Uncanny X-Force #21
Written by: Rick Remender
Pencils by: Greg Tocchini
Cover by: Leinil Francis Yu
The Story:
• Wolverine and AOA Nightcrawler face a strange and deadly new foe in Otherworld.
• Fantomex’s sentence is carried out and he is injected with an anti-reality serum…
• Psylocke becomes Lady Briton!
• Deadpool is decapitated.
In Stores: February 1 , 2012
Pencils by: Greg Tocchini
Cover by: Leinil Francis Yu
The Story:
• Wolverine and AOA Nightcrawler face a strange and deadly new foe in Otherworld.
• Fantomex’s sentence is carried out and he is injected with an anti-reality serum…
• Psylocke becomes Lady Briton!
• Deadpool is decapitated.
In Stores: February 1 , 2012
“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.
22 comments:
Is she on the english or oriental version??? I can't tell just by the art...
is Betsy wearing the headdress portion of the Lady Briton costume, the one that used to be red white and blue? or does she have what looks to be her purple hair hanging out the back?
@Eduardo - The intention probably is exactly to make people wonder whether she accepted Jamie's offer to return to her original body or not. But her hair color is lighter than usual and her hairstyle resembles the Outback days, so she may have already switched bodies (although I'm almost sure that by the end of this arc, she'll be back in the Asian one... maybe in the end Jamie will alter her original body to look like the Asian one, thus keeping her iconic look while also solving for once the body-swap mess).
He well, it worked, Fernando hehe
I am sure wondering, though I really thought this would not be touched anymore after her mini. Anyway, in Jamie's hand, everything is possible.
The body switching thing was explained in X-Men 31 and 32. What really made things confusing was the explanation Jamie gave about her revival in the Foursaken storyline. If he fixed and improved her, why is she still in her *ASIAN* body.
XMen 31 & 32 actually is what caused all the confusion regarding the Body swap. A redundant storyline when the body was already explained. Beautiful art in those issues though. Simply gorgeous.
@ Blu Berri: He probably needed a figter and Asina Betts is one of the best. He never saw British Betsy as a fighter, only Asian Betsy... I sunno, just guessing here. Either way: NEXT WEEK ROCKS!!!
I don't think Ninja Betsy has to necessarily be iconic. I totally think Rick can write British Betsy as a kick-ass martial artist and world class telepath. In fact, Betsy's dream would ultimately come true if that happened.
We all know, Bets always yearned to be a warrior and the Siege played a nasty trick on her by getting her mixed up with the Hand and the wretched Spiral. This could finally undo all that identity confusion (which Claremont wanted the first time Jamie pulled his strings and resurrected her) but still leave her with her learned fighting skills and her unlocked telepathic potential.
In fact, it's pretty cool seeing her do a mass wide-range telepathic attack on the Briton Corps here. don't think she's done one of those since the first time the X-Men visited Genosha and she saw into the minds of the magistrates and how they tortured mutants, and decided to kill them (until Piotr begged her to stop). I knew she certainly hasn't done anything like that since Acts of Vengeance.
This woman has a wide range of abilities and I'm glad that Remender is once again exploring them and writing her as a fleshed-out character. Like I said, if he can successfully incorporate the fighting she learned from the Hand (and I guess Kwannon's memories if I choose to acknowledge the retcon of Lobdell/Nicieza) and her history before all that garbage that convolution, that'd be fantastic. I have faith that he can.
And for everyone that says British Bets wasn't hot, she was gorgeous. You all just recall some of the poofy hair and outfits they gave her in the 80s. There are quite a few renditions where she looks great, like when Jim Lee drew her in his first Uncanny issue with Nanny and Orphan Maker in the Outback or all the Silvestri issues or even when Land of all people drew her in that first panel where she awakes with the sisterhood and asks where she is with shock.
By the way, I must thank Tochinni. The art in this issue looks a dozen times better than the art in the previous!!
One thing to think about: if Betsy does come back permanently to her British body, will she keep wearing the blue bathing suit with her buttocks partially exposed?
God! I hope not! She should've retired that while Asian. Her current X-Force uniform would be just fine. Though when Revanche was first shown, she had a very short, tight, dominatrix number that she wore. Complete with a mask covering her whole head. Thus, we know British Bets definitely has the tight-and-right bodacious bod to pull it off.
Wait, when was the body switching explained if X-Men 31 and 32 were redundant?
The only other thing close to another explanation I've heard was, "turned her looks Asian." If that's the case, I'm glad they retcon THAT out, that explanation is outrageously offensive!
Blu,
I see where you're coming from. That was indeed the original explanation. Mandarin and the Hand thought that a westerner wouldn't fit the look of who they wanted to be the premiere assassin of the East, so they hired Spiral to do her thing.
However, Psylocke still retained some of her features as Wolverine clearly recognized her once her Lady Mandarin helmet/mask was broken.
I actually don't find it offensive. It's not like she was made up to wear "Asian-face," like some minstrel show. They changed her via magic and plastic surgery from what was said.
I distinctly recall Psylocke telling Jean that in the issue of Uncanny following X-Tinction Agenda where she and Jean fight the Shadow King and then Lila Cheney whisks the X-Men off to Shi'ar Space.
What is offensive is when more recent artists draw her wearing kimonos and dragons, etc. She isn't Asian in her mind and that's akin to "Asian Face?' It's offensive to Asian people. It's like she's saying, "Oh . I look Asian now, so I should act and dress that way." And all of that was what started to happen in the wake of the retcon; not before.
Psylocke's body became Asian as part of the science fiction character of the X-Men,it has nothing to do with racial superiority.If it did,then why didn't Shadowcat also become Japanese when Wolverine tutored her?Betsy has always carried the mind-set and attitude of an English woman and for the record there is no other mutant in the X-Men who represents Europe better than her,even when she wears kimonos(like all martial arts apprentices do).Indeed,it's offensive how "Americanized" Nightcrawler,the so-called Catholic German,is or how poor Marvel's understanding of Russia is(see Colossus).
As for the new body-switch,I'll be okay as long as Betsy retains her ninja training,although it's completely pointless at this point.I think she'll be back in the Japanese body in the end of the arc.
Selene,
Valid points, but just so you know... I study and practice several martial arts and have never ever worn a kimono. True story.
Rahsaan,I've been practicing karate and ninjutsu for years,I love and respect Japanese culture and I wear a kimono during training.Am I offending anyone?Elektra is a Greek martial artist.Yet even for her training or her Mediterranean appeal,I still don't particularly feel connected to her(being Greek and studying self-defense myself).
People should be proud that,while Betsy lost her ethnicity,retained her nationality no matter who wrote her.Indeed,even her transformation didn't stop Betsy from enjoying habits of the past,like swimming,luxurious restaurants,magazines,afternoon tea,etc.,as we've seen.The important thing is that she'll be written as she is now in the future.
Selene,
I was being flip. LOL. Although I never have son a kimono. Aren't they only for women? That's why I was being sarcastic.;-) I do sometime wear a gi at BJJ though if it's the gi class. The arts, like Panatukan and JKD (both are dirty street fighting styles) I wear cut off sweats and a cutoff tee.
Worn; not son
As an Asian myself, I think the entire "turning her looks Asian" was pretty offensive despite being unintentional. I'm reminded of this incident:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Spanish-basketball-team-poses-for-offensive-pict?urn=oly,100152
The closest approximation I can think of in terms of offensiveness would be a person painting their face black to pass for African-American.
Obviously Marvel still needs to work on their cultural sensitivity when Psylocke is wearing qipao and clothing associated with the Chinese. I'm not saying Betsy shouldn't wear Chinese clothing at all (she looks fabulous in anything), but you don't see Ororo or Emma wearing that kind of stuff.
On the second topic of discussion, there are male and female versions of kimono. It'd generally be a bad idea to wear a kimono when practicing martial arts as kimono are worn only for festivities (they're semi-formal to formal). Dogi are usually worn when exercising, they're the Japanese equivalent to sweatpants.
Also, I like Betsy's leotard (though there should definitely be an update to it). It makes sense for her since Gymnasts wear leotards to perform their acrobatics and Betsy IS a ninja after all. Storm doesn't get flak for her costume choice, but she's not in the melee like Betsy is so Ororo has no excuse... >_>
Blu,
I see what your point. My point with the Asian attire was kind of how I used to feel during a stint when I briefly did some modeling. I hated when photographers always wanted to put me in tribal wear just, because I'm black and muscular. I used to always be like, "WTF? I'm American; not from the Congo or New Guinea." LOL!
All of this being said is why Psylocke should just go back to her own body and the Kwannon body should be put in the ground. We have plenty of strong Asian women in the X-Men, like Jubilee and Karma and Hisako. And funny enough, the writers and artists don't resort to the exotic, Asian female fetish of westerners when writing those characters, like they have often with Psylocke. It's like with Psylocke, because she's a white who was turned Asian, they have license to turn her into a caricature for racist stereotypes and fetishes.
At least Remender and Opeña have shied away from all that whatever incarnation she's in, and treat her and their diverse community of fans with respect.
I believe the hair is part of the Lady Briton uniform. If you look at the page from the last issue, where she reunites with Jaime and the costume is first show, there is a large wig being held up behind the uniforms mask.
Also, @ Rahsaan, I completely agree. Well said. I always wanted them to combine the bodies and be done with the whole thing.
Changing subjects, shouldn't CBR's X-Position interview with the X-editors have been posted last night?
I am very curious to see what news they will (or more likely won't) bring to us, like which X-books will tie into AvX, plans for the future... and of course, news and artworks of our beloved Psylocke!
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