Talk:Betsy Braddock

Creators
Alan Moore and Alan Davis are not her creators. Her first appearance, Captain Britain #8, was written by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe.--DrBat 20:43, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Fighting skills
Psylocke is skilled in several forms of combat, such as kung fu, ninjutsu and chi sao (mentioned by Wolverine in X-men Unlimited #47, series 1).

I am sorry but I removed chi sao. Chi sao is NOT a form of combat. Any person who is a practicioner of Wing Chun Kung Fu (which this training drill comes from) or Jeet Kune Do will tell you. At best chi sao can be described as physical conditioning to help facilitate Wing Chun or Jeet Kune Do combat techniques.

Apparently the editors at Marvel were mistaken about the true purpose and intentions. If someone wants to say Psylocke is skilled in Wing Chun or Jeet Kune Do that would be more accurate. If so, please provide proper documentation. User:hokgwai 09;58, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

No more fans?
I was just wondering if the phrase “considered by many fans” (and/or the word “fans”) really should be posted. To me a statement that has the word “fans” in it sounds more of an opinion than a fact, so I say it should be deleted (unless the statement can be verified and thus complying with Wikipedia’s “five pillars”).

Background
Image:CaptainBritain13.jpg
 * 185px|thumb|left|Betsy Braddock becomes the new Captain Britain in Captain Britain (vol. 2) #13. Art by Alan Davis.

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 dyes her hair purple, joins 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 goes undercover as a fashion model. One of her assignments was to infiltrate the Hellfire Club, but Tessa forces her to abandon the mission. A British crime lord, Vixen, hires Slaymaster to destroy the psi-division and he manages to kill all but Betsy, her lover Tom Lennox and their friend Alison Double. Captain Britain then defeats Slaymaster.

When reality warped due to James Jaspers' powers, Tom sacrifices himself to give the Braddocks time to escape from a group of superhero hunters. Following the repair of the reality warp, an evil version of Captain Britain from another universe named Kaptain Briton switches places with Brian. The double hands him over to the Technet (who were after the Kaptain) and tries to rape Betsy. In self-defense, she attacks him telepathically, killing him.

Betsy assumes 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 R.C.X. This group had replaced the now defunct S.T.R.I.K.E. Vixen lures Betsy into a trap, where Slaymaster beats her almost to death, gouging out her eyes. Summoned by his sister's telepathic distress call, Captain Britain crushes Slaymaster's head under a rock. Betsy recovered from her injuries, refusing an offer to have cybetnetic implants that would partially restore her vision. She learns to use her growing telepathic abilities to compensate for her blindness. The ordeal with Vixen and Slaymaster leaves Betsy feeling distant from her home, and she leaves for holiday in Switzerland.

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 as her capacity as a teammate was unknown. However, 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 Storm and 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, Mister Sinister. The X-Men were impressed by Psylocke and in issue #213 of Uncanny X-Men, she joined 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, wherein she was killed, resurrected, 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. When Storm was thought killed in a fight with the entity called Nanny, Psylocke briefly took over as the leader of the few X-Men still remaining in Australia.

While in the Savage Land, Psylocke experienced a precognitive vision that warned her of the potential fate of the four remaining X-Men (herself, Havok, Dazzler, and Colossus); should they return to their base in the Australian Outback, the Reavers would kill them, and attempt unsuccessfully to transform Psylocke into a cyborg. However, shortly thereafter, the four heroes were teleported back to Australia by Gateway. The light from his portal alerted the Reavers to their return. As the Reavers closed in, Psylocke activated the Siege Perilous portal, given to the X-Men by Roma as a last resort. Beings who entered the portal were cosmically judged and reborn into another life, given a "clean slate". Psylocke saw it as the only way to save her teammates lives and her own. Dazzler and Colossus entered willingly, but Havok hesitated, feeling as though he was abandoning his responsibilities. Psylocke, left with no alternative, telepathically "convinced" him that his actions were justified. Psylocke entered the portal at the last moment, as the Reavers arrived to kill her and her teammates.

Transformed
Image:Uncanny256.jpg
 * 215px|thumb|left|Psylocke is transformed into Lady Mandarin in Uncanny X-Men #256. Art by Jim Lee.

After emerging from the Siege Perilous, Psylocke was found by the Hand, a ninja clan. Their leader, Matsu'o Tsurayaba, had contacted Spiral in order to save the life of his brain-damaged lover, Kwannon. Spiral informed Matsu'o that Psylocke's telepathy could restore Kwannon, and Matsu'o accepted. Unknown to Matsu'o, however, Spiral actually placed the two women's minds into each other's bodies. She also merged their genetic structures, leaving both women with physical and mental traits of the other, and with each possessing half of Psylocke's telepathic power.

With some physical and mental conditioning, Psylocke (inhabiting Kwannon's body) became the Hand's prime assassin, taking the name Lady Mandarin. As Lady Mandarin, she alternated between a new armored costume and a more revealing one. She gained highly remarkable 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. Betsy's psychic knife attack revealed Wolverine's memories of who she used to be and allowed her to break free from 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.

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, Psylocke joined Cyclops' Blue Team. During this time she displayed an obvious attraction to Cyclops. When Phoenix found out, the two women fought, 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 Matsu'o and Lord Nyoirin 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 requested that Matsu'o kill her before the virus could claim her. Upon Kwannon's death, Psylocke's full telepathic potential was returned to her. Revanche left Matsu'o with small portion of her psionic power, allowing him to remove Kwannon's fractured memories and personality traits from Psylocke's mind, and to restore those of Betsy's that were possessed by Kwannon (though, somehow Psylocke was able to retain Revanche's martial arts skill).

Afterwards, Jean Grey re-trained Betsy in the use of her telepathic powers. She also began a relationship with Warren Worthington III, the Archangel.

Crimson Dawn
In an attempt to save Tabitha Smith from Sabretooth, who had been living at the Mansion while pretending to be mentally handicapped, Psylocke engaged the homicidal mutant in battle. Although a highly skilled martial artist, she was no physical match for Sabretooth. Realizing she had no other choice, she attacked him with her psychic blade. Unfortunately, Creed had been stabbed in the head by Wolverine, losing the part of his brain affected by psionics, so her attack had no effect. Psylocke was already exhausted from their battle and could not manage to fight back, and was consequently mauled by Sabretooth. Her injuries were near-fatal; even Beast and the advanced Shi'ar technology of the Xavier Institute could not stabilize her.

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, reviving Psylocke from the brink of death. The healing liquid produced side effects: a red dagger-shaped tattoo appeared over her left eye, her telepathy and fighting skills were enhanced, and she gained the ability to hide in and teleport through shadows. Her personality took on a cold edge; the change in her personality and abilities created distance between her and Warren. Meanwhile, the Proctor 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 thereafter, Gomurr 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. Gomurr 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 a part of it. Soon after these events, 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 psychic enity 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.

thumb|left|Psylocke battles against the Shadow King. Cover to X-Men (vol. 2) #78. Art by German Garcia.

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 held 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.

Power switch
In Chris Claremont's second stint as an X-Men scribe, a six-month story gap was created, and it was during this gap that Phoenix's and Psylocke's powers were switched somehow; Psylocke's telepathic powers were added to Phoenix's telepathy, whose psi-form now took the shape of Betsy’s former shadow psi-form, while Psylocke gained Phoenix's telekinesis.

Afterwards, Psylocke returned to active duty. The effects of the power-switch were first seen when Psylocke used her new powers to help repair the High Evolutionary’s former satellite base. She also used her telekinesis to hold together a space shuttle that the X-Men used as a vehicle, when they escaped from the exploding satellite.

As a telekinetic she confronted several new enemies to the X-Men; the Neo, the Crimson Pirates, the Goth, and the Twisted Sisters. She also helped her brother to free Otherworld from Mastermind’s Warpie army.

She soon started flirting with her teammate Neal Shaara, Thunderbird III, which led to Warren breaking up with her, as he wanted a more stable relationship than what he and Betsy currently had. After the breakup she decided to join Storm and her new X-Men team.

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 in combat with 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 grabbed by a skull-faced apparition and pulled through a glowing portal.

Brian Braddock and Meggan collected Psylocke's body from Spain. She was buried at the Braddock family estate and a memorial to her was erected at the X-Mansion by Beast.

Back From The Dead
One year after her death, Psylocke inexplicably reappeared alive and unharmed in the exact place where she was killed in Spain. She was placed under arrest by the Spanish government, and the X-Men were contacted to collect her. After her resurrection the red Crimson Dawn mark was gone from her face. Her original telepathic powers, however, were not returned to her; she still possessed the telekinetic abilities she had 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. 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 Forsaken
In the first part of The First Forsaken 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 "Forsaken," 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 Forsaken, 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 Forsaken's magic with iron, and she, the X-Men, and the Forsaken 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 Forsaken, 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.

Return of the Shadow King
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. During their conversation a holographic image of Peter Wisdom appeared, informing her that the alternate reality version of Charles Xavier whom the Excalibur team (and Betsy) had previously met, had awakened and was asking for her. Psylocke and the Excalibur team met up with Sage at the compound that held the body of Professor X, discussing what they would do next. Deciding that Betsy would enter the room that held the Professors body while the Juggernaut would act as backup, Psylocke was suddenly confronted by the astral image of her old foe, the Shadow King. Though she told him that he couldn’t enter her mind, he answered that he didn’t have to, knowing her from the inside out after his imprisonment. He also explained to Psylocke that her mind had after her death, been pulled by the strings of reality itself, while he had been transported to an alternate universe. Suddenly aware that the others were under the Shadow Kings influence, Sage tried unsuccessfully to stop them from ambushing Captain Britain, but failed to do so. With Sage down, and Captain Britain brutally beaten by his possessed teammates, a vengeful Shadow King taunted Betsy of being helpless to save her friends due to her mind-blind status. After having questioned that statement, Psylocke created a telekinetic bubble in Dark Xavier's brain to give the Shadow King's hosts 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.

Joining the Exiles
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 where Betsy meets an alternate Slaymaster which opens up an old wound and makes her fail the mission of killing Reed Richards, leading to the world being deleted, and subsequently restored by Reed. Psylocke has recovered from wounds that that world's Wolverine inflicted on her and has decided to stay on Panoptichron while the other Exiles go to their next mission.

Future
Psylocke took part in the 5-issue mini-series X-Men: Die by the Sword, a cross-over between Exiles and New Excalibur debuting with issues #1 and #2 in October. She remains with the new Exile team (in 2008).

Status as a Bisexual
Are we sure Psylocke accurately registers as a Bisexual character, I am fully aware that she slept with the female version of Fantomex "Cluster", not necessarily make her bisexual. There are several types of people who have slept with a member of the same sex once and never do it again, I say this because technically Cluster is a woman she was a part of Fantomex who was a man to technically here being bisexual may not be accurate. I think that we should remove her status a bisexual unless she sleeps with another woman. God, comics can be confusing and they get more confusing with labeling a person's sexuality. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Taw2541 (talk • contribs) 01:10, 17 July 2014 (UTC)


 * The way the relationship with Cluster was depicted makes it hard to argue against her being bisexual. I agree that we want more canon confirmation since Cluster is a bit of a special case but that's at least as true for writing her as monosexually hetero. Jikybebna (talk) 12:13, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Psylocke
Betsy Braddock A.K.A “Psylocke” is only one played by actor “Olivia Munn” NickSummer08 (talk) 18:42, 29 September 2020 (UTC)