In honor of the launch of a new Psylocke solo series, we’re updating the longstanding Xavier Files entry on everyone’s favorite telepathic ninja! Remember, you can help choose who we add to our Mutant Master Rankings. Support ComicsXF on Patreon at the $8-a-month level or higher, and you can request either a new entry to the Files, or an update of an existing file (as most of these were written pre-Krakoa)!
Name: Kwannon
Mutant Name/Aliases: Psylocke, Revanche, Butterfly, Nothing
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #256 (1989) as Kwannon (body only), X-Men Vol. 2 #17 (1992) in full
Created by Fabian Nicieza and Andy Kubert
Powers: Telepathy, including the ability to manifest the “focused totality” of her powers in the form of a psychic knife, which disrupts the brain functions of its target and paves the way for telepathic intrusion
Group Affiliations: X-Men, Marauders, Hellions, the Hand
For the previous Xavier Files entry on Betsy Braddock, click here.
About
Following her stint in the IvX era Uncanny X-Men working under Magneto, Psylocke (still technically Betsy Braddock in Kwannon’s body) became part of the ad hoc X-Men team starring in the first two arcs of Charles Soule’s Astonishing X-Men. There, she was reunited with Fantomex and drawn into conflict with the Shadow King, during which she was forced to bring forth Angel’s dormant Archangel personality once again. During the course of that battle, it was revealed that the Shadow King had imprisoned the mind of the believed-dead Charles Xavier in the Astral Plane, and Fantomex gave up his body to allow Xavier to be reborn in the physical world (which means that, technically, it is Xavier-in-the-body-of-Fantomex who helped found the nation of Krakoa in House of X #1).
Shortly thereafter, Psylocke became involved in the “Hunt for Wolverine” series of miniseries that heralded the return of “normal” Wolverine to the X-books (after the still puzzling decision to kill and replace him with the alt-future Old Man Logan version a few years before). While that story is obviously a big deal for Wolverine, the Mystery in Madripoor miniseries is hugely significant for Psylocke as well. As part of the quest to locate the missing body of Wolverine, Psylocke is drawn into conflict with Sapphire Styx (a psychic vampire created by Chris Claremont who chiefly fought Wolverine in his Marvel Comics Presents serial). Her psyche absorbed by Styx and her body left for dead, Psylocke — with the help of a piece of Wolverine’s soul earlier absorbed by Styx — kills Styx and uses Wolverine’s soul power (comics!) to rebuild her original British body — also inadvertently reanimating Kwannon’s body and putting her psyche back in it. From this point forward, there are two Psylockes running around: Betsy Braddock (back in her purple-haired British body) and Kwannon (in the Japanese ninja body).
With HoXPoX looming but Jonathan Hickman needing more time to execute it, the two Psylockes were split across the X-books’ subsequent time-killing storylines. British Betsy went on to get involved in the alternate “Age of X-Man” event, while Kwannon remained in the “main” reality, popping up in Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men by cutting off the head of Magneto clone Joseph (who was posing as classic baddie Magneto and leading a version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants). During the Krakoa era, Kwannon formally took the name Psylocke for herself (with Betsy adopting the mantle of Captain Britain) and starred in Fallen Angels, the big miss of the initial “Dawn of X” series. The book revealed that Kwannon had a long-lost daughter and put her in conflict with Apoth, a weird cyber internet villain. More notably, Fallen Angels marked the beginning of a fraught partnership between Kwannon and Mister Sinister.
This led to Psylocke’s inclusion in Hellions (one of the highlights of the Krakoa era), a series that focused on the (mis)adventures of a group of more morally ambiguous mutants operating under the auspices of Sinister, with Psylocke as their field leader. Here, she developed a romantic relationship with the former Marauder John Greycrow, and became one of the War Captains of Krakoa. During the “Fall of X,” Psylocke remained on Earth and joined the Avengers Unity Squad, helping fight back against Orchis. As the Krakoa era came to a close, Psylocke played a key role in freeing Karima Shapander from the Omega Sentinel consciousness, removing an integral asset of Orchis from the board. With the X-Men largely scattered as “From the Ashes” launches, Psylocke has found a place in the Jed MacKay/Ryan Stegman X-Men series, as a member of Cyclops’ more proactive team of X-Men.
Fun Fact
Kwannon’s entire existence is predicated on a misunderstanding on the part of writer Fabian Nicieza, who introduced the character as a way to explain the “source” of Betsy Braddock’s Asian body introduced in Uncanny X-Men #256-258. The original retcon put forth by Nicieza in X-Men (Vol. 2) #20-23 was that Kwannon and Betsy encountered one another after Betsy emerged from the Siege Perilous (it’s … a whole thing), and their minds swapped bodies. After that, goes this retcon, the events of Uncanny X-Men #256-258 take over, with the Hand discovering Betsy-in-Kwannon’s body and training her to be their assassin.
Except, Uncanny X-Men #255 clearly shows the Hand discovering the post-Siege Betsy prior to the whole “assassin training” thing, and she’s still caucasian at that point. Turns out, Nicieza had missed that issue, and no one in the editorial office corrected him when he proposed his retcon. This led to Nicieza having to retcon his retcon, in X-Men (Vol. 2) #31-32, in order to both reconcile this contradiction and allow for the continued existence of Kwannon as a character in her own right (it moved the body swap to after Besty’s emergence in Uncanny X-Men #255 and involved some “mingling” of Besty and Kwannon’s minds in the process to account for the shared memories and skills between the two women).
Must Read: Hellions
While Psylocke is often overshadowed by her more outlandish teammates, from Empath to Nanny and the Orphan Maker to Mister Sinister, the Krakoa-era Hellions series remains an effective and entertaining vehicle for Psylocke. Despite having to operate as the sole grown-up in a room full of kids, writer Zeb Wells manages to keep Psylocke from coming across as a buzzkill even as she does her best to keep her team in line. Her growing romance with Greycrow over the course of the series serves as the beating heart of the book. Her tension with Sinister — who isn’t shy about holding the events of Fallen Angels over her head or using the team in pursuit of his own ambitions — serves as a throughline for the series as it crosses in and out of larger X-storylines. At times macabre, hilarious, heartwarming and violent, Hellions is a delight of a book — and a great showcase for Psylocke.
Check out these Psylocke redesigns.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
