Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Fallen Angels #5 Spoilers & Art


Spoilers: Kwannon finds Betsy training on the Wild Hunt. They both train in complete unison with each other. Kwannon knows that the blame cannot fall on Betsy as it wasn't really her fault. But because of her own trauma, she can't fully forgive her until she's sure that they cannot feel each other and are finally apart. She walks off as Betsy looks on and smiles.

26 comments:

Jaime Braz said...

The setting and words are accurate. Psylocke precedes Revanche and Betsy will always be in front and her shadow Kwannon will be a counterfeit Psylocke. The symbolism is on the pages and Kwannon is rightfully salty.

randybear said...

I liked how they were in unison here very similar to the original storyline where they were shown fighting in unison

bblackorchidd said...

Is Betsy really smiling?

X-Man said...

Doesn't look like she's smiling to me but who knows.

Ry said...

This issue was an improvement over the others but Fallen Angles still has many problems. I think a huge problem is that Kwannon isn’t an interesting character. The story is supposed to feel personal yet we still know very little about Kwannon and what they show of her doesn’t make her an interesting or likable protagonist. It feels weird to see characters like X-23 and Cable be submissive towards her, I don’t think they should’ve pushed a mentor role on her. I like that the comic addresses that it wasn’t Betsy’s fault but I feel like the writer only put this scene in here because of backlash from fans. Now it feels like the comic is rushing towards the end and quickly wrapping things up probably because of the writer’s scheduling conflict.

Finn said...

I love this happening here! Kwannon is an interesting character for me and I really like where her storyline is going. Her enigmatic past is well written and has many of us interesting in this book. I love how Betsy is trying to be graceful with all the situation around these two ladies. And truly hope Kwannon can forget everything and move on with her life. And maybe someday they can be at peace with each other. They both deserve that.

FSaker said...

Nice that Kwannon finally acknowledged that Betsy isn't responsible for what happened to them. Better late than never that Hill finally established that.

In case anyone here is following all the current X-books, how good would you guys say Excalibur and Fallen Angels are in comparison with the other X-books? I've read both good and bad impressions of each of them in different sites and forums; of course, I can only have my opinion when I read these books myself, but it'd be nice to know how you feel about them.

Alexis said...

I wish they would write Kwannon or Psylocke like Chris Claremont (drawn by Jim Lee) did when Betsy first became Asian in Madripoor and during the X-tinction Agenda saga. Then, she seemed more stoic, looked more like a confident warrior, and kicked ass (hint: when Betsy fought Cameron Hodge).

Unknown said...

I was thinking the exact opposite. It’s really amazing they are indeed constructing kwannon as dramatic and violent as revanche was during her original stories, and saving the stoic, passionate adventure junkie characterization to betsy, whenever editorial acknowledges that she is still the same person she was during the blue team era

Ry said...

I like Excalibur a lot, I’d say it’s my third favorite out of the Dawn of X books. It’s a really solid read and has outstanding artwork, I really like the more fantasy style approach to the book. Fallen Angels is probably my least favorite Dawn of X book which is saying something because I don’t find it bad to the point where I can’t read it. It just has a lot of flaws that are hard to look past to enjoy it, but it’s definitely not one of the worst comics I’ve read.

FSaker said...

@Ry, thanks for the answer!

Rahsaan said...

@Unknown, I agree with you. It would be disingenuous and super contrived for Kwannon to act like Betsy did when Betsy controlled her body. They are two separate personas. That would be like Carol behaving like Rogue during the times when she took control of Rogue's body.

Alexis said...

@Unknown & @Rahsaan to be fair, Betsy was never really stoic in her original body. She was quite emotional. It's only after the body swap that her personality changed, partly because it reflected the body that she inhabited. I don't mind new Psylocke being more dramatic and violent, but reviving some aspects of 90s Psylocke would be nice--now that Kwannon has her body back.

Rahsaan said...

@Alexis, I disagree. Betsy was always emotional in both bodies. That explains why she would do
things like leap into battle without thinking about the consequences. She was stoic when she first took on the face of different woman as she was shellshocked and traumatized from yet another physical change and brainwashing without her permission by another villain. She was processing it all. The stoic aspect faded after she began to come to grips with her new reality. As for Kwannon, the persona we see today is much more aligned with the personality she had when we met her as Revanche.

Rahsaan said...

I would argue the stoicism had nothing to do with the body Betsy lived in. It was more being pensive and processing what happened to her. Betsy herself commented on panel several times that she was still not calm and on edge and unable to relax. She said that nearly verbatim during the Shiar story when Professor X retuned.

Thalitah said...

beautiful drawing.. :)

Website

Finn said...

Fallen Angels is one of mi top three, Excalibur is missing something for me, I'm not a fan of every character there just Betsy and Rictor. But it's entertaining to read. Falling Angels is interesting and a breath of fresh air.

Finn said...

Me too! That was my favorite Betsy era!

Alex said...

@Finn,
Same, so far my favorites have been X-Force, Excalibur & Fallen Angels. There's been pacing issues in the last two, especially FA. Issues 2 & 3 could've flowed better as one issue IMO. I enjoyed Hill's idea that despite the sudden promise of eden & mutant society, not everyone is buying the idea. Issue 5 was good with Kwanlocke deciding to have the team protect humanity from threats since the other books are about protecting mutants from human/mutant threats.

I had a feeling we'd never get the talk we wanted in either of Excalibur's or FA's first arcs. This scene however was def a nice olive branch between both. I know Hill has passed on notes to Hellions writer but no writer has to honor anything a previous one had ideas for.

I've been hoping we'd get some closure to Kwannon's child because it's never really stated if she died or not.

I'll continue reading Excalibur & X-Force & give Hellions a try based on people saying Wells is a good writer. Maybe he can make me care about the rest of the team besides Kwannon & Alex.

FSaker said...

In other news, I don't know if you guys saw it, but Marvel's big 2020 event will be titled Empyre and it features the Avengers and the Fantastic Four fighting the Skrulls and Krees (both unified under Hulkling's throne). The X-Men won't be part of the main event, but will have a tie-in story.

Usually, I would be upset that the X-Men are once again being ignored in an event involving the Marvel universe as a whole... but this time, specifically, I think it's actually a good thing, as Hickman & co. are still developing the new situation of the X-verse. It's best to keep them in their own corner until the line is properly established.

And I'm glad that the Fantastic Four are getting the exposure; after they've been mistreated for years due to the Disney/FOX feud (just like the X-Men), it's nice to see Marvel trying to give them back the recognition they deserve. I just hope it won't turn out like another AvX, with the FF shown as incompetent or unlikable and the Avengers having to save them and the world as the big heroes...

randybear said...

I'm glad XMen arent involved in Marvels next generic big event. These events are shallow and normally end up at least one character in an undesirable new status quo. I'd much rather the XMen stay to themselves as much as possible. The Avengers are a total bore.

FSaker said...

I agree, though I have to admit I always get a little curious about these events, at least in the beginning.

And I'm a video game fan, and some companies usually use comic events as an inspiration to their games (like Civil War for MUA2, or Infinity for MUA3 and MvC:Infinite). I guess that's because these stories usually gather a good number of popular heroes and villains, who can then be properly adapted to the games.

But I'm digressing.

randybear said...

I'm a huge gamer and cant think of any Marvel games that didnt include the XMen that I was bummed about. Yeah I'm including MvC:I cause that game sucked all around so no loss for me plus I dont care for fighting games to begin with.

FSaker said...

...Good point.

Fighting games are my favorite, actually, but the MvC:I roster was quite bad - not just for the X-Men's absence, but also because the Marvel characters in there were all adapted from their movie incarnations, not the ones from the comics... plus, the Capcom roster missed some wackier characters (Tron Bonne, Viewtiful Joe, Phoenix Wright...).

Which is a shame, because the game system was interesting.

randybear said...

Yeah it's a shame but seems like Disney has learned not to do that again as we've seen with games like MUA3. I hope that we can see Betsy in the games going forward but the dev's will always choose KwannonPsylocke. That's the main reason they kept the visual in the comics for marketing.

FSaker said...

I'm not sure about that... epic fantasy settings are very popular nowadays, and Betsy's look as a knight could be attractive.

Plus, even if the ninja body is seen as marketable and all, when it comes to the character, it's Betsy that people love, not Kwannon. I'm optimistic that Kwannon may even be included in future video games, but not at Betsy's expense. At worst, I can see Betsy still being portrayed as a ninja, but never losing her spot to Kwannon.