Newsarama: Welcome back to Bad Romance, our Valentine’s Day look at why many relationships in superhero comics are just plain wrong. This time, we look at bad romances in the X-Men books...and given how many teams there’ve been over the years, there’s plenty of weird material out there. Teenagers and mutant genes will do that.
To help guide us through this twisted world, we got as our special guest commentator Joe Casey, co-creator of Ben 10 and Generator Rex, along with many comics including the upcoming Butcher Baker from Image Comics. And of course he did a tour of duty on Uncanny X-Men last decade.
Casey offered some hilarious (and profane) insights into the X-Romances...though be forewarned, this gets pretty twisted, even for comics. You might need therapy after reading this. We did.
Psylocke and Cypher
: In her first US appearance, Captain Britain’s eyeless purple-haired psychic sister Betsy gets rescued by Kitty Pryde's contemporary Doug Ramsey from the extra-dimensional entertainment mogul Mojo, who gives her cybernetic eyes.
Toward the end of the story, Psylocke reflects that she senses Doug's feelings for her...and that she has feelings herself. This was promptly and mercifully swept aside so that Psylocke could die, be resurrected as a hot Asian, die again and then come back again, while Cypher could also die, be merged with an alien technorganic life form, and then be resurrected as a human again. Comics!
Casey: “My head hurts again. X-Men in the ‘90s. Go figure.”
To help guide us through this twisted world, we got as our special guest commentator Joe Casey, co-creator of Ben 10 and Generator Rex, along with many comics including the upcoming Butcher Baker from Image Comics. And of course he did a tour of duty on Uncanny X-Men last decade.
Casey offered some hilarious (and profane) insights into the X-Romances...though be forewarned, this gets pretty twisted, even for comics. You might need therapy after reading this. We did.
Psylocke and Cypher
: In her first US appearance, Captain Britain’s eyeless purple-haired psychic sister Betsy gets rescued by Kitty Pryde's contemporary Doug Ramsey from the extra-dimensional entertainment mogul Mojo, who gives her cybernetic eyes.Toward the end of the story, Psylocke reflects that she senses Doug's feelings for her...and that she has feelings herself. This was promptly and mercifully swept aside so that Psylocke could die, be resurrected as a hot Asian, die again and then come back again, while Cypher could also die, be merged with an alien technorganic life form, and then be resurrected as a human again. Comics!
Casey: “My head hurts again. X-Men in the ‘90s. Go figure.”
“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.
9 comments:
Oh how I hate that dress. That's not a dig against Bets. That dress is just hideously dorky.
Casey is a moron. Psylocke never died to become ressurected as an Asian. Plus this was in the mid-80's! lol Not 90's.
What a truckload of fail...
While I agree with Casey that Psylocke's mutual love interest with Doug Ramsey was completely inappropriate back then, he did mess up when he said she died to be revived as Asian; somehow, it seems people think she died more times than she actually did (AFAIK, Betsy only died twice, and the first time barely counts since it was during Fall of Mutants and she was revived in the same issue she died).
I'm surprised by this mistake of his. Casey's run in Uncanny X-Men is still one of my favorite ones ever, though (too bad Chuck Austen came right after and turned it into a pile of mess).
psyknight, everyone's fashion sucked during that era. It was the late 80s! Ha! When you look up Storm on Wiki, the writers pretty much agree that her punk look was a joke gone bad.
FSaker, it'd be kind of cool if they revisited the Doug/Elizabeth thing as he's legal now and actually kind of strapping. Not saying they have too hook up, but I miss their friendship. Have they even spoken on panel since they've both been back with the X-Men!?!?
I miss friendships and characterization like this! Maybe superstar Remender will add Cyper as one of the nex X-Force members on the horizon. Doubtful, but would be cool to see Doug harness some aggression since he knows first-hand what anti-mutant hate can do to the innocent.
By the way, do Doug's parents know he's alive? One of the saddest issues of New Mutants ever was when Magneto had to inform Doug's parents of his death and when lambasted the team for going off and getting Dough killed... and when Illyana tried to kill him, because she blamed him for Doug and Peter's deaths. As a kid, I recall literally crying while reading Fall of The Mutants.
Rahsaan, I don't remember any scene with Psylocke and Cypher talking to each other since his ressurrection.
But after Doug fainted due to his effort in defeating the Master Mold in Second Coming, when the X-Force returns to the present, Psylocke is the one to whom Wolverine hands his exhausted body to take care of him. Not that she had time to do it, as seconds later Bastion came out blowing everything off...
I liked Storm's punk look.
I get that it was the late 80's. What I find so embarassing is that Betsy's dress doesn't even look like it's from the 80's. It looks like something an eight year old would've worn in the 50's. lol.
While 15 years are a lot, especially for someone who has lived so many experiences due to her being a superhero, I am not freaked out by their mutual attraction.
There may have been a hint of someone who needs affection and a chance to lower her guard (Betsy) and someone who, despite feeling he is worthless, wants to do all he can to protect others and is dazzled by the experience this older person has (Doug).
But there is also a mutual caring-for-each-other feeling that is undeniably cute. Betsy had been at her lowest, and Doug helped her get on her feet again. Still, she was not ready to start "running" so soon, and he made her feel it was okay.
She let him see more than she had other people. He did not block his feelings for her, either.
I believe it was something pure and even innocent. Even though both of them are "hot" people in their own way, it is as if what attracted the other was the person inside, and not the body. This must have been attractive in itself to Betsy, who would not feel threatened or even the need to be strong. In a sense, she could become a 15 year old girl again (some people may say this would not be very healthy, but forgetting the simplicity of younger years may not be healthy, either).
Beside everything else, the fact they did not act on their attraction says a lot about how this was more "romantic" and less "sexual". It also makes it sadder, because they may have ended up really loving each other, but did not even try, because "it was wrong".
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