Psylocke # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

Psylocke has always been one of the more popular X-Men characters, especially back in the 90'. Betsy Braddock was a British mutant with psychic powers that had her mind switched with the Japanese assassin Kwannon. Now she had both psychic powers as well as cool ninja moves. I'm not completely up to date on Psylocke's history since the 90's though it sounds like Betsy did regain her original body. This also looks like her first official comic run, rather than her being part of a team. Let's check it out.

The story opens in The Factory, in Alaska, where Cyclops, Quentin, Juggernaut, Magik and Temper wait for Psylocke to arrive so they can start their briefing. Quentin says Psylocke is half an hour late, which means they would have been done half an hour earlier so he can move on to other things. Pyslocke arrives and says she's late due to her flight from Palmdale was almost cancelled due to a blizzard. Quentin asks what she was doing in such a 'garbage fire of a town'.

A few hours earlier in Palmdale, California, Psylocke is fighting against a room full of guys in suits. The guys are confused as where she came from and one of them remarks that she moves just like a ninja. Psylocke finds and releases a captured girl named Mila Acker. She tells him that her father hired her to find her. Mila says she's a mutant and her father hates mutants. Psylocke says she doesn't have to follow her father's political career, and her father isn't the one she's rescuing. 

More men arrive an Psylocke says that Mila will be taking a nap. Psylocke stabs Mila with a Psi-Blade, which makes the men think she killed her before they could. Psylock says her Psi-Blades affect the mind, not the flesh. She hasn't killed anyone that she fought with in the building, but they won't remember a thing of what happened. She warns that the same thing will happen to the guys that just showed up.

Psylocke fights her way through the men as she carries the unconscious Mila over her shoulder. Later on, Mila is returned to her father who is glad to see her safe and asks what happened. Mila doesn't remember but she feels she got lucky. 

Psylocke tells Quentin that she did 'nothing important' which makes him angrier that they waited on her for 'nothing'. Magik and Temper complain about Quentin's complaining. Cyclops tells the team that there is word of potential '3K activity' in Columbus, Ohio. Quentin asks if that means more adults suddenly activating their X-gene. Cyclops says if it is 3K activity they have to move fast. The team is set to fly out immediately, but Cyclops tells Kwannon that she's benched from this one.

Psylocke is shocked and Cyclops says he's putting her on vacation leave. Kwannon says they don't have time for vacation. People are killing mutants, and they have taken Krakoa from them. She feels humanity won't stop until every last mutant is dead, so they need her on this mission. Cyclops asks her when was the last time she slept. 

Cyclops tells Psylocke that she is a person, not a machine or a weapon. She needs to take care of herself and if he needs to use his authority on her, he will. The X-Men leave as Cyclops tells Kwannon to get some rest as she's out for a week or so.

Kwannon does't like to be alone with her thoughts. She hates being alone and it scares her. She goes off to visit someone that does understand her and isn't afraid of her, a man named John Greycrow. She drives off to visit him and spends the night.

Later that night, Kwannon is tossing and turning in bed. John tries to wake her up and she suddenly grabs his arm and unleashes her Psi-Blade. John yells that it's him and she apologizes. Luckily, John has a cybernetic arm, and he says he's ok with not a single scratch on him. Kwannon says he shouldn't have woken her up since she nearly killed him. John says he has a healing factor, and Kwannon says she was about to shove her Psi-Blade into his eye.

Kwannon says The Hand groomed her into being an assassin since she could walk. For her, killing is a reflex. She ponders if being an assassin is all she's good for. John says they're both weapons, but they are more than what they were created to be. He says that Kwannon was trained to be a heartless assassin, but there's nothing heartless about her. John tells her that she needs some sleep, but they do more than sleep.

In Anchorage Alaska, the next morning, Kwannon decides to start her day peacefully but she keeps getting calls from a person named Devon DiAngelo. She once rescued Devon from an underground lab in Minneapolis where they were being forced to create anti-mutant weaponry. It turns out that Devon was a college student and they have access to every corner of the dark web. They've been sending packages to Kwannon with devices that work well with her mutant powers since... without her ever giving them her address.

Devon asks if things went well with Mila, since they just got a wire from her father. Devon has a new lead, an anonymous tipster told them about a party being hosted by AIM. They developed a new variant of an anti-mutant growth hormone, with the question being, where is AIM getting the ingredients to create this. Kwannon asks for the coordinates of the party and Devon asks how she feels about warm weather.

Later on, Kwannon shows up at a party in Phoenix Arizona. They ask for her invitation and she hands the bouncer a card. She makes the guard see what she needs him to see using her psychic powers, and he lets her in. It's revealed that the card she gave him was a 'buy one, get one free' lotto ticket.

Once inside the party building, Psylocke communicates telepathically with a device given to her by Devon, that allows her thoughts to traverse great distances. Kwannon asks for a surveillance update. Devon informs her that the ballroom has four exits, all guarded by mercenaries. There isn't any sign of AIM yet but there's some sort of storage room under the main stage without any security cameras to monitor it.

Kwannon walks through the party catching the thoughts of the party-goers, a lot of them being unfaithful to their husbands and wives. Just then the hostess draws attention to the party. She thanks them for joining them in the celebration of this new mutant growth hormone technology. Psylocke tells Devon that they hired Donald Pierce and Skullbuster as security, both members of the Reavers.

The hostess explains how regular MGH pills or injections give people a short burst of mutant powers, but they vanish quickly. She offers a new microderm needle patch that will regular introduce a highly concentrated dose into the body. All the guests get a free sample in their goody bags. She then announces the start of an auction as a platform rises through the stage showing a bunch of captured children.

The children are mutants that have recently come into their powers, which are perfect for MGH extraction. Psylocke is horrified as she flashes back to her past when she was a child and chosen by the Hand to be trained into being an assassin. The people start placing their bids and Psylocke runs towards the stage. Devon tells her there's too much security and she should wait for the right moment. Psylocke blurts out the she will take all five children. The hostess says the set will cost five million and Psylocke agrees.

Psylocke stabs the hostess in the head with her Psi-Blade. Skullbuster open fires on Psylocke who dodges the gunshots. Donald tells him that he was hired to protect the guests, not to gun them down. Skullbuster says the guests should run faster. Psylocke tells the kids to run and hide as she returns to the fight. Psylocke leaps and flips all over the place as Skullbuster tells her to hold still. She lands behind him and grabs onto his head. The Reaver yells for her to get out of his head.

Psylocke says he helped AIM takes children from their families. She demands to know where they found them, or she threatens to peel his mind like an orange. Psylocke is horrified to find that there are way more children and they were taken from several other countries. 

Donald Pierce suddenly grabs Psylocke by the throat and says she wasn't on the invite list. Skullbuster finds 5 different patches and decides to use them all at once, to give him five times the mutant power. Unfortunately for him he turns into an uncontrollable shapeless monstrosity that sets the ballroom on fire. Psylocke can't allow the kids to die in the fire, so she pulls out her sword and slashes Donald across the throat.

With sword in hand, Psylocke dodges the fire and energy blasts from the mutated Skullbuster while also fighting against Pierce. She thinks back to when she told John that killing was like a reflex, and it's so easy for her to fall back into that. The kids watch in horror as Psylocke slices and dices the hell out of Pierce and Skullbuster. Psylocke says this should horrify her, but the scary part is that it doesn't. 

Psylocke stands triumphant, with her sword covered in blood, as the two Reavers lay dead. 

My Thoughts-

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm not up to date with Psylocke's history but it seems we're dealing with Kwannon and the former Hand assassin is now a member of the X-Men. In this case, I'm not sure of the current whereabouts of Betsy herself. I do wonder how tight the continuity is since she's part of the brand new 'From the Ashes' X-Men team. Will she be missing from a few issues since she's been benched and currently on her own adventures?

The story has a cool set up as Psylocke has become some type of relentless do-gooder to the point she needs time to allow her body to rest. She's also still haunted by her past of being a former assassin for the Hand. Then we got Devon who hands her missions, which sends her all over the place, so she's bound to have all sorts of cool adventures.

I enjoyed the story so far, and we see just how far the people at AIM are willing to go to make some money. I don't recall seeing villains use children as victim, but it shows how deep the hatred for mutants go, when they're not even considered people.

Pretty solid story so far. The art is pretty cool minus a few odd faces here and there. It seems to a constant Marvel problem lately, but not bad enough to take enjoyment from the book.

I know Juggernaut was a side character, but damn. My man didn't even get any lines in his short scenes. Literally just there to stand around looking tough.

I also notice that nowadays Psylocke is a lot more covered up. I guess we can either chock it up to modern day comics covering up the cheesecake, but I find it funnier to think that Betsy was the exhibitionist and Kwannon is more modest.