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Real name Elisabeth Glorianna « Betsy » Braddock, , Captain Britain II, Lady Mandarin
Psylocke (Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock) is a fictional superhero 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 in 1976, she first appeared in the Marvel UK series Captain Britain.
Betsy was initially a supporting character in the adventures of her twin brother, Captain Britain, even briefly substituting for him in the role, before becoming the mutant superheroine and X-Men member Psylocke in 1986. Originally presented as a precognitive in the pages of Captain Britain and then as a telepath, the character eventually had her mind placed in the body of a Japanese female ninja known as Kwannon, gaining many of Kwannon's martial arts skills and elements of her personality. Psylocke's codename, coined by the X-Men villains Mojo and Spiral, first debuted during her introduction to the X-Men stories post-Captain Britain. Later, Psylocke acquired the power of telekinesis.
Many alternative versions of Psylocke have also appeared in several comics series of Marvel Multiverse, as well as in various other media and merchandise, notably in numerous video games. She briefly appeared in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand, where she was played by Meiling Melançon. Olivia Munn will portray her in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse.
Biography
BackgroundElizabeth "Betsy" Braddock was born in England and was raised in the small town of Maldon, Essex. Betsy was Sir James Braddock's second child and she, her twin brother Brian, and elder brother Jamie had a very privileged life. By the time their parents died, 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 sixteen, 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 James Jaspers' powers, 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 Jasper's warp, at the Manor, which led to an argument between Betsy and Brian.
When Brian went overseas, Matthew (now codenamed Gabriel) convinced Betsy to become the new Captain Britain, wearing Kaptain Briton's modified costume. Working with Captain UK, the duo became public sensations. After several months, crime boss Vixen lured Betsy into a showdown with Slaymaster, who brutally beat her, then gouged her eyes out. Brian flew to her rescue and killed Slaymaster. Betsy refused R.C.X.'s offer of cybernetic eyes, preferring to rely on her psychic abilities; she and Gabriel went to Switzerland for Betsy to recuperate.
X-Men
Betsy was kidnapped from the Alps by Mojo, brainwashed, given cybernetic eyes, and, as "Psylocke," became the star of his new show "Wildways." Brian and the New Mutants rescued her, after which Betsy moved to the X-Men's mansion to recover, exactly where Roma, Guardian of the Omniverse, needed her to be. When the Marauders attacked the Morlocks, the X-Mansion was used as a temporary infirmary for injured survivors of the massacre. Knowing that the X-Men were away in New York, the Marauder Sabretooth invaded the mansion. Psylocke used herself as a bait to lead him away from the injured until the X-Men arrived to help her. While Sabretooth and Wolverine fought, Psylocke used her telepathy to gather information about the Marauders and their leader, Mr. Sinister, from Sabretooth's mind. Wolverine, though initially reluctant to involve outsiders in the X-Men's affairs, was impressed by her bravery and nominated her to join the team.
As an X-Man she met Mephisto, Dr. Doom and the Fantastic Four, and the Horde. The X-Men later battled Freedom Force and the Adversary in Dallas, and, in a televised battle, sacrificed themselves to allow Forge to bind the Adversary; Roma secretly restored them to life, and gave Betsy the Siege Perilous, which they could use if they ever wanted to start new lives. The X-Men moved to the Reavers' Australian Outback base, from where they took on the Brood, Genoshan Magistrates, Mister Sinister and the Goblin Queen, M Squad, Mr. Jip and the Serpent Society, Master Mold and Nimrod, Nanny and the Orphan-Maker, and Zaladane and the Savage Land Mutates. As they were about to depart the Savage Land, Betsy had a precognitive flash of the Reavers killing the team. To prevent this, she sent them through the Siege Perilous.
Transformed
Betsy reappeared amnesiac on an island near China, where the Hand, a ninja clan, found her. Matsu'o Tsurayaba, their leader, saw a chance to save his brain-dead lover, Kwannon. Spiral informed Matsu'o that Psylocke's telepathy could restore Kwannon, and Matsu'o accepted. Unknown to Matsu'o, however, Spiral actually placed the two women's minds into each other's bodies. She also merged their genetic structures, leaving both women with physical and mental traits of the other, and with each possessing half of Psylocke's telepathic power. With some physical and mental conditioning, Psylocke—inhabiting Kwannon's body—became the Hand's prime assassin, taking the name Lady Mandarin. She gained highly remarkable fighting skills and learned to focus her telepathic power into a "psychic knife." Lady Mandarin's first mission pitted her against Wolverine. Betsy's psychic knife attack revealed Wolverine's memories of who she used to be and allowed her to break free from the Hand's conditioning.
Psylocke rejected her role as Lady Mandarin and escaped with Wolverine and Jubilee, eventually going with them to the island nation of Genosha, where the New Mutants had been kidnapped along with the X-Men's leader, Storm, by Cameron Hodge. Following Hodge's defeat, the X-Men reunited and returned to New York. Psylocke then joined the Blue Team led by Cyclops, for whom she displayed an obvious attraction. When Phoenix found out, the two women fought, but were interrupted by the arrival of Kwannon, now calling herself Revanche, in Betsy's former body, claiming to be the real Psylocke. Unable to discern which was truly Betsy, both stayed with the X-Men, maintaining an uneasy coexistence. Learning she had the Legacy Virus, Revanche had Matsu'o kill her, restoring Psylocke's full personality and telepathic potential. Having become involved with her teammate Angel, the following months saw her fight the Phalanx, try to reach Jamie's comatose mind, battle Legion in Israel, and combat Gene Nation.
Crimson Dawn
When Sabretooth gutted Psylocke, Angel, Wolverine, Doctor Strange, and Gomurr the Ancient retrieved a magical liquid from the Crimson Dawn dimension that healed her and gave her the new ability to teleport through shadows, but also marked her with a red tattoo over her left eye. Her personality took on a cold edge, which created distance between her and Warren. Kuragari, Proctor of the Crimson Dawn, tried to claim Betsy as his bride, but was thwarted with Gomurr and Angel's aid, freeing Betsy of the Dawn's influence. However, Psylocke still retained the abilities associated with it. Soon after these events, the couple retired from active duty with the X-Men.
Subsequently she aided Storm against the Shadow King, who tricked Psylocke into initiating a psychic shockwave that disabled all other telepaths, leaving him unchallenged on the astral plane. Her own astral form was destroyed, but her exposure to the Crimson Dawn gave her a new shadow form with temporarily enhanced powers, which she used to trap the Shadow King's core. To keep him trapped she was forced to constantly focus her telepathy on him, effectively rendering herself powerless.
Revolution and X-Treme
Jean Grey's attempt to help Betsy deal with the Shadow King somehow swapped their powers, leaving Betsy telekinetic. With her new abilities Betsy fought Belasco, the Neo, the Goth, the Crimson Pirates, the Twisted Sisters, and the Prime Sentinels, then aided her brother freeing Otherworld from Mastermind's Warpie army. After ending her relationship with Archangel, Betsy joined Storm's X-Treme X-Men team in the search for Destiny's diaries.
In Valencia, Psylocke died in combat with the man known as Vargas while protecting Rogue and Beast, who were badly beaten by the villain. Brian Braddock and Meggan collected Psylocke's body from Spain. She was buried at the Braddock family estate and a memorial to her was erected at the X-Mansion by Beast.
Resurrection
One year after her death, Betsy awoke where she had died, unaware of how she had survived, and was soon reunited with the X-Men, helping them against the Saurian Hauk'ka, and Mojo and Spiral. Jamie started to covertly observe his resurrected sister, allowing her to catch occasional glimpses of him. Betsy was reunited with Brian during the Scarlet Witch's "House of M" reality storm; when the timeline was set right, the memories of their encounter took on a dreamlike state, prompting Betsy and several of the X-Men to visit London to check on Brian's status.
Back in the USA, Betsy and the X-Men failed to stop Shi'ar Death Commandos from slaughtering the Grey family, targeted for death because of their relationship to Phoenix, but helped defeat them before they could kill Rachel Grey. With the First Fallen's servants, the Foursaken, about to make their move, Jamie revealed his part in Betsy's resurrection to the X-Men: sensing the approaching threat of the cosmically powerful First Fallen (a harbringer of frozen, eternal "perfection") and learning of Betsy's demise, an annoyed Jamie resurrected her, reaching back through time to stop her spirit passing into the afterlife. Intending her to be a weapon to use against the First Fallen, Jamie tightened up the "quantum strings" of Betsy's body, rendering her mostly immune to external manipulation, enhancing her telekinetic powers, and leaving her invisible to the First Fallen's senses. Jamie was abducted by the Foursaken before he could fully inform them of the imminent threat; trying to rescue him, the X-Men were easily captured, except Betsy, who found herself invisible to the Foursaken's senses. Disrupting their attempt to give the First Fallen full access to Earth, Betsy and the X-Men were pulled into his realm, the Singing City, where Betsy's immunity to his mental control allowed her to free the City's residents, including the Foursaken, from his dominance. As a wrathful First Fallen turned on them, Jamie sent the X-Men home while he held the entity back, apparently sacrificing himself.
Returning to the UK to tell Brian of Jamie's fate, Betsy learned that Shadow Xavier, leader of the Shadow X-Men, had taken over the minds of his jailors in Crossmore Prison, and was demanding to see her. Accompanied by Excalibur, Betsy visited the prison, where Xavier revealed his true identity as the Shadow King, and tried to take revenge, having Excalibur attack Brian so that Betsy could witness his death; however, immune to his control, Betsy telekinetically induced a stroke in Xavier's body, freeing Excalibur. Before she could finish him off, Psylocke was interdimensionally teleported to the Crystal Palace at the Nexus of All Realities.
Exiles
Appearing at the headquarters of the Exiles, heroes gathered from several realities to protect the Omniverse; both the Exiles' choice of Psylocke as latest recruit, and the timing of same, were apparently the result of Roma's manipulations, again moving one of her pawns to where it would soon be needed as part of a greater plan. Her first mission with the Exiles brought Betsy face to face with Earth-1720's Slaymaster, brutally reminding her of her reality's Slaymaster blinding her. After escaping, Slaymaster-1720 began murdering Betsy Braddock in each reality he visited.
Meanwhile, determined to confront her fear, Psylocke began rigorous training to prepare herself for their next encounter. She returned to Earth-616 to let Brian know she was alive. Almost immediately both the Exiles and Excalibur were called to the defense of Otherworld, under attack by an army of Furies created by a resurrected Mad Jim Jaspers; though the heroes prevailed, the Exiles were left as the Omniverse's primary defenders until the devastated Captain Britain Corps could be rebuilt. Choosing to remain with the Exiles, Betsy traveled to several realities. Upon arriving on a certain Earth, Psylocke had a mental breakdown due to this world's Psylocke counterpart's psyche being at war with Betsy's own psyche in order to control her body. This reality's Ogun approached Psylocke and offered to train her so she could avenge the death of his apprentice, who was killed by Slaymaster. Psylocke eventually tracked him to Earth-616 and killed him. Betsy returned to the Crystal Palace, became involved with teammate Sabretooth, and promised to honor her mission as an Exile.
Return
Somehow, Psylocke was kidnapped by Madelyne Pryor's Sisterhood while traveling between parallel worlds. They also stole Betsy's original body, in which Kwannon had died, at a graveyard. A ritual of sorts with both bodies was performed, resulting in Betsy's original body being brought back to life. The Sisterhood, now including a brainwashed Psylocke, attacked the X-Men. Dazzler was forced to use her powers on Psylocke, blowing half of Betsy's face off. Dazzler's attack shocked Betsy back to consciousness, enabling her to overcome the Red Queen's control and return to her Japanese body.
After these events Psylocke's powers changed once again; she now possessed both telepathic and telekinetic abilities, but with her psionic potential divided between them, neither ability is as strong as it once was. The following days saw Betsy travel back in time alongside Beast's X-Club. Psylocke also led the X-Club in a mission to raise Asteroid M, which was at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, to serve as the X-Men's new base of operations and a haven for mutantkind, called Utopia. Soon after, Psylocke went to Japan with Wolverine to re-inter her former body. Upon arriving, she was ambushed by the Hand, who destroyed her original body at the behest of Matsu'o Tsurayaba. Enraged, Psylocke tracked Matsu'o down, finding him terribly disfigured as the result of Wolverine's yearly revenge on Matsu'o for his role in the murder of Mariko Yashida. Matsu'o, now missing both hands and other body parts, desired an honorable death and wanted Psylocke to grant him that honor since he could not hold a blade to perform seppuku himself. This put Psylocke at odds with Wolverine, who felt that Matsu'o's punishment was not over yet. Psylocke engaged Wolverine in a brutal fight which ended in a truce. With Wolverine's permission, Psylocke finished Matsu'o off mercifully, using her telepathy to project illusions into his mind of his body restored and of Kwannon embracing him. Psylocke quickly killed him with her psi-blade.
During the Nation X storyline, Psylocke, Wolverine, and Colossus were sent down into the sewers under San Francisco to investigate the case of a missing Predator X. They ran into Fantomex, who had slain the beast. Psylocke battled Sublime's associates with the help of Fantomex and her teammates. During the Necrosha storyline, Psylocke joined Rogue's team sent to Muir Island to battle the resurrected Proteus. Psylocke appeared to have lost her immunity to telepathic attacks and reality alterations, as Proteus easily possessed her. However, her psi-blade was able to break his hold on his hosts. Following the return of Cable and Hope Summers, Psylocke was selected as part of Cyclops' "Alpha roster" of X-Men sent to locate and protect the two from the forces of Bastion.
Uncanny X-Force
In the aftermath of "X-Men: Second Coming", Psylocke (along with Deadpool, Fantomex, and Archangel) was selected by Wolverine to be a member of the new X-Force; the sole condition being that no one could learn of the team's existence. Psylocke had been using her telepathy to help Warren control the "Archangel" persona in his mind, which led to the two rekindling their previous relationship. The team's first mission was to locate and kill Apocalypse, who had been reborn. Upon discovering that the reborn Apocalypse was a child, most of the team decided against killing him, but Fantomex fatally shot the boy. With X-Force, Psylocke also faced long-time rivals such as the Reavers and the Shadow King. The latter succeeded in freeing the Archangel persona in Warren. In order to prevent Archangel's ascension into Apocalypse, X-Force travelled to the Age of Apocalypse to seek a Life Seed, which could cleanse Warren. Psylocke's hesitation to kill Archangel led to her transformation into the Horseman of Death at his hands. Jean Grey of the Age of Apocalypse managed to revert this process, unlocking a previously untapped power in Betsy's mind, who became a full-fledged Omega-class telepath after these events. Psylocke stabbed Archangel with the Life Seed, killing Warren and creating a new being in his likeness in the process.
After the Schism between the X-Men, while Psylocke decided to stay on Utopia under Cyclops' leadership, she secretly remained part of X-Force to help whenever Wolverine requested. Cyclops also placed her in charge of a new X-Men Security team, asking her to be his spy and spy-hunter.
Soon after, Captain Britain learned of Betsy's activities with X-Force through their bond and decided to retrieve her to Otherworld, where Jamie Braddock was revealed to be alive, and punish Fantomex for his crimes. Betsy took up the Lady Briton mantle to rescue Fantomex and was ultimately forced to kill Jamie in order to prevent his future self from destroying the multiverse. X-Force faced a new Brotherhood of Mutants, of which the Shadow King was a member. Psylocke imprisoned his psyche for good into Omega White, whose ability was to eat psychic energy. After this last mission, X-Force disbanded for good and Fantomex, who had been keeping a relationship with Betsy, but died at the hands of the Brotherhood, was resurrected in three different bodies for each of his brains.
As a member of Cyclops' Extinction Team, Psylocke dealt with the fallout from Archangel's machinations in Tabula Rasa and sided with the X-Men against the Avengers once the Phoenix Force returned to Earth to reclaim a host. However, Daredevil makes Psylocke question her motives, and she joined the Avengers, the X-Men and Nova in the final battle against Cyclops.
Marvel NOW!
After the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, Psylocke and Fantomex spent weeks in Paris, engaging in drinking, sex and thieving. While Psylocke and Fantomex grew apart, she and Cluster – Fantomex’ female self – grew closer and more devoted to each other, resulting in a relationship. Feeling jealous about the new couple, Fantomex set Psylocke up. Once Cluster sided with him, Psylocke decided to leave them for good.
Upon returning to New York, Psylocke took a teaching position at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Due to Psylocke’s constant assaulting of the students and aggressiveness, Wolverine was forced to fire her, and instead assigned her a mission to take down Spiral. With the help of Storm and Puck, Psylocke faced her longtime rival and Bishop, who had returned to the present day. After taking a trip through Bishop’s mind, Psylocke managed to tame the Demon Bear in his psyche, making an unusual ally of it. She also rescued Fantomex from Weapon XIII at Cluster’s request, but left them once more. Bishop’s alliance with Psylocke’s group put them at war with Cassandra Nova – the Revenant Queen – who wished to unleash her revenants (or mummudrai) on Earth. Psylocke ultimately stabbed her to death, breaking her vow not to kill again. Psylocke’s group also teamed up with Cable’s X-Force in order to rescue Bishop and Hope Summers, both kidnapped by Stryfe. Psylocke’s posture in this mission impressed Cable.
As a member of the X-Men, Psylocke joined an all-female squad led by Storm alongside Rogue, Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers, and later Omega Sentinel and Monet, taking on villains such as Arkea, the Brotherhood from a future timeline, Lady Deathstrike's Sisterhood and The Future. During this time, Psylocke started focusing her powers into different weapons of psychic energy such as a bow and arrow, a crossbow and a grappling line and a flail, mentored a small group of students consisted of Hellion, Anole, Broo and Rockslide and kept a relationship with a virtual boyfriend created in the Danger Room.
All-New Marvel NOW!
In the wake of a terrorist attack known as the Alexandria Incident, which claimed 3,000 lives, Cable re-formed the mutant black ops team X-Force so that mutantkind not only had a continued place in the world, but also had a stake in it. While Cable recruited Fantomex, Marrow and Dr. Nemesis as his teammates, Psylocke actually sought Cable because she couldn't bear staying away from X-Force as she admitted she was addicted to killing. Their first mission had the team track and face Volga, a wealthy business man responsible for the abduction and weaponization of several mutants and depowered mutants. As a member of X-Force, Psylocke grew more bloodthirsty, self-loathing and broken by the day, admitting that resorting to killing was the only way she could feel anything at all. She also kept a sexual relationship with Cable.
As a member of the X-Men, Psylocke investigated the Shi'ar's Providian Order, while taking on Skrull/Brood hybrids, helped Nightcrawler against a newly returned Shadow King and joined the X-Men and Avengers in Genosha to fight the clone of Red Skull.
Best films
Played by the actors
Filmography of Psylocke (3 films)
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Dark Phoenix (2019)
, 1h54Directed by Simon Kinberg
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Themes Space adventure films, Transport films, Dans l'espace, Rail transport films, Superhero films, Super-héros inspiré de comics, Children's films, Film se déroulant dans un train
Actors James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Turner, Jennifer Lawrence, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp
Rating57%
En 1975, Jean Grey provoque un accident de voiture qui tue sa mère et blesse son père. Terrorisée et orpheline, la fillette est recueillie par le Professeur Xavier, qui lui présente son Institut.
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
, 2h24Directed by Bryan Singer
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Themes Superhero films, Super-héros inspiré de comics, Children's films
Actors James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Hoult
Rating67%
Since the dawn of civilization, Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant was worshiped as a god. Amassing the powers of many other mutants, he became immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants to cleanse humanity and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven with the help of Professor X must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their nemesis.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
, 1h44Directed by Brett Ratner
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Themes Superhero films, Super-héros inspiré de comics, Children's films
Actors Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer
Rating65%
Twenty years ago, Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr meet young Jean Grey at her parents' house to invite her to join their school. Ten years later, the industrialist father of Warren Worthington III discovers his son is a mutant as Warren tries to cut off his wings.