Mutant torture porn in Psylocke #2

With blood on her hands, Psylocke’s new life is already crumbling. Can she still be the hero the world needs her to be? And how will Shinobi Shaw help her with that? Psylocke #2 is written by Alyssa Wong, drawn by Vincenzo Carratu, colored by Fer Sifuentes-Sujo and lettered by Ariana Maher.

If there is one thing that is consistent about the wildly inconsistent X-Men era known as From the Ashes, it sure lives up to being the anti-Krakoa.

What does that mean, exactly?

Basically, mutants got to live on an island where they built their own (flawed) community, but now they are back in the world being imprisoned, tortured and killed constantly. Gone is the moment where the line about marginalized metaphors empowers those same marginalized. In its place is a constantly depressing, all-over-the-place mess.

So where does Psylocke #2 stand among the rest?

That’s a twofold answer.

Let’s start with looking at the series as an overall story, leaving that whole mutant issue to the side for a moment. Were I to put it on a scale, it would fall somewhere in the middle. Nothing really out of the box in regards to what we’ve seen with characters of this type. Bad guys are doing awful things, and the fighter character (and allies) make them pay, often in brutal ways. While Psylocke isn’t so much doing the killing here, “ally” Shinobi Shaw has no such qualms.

While I appreciate the whole “person in the chair” angle the book has, the familiarity we’re supposed to garner from new character Devon isn’t hitting. Were this any of the familiar mutants, I might be more inclined to feel something about them being worried about Kwannon and “hurt” by her ghosting them. As it stands, moments like that just kind of fall flat.

So too does the whole “Psylocke, you’re supposed to be on vacation!” beat carried over from the first issue. Mutants are back to being under the thumb of their oppressors (after the oppressors ruined Krakoa), and she’s supposed to what, go chill on a beach? They had their place to chill on Krakoa, and in the end a ton of mutants willingly chose to stay on Earth (for silly publishing reasons, of course).

This brings me to the second part of that aforementioned twofold answer.

Holy crap, is this line of books just utterly exhausting.

We’re in the midst of some of the worst times for various marginalized groups, with them about to get worse on the horizon. And for various reasons, the “Conductor of X” and others have decided that now is the time for the marginalized stand-in mutants to just be utterly wrecked in almost every book. There are only so many times I can read stories about humans exploiting, brutalizing and imprisoning mutants on a weekly/monthly basis before it just becomes asinine and gross.

I don’t blame most of the creators, because it’s been made clear they were handed a direction and allowed to just sort of paint around the edges. Their “Conductor” has made that very clear in his various newsletters and interviews over the months, that this era is very much his baby that was devised even before writers or artists were asked aboard.

Either way, it’s tiring and tactless in the face of where the world is, where it’s been and where it was clear that it was going. I get it, they were so upset about Krakoa, but heaping the misery porn onto the books was not the alternative. No matter what else was happening, there was no way to enjoy this book fully with how devoid of any hope or developmental space it or all of the line (save a few books) continues to be.

Hey, at least it still looks good, which is something the line has going for it.

Carratù continues to be a favorite current artist for me, and pairs exceedingly well with Sifuentes-Sujo on colors. Their style blends the fantastical and the grounded, allowing things to have such depth and fluidity while giving just enough of a sharp edge to hit, blended with colors that lend themselves to the shadows/darker tones more than the vibrant. Yet there are still splashes of more vibrant tones, especially with the purple that is heavily part of Psylocke’s powers and motif.

At the end of the day, this is a book that continues to fall somewhere in the middle of the overall X-pack. Which honestly, when compared to some of its fellow books, is not the worst place to be. But it’s also not the best place to be.

X-traneous Thoughts

• That cliffhanger moment. Apparently just walking into the bases of powerful mutant teams (with psychics and alien technology at hand) is easy peasy. At least one thing has stayed consistent through the eras.
• It’s an odd feeling to let out a sigh of relief that at least one former “villain,” Shinobi Shaw, hasn’t turned back the clock to the ’90s. What a bizarre time.
• Children split on whether they like or dislike Beast … right there with you, kids. Right there with you.
• Going intangible to slice a man in half, Vision and Kate Pryde (thankfully) never could (would).

Scott Redmond

Scott Redmond is a freelance writer and educator fueled by coffee, sarcasm, his love for comic books and more "geeky" things than you can shake a lightsaber at. Probably seen around social media and remembered as "Oh yeah, that guy." An avid gamer, reader, photographer, amateur cook and solid human being.