PSYLOCKE | CAPTAIN BRITAIN // like a butterfly: Uncanny X-Men #1 Variant Cover by Scott Williams

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Uncanny X-Men #1 Variant Cover by Scott Williams

17 comments:

PoetryInMotion said...: Inevitable return to wallpaper status for the used-to-be-Asian ninja,it seems.Ossum.; October 3, 2018 at 5:56 PM
Rahsaan said...: @PoetryInMotion, this looks awesome!

Psylocke and everyone else looks like they would have if Silvestri at his greatest was penciling! In fact, Williams’ Betsy here reminds me of how Betsy was drawn by Silvestri during Fall of The Mutants, one of the her best renderings.

Side note: I never realized that Williams penciled. Just knew him as an inker.; October 3, 2018 at 6:02 PM
PoetryInMotion said...: Rahsaan, it's a beautiful cover all right, but I can't help noticing the fact that only four characters are meant to stand out and Psylocke is not among them.; October 3, 2018 at 6:13 PM
Rahsaan said...: @Poetry, I don’t think it’s meant to slight Bets I think it's an homage to the Giant Size No. 1 theme:

http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_242

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/6192518222784670/

https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/12356/x-men_annual_1970_10

https://www.marvel.com/comics/series/2016/giant_size_x-men_1975

Also, do you or anyone else know why the definite article, The was dropped from the title years ago? The Uncanny X-Men always sounds so definitive and regal to me compared to Uncanny X-Men. :-); October 3, 2018 at 6:40 PM
Nate X said...: It seems like you must have missed the other three variants where Betsy is proeminent and the other one where she's the only one on the cover and the fact that the writers already said those 10 X-Men are the core characters in Disassembled... Yeah "wallpaper" talk about overreaction.; October 3, 2018 at 8:22 PM
Tazirai said...: Yeah Her "Wallpaper" status is not a thing.
I love the curve on her. Always hated when they drew her silly skinny.; October 3, 2018 at 9:37 PM
Unknown said...: This is a really nice cover.
@Poetryinmotion, I see what you mean. Psylocke no longer stands out. At all.
@Rahsaan the way that you defend this energy-based replica of the former Psylocke is noble, but most X-fans didn't request this. Majority of X-Men fans probably forgot about her origin story anyways.
@Tazirai You consider that to be curvy?; October 4, 2018 at 3:41 AM
Rahsaan said...: @Unknown, thank you. I try. :—)
I respect yours and Poetry’s opinion, but disagree. I think we could literally replace the Kwannon/Psylocke almagamated look in this cover in the exact same spot and she too would have the exact same affect in terms of standing out or not standing out. I’m happy that Psylocke will reportedly be one of the main characters in this book. And I respect that some of you are unhappy with her change the way I was with her previous change. I am glad thag Marvel gave something to us fans or classic Bets after disregarding us for so many years. I’m also glad that they seem to have incorporated the fighting skills and psychic knives.

I do agree with you on the curvy thing. I know Taz likes ‘em thick. @Tazirai, she looks athleticly svelte to me here. All the women do. Not skinny; not super curvy and not particularly sexualized in a way that I find unnecessary. :-); October 4, 2018 at 8:01 AM
X-Man said...: As a big Psylocke fan who actually was introduced to "asian" Psylocke first, I am happy with the change back. The story for me became one of the constant struggles for Psylocke in the same way that Rogue couldn't touch anyone or Cyclops couldn't control his blast. Many fans may have forgot the specifics of her actual origin story, but most probably know she was a white woman trapped inside another woman's body. They should know at least, since it was brought up every 5 minutes. It was tiring for me, many villains taunted her about it (saying she had an identity crisis), her brother Jamie and later Cassandra Nova dangled the original body like a carrot but of course with strings, she was dragged literally back and forth between the two bodies in the Sisterhood story, Even Proteus recently brought her original body for her to view in Astonishing X-Men. I for one was tired of her being cruelly taunted. I also couldn't "forget" the story because it never really ended. Even after all those years the one constant thing they kept reminded us is that this is not her body over and over again. I didn't "request" it, but I'm sure happy it happened. I'm also going to wait and see how the story and character is written and not base my opinion off of covers (And even then it's not like "Asian" Psylocke always was in the forefront or had stellar stories and was treated superbly lol, there were many times she was treated like wallpaper or frankly acted stupidly just to show us she was an
"Asian ninja" vs powerful telepath (but then they'd make sure to also remind us she was a "fake Asian" hence the tiresome part".) The time she got gutted by Sabretooth and later on her recent takedown by Medusa are just a few. Those are two people who would have been more wisesly attacked telepathically from a distance not physical combat. I want her to retain her ninja skills, but I wouldn't be sad if she had to retrain herself to get them and rely on her telepathy for a bit to force her to get creative with it like she did in the past. There is also like 2 million variant covers to this issue, one of the very first ones has her all the way in the front. Even in front of Storm and Jean. I wouldn't use this particular one to predict how the story will play out or who is featured most. Jmho!!; October 4, 2018 at 8:46 AM
randybear said...: You guys are dissecting and reading too much into a variant cover lol

Omg, Cannonball is drawn slightly bigger than Psylocke! His role will be super small but not as small as Psylocke's!; October 4, 2018 at 9:01 AM
FSaker said...: "Omg, Cannonball is drawn slightly bigger than Psylocke! His role will be super small but not as small as Psylocke's!"

Not to mention, Jubilee is completely absent in this cover, so it means she won't do anything in the first arc... but wait, there's another variant cover that only shows the X-Women, so I guess the men in the team are the ones who won't do anything?

For real now, I wonder when Marvel will reveal the other two X-Men teams that will be featured in the Disassembled arc (and if Kitty and the X-teens are one of these teams). I hope Rogue, Gambit and Colossus will be in one of these teams (and also that Jubilee will get a new uniform after this first arc, ASAP). But I'm glad that Betts is featured in this new book, as well as Nightcrawler and Bishop!; October 4, 2018 at 10:33 AM
FSaker said...: (by the way, I remembered when we were discussing haircuts in another topic, and I just realized Bishop may be the only person in the world capable of making a mullet look good... I still prefer him without it, though); October 4, 2018 at 10:36 AM
randybear said...: Agreed FSaker, besides.. on the actual "main" cover, drawn by Yu, Psylocke is featured up front lol; October 4, 2018 at 3:02 PM
Rahsaan said...: Like I said, it reminds me of Silvestri’s Inferno cover with the X-Men and X-Factor. I dig.

Also, you guys didn’t answer my question about the definite article. Has Marvel ever released any statement on why it was dropped years ago? I know I’m neurotic, but I miss it.

Also, based on the interviews, can we assume that Nothstar will be part of the core team despite not being featured on any of the variants to date? He’d be a welcome addition.

Also, speaking of Jubes... I got into a conversation with a friend of mine who finds her useless and redundant, including her motherhood to Shogo who we never see anymore. That’s heightened by the fact that her power set is what he calls an unnecessary combination of Dazzler’s and Boom-Boom’s and the fact that she never utilizes them beyond basic fireworks despite having a lot of destructive capacity (I told him her raw power scares her and she fears cutting loose). Anyway, do y’all think her power fear should be further explored?; October 4, 2018 at 3:20 PM
FSaker said...: I don't know, either... maybe Marvel thought the "The" was redundant or unnecessary. I agree that the title sounded cooler with it.

As for Jubes, I agree with your friend that her motherhood should be more explored. But calling her powerset redundant...? I mean, there are plenty of mutants and other superheroes that share powers; just look at the number of telepaths, for example, or people who can teleport, or people with claws.

Also, her powers don't work the same way (Jubilee shoots instantaneous fireworks, while Dazzler shoots laser beams that depend on the presence of sound, and Boom-Boom shoots energy bombs that only activate after some seconds), and well, she's sorta the more relevant among the three, so I don't think she's the one who the writers should try to make more different in that regard...; October 4, 2018 at 3:59 PM
Unknown said...: @R ahsaan thank you for understanding. It makes for good conversation :) Even if this is supposed to be Psylocke's original state, it feels like a different character.

On the topic of Jubilee....she deserves to be more than just the underling.; October 6, 2018 at 12:22 AM
Rahsaan said...: @Unknown, yeah. I can empathize. For me it feels like the return of a character while the Psylocke you know and love felt like a different character to me all these years. :-)

Two sides of the same coin. I totally empathize. Just in reverse. Alan Davis said something to the same effect.; October 6, 2018 at 1:23 AM

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