There’s an amazing scene in X-Men #1 where Psylocke is portrayed as a psychic sniper. Armed with a telepathic bow and arrow, Betsy is poised to strike like Hawkeye in his first appearance in The Avengers film.
Betsy joins Storm, Kitty Pryde, Rogue and Rachel Grey in an all-female team on a mission to protect a mysterious orphan found by Jubilee. Writer Brian Wood tells Marvel.com how Betsy fits on this squad and her expanded powers as a “psychic ninja.”
“Psylocke’s primary role on this team is that of muscle, but in a very different way. My editor [Jeanine Schaefer] has unofficially tagged her “the point person” in the tactical sense of the phrase. She reprises her role, from my X-MEN run last year, as Storm’s sort of second-in-command and confidant. She’s emotionally distant because she’s tabling her recent past experiences in UNCANNY X-FORCE, but she can’t keep a lid on that 24/7, so we’ll start to see some of the bad [expletive] coming to the surface as we move forward.
On a lighter note, I’m expanding her arsenal of weaponry. I like the idea of her using actual weapons like her psychic katana, as opposed to mental projections, and I’ve already given her a longbow in the first issue. I’d like to keep that up, so she has a full arsenal of medieval gear to use. Magik shouldn’t be the only one who gets to swing around a massive sword.
Psylocke suffered as member of Wolverine’s black ops team in Uncanny X-Force then Logan kicked her off the teaching staff at the Jean Grey School. How does Wood see Betsy:
“I like to think of her as a soldier above everything else. I’m looking for an extremely dry sense of humor to give her—not quite black and not at all sarcastic, but really cutting and brutally delivered at times. It’s all part and parcel with her past dramas, a coping mechanism or a façade of sorts, but one that meshes perfectly with her role on the team.”
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link and X-Men #1 is out now.
By Editor