Betsy Braddock
Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Herb Trimpe, she first appeared in Captain Britain #8. Introduced as the precognitive twin sister of Brian Braddock, Betsy is later established as a mutant, a subspecies of humans in the Marvel Universe born with an "X-gene" that grants superhuman abilities. Possessing telepathic and telekinetic powers, Betsy joins the X-Men in 1986 and becomes one of its most prominent members as Psylocke.
Betsy was redesigned in a 1989 story written by Claremont and illustrated by Jim Lee as a Japanese assassin with ninja skills and the ability to manifest her telepathy in the form of various weapons, most notably a "psychic knife", and this revamp proved so popular with fans that it was made permanent. In 1993, writer Fabian Nicieza retroactively revealed that this change in appearance was the result of a body swap with the newly-created character Kwannon. Following nearly 30 years of publication history, both women were returned to their original bodies, and Betsy took up the mantle of Captain Britain from her brother while Kwannon became the second Psylocke.
The character has been adapted in various media incarnations, including films, television series, and video games, having most notably been portrayed by Olivia Munn in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse.
Publication history
Origins
Created by writer Chris Claremont, Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock first appeared in Captain Britain #8, with Captain Britain #10 as her first cover appearance, published by the Marvel Comics' British imprint Marvel UK. The original spelling of the character's name was "Elizabeth", though relettering of the UK versions for American reprints would occasionally misspell it as "Elisabeth". This led to spelling inconsistencies throughout future publications. The inconsistency was resolved by Claremont 32 years later in 2008 in the series New Exiles, which reasserted the particular spelling of her name as "Elizabeth". In the Captain Britain series, Claremont introduced her as a supporting character, the sister of Brian Braddock, the eponymous Captain Britain, and established her career as a charter pilot. He also established that she had psychic abilities, the full extent of which were unknown, though no explanation is given for these powers. In Marvel UK's Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #243, Betsy Braddock is presented as a professional model.In Marvel UK's Daredevils #3, Alan Moore established that the character has begun to work for the fictional governmental organization S.T.R.I.K.E., who are making use of her psychic abilities. Her lover Tom Lennox is also a S.T.R.I.K.E operative and is later murdered. The story also presents the character as having dyed her hair purple after being blonde; this hair color has subsequently become the dominant presentation of the character. The next major change for the character came in the 1986 relaunched Captain Britain series, where Betsy Braddock stands in for her brother as Captain Britain, and is rendered blind by the supervillain Slaymaster.
X-Men
In New Mutants Annual #2, Claremont integrated Betsy Braddock into the X-Men franchise. The story sees her abducted to the Mojoverse, where she is subjected to brainwashing, fitted with bionic eyes, and referred to as "the Psylocke" for the first time. After being rescued by the New Mutants, she takes up residence at their mutant-training academy, run by Magneto at the time in the absence of Professor Charles Xavier. After aiding the team unofficially, Braddock proves herself by distracting the attentions of the murderous supervillain Sabretooth. Afterward, Braddock is formally invited to join the X-Men and officially adopts the codename "Psylocke", becoming an enduring fixture of the team over the next three decades.Initially written as a pure non-mutant telepath with few fighting skills, Betsy later adopts body armor. In The Uncanny X-Men #251, the X-Men flee from the cybernetic terrorists, the Reavers, through the Siege Perilous, an extra-dimensional teleportation device. The now-amnesiac Betsy is taken in by the Hand, who brainwash and physically alter her to take on an East Asian appearance so that she can blend in in Hong Kong. Braddock now believes herself to be "Lady Mandarin", the Hand's supreme assassin. After she is rescued by the X-Men's Wolverine and overcomes her brainwashing, the character retains the combat skills granted through the Hand's modification techniques as well as the ability to manifest her total focused telepathy in the form of a "psychic knife".
With the launch of the second volume of X-Men in 1991, the team splits, with Betsy joining the team led by Cyclops. In Jim Lee-written issues, the character becomes flirtatious with Cyclops, eventually attempting to seduce him. At this point, Kwannon, a new character with the physical appearance of Betsy prior to the Hand's manipulation, claims to be the original Betsy Braddock, accusing the Asian-featured Betsy of being an impostor. After Jim Lee and six other creators left Marvel Comics to found Image Comics, new scriptwriter Fabian Nicieza established that Kwannon is the impostor and that Braddock's flirtations with Cyclops were part of a genetic and mental splicing in which the Kwannon impostor was first created, a body swap having occurred.
In 1994, writer Scott Lobdell set up a relationship between Betsy Braddock and her teammate Archangel. The character is severely injured by a crazed Sabretooth in the Lobdell-written The Uncanny X-Men #328. Her life is saved by the use of a mystic artifact known as the Crimson Dawn, the aftereffects of which granted Betsy the ability to teleport in and out of shadows. Lobdell also temporarily took her out of the X-Men roster this issue. Braddock returns to the team in X-Men #77–78, where she uses her Crimson Dawn-enhanced telepathy to trap the Shadow King in the astral plane. Any use of her telepathy would result in his release, so she forgoes the use of her telepathic ability. Some time later she would develop telekinesis for the first time instead. Betsy's relationship with Archangel ends in the Claremont written X-Men #109, where the character embarks upon a relationship with new Indian X-Men recruit Neal Shaara, also known as Thunderbird.
In the Claremont-written X-Treme X-Men #2, the character dies, her comic book death lasting until 2005's The Uncanny X-Men #455; Claremont also wrote this issue, later stating he had always intended to revive her. Briefly, the character was depicted in Exiles, a spin-off comic-book series in the X-Men franchise, set in an alternate universe. With the cancellation of New Exiles, Betsy Braddock starred in her first solo book, the X-Men: Sword of The Braddocks one-shot. Afterwards, the character was brought back to the main Marvel Universe in early 2009 within the pages of The Uncanny X-Men.
In addition to appearing in many X-related team titles over the decades, Psylocke have appeared in several limited series. In the year of 1997, the characters appeared in the 4-issue team-up series Psylocke and Archangel: Crimson Dawn. Beginning in November 2009, Betsy Braddock was featured in X-Men: Psylocke a self-titled four issue miniseries written by Christopher Yost and drawn by Harvey Tolibao; Matsu'o Tsurayaba and Wolverine are central characters in the story.
Captain Britain
At the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, Editor-in-Chief C. B. Cebulski and writer Jonathan Hickman revealed that, following the franchise-wide relaunch House of X/Powers of X, Betsy Braddock would become the new Captain Britain, with Brian adopting the new title of Captain Avalon and Kwannon taking over the Psylocke moniker. Cebulski compared Betsy's adoption of the Captain Britain mantle to Carol Danvers's transition to Captain Marvel. As part of the Dawn of X, a new volume of Excalibur written by Tini Howard was launched, with Braddock leading a new lineup of the titular team consisting of herself, Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee, Rictor, and Apocalypse. Braddock was included as a central character in the X of Swords crossover by Howard and Hickman. Following the completion of Howard's Excalibur run, Braddock was featured in the Knights of X miniseries and Captain Britain: Betsy Braddock, with Betsy and her long-time friend Rachel Summers confessing their romantic feelings for each other, with their kiss shown in a splash page.Fictional character biography
Background
Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock was born in England and was raised in the small town of Maldon, Essex. Betsy was Sir James Braddock's second child, born minutes before her twin brother Brian. The twins and their elder brother Jamie, who was nearly a decade older, had a very privileged life. By the time she entered college, Betsy had become a charter pilot. After she and Jamie were taken hostage by the Red Skull's agents and freed by Captain America and Captain Britain, Betsy learned the latter was her brother Brian. At this time Betsy began to develop precognitive powers. She dyed her hair purple and took up modeling. At the age of twenty-one, her psychic powers fully manifested, which grew to include telepathy. Agent Matthew recruited Betsy into S.T.R.I.K.E.'s Psi Division, and she became fellow psi Tom Lennox's lover. As she had inherited membership to the Hellfire Club from her father, Betsy was sent to infiltrate it, but was warned off by Tessa for her own protection. She also met future boyfriend Warren Worthington for the first time during one of the Hellfire Club parties.When the crime lord Vixen hired Slaymaster to eliminate the Psi-Division, only Betsy, Tom Lennox, and their friend Alison Double were left when Brian defeated him. When reality warped due to the powers of Mad Jim Jaspers, Tom sacrificed himself to give the Braddocks time to escape from a group of superhero hunters. Betsy was in Tom's mind when he died; feeling his death, she was left traumatized. Following the repair of the reality warp, an evil version of Captain Britain from another universe named Kaptain Briton switched places with Brian. The double tried to rape Betsy. In self-defense, she telepathically killed him. The same night, the twins were informed of their father's Otherworld origins, and a new intelligence agency called R.C.X. asked them to billet Warpies, children transformed by Jaspers' warp, at the Manor, which led to an argument between Betsy and Brian.