About
Brit beauty Psylocke is an omega level psychic with vast telepathic powers that she can focus into a very deadly psychic knife. She is a stealthy martial artist, a former fashion model and a prominent X-Man. Psylocke is currently a member of X-Force and Utopia's security team.
Origin
1st Appearance
Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock's father, James Braddock Sr., used to live in a different dimension. He was sent to Earth to create the ultimate protector, Captain Britain. He ended up having twins, Elizabeth and Brian. Betsy and her twin brother's lives were anything but normal. Betsy was born and raised in England in a small town called Maldon, Essex. Psylocke was one of the few Marvel characters that were actually given a birth date. She was born a bit after midnight on April 23, 1956. (Since comics characters never age, or age very slowly, the year of her birth varies). Their parents died when they were in their late teens or early twenties. Her twin brother Brian began pursuing physics as a major during college while Betsy decided to become a charter pilot. Brian would eventually become Captain Britain. Betsy initially possessed precognitive powers, and later developed telepathic abilities as a consequence of being born a mutant.
Creation
Psylocke made her first appearance in Captain Britain #8, a Marvel UK publication, in December 1976 and was created by Chris Claremont. She made her U.S. comics debut just under a decade later, in October 1986's New Mutants Annual #2.
Character Evolution
The two Psylockes
Betsy Braddock has been through many changes over the years. Starting in a supporting role with Captain Britain (although she did stand in for him briefly), her move to US Marvel comics made her a key member of the 1980s X-Men. Psylocke differed from many X-Men as she was willing to kill enemies. Her character was portrayed as resilient (as shown in her classic confrontation with Sabretooth), but weak, resulting in her wearing armor for a time. But her aspirations to be a warrior were fulfilled during the Acts of Vengeance story arc when she became a ninja, although Chris Claremont has been quoted as saying that the transformation (as he saw it) was a physical/magical one, rather than a body swap as established after his departure from writing X-Men comics. After the swap Psylocke's personality changed, becoming much more mysterious and cold, but this was revealed to be Kwannon's personality influencing her. She returned to normal after Kwannon died of the Legacy Virus and her mind was clearer. Her first serious brush with death saw her acquire new powers from the Crimson Dawn, where she gained a mysterious red tattoo over her left eye and new shadow bending powers.
However, the Crimson Dawn was slowly wiping away Psylocke's personality, making her much more cold and distant. Psylocke later battled the Shadow King and locked him in her mind, which meant she could no longer use her telepathy. After this, during training with Jean Grey, Psylocke's telepathy got switched with Jean's telekinesis powers. Her actual death in X-Treme X-Men #2 (2001) and subsequent return in Uncanny X-Men #455 brought her back with a combination of the two powers, her telekinesis augmenting her physical fighting skills. For a time she was placed with the reality-hopping Exiles, but has since returned to her classic role as a member of the X-Men. She is also part of the new Uncanny X-Force, a secret team of mutants led by Wolverine, formed to preemptively kill threats to mutant-kind. Every member of the team has been manipulated in some way with Psylocke acting as the moral compass of the group. Psylocke is willing to kill but has her boundaries, like when it came to the decision of killing the child Apocalypse.
Beginning
One day Betsy received news that her brother Jamie had been injured in an accident, so Betsy called Brian and the two flew back to their mansion in Britain. Their plane crashed after a psychic attack when they began to close in on the mansion. After the plane crash with Brian, Betsy would be influenced by mind control by Dr. Synne. They would be able to restrain Betsy but it was nothing short of easy. Next Brian would defeat Synne and he would lose control over one of his agents, who would reveal that he was truly working for the Red Skull. Brian would team up with Captain America to defeat the Red Skull. Betsy later discovered that she had precognitive abilities that grew to telepathic powers. For a long time, Betsy had lost track of her brother because of his adventures in America and other dimensions. Betsy would soon quit her charter pilot job and pursued a career in modeling.
S.T.R.I.K.E.
Betsy kills her "brother"
To set herself apart, she began dying her hair purple and her career took off. While Brian was overseas at college, Betsy was recruited into S.T.R.I.K.E.'s Psi Division. During her time there, she would develop a romantic relationship with fellow S.T.R.I.K.E. member, Tom Lennox. While working with S.T.R.I.K.E. one of her assignments was to infiltrate the Hellfire Club (her father had been the Black Bishop of the London branch), but the mission was soon abandoned when she encountered Sage who warned her to stay away. When the crimelord Vixen secretly took over S.T.R.I.K.E. Betsy and her fellow telepaths were targeted lest they expose the infiltration; the assassin Slaymaster was sent after them, killing all but Betsy, her lover Tom Lennox and friend Alison Double before Betsy contacted Brian, who stopped the assassin. Later, the mutant Mad Jim Jaspers used his powers to warp reality, taking over the U.K. and banning superhumans, forcing Betsy and her friend to go on the run.
While Captain Britain went to confront him, armored hero hunters found and raided their hideout. Tom sacrificed himself trying to buy the others enough time to escape, but Betsy was captured and sent to a concentration camp. During her time in the camp she met a woman named Victoria Bentley ( Dr. Strange's friend) and Victoria would teach Betsy how to harness the trauma she had gone through and use it to power her psi energies. Eventually they would be let out after Captain Britain stopped Jaspers. Upon repairing the damage that was caused by the reality warp, an alternate version of Captain Britain called Kaptain Briton switched places with the original Captain Britain, and handed him over to the pursuing Technet. He then proceeded to try and rape Betsy, but in self-defense Betsy attacked him mentally and killed him.
The New Captain Britain
As Captain Britain
At the urging of the RCX, Betsy Braddock takes over her twin’s mantle as Captain Britain when Jeeves presents her with a modified Captain uniform (from the dead Kaptain Briton) that enhances her powers. Together with Captain UK, she foils robberies and the like until Captain UK returns to her life. However, soon a group of Warpies are kidnapped by the Vixen, who calls Betsy out to a fight to save the children. Reluctantly, Betsy obeys even though she knows it’s a trap. What expects her is her old enemy Slaymaster, also in an enhanced suit courtesy of the Vixen. The ruthless assassin quickly takes out the inexperienced heroine and blinds her. Brian experienced a psychic flash of Betsy’s pain. He flies to her and finds his maimed twin. In a berserker rage, he kills Slaymaster and returns Betsy to the manor where he wants to throw out the RCX agents.
Betsy forbids him from doing so and reveals that Agent Gabriel, who is in love with her, even tried to stop her from taking this risk. Brian isn’t pleased but accepts her decision and returns to Meggan’s side. He finally accepts that he is Captain Britain and nobody else. She was offered cybernetic eyes from RCX but refused to take them and decided to rely on her telepathy to see. Gabriel would soon propose to Betsy, which she accepted. The couple went on vacation to Switzerland so Betsy could recuperate in peace.
Comments
View All Comments
(( Sorry I didn't have much to work with ))
Colossus reached the door, he counted to himself. Three. Two. One. The morning sun welcomed his metallic skin under its touch. The light reflected off and into the eyes of the closest one. "Damn it. We've been spotted. Eliminate him." Piotr's enraged expression hardly threatened these trained assassins, but that didn't stop him from showing his might. He stepped forward, "Come at me!" He tried luring them away from the edge of the roof.
[ It's okay! Just... can you leave one of them for me? I have an idea. If you'd like to take one or two of them out yourself, that's fine with me. In fact, we'll have to some how either kill or allow two of them to escape for my plan to work. Thanks! ]
Man, I love Psylocke. <3}}