PSYLOCKE | CAPTAIN BRITAIN // like a butterfly: 2025

Friday, October 24, 2025

PRE-ORDER PSYLOCKE: NINJA #1

PSYLOCKE: NINJA

PSYLOCKE: NINJA Limited Series Launches January 21, 2026
PRE-ORDER NOW at local comic shops

PRE-ORDER Psylocke: Ninja #1 by Tim Seeley Find a Local Comic Shop or Online Comic Book Store Find Comic Shops Nearby PURCHASE X-Force by Geoffrey Thorne

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Monday, October 13, 2025

Psylocke: Ninja #1 Solicitation

Psylocke: Ninja #1 (of 5)

Written by: Tim Seeley

Art by: Nico Leon

Cover by: Derrick Chew

Variant Cover by: Pablo Villalobos

Variant Cover by: Skottie Young

Variant Cover by: Stanley 'Artgerm' Lau

Versus Elektra Variant Cover by: TBD

Foil Variant Cover by: Dike Ruan

X-Men Trading Card Variant Cover by: Juan Frigeri

Variant Cover by: Nogi San

On sale 1/21

BETSY BRADDOCK: MUTANT, X-MAN... NINJA!

Flashback to a time when Psylocke was reborn into the ultimate killing machine. What sacrifice did Betsy make to save the X-Men? Why did the Hand choose Psylocke to be their weapon? And what does it have to do with their former assassin... Elektra?! Discover the answers to these questions and more in a lost story from the X-Men’s past!

PSYLOCKE vs. ELEKTRA?! Marvel reveals a lost chapter of X-Men history in ‘Psylocke: Ninja’

AITP!: This January, Marvel is taking fans back to one of the most mysterious and electrifying chapters in X-Men history. Psylocke: Ninja is a brand-new five-issue limited series from writer Tim Seeley (Rogue: The Savage Land) and artist Nico Leon (Marvel Rivals: Infinity Comic), exploring Betsy Braddock’s transformation into the Hand’s deadliest assassin — and her first fateful encounter with Elektra.

Set in the aftermath of Psylocke’s infamous rebirth in the early ’90s, the story dives into what really happened before she rejoined the X-Men. Torn between her telepathic identity and her new ninja body, Betsy faces a brutal test when Marvel’s deadliest assassin comes for her — and the two icons collide in a battle of precision, power, and purpose.

“This is the spiritual successor to Rogue: The Savage Land,” said Seeley. “We’re revisiting iconic X-Men moments and asking, what haven’t we seen yet? The idea of tying Psylocke’s Hand era into Daredevil’s world — and Elektra’s — just made perfect sense. My god, it all fits.”

For artist Nico Leon, this project is a dream come true. “I’ve always loved ninjas — the study of action, rhythm, and movement,” Leon said. “Diving into Psylocke and Elektra’s martial roots feels like being a kid again, sword in hand. Every panel is a joy to draw.”

Fans can look forward to a main cover by Derrick Chew, variant covers by Juan Frigeri and Nogi San, and a special foil edition by Dike Ruan. Psylocke: Ninja #1 slashes into comic shops this January — and it’s shaping up to be one of the fiercest face-offs in X-Men lore.

Psy1locke: Ninja #1 (of 5) – 75960621450100111
Written by Tim Seeley
Art by Nico Leon
Cover by Derrick Chew
Foil variant cover by Dike Ruan – 75960621450100141
Variant cover by Juan Frigeri – 75960621450100151
Variant cover by Nogi San – 75960621450100117
On sale 1/21

X-Men Monday #316 – Rebecca Podos Talks ‘What If… Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force?’

AIPT!: On October 14, 2025, Marvel and Penguin Random House will release What If… Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force?. This mutant-focused story brings together Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Betsy Braddock, and more — plus America Chavez and Doctor Doom. AIPT! spoke with author Rebecca Podos about how these characters collide across this 336-page epic.

AIPT: Surely, the greatest X-Men story X-Fans have never read! Now, for those who are learning about What If… Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force? for the first time, what’s the elevator pitch?

Rebecca: We meet Kitty Pryde in a future without Jean Grey, and thus, without the X-Men, who died decades ago when their space shuttle was torn apart by a solar flare. Now they’re nothing more than a cautionary tale told to Kitty by the White Queen, her mentor and boss, to drive home the lesson: mutants cannot count on the goodwill of humanity. They have to be stronger, smarter, and above all else, stick to the shadows to survive.

So when Betsy Braddock, a near-stranger and minor employee of RCX, shows up claiming that something is wrong with the world and that the psychic trail leads right to her, Kitty wants to brush her off. But Kitty has been seeing flashes of a different world, a different life, since her powers first manifested. To discover the truth, they’ll have to follow Betsy’s trail back to the past, to the glory days of the X-Men, and to the future Phoenix herself. But they’re not the only ones searching for Jean Grey.

AIPT: The Phoenix Saga, Kitty Pryde, Betsy Braddock, America Chavez, Doctor Doom, the Watcher, the Multiverse — you’ve managed to pack a lot into 336 pages. I’m curious, how does this unique twist on a classic X-Men story come together?

Rebecca: It was a lot, juggling classic versions of beloved characters, canon versions throughout history, and AU versions that never existed. But I think they’re all tied together by the fact that they’re searching for something they care deeply about. Kitty, for the hero she might have been in a better world she’s not even sure she believes in; America, for what it means to be human and to be in the world, rather than to exist as an observer from afar; Betsy, for the pieces of herself she’s lost along the way, with the hope that it’s possible to feel whole again. Even Doom is searching for something he feels he needs desperately. The places where their needs intersect, and where they oppose one another, are the heart of the book.

AIPT: What can readers expect from the Kitty, Betsy, America — and, maybe Jean? — dynamic? I feel like this isn’t a combination we’ve seen explored in the comics.

Rebecca: It was really fun to put them all in one place, as adults and strangers, and figure out which parts of their innate Kitty-ness and Betsy-ness and so on came through despite having grown up apart, and under very different circumstances than they should have. Betsy, Kitty, and Jean are also missing an extremely important hinge point between them all. But I think some things are true about these characters in every world, as America says in the book, so I hope they still feel familiar to readers and fans.

Thursday, October 2, 2025

New WHAT IF…? Novel Features Betsy Braddock, Kitty Pryde as Phoenix vs. Dr. Doom

Nerdist: Katherine “Kitty” Pryde has used many codenames in her decades as an X-Man. She’s been Ariel, Sprite, Shadowcat, but always a stalwart member of the X-Men, ever since 1980. The phasing mutant joined the team right after Jean Grey died while under the control of the Dark Phoenix. But what if Kitty herself stole the power of the Phoenix Force? That’s the premise of a new prose novel, Marvel: What If….Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force (An X-Men and America Chavez Story) by Rebecca Podos. Arriving on October 14, this novel is the next installment in Random House Worlds’ What If… series.

In this new novel, joining Kitty is ‘Captain Britain’ Betsy Braddock, who you may know as the original Psylocke. Also joining are Jean Grey, Logan/Wolverine, Scott Summers/Cyclops, Ororo Munroe/Storm, and other iconic X-Men. The dimension-hopping Young Avenger America Chavez and Doctor Doom, who have made appearances in the three previous What If…? novels, now step into the spotlight in the new book. In the following excerpt, Kitty details a conversation between herself and Betsy, on their way home from a 1975 disco. And yes, this conversation confirms Kitty as bisexual. This is something the comics themselves made canon recently, after much fan speculation.

You can read a full excerpt from Marvel: What If….Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force (An X-Men and America Chavez Story) below:

After a night out at a 1975 disco, Kitty Pryde and Betsy Braddock take a break from bodyguarding Jean Grey and wonder if anything they do in the past will fix their future.

ONLY ON THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN RIDE BACK TO WESTCHESTER, and after Jean and Ororo have fallen asleep on each other’s shoulders, does Kitty dare to speak aloud.

“To recap,” she starts, little more than a whisper. “Neither of us has a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, or a hot person of any gender waiting to dance with us in the future. We probably don’t have jobs. Dunno about RCX, but Emma Frost isn’t super forgiving when her henchmen go on sabbatical without permission. Okay, sure, you’ve got a brother, and maybe you do Sunday-night happy hours and reminisce about your childhood puppy—”

“We do not,” Betsy whispers back. “I love my brother, of course. But he’s quite preoccupied by being a father and husband and champion of Britain, and all that. Between his obligations and my work with the agency, there isn’t much time left for family dinners.”

“Well, I haven’t been back to Deerfield for a whole bunch of Hanukkahs now, and I doubt my parents hold their breaths until I return their twice-yearly phone calls where they mostly complain about the other one, ten years after their divorce.” Kitty fiddles with the fringe on her borrowed purse. “Betsy . . . Whatever we’re here to do with Jean, you really think we can fix our lives? Fix the whole world?”

Betsy considers this for a long moment. “I think that we can’t predict the impact one life would have upon the world, but it might be greater even than we imagine. Maybe a future with Jean in it is a future where the X-Men still exist and Charles Xavier’s dreams have borne fruit.”

“Mutants sharing the world with Homo sapiens, living together in peace. Yeah. Maybe.” She tries to imagine it . . . or rather, to remember the wish she used to whisper into the dark as a teenager but has long since left behind. A world without instructive pamphlets like Know the Signs: How to Spot the Mutant Menace in Your School, City, or Household. Without news segments dedicated to reporting each day’s successful capture or killings of mutants, tallied by a wild-eyed anchorman with a marker on a massive whiteboard. Without a thirteen-year-old Kitty Pryde, waking from nightmares of Sentinels storming across the lawn at Miss Hester’s to smash a massive metal fist through her dorm room window and drag her from her bed, too frozen with fear to phase away. Maybe in that world, she would’ve told her parents the truth of who she was. Maybe she’d have more people in her life to tell the truth to. Favorite teachers, or partners, or best friends.

“Kitty, I’ve been wondering. Have you had any of your episodes—your slips, I mean—since we’ve come back in time? You haven’t mentioned any.”

“No,” she realizes as she says it. She turns to stare out the window but of course can’t see anything beyond her own stark reflection in the rain-pattered glass. It’s strange. She used to be afraid of the slips and what they said about her—that she was even more of a freak than mutant-haters would have guessed. Only it wasn’t just that. She was scared of how she felt afterward. How sometimes, she wished she could have stayed in the world that she’d figured was a by-product of slowly losing her mind. Sometimes she felt she would’ve given anything, everything, if she could forever be the version of herself that she was in that other, better world. “Don’t you think that means something?” Kitty asks.

Without looking, she can’t tell what Betsy thinks of her confession. And for a long moment, Betsy doesn’t answer.

Finally she begins, “I do. Kitty, if we—”

Jean bolts upright across from them, startling Ororo awake as she and Betsy jump in their seats. “The professor,” Jean says, voice still blurry with sleep. “He says there’s company back at the mansion. Not a mutant. She’s looking for me. She says she’s a friend.”

Kitty feels Betsy’s body tense beside her, along with her own. Could this be the threat they’ve been braced for? Do you think we should tell her now? Just go ahead and step on the damn butterfly? She can’t keep her leg from bouncing against her seat with nerves. This could be it: the whole reason for their being here.

And their only reason for staying.

Betsy shakes her head subtly. We can’t stop these two from returning to the mansion. And maybe these are the best circumstances we could hope for. An early warning and the mansion on alert. We’ll just have to be ready for what comes.

The four of them catch a yellow taxi at the train station, and even though Jean maintains regular contact with Xavier to keep a telepathic eye on things, Kitty’s still relieved to find the mansion peaceful upon arrival. Only the light in Xavier’s office window so late at night suggests that anything is out of the ordinary. There’s no storm of activity within the mansion when they enter, no sound of running feet from above as the four of them climb the grand staircase, no shouts from the office as they approach. The professor seems perfectly unharmed in his chair at the desk. Behind him, Scott leans against a bookshelf in giant, red-lensed aviators, a T-shirt, sweatpants, and plaid slippers. Not exactly poised for battle.

“Welcome back, you four,” Xavier says pleasantly. “Our guest has said she’s here to speak with you specifically, Jean, and we thought it best to wait until you all arrived.”

The guest turns out to be a young woman about her same age with dark, dust-covered curls, wearing black jeans torn violently at both knees and a rain-dampened denim jacket with red-and-white-striped shoulders and starred patches down both sleeves. She must be powerful to tackle a powerful telepath like Jean Grey.

But as the woman turns her large brown eyes on Jean, she looks nothing but relieved.

“America Chavez,” she introduces herself. “I’ve been looking for—” Then her gaze skips over to the pair of them and snags, the slightest surprise registering before she tilts her head and tightens her jaw. “Didn’t expect to find you two here.”

Marvel: What If….Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force (An X-Men and America Chavez Story) by Rebecca Podos arrives on October 14.

Monday, September 22, 2025

Push for Betsy Braddock in the X-Men Relaunch! 💜

Marvel’s next era of the X-Men, Shadows of Tomorrow, launches in January. Creative teams and lineups are being decided right now. If fans want Betsy Braddock in the relaunch, this is the moment to speak up.

Senior editor Tom Brevoort recently said:

“Not a day goes by that I don’t get a couple of emails and see a couple of things on social media where people are laying out that they want more Betsy Braddock. The only issue is that everyone wants her in a different way. We’re not ready right this second, but we’re getting to it.”

That’s not a reason to sideline her. If fan disagreements were a problem, most characters would’ve never seen the light of day. Whether as Psylocke or Captain Britain, what we want is a well-written Betsy Braddock. Let them know she deserves a stable, ongoing role in a core X-Men book

📬 EMAIL THE X-OFFICE NOW

Let them know you want Betsy Braddock in the Shadows of Tomorrow era:

➡️ officex@marvel.com

💜 Include fanart, ideas, or just a short, clear message.

🔁 REPOST THIS

Now’s the time. Be loud. Be visible. Betsy deserves better. 💜

Friday, September 19, 2025

Art of the Day – Psylocke & Jean Grey by Jay Anacleto

Original artwork by Jay Anacleto – Digitally colored.

Reminder: Please email officex@marvel.com and mheroes@marvel.com and kindly ask for more appearances of Betsy Braddock in the comics! 💜

Art of the Day – Psylocke by Mark Brooks

Original sketch by Mark Brooks – Digitally colored.

Reminder: Please email officex@marvel.com and mheroes@marvel.com and kindly ask for more appearances of Betsy Braddock in the comics! 💜

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Art of the Day – Psylocke by Uko Smith

Original sketch by Uko Smith – Digitally colored.

Reminder: Please email officex@marvel.com and mheroes@marvel.com and kindly ask for more appearances of Betsy Braddock in the comics! 💜