels. She can also levitate herself and others, or manipulate matter in standard telekinetic fashion, but has shown little inclination to do so in combat situations, preferring to attack using enhanced physical attributes and her psi-katana. She can also create telekinetic shields of various sizes and strength and she can fire mental force blasts that can "shatter mountains". After her resurrection, Psylocke's telekinetic powers have been greatly enhanced, presumably by means of her brother's reality manipulation abilities.
After her resurrection, writer Chris Claremont noted that, in addition to no longer having the use of her own telepathy, Psylocke is immune to all forms of psionic manipulation, even attempts at telepathic communication. This is a result of her brother Jamie's manipulation of the quantum strings that comprise her. She is also immune or at least highly resistant to other psionic-based powers like the Savage Land Mutate Vertigo's disorientation power or Nocturne's mind possessing abilities. Due to Jamie's alterations, Psylocke is also immune to any physical and mental alteration by beings who can radically restructure reality, such as Proteus. She can, however, still be killed in more traditional manners, such as being stabbed or shot. She is also at least partially resistant to magical manipulation. Psylocke is unable to alter or reduce her psychic immunity, or to undo any of the changes made to her by her brother.
It is not known if Psylocke still retains her precognitive power.
[edit] Fighting skills
Psylocke has been classified as a master martial artist, though the specific fighting arts she has mastered have never been revealed. Presumably, as a ninja, she is skilled in various Ninjutsu techniques such as Taijutsu and Ninjaken. Even though she is known as a ninja and worked for The Hand as one, her fighting skills and techniques far surpass those of the average Hand ninja or Crimson Dawn Undercloak. Her skills have been said to rival those of a ninja master (as mentioned in the miniseries Crimson Dawn #3).
As a telepath, Psylocke used to take advantage of her powers in a fight by reading her opponents' movements seconds before they made them, giving her the opportunity to counter-attack faster, and she could also use her telepathy to mask her presence from other people, humans and superhumans alike (e.g. from Wolverines super-enhanced senses as seen in Wolverine vol.2, #125, and from Jean Grey's telepathy in X-Men vol.2 #1). She also used to create telepathic illusions to distract her enemies while fighting them and as a ninja, she used her psychic knife to incapacitate her opponents without killing them, though she has less inhibitions about doing so and will if necessary (as seen in X-Men (vol. 2) Annual 2000).
As a telekinetic, she often uses her powers to augment her strength and speed, which makes her fighting skills so strong that she's was able to match and even outmatch other superhumanly strong opponents like a holographic version of Sabretooth in the Danger Room (as seen in X-Men (vol. 2) #103 and Uncanny X-Men #460). Psylocke was also able to match Rogue’s attacks during a training session, despite the fact that Rogue had greatly enhanced speed and strength at the time (as seen in a flashback sequence in Xtreme X-Men #3).
[edit] Body armor
During the time when the X-Men were based in the Australian outback, Psylocke gained possession of a unique suit of armour. Made of an unknown metal, it was lightweight and form-fitting, but was also extremely resistant to physical damage, including some energy attacks. This allowed Psylocke (still in her original body and possessing only basic combat skill at best) added leverage as an X-Man, and made her less of a liability to her teammates in the field. The first appearance of the armor is in Wolverine (vol 1) #5. Wolverine had the armor custom-ordered through a weapons and technology firm named Landau, Luckman & Lake for "a colleague", by which he presumably meant Psylocke. Mr. Chang, an agent of Landau, Luckman & Lake, loaned the armor to Lindsay McCabe since Wolverine had sent her to him. Issues #6-7 of Wolverine (vol. 1) feature Tyger Tiger wearing the body armor. Tyger Tiger was briefly trapped in the armour due to a built-in security mechanism, but Wolverine managed to free her. Psylocke wore the armor from issue #232 of Uncanny X-Men to issue #251. After travelling through the Siege Perilous and trading bodies with Kwannon, Psylocke no longer required her armour, as she had gained Kwannon's high degree of combat skill. When Kwannon, in Betsy's original body, returned to Xavier's mansion, she was wearing the armour, which had apparently been left behind after the Hand found Psylocke. It has not been seen since Revanche's first appearance.
[edit] Power changes over the years
The different changes to Psylocke’s powers:
A. In her original body:
- Telepathy
- "Psycho-blasts" - Directed beams of telepathic force.
- Limited precognition.
- Temporarily had the powers associated with Captain Britain (from costume).
B. In the body of Kwannon:
- Telepathy (said to have been weaker than in her original body as Kwannon had half of her original telepathic strength, gained it back after Kwannon's death).
- Psychic knife. A knife-like blade of energy generated from the back of her hands that was the focused totality of her telepathy.
- Limited precognition.
C. After being healed by the Crimson dawn:
- Telepathy.
- Psychic knife.
- Teleportation through shadows.
D. After her power switch with Jean Grey:
- Telekinesis.
- 'Psychic katana' composed of pure telekinetic force.
E. After her resurrection by Jamie Braddock:
- Telekinesis (stronger after her death).
- Psychic katana (stronger after her death).
- Immunity to telepathy/mind intrusion/possession and all other forms of mental, magical and physical alteration.
[edit] Relationships
Elisabeth Braddock has been involved in a series of relationships during the years. As a member of S.T.R.I.K.E.'s Psi Division[2], she was involved with fellow agent Tom Lennox[3]. He was murdered while trying to defend her, during which time she was psi-linked to him. Telepathically experiencing Lennox's death left Betsy traumatized for a time.
In her earliest days as an X-Man, Elisabeth shared a mutual attraction for the teenage New Mutant known as Cypher. Neither of them acted on their feelings, though, presumably due to the age difference between them.
In the time when the X-Men were based in the Australian outback, it was hinted that Elisabeth and Havok were attracted to one another, even kissing each other goodbye before entering the Siege Perilous. Nothing more was ever mentioned of this, however.
After returning to the X-Men in Kwannon's body, Psylocke mentally manipulated Cyclops, her team leader, into being attracted to her. She later admitted that this was due to the presence of Kwannon's lingering personality traits in her mind, but that she did in fact find Cyclops attractive.
Later, Elisabeth and Archangel had a relationship, but chose to end it after realizing that they were too different to stay together. After Betsy's death, Archangel suffered anguish from being unable to save her, but eventually made peace with it and moved on to a relationship with Paige Guthrie.
Psylocke and the X-Man Neal Shaara were romantically involved until her death.
So far, neither Archangel nor Shaara's reaction to Elisabeth's resurrection have been depicted.
Betsy has also started flirting with her ally in the Exiles, Morph, who also finds her to be rather interesting.
[edit] Alternate Versions
[edit] Age of Apocalypse
Originally, Psylocke was the only X-Man not depicted in some form or another in the X-Men crossover "Age of Apocalypse", and it was speculated that Betsy Braddock had been one of the unfortunate telepaths to have been remade into Apocalypse's brain trust, a telepathic defense system for his citadel. However, for "AoA"'s 10th anniversary, a new miniseries was created and Psylocke made an appearance for the first time since the original "AoA" miniseries. Psylocke in the "Age of Apocalypse" appears as a ninja, with black hair and blue eyes. She is a telepath, and an old acquaintance of Weapon X. It also appears that Psylocke has an affinity for the shadows but bears no Crimson Dawn mark over her eye, as her "616" counterpart once did. This "AoA" version of Psylocke shows the ability to manifest two psychic knives at the same time, that were able to affect physical matter (as in X-Men: AoA #4, where she cuts the chains binding Charles Lensherr). An explanation for Psylocke's Asian appearance, various powers, and fighting skills in the AOA universe has not been depicted, though there is speculation that she is actually Revanche.
Psylocke's appearance is first noted by a captured Logan, who spots her glowing eyes in the nearby shadows. Psylocke then releases Charles from his chains and helps the rest of the captured group escape. She has a brief reunion with Logan, for whom she bears an obvious grudge, and battles Dagger, defeating her quickly. Psylocke later uses her psychic blades to counteract the brainwashing of some of the X-Men, first on Jean, who is released from Mr. Sinister's influence, and then on Kirika, which allows the young mutant to remember that Logan and Mariko Yashida are her parents. At the end of the series, Psylocke leaves for Japan with Kirika, Silver Samurai, and Sunfire to repair the damage done to the country by Apocalypse.
[edit] Ultimate Psylocke
In the World Tour story arc of Ultimate X-Men, Agent Betsy Braddock, along with her partner Agent Dai Thomas, was introduced as a Colonel for the British Secret Service. She is a telepath and, judging by her own assertion, the most powerful in England. The "psychoblast" power she possessed in her British form in the "616" universe was manifested as a "psychic grenade" that she "detonated" in the minds of others.
Agents Betsy Braddock and Dai Thomas, were assigned to aid Xavier in his search for his son, David (known in the mainstream Marvel universe as Proteus), a powerful mutant who can physically possess others and manipulate reality. During the investigation, however, Agent Thomas was killed and Betsy's was possessed by David, who set about wreaking havoc and killing innocent humans while in her body. She managed to resist his control briefly and pleaded with Xavier to kill her. Xavier could not bring himself to do so, but Colossus dropped a car on her, killing them both.
Betsy's consciousness survived, however, somehow moving into the comatose body of an Asian girl called Kwannon. Kwannon was glad to be able to move on to the afterlife, and willingly gave Betsy her body. This body switch was actually a blessing in disguise, as Betsy had breast cancer which was potentially fatal. She regarded her near-death experience as intensely fascinating. The change has also led her to bear a less formal look, as she was seen after her body-switch with a number of cosmetic piercings. She is currently building up S.T.R.I.K.E., the British division of S.H.I.E.L.D. She has yet to be seen again in Ultimate X-Men or any other Ultimate title.
As in the mainstream Marvel Universe, Betsy is the twin sister of Brian Braddock, who is now a member of the European Defense Initiative (the European Union equivalent of the Ultimates), code named Captain Britain. Her father, Professor Sir James Braddock, is still alive in the Ultimate universe, and oversees the EDI super soldier program.
[edit] Days of Future Past
Psylocke has been present in two Days of Future Past-storylines, one which took place in Wolverine: Days of Future Past #1-3 and the other one in Excalibur (vol. 1) #94. In W: DoFP, Psylocke has not only the Crimson Dawn tattoo over her left eye, but also additional tattoos on the right part of her face. In the E: DoFP story, Psylocke has no tattoos at all and her eyes are completely blue, with no visible iris or pupils. One thing that connects these two storylines with each other and with the original DoFP, is the death of Warren Worthington.
In Excalibur (vol. 1) #94, Psylocke is a member of the underground resistant against Black Air, the British Security Service that rules Britain. She is first seen walking into the computer area under Braddock Mansion. She’s part of the Excalibur team that goes on a mission to rescue Douglock from the Black Air headquarters. Inside the Black Air HQ, Psylocke fights off techno-organic Brood replicas and uses her psychic knife to open up a neural linked brain-lock. Inside the lock room, she finds herself trapped together with the rest of the team. What happens to her afterwards is unknown.
In Wolverine: Days of future past #1, Psylocke is first seen as a mysterious hooded female that sneaks up undetected behind Logan and telepathically destroys his consciousness. It isn’t until the final panel that the mysterious woman is revealed to be Psylocke, the new Red Queen and one of the Lords Cardinal of the new Hellfire Club. In issue 2, Psylocke is seen by Shinobi Shaw’s side as they watch the trapped Scarlet Witch. As Shinobi brags about world domination, Betsy reminds him that without her help he wouldn’t have been so lucky and warns him about celebrating a victory in advance. He tells her that her name is never far away from his thoughts and that they will rule the world side by side. Suddenly, Psylocke cries out in pain and informs Shinobi that Wolverine has reawakened and that Emma Frost is responsible for brining him back.
Psylocke summons Midnight (the female ninja that accompanied her to Moscow in issue 1) and she instructs her to kill Wolverine. Betsy asks her if she has any problems with betraying Logan considering their past together, to which Midnight responds that betrayal comes easily nowadays. Elisabeth doesn’t respond and instead smiles at Midnight, reminding her that they all have known defeat in the past.
In issue 3, Baron Zemo makes his way back to Shinobi and Elisabeth to celebrate their victory, just as Magneto makes his way into their base. A panicking Betsy yells to Shinobi to do something, and he tells her that the computer-defenses will soon be activated. Suddenly Betsy senses betrayal from one of the workers, whom she stuns with her psychic knife. She smiles as she finds out that the worker was Jubilee in disguise. As she’s preparing to kill Jubilee, Synch and Leech use their combined powers against Psylocke to intervene. Wolverine finally knocks her down with one punch, commenting that during the years she has grown a bit “rusty” with her martial arts skills. She’s taken back to Emma Frost’s base of operation and Emma later tells Jubilee and the rest of the team, that Betsy will be transferred back to her brother in England as soon as her recuperation is completed.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Internet
Psylocke won IGN's Battle of the Comic-Book Babes '06 contest. In the final round, she managed to get almost two thirds of the votes (64-36). She was pitted against the female computer icon Lara Croft.
[edit] Games
- Psylocke has appeared in a few X-Men-based video games, beginning with the 1990s PC game X-Men 2: Fall of the Mutants in her original Caucasian body, and could fire psionic blasts that stun her enemies in the game. She later appeared in Capcom fighting game X-Men: Children of the Atom and a notable appearance in Marvel Super Heroes in that she was the only female character (not counting secret playable characters).
- She also has a cameo appearance in the Cammy ending in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and resurfaced as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
- She was also the sole female playable character in X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse for the Super NES, as well as X-Men 2: Clone Wars for the Sega Genesis. She was in Activision's X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 also.
- Psylocke was also a playable character in X-Men: Next Dimension, appearing as two different selectable characters, Betsy and Psylocke.
- Psylocke makes an appearance as one of the final playable characters in the game "X-Men: Legends".
- Psylocke was a non-playable character in the Wolverine game for the original Nintendo.
- Psylocke makes an appearance in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as a mini-boss. She was brainwashed by Dr. Doom, who had stolen Odin's power, and began corrupting the Earth
- Psylocke was a playable character in the Sega GameGear title, "X-Men".
[edit] Television
- Psylocke appears during the fourth season of the X-Men animated series, in Episode 51 entitled "The Promise of Apocalypse" (Beyond Good and Evil, Part 2), and in Episode 53, entitled "End and Beginning" (Beyond Good and Evil, Part 4). In this storyline, Psylocke appears to be a lone warrior who practices theft with a cause (ala Robin Hood). She comes into direct conflict with Archangel and, later on, Sabretooth and Mystique. She refers to her brother as fighting to help mutants, but does not name him as Captain Britain.
This incarnation of Psylocke had the notable ability to fire her psychic knives, incapacitating opponents from a distance.
- Psylocke also makes two quick cameos: during Season 2 in Episode 18, "Repo Man", and Episode 24, "Mojovision".
- Although Psylocke does not appear in X-Men: Evolution, in the second season Mystique takes the shape of a purple-haired English teenager named Risty Wilde, who may have been intended as a reference to Psylocke.
[edit] Film
- In the film X2, her name appears on a list of names Mystique scrolls through on Stryker's computer while looking for Magneto's file.
- In the X2 novelization, Psylocke made a cameo as one of the mutants affected by Dark Cerebro. In it, she is in Vatican City during a fashion show and is seen waking up from her coma —induced by Dark Cerebro— when the machine begins affecting humans. She uses her telepathy to sense what is going on.
- Psylocke appears in the feature film X-Men: The Last Stand, played by actress Meiling Melançon. In the film, she fights against the X-Men as a member of The Omegas. She is killed, along with Quill and Archlight, by Pheonix.
During an interview with Wizard magazine, Melançon said that in X3, Psylocke has the power to turn into a shadow and create psi-blades. However, in the film, she doesn't appear to create psi-blades (and the rumor that said the DVD would have a deleted scene in which Psylocke used her psi-blades was proven wrong), but she appears out of nowhere, however, there were no shadows present when she appeared. In the film, her allies Arclight and Quill were killed by Phoenix's disintegration wave, and although Betsy herself was out of frame when they died, the purple colour of her hair can be seen when they explode. The novelization makes no mention of what happens to Psylocke, Quill, and Arclight after trying (unsuccessfully) to kill Angel's father.
According to scriptwriter Zak Penn, the character played by Melançon was not named as Psylocke in the original script. In a Q&A on thexverse.com, he claimed that: "There was some switching of character names later in production, and I'm not exactly sure how Psylocke got thrown into the mix."[4]. On the DVD Commentary of the film it was stated by Brett Ratner that the character played by Meiling Melançon is Psylocke and not Kwannon.
[edit] Notes
- In Spain Psylocke is called Mariposa Mental, which translates to "Mental Butterfly".
- In Excalibur#19 (first series, 1990) Kitty Pryde finds herself in Betsy's room in Braddock manor, which is decorated with an Asian theme.
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] Links
- MarvelDatabase:Psylocke (Elisabeth Braddock)
- MarvelDatabase:Character Gallery Psylocke (Elisabeth Braddock)
- Spotlight on Psylocke at UncannyXmen.Net
- Betsy Braddock...Le Site
Categories: Asian superheroes | British superheroes | Fictional assassins | Fictional Anglicans | Fictional characters with telekinesis | Marvel Comics characters who can fly | Fictional English people | Fictional models | Fictional ninja | Fictional telepaths | Fictional twins | Marvel Comics martial artists | Marvel Comics mutants | 1976 introductions | Female video game characters
