December Spotlight: Psylocke!

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littlebamf
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Title: Sometimes the bark isn\'t worse than the bite
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December Spotlight: Psylocke!

Post by littlebamf »

For this month's spotlight I thought I'd focus on the past on one of my favourite characters, as everyone knows her as an ass kicking ninja chick, who is one of those unfortunate ones to be resurected just because a writer likes her too much and is proceding to undo her. Need I name names :P So feel free to discuss Betts back when she was Brit and how cool she was then and for those not in the know, here's something of a summary. By no means is it complete as my fingers would drop off ;)

Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock was a creation of writer Chris Claremont and artist Herbe Trimpe, for Marvel UK, as the twin sister of Brian Braddock, Captain Britain, back in 1976. Little more than a background character, Betsy was a charter pilot who had lived a very privileged life in a small town in Essex, England.

At first, she was merely more than kidnap bait, someone for a villain to make off with, along with the twins older brother, Jamie Braddock, so that Cap would rush in and save the day.

As comics progressed, Betsy developed her original telepathic powers and joined S.T.R.I.K.E - the British equivalent of S.H.E.I.L.D, and led a double life as a very sucessful fashion model, during which she dyed her naturally blonde hair purple - after her death in the terrible X-tream X-men, Beast admitted to having a crush on Betsy from her model years. During this time, her division, including close friends and her lover, were all wiped out.

In the 80s, as her character developed, Betsy took over the role of Captain Britain from her brother, while he was working away on a covert mission.

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Lured into a trap by Brit villain Vixen, Betsy was severely beaten in combat by Slaymaster, who tore her eyes out, blinding her. Hearing her telepathic cry for help, Brian was able to save her.

During her recovery, Betsy learnt to use her telepathy to 'see', using the senses of others around her. Sadly, life really isn't simple for our lovely Brit, and she was kidnapped by MoJo, given bionic eyes that served as tiny cameras for MoJo's television shows.

She was rescued (happens a lot, doesn't it) by the New Mutants, and went to stay at Xaviers, and developed a relationship with Doug Ramsey, which due to the age difference, thy could never develop into what they truely wanted.

And the rest, as they say, is retconned, rehashed and ninja-ed all around. I felt the need to type that all, as some people don't get that she had this history looong before she ever came near the X-Mansion and it isn't the best at times, but there is a lot more to her than the chick that went Asian.

During the Mutant Massacre, she was staying with the X-men but had yet to be accepted, so was left at the mansion, which irritated her as she wanted to help them. She got her wish as Sabretooth broke into the school and she managed to fight him off, leading him on a merry chase, away from the wounded mutants who had been brought to the mansion after the attack. She was able to hold him off long enough for the X-men to arrive home and helped them finish him off (for the time being at least). This victory was awarded with a place on the team and a really awful costume.

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Originally, in the days before Crimson Dawn shadowslipping, swapped around telekinesis and psiblades, Betsy was gifteed with telepathy that was extensive in it's power level and diverse abilities, which would manifest itself in pink lights in the form of a butterfly.

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She also had psibolts that had the abolity to stun, injure or kill others on a physical basis. She also had astral projection and the ability to focus her telepathy into a beam of telepathic energy that could even pierce the Juggernaut's telepathy proof helmet and precognitive powers that occasionally gave her visions of possible future events.

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While serving as Captain Britain, she was given a suit that enabled her to fly and agumented her strenght levels to that of a superhuman level.

Betsy has a very extensive and very messy past - but hey, she wouldn't be an X-man if she didn't. Exiles, what? Nope, to me, I always see Psylocke as the lovely English lady of the X-men and can just about forgive her terrible taste in costumes for her general coolness.

And to finish....

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(It's X-babies. I had to.)

[Edited on 2-12-07 by littlebamf]
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