Mutant empath and ruthless assassin, Kwannon, serves a Japanese crime lord up until a battle with her love that leaves her brain dead. It was at this moment, Betsy Braddock’s mind was placed in Kwannon’s body. When Betsy recreated her body, Kwannon’s mind could return to her own. Now she is Psylocke, protector of mutantkind.
Life-Altering Mind Swap
When the elite assassin of Japanese crime lord Nyoirin and mutant empath Kwannon falls in love with Matsu’o Tsurayaba of the Hand, it causes Kwannon to make a tough decision. When Nyoirin’s plans conflict with the Hand’s interests, Kwannon and Matsu'o privately pledge to honor their love by fighting each other to the death. When Matsu'o is dispatched to kill Nyoirin, Kwannon faces him in battle. Matching each other stroke for stroke, their fight ends when a muddy ledge on the cliffs surrounding Nyoirin’s estate gives way, dispatching Kwannon to the rocks below. Nyoirin permits Matsu'o to bring the Hand Kwannon’s body, which they restore; however, her mind had been damaged by oxygen deprivation.
When the telepathic X-Man Betsy Braddock, AKA Psylocke, washes ashore on the Hand’s island in an amnesiac state, Matsu'o sees an opportunity to restore Kwannon. Allying himself with both the Mandarin and Rita Wayword, AKA Spiral, Matsu'o seeks to combine the power of the Mandarin’s rings, the Hand’s science and Spiral’s magic to draw Kwannon’s mind into Psylocke’s body, believing that Kwannon’s own mutant nature would permit her mind to withstand the strain.
To please her employer, Mojo, Spiral not only swaps their minds, but also manipulates genetic coding between the two women, leaving each with some of the other’s memories, traits and abilities; however, due to Kwannon’s brain damage, the switch leaves her mind a virtual blank slate. Spiral then turns Kwannon (in Psylocke’s body) over to Nyoirin, who exploits her amnesia and lies to her about her origins in order to reclaim her services as his assassin. To drive his lie home, Nyoirin penned a false diary, which claimed that, while on assignment, Kwannon had discovered an injured Psylocke and sought to help; however, upon physical contact Psylocke’s powers caused their minds to fuse together, and Kwannon fled, leaving Psylocke to be taken in by Nyoirin.
Empathic Ninja
In her original body, Kwannon had low-level empathic abilities. When her mind swaps with Betsy Braddock’s, Kwannon gains telepathic powers, including mind-reading and creating a psychic blade that can disrupt others both physically and mentally. Her psychic powers have been enhanced by Cassandra Nova.
Kwannon is also a skilled ninja with years of training in the martial arts. She often wields two Japanese katanas.
Alliances Gone Wrong
Kwannon goes up against her boss’s enemy, and her true love, Matsu’o Tsurayaba—a fight that leads her to suffer brain damage. Over time, she recovers with the help of a mind-swap with Betsy Braddock, an X-Man. She also helps the X-Men battle many foes, including Magneto (a clone named Joseph, the Hellfire Club and Raven Darkhölme, AKA Mystique.
She has an uneasy alliance with Nathaniel Essex, AKA Mister Sinister, who uses her to get what he wants for his clandestine experiments, forcing her to keep secrets from her fellow X-Men and mutants.
Mutant Allies
Due to her unique mind-swapping connection with Besty Braddock, at the time known as Psylocke, Kwannon allies with the heroic X-Men. The X-Men help her discover the truth about her background and when she works with them, she fights their battles.
Psylocke joins her fellow brethren on the mutant island-nation of Krakoa and leads Sinister’s group of Hellions. She also becomes one of Krakoa’s hailed Captains. She allies with Kate Pryde and her Marauders, going up against the parasitic Brood and anti-mutant organizations, and later joins the Avengers Unity Squad, always with the intention of defending and protecting mutants.
A Mind-Bending History
After Nyoirin’s lie and the diary, Kwannon now believed herself to be Betsy Braddock. She took the code name Revanche and traveled to New York, intending to expose the supposed faux-Psylocke in the X-Men’s midst. Confronting Psylocke in the X-Men’s Danger Room, Revanche’s innate empathic abilities fueled by her anger forced a violent confrontation between them. When the other X-Men discovered her, she revealed her identity as the supposed “true” Betsy Braddock. Unable to discern the truth, Xavier dispatched Psylocke, Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, and Remy LeBeau, AKA Gambit, to accompany Revanche back to Nyoirin’s estate in Japan for answers. There, after a clash with Nyoirin’s agent Kenuichio Harada, AKA Silver Samurai, they learned from Nyoirin himself that they supposedly shared minds, and then together they confronted Matsu’o over this “revelation.”
Returning to America, Revanche stayed with the X-Men and eventually forged an uneasy truce with Psylocke. Later, while investigating an island clinic for Legacy virus victims run by Empyrean, a mutant who secretly fed off their dying energies, Revanche confessed to her teammates that she had contracted the virus. As it spread, it augmented her telepathic powers to the point where she began to realize that she was truly Kwannon in both mind and soul.
Seeking resolution before the virus claimed her life, Revanche confronted Matsu'o, who told her the real truth behind the mind swap. Revealing her virus infection to him, Revanche gave him the chance to redeem his failing her, asking him to kill her before the virus did. At the moment of her death, Revanche’s body released an explosion of telepathic energy that left Matsu'o imprinted with her memories, which he later used to make Psylocke’s mind whole.
Psylocke later remade her original body and revived herself into it after defeating the psychic vampire Sapphire Styx in the astral plane. This resurrection also led to the reanimation of her prior body with Kwannon’s spirit restored into it. Now revived and inhabiting her own body, Kwannon encountered the X-Men and helped them defeat Magneto (a clone named Joseph) though her memories of the X-Men were not wholly intact. She spoke Japanese to them and introduced herself as “Nothing”. Wolverine translated and then she joined him to help avenge the slain Wolfsbane against the Office of National Emergency (O*N*E). She later helped him in a battle against the Hellfire Club where she suffered defeat at the hands of Mystique.
After Betsy became Captain Britain, Kwannon took the name Psylocke and joined the sovereign mutant island-nation of Krakoa, a paradise where Psylocke felt out of place. After she had a prophetic vision of a new intelligence called Apoth, Psylocke discovered that Apoth was responsible for the creation of a new cyberdrug, or virtual narcotic, called Overclock and for the children employed in its production. She also saw her past and witnessed her long-lost daughter being taken from her. Sensing a coming apocalypse, she sought to leave Krakoa to defeat this threat, asking Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, permission. He did not give it but instead encouraged her to seek out Mister Sinister. She offered Sinister Apoth and he helped her leave. Psylocke also invited Laura Kinney, AKA X-23, a younger Nathan Summers, AKA Cable, Roxy Washington, AKA Bling, and Paige Guthrie, AKA Husk, to fight Apoth in Dubai. Her team allowed her time to get to Apoth and she destroyed the intelligence and gave the remnants to Sinister.
Psylocke was soon asked by Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, to oversee Sinister’s group of Hellions—disreputable mutants too violent for Krakoa’s polite, utopian society. She reluctantly took the position. To prove they were productive members of society, the team set out to destroy Sinister’s defunct cloning lab, but the mission went south with the unexpected appearance of Madelyne Pryor—Jean Grey’s clone and Cyclops’ and Alex Summers, AKA Havok’s ex-lover. Pryor unleashed imperfect clones of the Legacy Marauders, and Kyle Gibney, AKA Wild Child, attacked his Hellion teammates and Pryor took Hellion-member Havok hostage. While the Hellions fought for their lives against the Legacy Marauder clones, Psylocke battled her rebelling teammate and established dominance, helping Wild Child to understand who was in charge. When Madelyne started to bring the entire Marauder clone farm online, Psylocke ordered the Hellions to move out and go for Pryor and when John Greycrow shot Pryor and she seemingly perished, Havok attacked them. He was soon restored, having experienced a prolonged episode of dissociation where the demons that haunt him were behind the wheel.
When the champions of Krakoa gathered for a cross-dimensional tournament against those of Arakko, Sinister and his team of Hellions attempted to steal the 10 swords of Arakko to force a forfeit, but three of their team died in Arakko in the process. Little did they know that they were also collecting genetic material from the Locus Vile for Sinister’s experiments, to which Psylocke returned to Sinister with though she was coerced to do so. Upon her arrival to Sinister, he murdered her to cover her tracks. Thanks to the resurrection processes on Krakoa, Psylocke was restored and defended Sinister’s plot as he had found her daughter, in cyber form, within Apoth’s remains that she previously gave to him.
Psylocke and the Hellions were then abducted by Arcade who manipulated Jason Wyngarde, AKA Mastermind, into trapping them in their own personal nightmares. Psylocke thought she was being hunted by Betsy but soon saw through the mind-control and escaped. Arcade was ultimately defeated and Sinister then revealed to Psylocke that he could retrieve her daughter using Murderworld’s tech, but that the Quiet Council of Krakoa could not find out. The desire to be reunited with her daughter led her to keep Sinister’s secret.
When Betsy Braddock had gone missing, Psylocke joined Excalibur to help find her. She found Braddock’s soul and offered to host her psyche until her resurrection process was completed and wielded the Starlight Sword. During this time, Psylocke learned that Braddock’s body was once possessed by Alice MacAllister, AKA Malice, and feeling for the latter, she tracked her down on Krakoa and executed her so that she would be resurrected and gain a second chance.
The Locus Vile soon attacked the Hellions on account of the DNA samples that were stolen from them, and one of their members revealed Sinister’s plan to the group and the Hellions sought revenge. Psylocke finally came clean about it all, her involvement and how Sinister was using her desire to be with her daughter again. The team wanted to destroy Sinister’s facility and before Psylocke could stop them, Empath pushed Havok into bringing it down, leaving the Hellions under its rubble. The X-Men liberated them and back in Krakoa, the Quiet Council concealed Sinster’s work. Psylocke left Krakoa and the Hellions to remain what she always was, a lone assassin.
Though the Quiet Council had other plans for her and designated her as one of Krakoa’s Great Captains. Her first mission was to help Orphan-Maker retrieve the A.I. Simley Robot baby, adopted by Nanny, who had been reclaimed by the Right. Despite wanting to go it solo, the Hellions joined her. Orphan-Maker stormed the RIght’s compound in Arizona to get back his “baby brother” and into Nanny’s good graces. Psylocke and the Marauders tried to reach Orphan-Maker but lost Nanny in the process, which threw Orphan-Maker into a rage and led to the deaths of two human bystanders. Psylocke attempted to defend Orphan-Maker to the Quiet Council, even going so far as to silence Sinister with one swift kick to the face, but it wasn’t enough for the android to escape punishment for violating a foundational law of Krakoa. The resurrected Nanny joined him in the pit.
Psylocke soon joined fellow Captain Kate Pryde and her Marauders to help keep mutants safe. Their crew set out into space to rescue the first mutants, imprisoned thousands of years ago by the secret Shi’ar order, the Kin Crimson. The order would do anything to protect their secrets, including killing the Shi’ar Empress Xandra, after she brought the Marauders to the clandestine prison: the Krag. Psylocke probed one of Kin Crimson’s agents and uncovered the truth about a mutant genocide attempted by the Shi’ar, but using Tempo’s time-manipulation powers, they jumped back in time to rescue a trio of original mutants, known as the Thresholders, who were imprisoned with timedrives. Traveling back to the Avalon Space Station when Magneto first attempted to create a sovereign mutant nation, Psylocke found the timedrive device and secured it. Before they returned to their time, Marauders’ crew member Cassandra Nova helped unlock Psylocke’s psychic abilities so that she could erase the memories of those who saw them in that time.
Returning to their time, they resurrected the three Thresholders and vowed to save them and all their mutants. They traveled two billion years into the past to save the Threshold from annihilation by sentient twin bacteria Arkea and Sublime, capable of drafting soldiers through infecting various hosts. Their mission resulted in the deaths of Akihiro and Crave. When they returned to the present, Captain Pryde used the material in Genosha’s ruins to give Threshold new life but to do so, Psylocke connected with the time-traveling Shakti Haddad, AKA Cerebra, from the far future of 2099. With Cerebra and the Threshold Three, and a puzzle box, they succeeded in birthing Threshold.
Psylocke then helped recover Anna Marie, AKA Rogue, from the parasitic Brood who had her trapped in an illusion. During this time, she worked alongside Gambit and Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, the latter of whom shared info about Psylocke’s daughter, Sora, from a future timeline. Though they were caught by the Brood Empress who attempted to turn the heroes into her own drones. Psylocke suffered injuries that prevented her from offering any telepathy to help the team. Captain Marvel ultimately defeated the Empress whale Psylocke helped Rogue.
When one of the Hellfire Gala’s was attacked by anti-mutant organization Orchis, most of the X-Men were slain and banished. Psylocke survived and hid underground. Other surviving mutants were placed in concentration camps and Psylocke joined Monet St. Croix, AKA M, to raid the place. During this time, Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, recruited her into his Avengers Unity Squad to avenge the Krakoans. Though they had different methods, Psylocke joined these Avengers and battled the newest iteration of the Mutant Liberation Front led by Captain Krakoa who bought into Orchis’ ways and sought out a nuclear solution to mutants. Psylocke helped defeat the MLF and avert a nuclear explosion.
