Spoilers: Then: Doncaster, England – Alice McAllister was a rebellious teenage girl who gave her mother a hard time and grew up with suicidal thoughts. At 16, her mutant powers manifested, detaching her psionic self from her physical body forever. She became Malice.
Now: Krakoa – Captain Britain appears before the Quiet Council of Krakoa and is informed about the Hellfire Gala and Saturnyne’s unwillingness to help Krakoa. The Council encourages Betsy to mend fences with Saturnyne.
As the Councilmembers leave, Emma approaches Betsy and says she knows about Malice. Betsy replies that Malice hasn’t broken any laws yet and wishes to handle the situation by herself. It turns out that Malice had possessed earlier. Malice attempts to attack Betsy but is knocked out by Kwannon, who was watching Betsy’s back. Kwannon’s psychic knife seems to be stuck in Emma’s throat and Malice traps herself in the psychic blade. Charles Xavier returns and warns both Betsy and Kwannon that Malice’s attack has escalated from a personal matter into a security threat. Xavier wants to throw Malice into the pit, but Betsy and Kwannon ask him to let them reason with her.
At the Braddock Lighthouse, Rogue and Jubilee help Betsy go through her old wardrobe looking for the perfect dress for the Gala. Rogue notices Betsy seems happier. Kwannon visits the Lighthouse to discuss Malice, and Betsy realizes none of her dresses fit right because they were tailor-made for Kwannon’s body. Betsy offers her dresses to Kwannon, who replies they’re not her taste and think they are a symbol of a time better left behind. As a result, Betsy and Kwannon decide to burn the old dresses by the shore.
Betsy asks for the help of Kwannon, Rogue and Jubilee to deal with Malice. While she and Kwannon decide to astral project into the psychic blade, Rogue and Jubilee are to watch their physical bodies back in the beach. Betsy and Kwannon’s astral forms find themselves in a nightclub in England, which both Betsy and Malice used to frequent back in the day. Betsy finds Malice and tries to reason with her and encourages her to give herself a second chance in Krakoa. Malice is full of angsty and still has suicidal thoughts and lashes out against Betsy, tainting her about her loss in Otherworld. Betsy has conquered her demons and is not affect by Malice’s words. Malice attempts to possess Kwannon in the physical world. As it seems fruitless to argue with her, Betsy destroys Malice’s choker which kills the entity.
Afterwards, Malice is reborn with her own body through the Resurrection Protocols. Xavier says she is still afflicted and angry. While Xavier wants her to pay for her actions against Krakoa, Emma Frost intervenes and suggests she is given a second chance. Betsy and Kwannon agree with Emma. Xavier is overruled and accepts to forgive Malice. Betsy tells her it’s a fresh start. It will still hurt, but it’s her own.
“For so long, my life has been out of control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered, I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul, my self. But no more. Now I know who I am.” – Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Braddock, daughter of Otherworld, mutant, telepath, telekinetic, defender of the realm and, above all, X-Man.
17 comments:
Still no butterfly but she has butterflies on her gala look im so confused lol
Kwannon mentioned last issue Betsy lost certain things she forgot about and she showed the butterfly and crushed it. Was Tini saying Betsy lost it for good? I was assuming this issue was leading up to all this lost identity being regained but nope. She seemed in a much lighter mood so that's good.
Meanwhile Kwannon used the butterfly in the last issue of Hellions so either both will share it or Tini is still trying to send the message that the butterfly is no longer Betsy but then why the hell did Malice create the butterfly in #18? 🤔🤮😵
I think she'll use it again @Randybear. Just at some grand moment lol. I think we are supposed to forget Betsy used it in Disassembled and Age of X-Man lol.
What I find weird is they burnt clothes from before, but Kwannon is still parading in a uniform definitely more associated with Betsy than her and using a codename also more associated with Betsy than her.
Maybe she and To only forgot to show her with the psychic butterflies back? After all the complaints about Betsy losing them and Howard pretty much acknowledging she is aware of these complaints, I find it hard to believe she would still take them away from Betsy. Plus, I don't think Kwannon's fans (not that she has many fans, mind you) even care about the butterfly, as long as she keeps the psi-knife.
Anyway, it's great to know that Betsy and Kwannon are really getting along well now, and that despite all her actions, Malice was forgiven by them (and by Emma, even though she was possessed by Malice before) and even got a body of her own. Hopefully she'll learn to accept herself and stop possessing other people against their will - if it happens, well, Xavier reminded us that there's always the pit for them to send her...
I was hoping we would get a moment where Betsy and Kwannon share the butterfly on panel like telling the readers both can use it but it just seems like all this was to remind us that these traits weren't stolen from Betsy she merely "forgot" about them in her new life.
I'm just confused what was the point of Malice taking Betsys body and showing us the fighting skills and psyknife, butterfly etc lol total let down it felt like we were getting that Betsy back but it was all just a weird message that she can do those things but won't be anymore?
I feel like a lot of Tini's scripts rely on the artist to convey certain emotions, nuances etc and while I love To's style, he is not the best at conveying certain actions that should be more emphasized on. Hes mentioned before that sometimes the scripts are difficult for him to nail.
I guess the point of these last few issues was to build on Betsy and Kwannons new dynamic which im glad they are allies now. Kwannon is much more enjoyable IMO I feel like Fallen Angels was just a dumb choice by the editors at the time.
@randybear, True. Judging from the first 8 issues of Excalibur I read so far, Tini seems to have the exact opposite problem Claremont has: while he describes EVERYTHING, to the point the text boxes become huge and too verbose, Tini seems to leave too much information OUT of the story, assuming the reader will be able to connect the dots and fill the gaps - problem is, even when an author uses this method, they still need to leave the minimum information necessary for the readers to do the connections.
That said, she did redeem Kwannon in a way I didn't think it was possible (even though Kwannon was already being redeemed in Hellions). Now, if only she could do the same with Betsy...
No matter what they invent to make Revanche relatable, cute and cuddly I see the same hogwash bish that stalks Betsy. It's the calm before the storm and Betsy better keep the butterfly or else. Enough stealing and backstabbing was done to Betsy.
Before we had Revanche take a dump on Betsy's doorstep for her body vendetta and Sapphire Styx will take a whiz for the same stuff. The body wars keep happening cause Marvel loves it. Sinister gave it away with his jab at Betsy.
I'm just baffled what was the point of issue 18? Dangling the psyknife and butterfly like hinting it's about to return and.. nothing. Just hurts if it was all a troll.
They trolling. Had Betsy slay as Psylocke in X-Men Disassembled and took it away. Had her slap in 18 and cancel. Psyclone is the trolling meme.
Yeah it really felt like everything was building to this current issue and the butterfly/knife but it appears it was all just trolling :(
This is the writing I've waited more than a year plus for. Even though Tini, did get a couple of things wrong, unless I'm reading them in error. Betsy's statement about her original body, while talking to Alice. I don't know why they keep trying to make that some issue. Also, the time frame isn't decades, it's 4 years. Lol.
@Psi-girl agreed.
I love how they are doing damage control about all the girl vs girl drama and making amends on it between Kwannon and Betsy because both women were victims of men deciding what to do with their bodies. Not Betsy Not Kwannon (she was in a coma when that happened). I love they are trying a new relationship dynamic and it works! And yes Tini is not giving us the Betsy we want and still can't write her as herself.
I had high hopes for Betsy as Psylocke in the Disassembled run I thought it was the return of Betsy to her roots. It lasted little and they imposed Captain Britain on Betsy to disassociate her from Psylocke. I believe Betsy is naked and nothing without her past as Psylocke and the butterfly is her status symbol in the X-Men history.
I liked the origin of Malice. I wasn't blown away and compared to Kwannon guest it was times better. Kwannon was shoe horned in this story for sure.
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