Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Chris Yost Gives The Lowdown on X-Men: Psylocke

Marvel.com: Betsy Braddock returns to Japan in the four-issue X-Men: Psylocke limited series debuting this October and written by Chris Yost. The series will follow Psylocke as she seeks to place her former body in its final resting place following the events of the recent "Sisterhood" story arc in Uncanny X-Men.

As Yost sees it, while recent events for Betsy would seem rather extraordinary to most, for her it comes off as relatively normal.

"Betsy's been through a lot in her life, and it's been flat out crazy," Yost reminds. "Mojo, fake eyes, the Siege Perilous, Revanche, the Crimson Dawn, power swapping, dying, being recreated by her mad brother, dimension hopping nuts. So being pulled from another dimension as a test subject for Cyclops' dead wife to try and inhabit Jean Grey's body? Just another day in the office—or so you might think. But there's certainly something she's not dealing with, a loss she thought she made her peace with a long time ago: Her own identity. So much insanity has come down on her, she really has to question who she is. Is this what her life is now? Anyone else would go mad."

As Yost listed, throughout her history Psylocke has played a number of roles. But in all that time, a number of things have never changed at the core of her character.

"Psylocke's constant is her toughness," the writer relates. "Her spirit. Anyone else at some point would say to heck with it all, I'm out. But Betsy keeps on fighting. She's a hero through and through, and now that's literally all she has. That's her only identity: X-Man. She used to be a real person, but now she's been taken apart and reassembled so many times."

Yost promises to pick things up shortly after the "Sisterhood" arc, calling it "a direct sequel" to that storyline.

"It's the story of Psylocke and her body," elaborates Yost. "Putting it to rest. But surprise! Things get complicated."

Many of those complications stem from the return of Matsu'o, who originally placed Psylocke's mind in a different body.

"Kwannon, better known now as the Japanese body of Elisabeth Braddock, was the crime lord Matsu'o's lover," recounts Yost. "Ill-fated lover. She dies, and he and Psylocke made their peace. But the situation has changed now. And he's back in Psylocke's life, but for a radically different reason."

Finally, Yost promises fans both old and new will have a hard time turning this limited series down:

"If you like sexy powerful women kicking ninja butt with psychic powers and a sword—and who doesn't—buckle up. This book is for you. And her final adversary is a doozy."

6 comments:

Giles said...

I can almost cry; finally a Marvel writer that understand what the character of Psylocke really is about, that understands how great she is. Cheers to Yost! And cheers to you guys for supporting our beloved character so darn much! ;D

Soultapestry said...

I'm officially beginning to get annoyed.

In her upcoming exploits with the X-club she says she's "primarily telekinetic...regained a degree of...well,psychic ability may be overstating it"

For the upcoming mini:

Yost : "she's maybe a little telekinetic. She's got high level telepathy"

Ketchum: ":Betsy's a little telekinetic and a little telepathic, but mostly, yeah, she's a bad-ass ninja."

Alright, I guess I should be happy she's got both... but can there be some sort of continuity as far as how much of either? Hell, why not just make her kick@ss in teke AND telepathy! Just keep that bloody friggin phoenix force away from her!

Rogue said...

So basically, Marvel's gonna give me a birthday present, in the form of a Psylocke Mini written by Yost...Let's just hope they release it in my birth day...

Really can't wait for this...Psylocke+Yost=AWESOME!!!!

Unknown said...

I agree with you, Soultapestry. I don't like it when characters just automatically has whatever psychic power suits the situation best. I'd like to see these writers get together and narrow down what she can and can't do.

Otherwise, THIS LOOKS AWESOME! It's about time she got her own mini-series.

Anonymous said...

Yay! Yost really seems to get Betsy. :)

As for the power thing... maybe by the end of 512, Psylocke's powers will evolve even more back into telepathy. Fraction did set up her fluctuating powers and feeling out of sorts thing right off the bat at the start of the issue.

Anonymous said...

Does Yost not know what her powers are? that could be disastrous.

when Chris Claremont came back to marvel he wrote psylocke as the lady mandarin kicking iron man's ass with her telepathy and ninja powers, but since that was after psywar CC got in trouble for it and psylocke wound up a telekinetic whereas Jean, and then rachel suddenly looked all black for what seemed like no reason.

if her powers change (AGAIN?? why can't she just have the standard TP and TK?) i hope they explain WHY she would go from being able to fly looong distances in New Exiles to being "maybe a little telekinetic."