Geoffrey Thorne recently appeared on Black Comic Lords and Comics Are Dope podcasts, sharing exciting details about his work on X-Force. We’ll spotlight some of the most intriguing points he made about the series.
About Betsy Braddock's powers:
Thorne: What Betsy can do with her mutation is focus all her psychic and telekinetic energy into a single thing or a couple of things. I will not be turning her into the mutant Green Lantern; I think that’s lazy. What Betsy is doing and can do will make you happy. There’ll be plenty of Captain Britain-ish and Psylocke-ish goodness to go around. You will not miss the fact that she’s not Green Lantern. Betsy’s going to get her flowers in this book. We’re going to treat Betsy right. I’m not knocking any of the previous writers who worked on any book. Nothing I do is a response to or commentary on something that came before. I’m currently driving, and I’m going to drive the way I drive. There’s a lot in her canon—in Betsy’s backstory—that can be drawn from. She has a rich backstory. I don’t think a lot of people even know about all of the Marvel UK stuff. It’s not in play. I’m not thinking about it right now, but Betsy has enough behind her to support her own solo title. I will be drawing from her rich history to tell her story in this book, and that means her powerset. It’s not going to be everything because it can’t be; it’s a team book. It’s not a book about Betsy alone, but all the characters in X-Force have secrets. All the characters in X-Force’s powers have been weirdly limited for no reason or too big for no reason.
About Betsy's butterfly power signature:
Thorne: The butterfly is an interesting subject. Personally, I’m a purist about Betsy. I was one of those who did not like the fact that they stuck a white woman in an Asian woman’s body. Remember, I’m old. I remember the original Betsy before she was Psylocke. So her coming back to her original body felt right. The fantastic Marcus To has an interpretation of her butterfly when she uses her powers that I thought, if fans accept this, I am down for it because I like this design. I actually prefer it. I think it’s cool and unique and makes it a power signature that makes you go, “Oh, that’s my girl.” It may not be satisfying to die-hard Betsy Braddock fans, but for my purposes, I like what Marcus is doing design-wise. I’m happy that most people are interpreting that as her version of the butterfly. We will continue to work with her powers going forward. I’ve kept quiet about that because the way Marcus draws the butterfly is different from the way it is traditionally drawn, and I did not know what people were going to think when they saw it. I like the way Marcus draws it. His interpretation of how both Betsy’s and Rachel’s powers look is a chef’s kiss.
Marcus To (via Twitter): I am adding a little flowery butterfly flair to Betsy’s energy signature here and there. I did kind of want to try to match Betsy’s and Rachel’s powers a little when they synced up. Betsy’s is a little more fire, and Rachel’s is more butterfly, but that was harder to achieve, so I wasn’t sure if it came across at all. I’m going to keep trying to make that work in some way. I was still trying to incorporate the Krakoa flower petals thing, but that might be too much.
About X-Force's setting:
Thorne: We will be running all over the place, and one of the fun things about Marvel is that a great deal of Marvel's 616—the main universe of Marvel—has a history that goes back a lot longer than most current fans are probably aware. Marvel Comics existed before the Fantastic Four, and over the decades, there’s been all kinds of stuff that got swept under the rug. It might have been picked up and dropped, or it was considered cool but then forgotten, or whatever it might be—whether it’s a place, a person, an event, or something else.
About the blue giant monster in X-Force #1:
Thorne: What you're going to find reading this book is that that monster is a character from Marvel Comics. I had to look him up because I had forgotten the specifics. His character is called Taboo, and he first appeared in Strange Tales #75, which was published back in 1960. He is depicted as an alien monster. In that story, he attacks Earth, and it’s a one-shot issue.
Back in those days, Stan and Jack were creating monsters and would feature one story per issue, resolving the problem within that single story. In Taboo’s case, someone got hold of his DNA. We don’t know who it was, and it doesn’t really matter. However, some of that DNA was left behind, and the creature in our story is the result of tampering with it. If you want to look up Taboo, the story is titled “The Thing From the Murky Swamp!” That’s the level of depth we’re exploring in this book.
We’ll be bringing in more characters like this, not necessarily just monsters, but similar obscure elements will be making an appearance. So, buckle up.
About Wakanda and X-Force #2:
Thorne: We’re heading to Wakanda, specifically to the Forest of Torment. If you look at the first few maps of Wakanda, you’ll see a location called the Forest of Torment—that’s where we’re going. We’re going to have some fun there. I’m not sure how much exploring we’ll get to do, but we will definitely be in that area. If you haven’t read The Black Panther: King in Black tie-in, you should. It contains many clues about what’s coming up. There are details in that book that will give you hints about what and who you’ll encounter in issue 2 of X-Force.
About X-Force's future:
Thorne: For X-Force, the first five issues are very specific in their focus. You’re going to see some things you haven’t seen in a while, as well as some brand new stuff. However, starting with issue 6, you’ll be introduced to a whole array of new characters. Some of them you might have met before, and others will be completely new. Trust me, you’re going to be pleased. Just be patient; I’m telling a story.
About the QR Code bonus scene:
Thorne: The mysterious person surveilling X-Force is speaking “querido” in Spanish (not Portuguese).
About the inclusion of Black characters:
Thorne: There will be Black characters, but none of them are on the team right now. However, there will be some in the future. Expect a significant number of Black characters to appear in the series. If you’re concerned that there won’t be Black characters with charisma, power, and interest, don’t worry. I’ve got you covered. Just check out issue 2 and see what we have in store.
“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.
27 comments:
A class act. A man who respects canon, the fans and the character. Kudos to Thorne.
The Thorne speaks about his work in general and Betsy in particular, it shows he cares for his vision, but he also understands fans and is not above tryin to find a middle ground.
I also think Marcus' rendition of the butterfly works, it just needs some refining
*way
Wow he speaks like he doesn't hate the audience or wants to stick it to anyone. Refreshing ngl
I agree @Randybear on him being refreshing & as long as Betsy gets a psychic Butterfly, I'm fine with a different rendition to distinguish hers from Kwannon's (who he also says isn't the original either).
The endgame is Betsy retrieves her things. By things all that make Betsy Betsy. Her premonitions, butterfly, telepathy, TK and personality.
Revanche can have Psylocke it's a name a villain whipped up. Kwannon has no business touching Betsy's butterfly. Period!
When Betsy was yellowfaced she used the butterfly seldom it was knives for years. So it's knives for Revanche and nothing more.
Agreed. Through the mid 90s and not u til Fractions run around 2009 did we finally see the butterfly again.
They could have just given K the knifes and called it a day but they couldn't help themselves and now they're slowly sneaking purple hair onto Kwannon via covers and her stans are now saying she deserves purple hair.
These people swear they love Kwannon but want her to be Betsy sooo bad but also hate her wtf its giving X23 fans that hate Logan but want Laura so badly to be Wolverine lmao weird af
I don’t even think Kwannon should have the psychic knife. That is something that Betsy learned to do while in Kwannon’s body and has shown she can also do in her own body ever since the first Sisterhood arc.
None of these traits are inherently Kwannon. I really wish Marvel would act like they cared about creating a unique character with her versus a facsimile of “Asian” Elizabeth. It would have been nice if they explored her empathy and could have even had that expand into full- blown telepathy or said that is what occurred due to her situation with Elizabeth, but the power manifestation, including knifes, butterfly, and even telekinesis should all be retain by Elizabeth. I’d argue that Betsy showed latent telekinetic potential back in the late 80s with her psycho-blasts canonically having both a mental and physical effect, including destroying the cerebro helmet as well as physically shoving her opponents. Let’s hope that Thorne as a self-proclaimed purist recalls the psycho-blasts.
Dunno who's payroll the Revanche trolls are on whatever they do they dig a deeper grave for Revanche. There's nothing nada zero zilch originality from Kwannon she's a Betsy cloner. Cebullshkit and Brefart ruined her and start seeing who the real fans of Revanche are going on outrage for this corporate shadow play.
Kiki I agree. I blame JDWhite and Cebulski. The latter obsessed with all things Japanese and only concern is preserving Asian ninja badass Psylocke even if it meant completely stomping all over Betsy. People hate Betsy and she's been a bore since. The damage is irreversible at this point all we can do is cling to what's left and hope for the best for Betsy.
The time for asking Marvel to fix Betsy is long past. We sat on our hands and assumed all the damage TH was doing would be undone.
Rahsaan the butterfly is hands down Betsy's. It existed waaaay before the ninja Psyclone was conceived. Same for the purple hair there's a whole 80s plot for why it's Betsy's too.
Bullseye for your psychoblast comment it has sent flying many folks and burned lots of brains in TK way.
For Revanche I can throw a bone and let the knife slide. Anyways Marvel doesn't give an ish for Kwannon they want the yellowface Betsy live on through Kwannon. I checked most spoilers and variants for her future solo and most have 90s Betsy with purple hair and humongous butterflies 😆😆😆😆 this is Onion levels of roasting and parody
I can't wait for the Psycho Blast to make a come back, Remender brought it back (kind off) in UXF. Back in the day it managed to get through Jugg's helmet
Revanche is in a pickle. Betsy can leave Coward behind her and thrive. Revanche will always be a knockoff Betsy no matter where you look at it. Windfall sweeps without notice and will come from unexpected cracks in the company. At least that's what I believe ends the Psylocke travesty.
@Kiki, I see you out here in trying to be all magnanimous. 😆
@lucas, as much I love Remender, that was not quite a psycho-blast. I want a legit, old-school destructive psycho-blast.
Considering Marvel wants to separate the two characters so much but won't let Betsy use the psycho blast or precog powers. Would be nice considering Kwannon is also a TP and TK mutant and both use pink psychic swords but god forbid Betsy have her own butterfly. But what do I know 😋
@Rahsaan we definitely knew Betsy's body can create weapons even before Sisterhood because Kwannon created a psychic katana and attacked Betsy with it when she first confronted her lol when she was inside Betsy's body as Revanche.
If anything Kwannon should get the sword & Betsy the knife because that is what they used when they were both ninjas.
I'm guessing any psychic can technically create weaponry at this point which is stupid, but Betsy taught teen Jean how to create psychic weapons & I'm pretty sure Legion killed Professor Xavier with a psi blade when he accidentally created Age of Apocalypse.
@Randybear I don't believe as many people hate Betsy as much as you think. There are just some vocal people who are willfully ignorant (and possible have multiple accounts lol).
Marvel could have easily had her vanish at this point and as many valid complaints that we have , they also have addressed a lot of our criticisms.
New outfit, New writer, New book on a new team. I believe a lot of those happened because of how popular Betsy is with fans and how vocal we have been.
I think she's still fairly popular tbh.
I also think tptb want Kwannon to be as popular as Betsy but it hasn't happened yet because real fans know Psylocke/Betsy was always more than just a body.
I think they are trying to make Kwannon "happen" like they said in that movie Mean Girls (make fetch "happen") lol.
I think she's being heavily pushed and promoted because they do indeed want her to be a big hit, but it hasn't happened yet and they underestimated how popular Betsy truly is.
I think they got a taste of it when fans were very dissatisfied with the direction Howard was taking her.
Time will tell, but I'm cautiously optimistic that this writer can deliver.
Jmho.
All my respect to Lady Ishola for having such a clear mind!
I don't completely trust Thorne on Betsy. I think he is playing game with us.
After Howard's treatment of Betsy, I don't trust completely anyone @Psi-Psi but like Howard, I am going to give him a chance.
I am however cautiously optimistic. He comes off as knowing a lot about Betsy's history and who she is (as did Howard), but he also seems to understand the frustration people have with the way things went with Betsy, acknowledges them and has a dialogue with us where he isn't talking down to us or dismissing our grievances
(which is where the 2 writers seem to differ imho along with him actually writing a character vs him trying to make a character into a fictional version of himself).
We'll see a few more issues in, but her dialogue and demeanor are already much more in line with "real" Betsy imho.
I like Thorne's interviews because not only he seems to have a good grasp on Betsy, but he also seems to have a clear direction for his story. Of course, it's still too early to know whether his run will indeed be a good one (for Betsy and as a whole), but so far, he seems to be on the right track.
...Not related to this, but this week I was remembering lindsay's comments about Marvel having prepared a nice "pink and purple" official outfit for Betsy, went to the Marvel Microheroes wiki, got a "microhero" of Disassembled Betsy, another of Captain Britain Betsy (wearing the CB helmet), and pasted the CB Betsy's head over the Disassembled Betsy's body to have an idea of whether it would work to have her being CB with a pink and purple uniform... and surprisingly, it looks pretty cool (at least in my opinion)! That makes me look forward to this outfit even more!
(and of course, if there's one thing this new X-Force run showed us, is that if Marvel wants Betsy to continue being Captain Britain, she can be Captain Britain in name only while ditching the Union Jack colors and even the helmet. Though I think she looks cool with the helmet, but she doesn't need it if most fans dislike it)
I'm hoping this X-Force run ultimately has her ditching the title and any outfit associated with it altogether @Fsaker (and getting a cool new codename), but regardless I am looking forward to this pink & purple outfit if that is still indeed on the horizon.
So far I'm getting good vibes from Thorne.
His interviews are pretty well thought out
(like he even explained as to why he didn't talk about Betsy's Butterfly at first, because he wanted to see if people liked To's version of her Butterfly first)
& he had Betsy acting more like herself (in personality & her real voice) in one issue than she has for years under Howard imho.
I know it's still early, but he definitely has me excited for Betsy more than I have been in a very long time.
As for the inclusion of Black characters in X-Force, is Frenzy already in any current X-book? She would be a nice addition to this team.
Frenzy was revealed to be on the upcoming XFactor team months ago.
That's too bad; she could have been a perfect fit for X-Force... oh well.
Thank you for the information!
I would love for GT to be the writer of Betsy's new solo book (if she ever gets one)!
Idk. I think giving Betsy a psionic butterfly energy with flower petals like components is fine but at the same time it's just unnecessary work. She just needs butterfly to remind people that she's been the original Psylocke all along. I'm all for Kannon to be Psylocke as well, but let it be a legacy thing where people know Kannon is the second Psylocke after Betsy while not erasing Betsy's history as Psylocke in the first place.
If anything, the one who should have flowery patterns for their power signature is Kannon. She's a Japanese from Japan, let her have her nation's iconic cherry blossoms/sakura energy signature!
I agree with a lot you said @Daud, I wasn't a fan of how either Kwannon or Betsy took Psylocke or Captain Britain respectively tbh.
They kinda just took them in ways I didn't see as honorable, esp Kwannon who conveniently seems to forget she was so far gone/braindead that it literally took the combo of Magic/Science/& Betsy's telepathy (by Betsy being kidnapped and violated by Kwannon's pals) to revive her.
If not for Betsy Kwannon would have never got a 2nd chance at life.
They could have did it the right way and had Betsy decide to pass the baton to her, but instead had Kwannon act like she was living an amazing life (not braindead in a coma) and Betsy took it, so in return the Psylocke name was owed to her lol (cause that makes sense to use the codename and exact outfit, that the person forced into your body had, & still simultaneously act like you want your own identity, no one would confuse you for Betsy at all with that logic lmao 🤣)
Still so crazy they did this story about the violations of these two women who were viewed as bodies/objects & the struggles they had regarding that, yet tptb themselves have shown they only view them as bodies/objects with how unoriginal they made Kwannon from Betsy instead of making her her own person.
I can see why Thorne would decide to change the visual of the Butterfly to not exactly match Kwannon in that regard & I appreciate that he was waiting to see responses to it to see if he and To may have to tweak it some more (and appreciate he noted that Kwannon doesn't have the original visual of the Butterfly either, which I noticed in the side by side comparison they posted on Twitter that was linked here).
I'm just glad Betsy is keeping the Butterfly.
That said, I grabbed the first issue yesterday and really enjoyed it overall.
I thought what Forge did to Deadpool was kinda messed up though lol & I'm a little confused with what was going on with Forge at the beginning, I couldn't tell if he was using his Shaman powers or not?
Or some technology thing happening.
In any case, I'm excited to read the next issue.
Thumbs up so far overall.
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