Writer: Gerry Duggan
Art & Cover by: Phil Noto
Variant Cover by: Ivan Shavrin
Variant Cover by: Ivan Shavrin
The Story:
X of Swords – Chapter 8
A hand held aloft. A mystery in the stars. An ace up the sleeve.
X of Swords – Chapter 8
A hand held aloft. A mystery in the stars. An ace up the sleeve.
In Stores: October 21, 2020
“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.
54 comments:
Never cared much for Noto's art. He doesn't have much range everyone kinda looks the same plus he doesn't draw in a dynamic manner. He's good for downtime issues but not something like Swords of X.
@randybear Noto drew a good Betsy face for the XoS. I liked her hairstyle and big eyelashes. Betsy's face was distinct from the other females.
Agree on this point at least Betsy looks cute and he draws her hair somewhat poofy which i love! Hate how a lot of artist draw her with flat hair compared to the likes of Rogue or Jean.
His style has definitely improved from UXF which is good but he's still not a favorite. Id prefer Asrar or Larraz over him.
Also not a fan of Noto. He's good for pinups and that's it. His work is very rushed. He's the typer of filler artist Marvel calls when they want to get a book out fast. Also the coloring is usually very dull.
Has Jean ever mentioned on panel why she alternates between her two current uniforms? Is it based on mood? If so, that makes sense. I would want to have various uniforms too. I recall when Rogue used to be like that in the 80s and it made perfect sense. Has Jean worn the update yellow and green version of her uniform again since Giant Size?
Marvel Girl dress is the Jean Grey and the mango uniform is Madelyne Pryor. Jean has more identities than Rogue. Count Phoenix and Dark Phoenix.
Hickman mentioned way back during HoX/PoX that we would be seeing mutants change their costume to what suited them. He said the x-men dint wear costumes that they're considered 'mutant clothes'
Which I love because it means pretty much writers can put mutants in any costume they've had before if they like
Sadly that doesn't count for Betsy as she HAS to wae her CB armor and can't just switch it up
@Randybear I wish Betsy could change into the Dissassembled outfit when not on missions. Is it part of a magical oath she has to keep it on? They should at least let her change how it looks magically at will like the unstable molecules in the X-Uniforms lol. I'm not a fashion person by any means, but I don't love that CB uniform. It doesn't have any of Betts signature colors lol.
I wish that too! I asked both Howard and To if she could at least keep the pink disassembled look for off time but they didnt respond and normally To likes any tweet you @ him so im guessing marketing is going hard with the CB look.
And yeah it would make sense if she could change the look of the outfit but doesn't seem like its going to happen.
While I like the look of her armor I don't like when some artists make her look muscular or the cape looks like shes wearing giant velvet curtains for a cape the cape should be simple and light as per how To draws it but a lot of artist draw the big heavy cape.
Again I don't dislike the CB look im tolerating it but I agree I dont like the blue and all the red its just soo...Superman, Captain Marvel, spider-man etc like its so cliche her pink/lavender look was unique to the xmen and made her pop.
Oh well RIP to the design :(
XoS will be important for Betsy and her looks. Marvel wants Betsy to be the knight in the X-Men and she can be that on her terms. Designs made by Mahmud Asrar are hits. For me it's inevitable that the butterfly and the newest Psylocke costume will return to Betsy.
Jean's sentinel costume by Asrar returned with a color change. Ororo has one black and one white version of the Asrar Red costume and goes to show the influence he has as an artist.
I agree Asrar is a god when it comes to designing the xmen!
However since Betsy is somewhat dependent on her armor (flight and traversal to Otherworld) its sadly not easy for her to change what she's wearing unfortunately.
At this point I'm just happy she has purple hair and telepathy thats her only recognizable traits left for the character.
I hope they keep her with a feminine silhouette and don't go towards a masculine vibe for the character. Howard said she requested Betsy be big and buff but Marcus To talked her out of it.. THANK YOU MARCUS!!
So I just fear if Leah Williams or Howard have their way, she would go full masculine/androgynous as they're fans of the masculine/strong looking fenales and that misses the entire point of betsy... her whole situation is that she is supposed to be unassuming. The prissy pink princess that can take on anyone even if she knows she doesn't stand a chance (sabretooth, vargas, slaymaster, shadow king, etc)
I know SJWs love an ambigous look or for a woman to look masculine but please apply to that someone else that doesn't mesh with who Betsy is.
Yeah i prefer the red/blue on Jean's Asrar look and not a fan of the white variant Storm was sporting in Marauders last week, the black and gold look so good in contrast to her silver hair.
Yeah i can understand if people are sick of overtly sexualized costumes but they wanna take it to the opposite spectrum and remove all feminine features wtf? I mean.. go off but do it to an obscure character or a new creation. Don't fuck with an established character that's existed for decades. Seriously who likes SheHulk anymore? I always adored Jen but now she's a monster with no breaststroke. Its very bizarre and imo fetish
@Rahsaan and @Randybear it's funny because the discussion earlier was about costume changes and I just finished reading the newest "Marauders" where Storm actually does just that lol.
Haha we are a linked mind hive here in the blog! 😁
I think Frenzy is a strong woman who is drawn muscular and "feminine." I use quotes, because feminine is a sliding scale based on societal constructs. I have met feminine bodybuilders who were not on steroids or T and their muscle mass didn't make them any less feminine if one has an open mind to what femininity can be. We don't go around calling men who can't gain substantial muscle mass feminine, so it's a double standard to call women who naturally can masculine. Regarding Frenzy: Recent artists since just before Utopia have realized that while Frenzy is muscular, she probably would not be as big as she was drawn in the 90s and early 00s and have actually made her smaller but still super-fit which I dig. Then again, I don't really dig the bodybuilder look on any human of any gender. I prefer a more athletic look that isn't solely about vanity muscle over functionality, but I don't knock those who are into bodybuilding. To each their own.
Anyway, here is something to get y'all really triggered. Kwannon has a future daughter with Forge. Enjoy, luvs:
https://www.cbr.com/captain-marvel-lee-garbett-designs-interview/
Totally agree. Im definitely not conservative but I dont swing far far left! I'm a moderate liberal.
The SJWs being upset at a sexy woman and screaming they should be masculine or frumpy how is that any different from when a strict conservative believes women should be covered up and not allowed to be sexual?
If creators want more representation (which, comics have almost always been inclusive) thats fine but express it in a creative organic manner not "oh im taking over this heroes book and guess what? They're now *this* because this is who I am"
Also all these SJWs LOVE white bread Carol Danvers CM but they all forget about the superior Captain Marvel/Photon from the 80s.
They wanna be mad at Betsy but conveniently forget that Carol completely stole Photons identity and i would have LOVED Monica Rambeau getting the blow up that Carol did IMO
But *phew* I digress and im sure my comments will have some upset but oh well 🤷🏻♂️
And Kwannon's daughter has a focused totality! LOL!
I guess I have a closed mind lol peace to you Rahsaan
Kwannon and Forge’s daughter is cute and she has more fashion sense that her mother when it comes to a cute and functional uniform that no one else previously wore. And glad to see a uniform with actual footwear.
Randy, what I’m saying is the no one has here has the trademark in what defines a woman’s femininity. Not any of the women commenting (as they can only define their own) and definitely not you or I as men. And it’s always peace. I’m peacefully disagreeing with y’all is all. 💜
If people don’t like the look of women with big muscles, then just don’t have that look for yourselves. Though, most people I know both men and women are not disciplined enough to achieve that anyway or genetically dispositioned to, but it’s a bit audacious to define their femininity base on a really rigid definition of the word. Femininity and masculinity are way more than just body composition and shape. And they run on sliding scales based on what societies one is part of as well as time periods. Certain things deemed masculine today would not be masculine in other societies at other points in time. All these labels are relative constructs. And the notion that fluidity in them is a “social justice warrior” or “woke” concept is false.
That's a great subject. People - both men and women - can have any body shape, muscular, thin, fat, athletic, and none of them define them as more (or less) masculine or feminine, as more (or less) capable or uncapable. And I agree, the new writers shouldn't try to change Betsy's figure according to what they identify themselves with (even though I think muscular women look cool).
Then again, her "muscular" appearance comes mostly from the CB armor; she still has the same body figure underneath it, right? It's sorta like Metroid's Samus, where you get surprised when you find out how she looks like underneath her armor.
Oh well, maybe Betsy will lose the armor by the time XoS is over and reclaim her Psylocke codename or adopt a new identity (though I think it's unfair if she has to adopt a new codename just to let Kwannon be the sole Psylocke; Marvel may say people identify Psylocke as the 1990s ninja, but Betsy has used this codename for a long time before that).
(as for Namor, he's been wearing a full body suit for a while, hasn't he? Then again, I remember there's a limited series, maybe Marvels, where he would go completely naked - but that caused Thing to make some jokes at his expense...)
Objectification is a universal curse. Men and women are aroused by naked parts. Marvel is at fault for using Ninjalock's body as a prop for sales. They keep spitting out covers of Ninjalock in sexual positions wearing her thong so high that lewd imagination isn't needed to make her cult following wet their pants. This is the only reason she exists as porn material in comics.
My only question is why the SJWs don't attack Marvel for the objectification of Revanche. The SJWs attack Betsy for supposedly snatching an Asian body but they go silent when the fetishized Ninjalocke appears. It's as if the SJWs are in cahoots with Marvel on Ninjalock and female rights don't matter. I think ninjas have to cover themselves to avoid injuries and blend in the dark not attract pain and attention. Especially the male gaze.
Poor Betsy has to suffer time again and lose the modest sexuality she had when she first appeared.
@Rahsaan she can't help it. Can she? Revanche likes to imitate other people and steal things. Forge is Storm's leftovers like the name Psylocke, T.K. weapons and the butterfly. I'm not surprised. Thankfully all the exes of Betsy are safe from her claws (Warren, Cable, Iceman, Thunderbird, Alex, Sabretooth, Fantomex).
@Kiki I been looking to debate these people who think Betsy stole something, but I never find them lol. I didn't like how similar to "Get Out" it was having a white woman controlling an Asian woman's body, but I always blamed the writers...never Betsy. Blaming Betsy is a huge example of victim blaming, and I am just as against that. It went both ways, they had each other's bodies, it wasn't just a one way thing and it was Kwannon's crew who initiated all this to wake her up. Smh lol.
Lmao! I like that comparison of forge and the codename Psylocke both being leftovers. TRUTH!!
I'm honeslt fine if Kwannon keeps Psylocke, it's tainted now and giving it back to Betsy would only piss off those morons more.
@X-Man oooh I wish the acts of vengeance had a Betsy acting like Chris trying to dodge and ice all the fascist Mandarin and Hand psychos that performed on her the plastic surgery retconned to a body swap.
Jordan Peele did great with the film I kinda wanted him around in the early 90s to write the Madripoor story instead of Claremont. Peele nailed the appropriation of Black culture without making it about race per se but individual skills. This problem applies to all sides. What the Mandarin and the Japanese mafia did to Betsy was equal to Get Out cause they exploited her mind and talents.
@randybear Revanche can have the Psylocke anyway it was a villainous code name given to Betsy by Mojo and Marvel treats Psylocke like a villain anyways. One thing she can't have is Betsy's soul and that is the butterfly effect.
About this objectification discussion, a question: is Kwannon being objectified in Hellions?
I know she's still wearing the Hand bathing suit, but showing skin isn't itself objectification; my question is about her behavior, the body poses she's drawn doing, stuff like that.
Like, there was a Brazilian comic book titled Holy Avenger back in the 1990s (yes, its title was in English - there was a clever reason for that), where one of the main characters was an elf with huge breasts, whose only "clothes" were some leather straps in strategic parts of her body. One could say she was very objectified, but she soon became very popular with the FEMALE readers because of her cheerful, bubbly personality, and her revealing outfit was used mostly for humor, with other characters initially being weirded out by it and later interacting with her like if she was fully dressed. I guess it helped that the artist in charge of this book was a woman (then again, the writer was a man...).
As for the codename, you guys brought some good points. I love the Psylocke codename, but yeah, after reading your opinions, I think it may be okay if she gets a new codename after her time as Captain Britain is over.
Exactly @Kiki. Ita.
The Psylocke name upsets people when it is used to refer to Betsy.
https://twitter.com/BeautyPale/status/1313541639512690688
https://twitter.com/bye_you_boy/status/1314023624102346752
https://twitter.com/ValeKementari/status/1313280494860148736
Wow this chick is so hateful lol clearly doesn't know anything about the body swap storyline. I feel sorry for them looking so stupid 😂
Yes they don't know the bio of Betsy. The body swap isn't enough to justify the hate they feel. I think they create the hate to take Betsy out of the way.
@Tobias it doesn't help that Howard and Hill both vaguely mention it in their runs specifically wording the dialogue "i stole the body" "it was taken from me" etc with no context.
In my country they say lakdoub ma 3andou rajlin to say lies have no legs. The truth about Betsy's innocence will come out and Kwannon will get her rump grilled.
Loving the responses to these tweets! We are the new CB Corp 🤣
@randybear thanks man lol. I'm just getting warmed up haha.
BTW that person's user name sounds so familiar I think they used to post on CBR years ago when I did too. They were a troll back then too regarding Betsy.
So sad theyre still harboring anger towards a fictional character all these years later. 🤣
Lol @Randybear. I only wish Twitter didn't limit how much I write. I'm a lengthy writer, I have to cut so much out lol.
Lol I feel that I can be the same way. But when it comes to Betsy its always a massive subject to tackle theres a lot to talk about 😄
@Randybear definitely. I do have to agree with others that these people aren't really fans of Kwannon. If they were, they would know basic 101 info on her. I'm more of a fan of hers, and that's saying a lot lol.
@psi girl it seems so lol.
The same I said to the other post. Marvel hasn't made clear that Betsy isn't the criminal in the body swap story. Brian Edward Shill, Williams and Howard strengthen the body snatcher accusation with what they write.
Horrible people spewing poison on the internet and the writers enable it to go on. I'm glad to have left twitter.
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