Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Psylocke #5 Spoilers & Art


Spoilers: Kwannon is captured and poisoned by Ty Haniver, a.k.a. The Taxonomist. He imprisons her in his macabre museum, where he reveals his twisted obsession with mutants. Born with a rare genetic disorder, The Taxonomist was isolated from the world during his childhood. His desire to preserve what he deems "unique" led him to target mutants, whom he sees as different and beyond his understanding. His collection consists of grotesquely altered specimens, and he intends to capture Betsy Braddock to merge her with Kwannon once more, adding them to his twisted exhibit. This fixation stems from his obsession with the two women, seeing them as separate minds that were once intertwined and reshaped together. However, Kwannon, freed from her own restraints, destroys The Taxonomist's museum and telepathically forces him to experience emotions like remorse—feelings he had never known before. Afterward, Kwannon leaves him to live with the weight of his actions. Meanwhile, back at home, Kwannon is haunted by disturbing hallucinations of herself merged with Revanche (in Betsy's body).

9 comments:

randybear said...

Marvel refuses to move on from the body swap. Instead of bonding or just completely separating them they keep making Betsy some nightmare for Kwannon. It's old and hurting the brand

Nate X said...

Totally. They just keep coming back to this body-swap nonsense with Kwannon and reheating Betsy's nachos because that's all they seem to have for her. lol At least this writer seems more sympathetic toward Betsy and is acknowledging her as the original Psylocke, the first Psylocke.

spark Dust said...

I love the body swap idea from start to finish, but it's frustrating to see Kwannon suffer once again. I hope they develop a strong storyline that keeps the body swap and makes it acceptable and appealing.

Edu said...

IMHO the body swap is old and tiresome and I wonder what kind of interest it still brings up..... Kwannon could be past and far from it, she deserves better. If they are going to keep pushing her, they could do it with more dignity to the character. I really hope all this suffering comes to something remarkable and definitive.
Could it be that Lady Braddock would appear in this book to help her and they finally come to an undestanding that puts a stone to the body swap?? Betsy's presence seems so recurrent that it may be hinting something.........or not.

X-Man said...

They had an understanding in the original story when Kwannon offered Betsy peace by removing her traits from Betsy and returning Betsy's telepathy back to her.

Then they had an understanding again in Excalibur when Betsy and Kwannon teamed up and Kwannon returned Betsy to her body.

I don't think they need anymore understandings lol.

However, I am glad they are showing Kwannon had Betsy's body too as Revanche. And that it worked both ways.

I think that at least is something different as the other writers kinda acted like it was a one way street imo.

It would be awesome if Betsy made an appearance though:)

Edu said...

That is so true. From the few things I liked from TH's run was their understanding in Excalibur. The repetition seems to leave little space for imagination here, sounding tiresome to me. Maybe bringing a different view of the circumstance (body swap) from Kwannon's perspective might still bring something new.
Called my attention she did not assassinate the villain this time, she punished him differently than I expected.

some guy said...

Marvel keeps proving that Kwannon is not a real character outside the original body swap and her connection to Betsy, the real Psylocke.

And the original ending to the body swap saga (Kwannon’s death) is still the best one. And probably the only real chance at closure.

Lex said...

Yes, I'm mostly tired of the swap lore but I feel like, for better or worse, we've only seen Betsy have to deal with it. There's been multiple stories told of her either dealing with it or not, as best as she can. It hasn't been done from Kwannon's views of it yet.
TH, while revisiting it, only examined Betsy's issues again with it. Fair cause she was the "star" of her Excalibur.

Betsy's got to make peace with Matsuo & even Spiral.

@Edu, I did like her basically granting the villain mercy via teaching him empathy via TP. Which is what Kwannon's og powers were.

Edu said...

Yeah it was a different take compared to the "mercyless assassin ninja" attitude, reminded me of when Betsy in Kwannon's body fought Mystique in that team with Magneto, Monet and others and Betsy was clever and reasonable enough to choose to stabilize Mystique's mind in what referred to her personality changes linked to her morphing powers (correct me if I remember wrong please).
I had not thought of the precision with Kwannon's empathy you added in your comment!! Very nice observation!! We might get some other good surprises from this title!