Psylocke (Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock, sometimes Elizabeth) is a Marvel Comics superheroine, associated with Captain Britain and the X-Men. A mutant, she possesses telekinesis and excellent hand-to-hand combat skills. She formerly possessed telepathy.
| Psylocke | |
|---|---|
| art by Ed Benes Art by Ed Benes. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics/Marvel UK |
| First appearance | (UK) Captain Britain #8 (December 1976) (U.S.)New Mutants Annual #2 (1986) |
| Created by | Chris Claremont Herb Trimpe |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock |
| Team affiliations | none, S.T.R.I.K.E. Psi-division (British version of S.H.I.E.L.D.) Excalibur R.C.X. (ally) X-Men the Hand Crimson Dawn Hellfire Club Captain Britain Corps |
| Notable aliases | Captain Britain II, Lady Mandarin |
| Abilities | Her current powers are:
|
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. Afterwards, the villain group The Hand kidnapped her and 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 remerged 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, 1956. Betsy was the eldest of the twins by a few minutes.
In Brazil, Psylocke is called Mariposa Mental, which translates to "Mental Butterfly".
Character history
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. (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.
Joining the X-Men
She was later kidnapped by the other-dimensional television producer Mojo and his henchwoman, the six-armed, android 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.
Her role in the Mutant Massacre, including pulling information about Mister Sinister from Sabretooth's mind, led to her induction into the X-Men. She was among the X-Men as they fought the Adversary in Dallas in the event known as The Fall of the Mutants, 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.
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 mind of his brain-damaged lover, Kwannon, into Psylocke's body. Spiral not only swapped their minds but 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 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.
Crimson Dawn
In an attempt to save Boomer (now known as Meltdown) 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 effected 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".)
Psi-War
Psylocke later battled the powerful telepath known as the Shadow King in a fight that ended up with telepaths across the globe having their powers disabled, and the shut-down 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 of 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 the 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 corporal 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.
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.
X-treme X-Men/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 her body from Spain, and buried her next to her parents at Braddock Manor.
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 were gone. Her telepathy was not restored, however. Instead, she still possessed the telekinetic pabilities 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.
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 — 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 sacrifice Psylocke and her team as a pawn.
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 teamates, 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.
In the letters page of New Excalibur #8, Psylocke is said to join the Exiles in the coming months and replace Power Princess. Marvel editor Mike Marts also confirmed this on uncannyxmen.net. With her will go Claremont from Uncanny to take over the Exiles and oversee the character he created.
However, Psylocke's appearance as well as Claremont's take-over of Exiles has been delayed as Claremont is recovering from cardiac stress. He will begin in January with #90.
Considering how Psylocke will soon join the Exiles, the flash of light she vanished in may have been Heather Hudson teleporting her to Panoptichron.
Powers and abilities
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 like 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 occassionally allowed her to see 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).
During the time that Psylocke had her telepathy, her enemies often nick-named her as the "psi-witch" (as seen in Uncanny X-men # 251).
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.
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 blade composed of raw psi-energy, which at its lowest intensity, functions much like her psychic knife, short-circuiting the victim's nervous system, and 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 leave the attacker physically unharmed (but with a nasty headache). When Psylocke manifests her psychic katana, she can use the katana like a "torch" to light up the space that she's in, such as a dark room etc.
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 nessesary to break the inhibitors, without doing permanent damage to the subject in question. During the events of the House of M, Psylocke showed the ability to summon two telekinetic katanas at the same time.
Aside from the blade, she uses her telekinesis to enhance her speed, strength and fighting skills into superhuman levels. She can also move and levitate other people. While she can move objects from a distance and fly as other telekinetics do, she has shown little inclination to do either in combat situations. She can also create telekinetic shields of various sizes and strength and she can fire mental force blasts that can "shatter mountains". Her telekinesis is also much stronger now than it was before her death.
After her resurrection, writer Chris Claremont noted that, in addition to no longer having the use of her own telepathy, she is immune to any form of others' telepathy– including telepathic attacks, probes or even attempts at communication (a result of her brother Jamie's manipulation of the quantum strings that comprise her body). She's also immune or at least highly-resistant to other forms of psychic based powers like ex-Marauder Vertigo's extreme disorientation powers. Due to Jamie's alterations, Psylocke is also immune to any physical and mental alteration by beings who can radically restructure reality, like Proteus (although she can still be killed in more traditional manners, such as being stabbed or shot). Her current psi-shields are also of enormous strength and completely out of her control (she can not lower them to "invite" telepaths or other psychic beings into her mind etc.).
It is not known if Psylocke still retains her precognitive power.
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 sences 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 Sabertooth 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).
Vital stats
- Psylocke has peak human strength, which makes her able to lift twice her own body weight and she also possess an enhanced durability - the ability to resist or recover from bodily injury.
- Psylocke's official Marvel vital statistics (in her Asian body) are 5'11" and 155 lbs.
Body armor
Psylocke's body armor is a unique set of armor. The first appearance of the armor is in Wolverine (vol 1) #5. Wolverine had the armor custom-ordered through a firm named "Landau, Luckman & Lake" for a colleague (presumably Psylocke). Mr. Chang, an agent of Landau, Luckman & Lake, loaned the armor to Linsday McCabe since she had been sent to him by Wolverine. Issues #6-7 of Wolverine (vol. 1) feature Tyger Tiger wearing the body armor. Tiger gets trapped in the armor due to a built-in security mechanism, but Wolverine gets her out before she is in any real danger. Psylocke wore the armor from issue #232 of Uncanny X-Men to issue #251. The impervious nature of the armor allowed her to go out into the field with the group more often than she was able to before.
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.
- Enhanced strength.
- Limited precognition.
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 her resurrection 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.
Alternate Versions
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 believed 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, hot on the heels of her canon resurrection.
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, and it is unclear whether Elisabeth is Asian. However, hair dye would be difficult and frivolous to procure in this war-torn world, and her black hair is likely natural.
Psylocke's Asian appearance in "AoA" isn't explained, though the most simple of explanations is that this isn't Elisabeth Braddock at all, but actually the AoA version of Kwannon (herself a mutant psychic), who survived Apocalypse's destruction of Japan. The likelihood of this is high as Kwannon was probably Japan's top female ninja (being good enough to be the rival/lover of Matsu'o Tsurayaba, who in 616 continuity led the Hand, Japan's deadliest ninja clan), and so could have been skillful enough to manage to escape the massacre of her people, like fellow mutants Silver Samurai and Kirika.
The other possibility is that Psylocke submitted herself to plastic surgery in order to avoid her brother Brian, member of the Human High Council and one of the most vocal proponents of mutant extermination.
Ultimate Psylocke
In the World Tour story arc of Ultimate X-Men, Agent Betsy Braddock, along with her partner Agent Dai Thomas, were introduced as a Colonel for the British Secret Service. She is a telepath and, judging by Braddock's assertion, the most powerful telepath in England. The "psychoblast" power she possessed in her British form in the mainstream Marvel universe was manifested as a "psychic grenade" that she "detonated" in the minds of others.
Her body is possessed by the Ultimate version of Proteus, but Betsy resists just long enough to allow Ultimate Colossus to drop a car on her, killing them both.
However, her consciousness survived, floating into the comatose body of an Asian girl called Kwannon. This body switch was actually a blessing in disguise, since Betsy had breast cancer, which would have killed her anyway, and she regards her near-death experience as deeply fascinating, but it has also led her to bear a less formal look, as she now wears a number of piercings. Currently she is building up S.T.R.I.K.E., the British division of S.H.I.E.L.D. Betsy has yet to be seen again in Ultimate X-Men or any other Ultimate title.
As in the mainstream Marvel Universe, Betsy is the 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, oversees the EDI super soldier program.
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, 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 the Black Air, the British Security Service that rules Britain. She is first seen walking into the computer area under the Braddock Mansion. She’s part of the Excalibur team which goes on a mission to rescue Douglock from the Black Air headquarters. Inside the Black Air HQ, Psylocke fights of 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 that 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 Lord Cardinals 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, wouldn’t she agree? This is a question which Elisabeth doesn’t answer 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, which 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. She’s finally taken down by Wolverine who 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.
Appearances in other media
Games
- Psylocke has appeared in a few X-Men-based video games, beginning with the 1990's PC game X-Men 2: Fall of the Mutants in her original Caucasian body, and could fire "psyche-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.
- 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 and recently, she has appeared as a playable character in X-Men Legends. She also made a less notable appearance as a playable character in X-Men: Next Dimension, as both Betsy and Psylocke.
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). Psylocke also makes two quick cameos: during Season 2 in Episode 18, "Repo Man", and Episode 24, "Mojovision".
Film
In the X2 novelization, Psylocke made a cameo as one of the mutants effected 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.
- A character, whose appearance is similar to Psylocke's, 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 Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants.
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, indicating a blend into the shadows. However, there were no shadows present when she appeared. In the film, she was killed, on camera, by Phoenix's disintegration wave along with her allies Arclight and Quill. Disputing previous claims, the novelization makes no mention of what happens to Psylocke, Quill, and Arclight. They are never mentioned again 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."[1]. Some fans conisder her to be the Asian mutant Kwannon. On the X-Men the Last Stand DVD Commentary, it was stated by Brett Ratner that the character played by Meiling Melançon is Psylocke.
Internet
Psylocke won IGN.com'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.
External links
- MDP: Psylocke - Marvel Database Project
- Spotlight on Psylocke at UncannyXmen.Net
- Betsy Braddock...Le Site