Psylocke

Template:Superherobox Psylocke (real name Elisabeth Braddock) is a fictional character in the comic book X-Men and part of the Marvel Comics universe. Her first appearance was in Captain Britain #8 (December 1976), a series only released in the U.K. Her first U.S. appearance was in New Mutants Annual #2 (1986).

Contents

1 Character history 2 Powers and abilities 3 Game appearances 4 External links

Character history

Elisabeth (sometimes Elizabeth) "Betsy" Braddock is the twin sister of Brian Braddock, better known as the superhero Captain Britain, and first appeared in his eponymous series. She dyed her hair purple and became a fashion model, and secretly worked for the Psi-Division of STRIKE, Britain's version of the US-based espionage outfit SHIELD 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-defence, she fried his brain, killing him.

Betsy assumed his uniform and received training from Captain UK, another alternate Captain Britain, and became the new Captain Britain while Brian was away, working for the covert British agency RCX, which had replaced the defunct STRIKE. 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.

Mojo and Spiral kidnapped her and implanted her with bionic eyes, gave her the name "Psylocke", and made her the star of the Wildways program. The New Mutants 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 armour to protect herself in physical confrontations.

After going through the Siege Perilous, Psylocke was found by the Hand, a clan of ninja. Their leader, Matsu'o Tsurabaya, contacted Spiral to swap the mind of his brain-dead lover, Kwannon, into Psylocke's body. Spiral not only swapped their minds, but somewhat mingled them, leaving each woman with traits from both of them. With some physical and mental conditioning, Psylocke (Betsy Braddock's persona in Kwannon's body with some of Kwannon's mental traits) became Lady Mandarin, the Hand's prime assassin. As Psylocke, she donned a new, more revealing costume.

Lady Mandarin's first mission pitted her against Wolverine. Her psychic knife attack showed her his memories of her, breaking the Hand's conditioning, and she escaped with Wolverine and Jubilee, eventually going with them to Genosha on the trail of the New Mutants. There, they encountered Havok, whom Psylocke had psychically nudged through the Siege Perilous, acting as a Magistrate. Following the defeat of Cameron Hodge, the X-Men reunited and returned to New York.

In 1991, when the X-Men split into two teams, Psylocke joined Cyclops's Blue Team, and started flirting with him. When Jean Grey found out, the two women started fighting, but were interrupted by the arrival of Kwannon, in what was Betsy's body, calling herself Revanche, and claiming to be the real Betsy. Not even Wolverine's enhanced senses could tell them apart, and the Hand wouldn't give them any straight answers. It took an infection of the Legacy Virus to determine that Revanche was not Betsy, and she gave Psylocke the parts of her mind and powers that Spiral had left with her, trading them for her own missing parts.Jean trained Betsy in her telepathic powers, and Betsy started a relationship with Warren Worthington III, the Archangel.

In an attempt to save Boomer (now known as Meltdown) from Sabretooth, Psylocke was critically wounded by the homicidal mutant who happened to be immune (or at least resistant) to telepathy at the time of their battle. 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 the healing liquid produced side effects: a red dagger-shaped tattoo over her left eye, a strange ability to slip into shadow, and a cold edge to her personality. Warren gave up a portion of his essence to free Psylocke from the evil influence of the Crimson Dawn, although she still retained the abilities associated with it. The couple retired from active duty with the X-Men.

Psylocke later battled the Shadow King in a fight that disabled telepathic powers across the globe and destroyed her Astral form. She reappeared in a shadow form, another side effect of the Crimson Dawn, invisible to the Shadow King, and tricked him into over-extending himself so she could contain him within her own mind. To keep the Shadow King imprisoned, Psylocke had to keep her telepathic powers focused on containing him, and thus effectively lost the use of her telepathy.

During the six-month story gap before Chris Claremont's second stint as X-Men scribe, Psylocke gained the power of telekinesis, possibly thanks to Jean Grey, and returned to active duty. She started flirting with Neal Sharra (Thunderbird), and Warren broke up with her.

Psylocke then joined Storm's team, the X-Treme X-Men, to search for Destiny's diaries. One of the team's first missions she died fighting the man known as Vargas while protecting a badly wounded Rogue and Beast, who were badly beaten by the villain.

Her body was returned to her family's estate. Her spirit appeared to Bishop in a vision, but she was attacked by a skull-faced apparition and pulled through a glowing gate.

In Uncanny X-Men #455 Psylocke made a miraculous return, though how she survived is still unexplained. She is also apparently more powerful than before. She also now lacks the red tattoo she gained from the Crimson Dawn.

Shortly after her mysterious 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. Another notable change was how she became immune (or at least highly resistant) to telepathic attacks and detection.

After medical tests by the Beast during her return to the X-Mansion, it was proven that she is indeed Elisabeth Braddock and has officially rejoined the team.

Powers and abilities

Psylocke was a telepath. She was capable of reading minds, controlling thoughts, casting mental illusions, attacking an enemy's mind, and so on. In her early days when she still had her original Caucasian body, she deployed traditional telepathic attacks in battles. She was physically weak, so she relied on fighting from a distance using mind bolts and similar tactics.

After her physical transformation into an asian ninja assasin, she gained highly remarkable fighting skills in addition to her telepathy. 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 skulls. 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 via shadows. Although this form of teleportation was not as controlled or precise as other variations, it could cover huge amounts of distances (on one occasion she transported the X-Men from America to Africa in a few seconds).

To keep the Shadow King imprisoned in the psychic plane, Psylocke sacrificed the use of her telepathy. Unrelatedly, she also lost her ability to teleport but gained telekinesis through circumstances as yet unexplained. She can now manifest a telekinetic katana with which she can slice through almost any non-living material. The katana has no physical effect on living beings but it can short circuit their nervous systems thus leaving them incapacitated. Aside from the blade, she uses her TK to enhance her speed, strength and fighting skills. While she could possibly move objects from a distance or fly, as other telekinetics do, she has shown little inclination to do either. After her resurrection, Chris Claremont (her creator) said 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.

Game appearances

Psylocke has appeared in a few X-Men-based video games, beginning with the 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 (ignoring the Japanese version, in which Anita from Darkstalkers appeared as a secret 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 SNES, as well as X-Men 2: Clone Wars for the Sega Genesis. Recently, she has appeared in X-Men Legends.

External links

• Spotlight on Psylocke at UncannyXmen.Net (http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/spotlight/showquestion.asp?faq=10&fldAuto=53)
• Le site (http://psylocke.club.fr/index.html), a Psylocke fansite.pt:Psylocke