Psylocke/Kwannon Thread

[Sithborg]

Past 3 years, I've grown to love Kwannon as much as I love Betsy. She deserves a thread as much as Betsy.

 

[Iceman]

Past 3 years, I've grown to love Kwannon as much as I love Betsy. She deserves a thread as much as Betsy.

I want them to do both Betsy and Kwannon this time around eventually and get the relationship between the two right and avoid bodyswapping.

 

[Sithborg]

Without the bodyswap, the relationship doesn't need to be there.

 

[Iceman]

Without the bodyswap, the relationship doesn't need to be there.

I'm many years behind on the comics and I see you mentioned you'd grown to love Kwannon over the last 3 years. Is it all handled better recently compared to the 90s comics?

 

[Sithborg]

I'm many years behind on the comics and I see you mentioned you'd grown to love Kwannon over the last 3 years. Is it all handled better recently compared to the 90s comics?

In that her story isn't fully around the bodyswap, yeah. And they do a good job of giving her her own character and motivations.

 

[Iceman]

In that her story isn't fully around the bodyswap, yeah. And they do a good job of giving her her own character and motivations.

Oh good to hear. This is a kick in the ass for me to get caught up then!

 

[Silvermoth]

So glad there’s a kwannon thread, I absolutely adore her. I hope marvel talks to Karen Fukuhara for the role

 

[SirStrangefolk]

I hope marvel talks to Karen Fukuhara for the role

I think she'd be good, but I wonder if she'd have any reservations about potentially being typecast. If she got this role her 3 most famous roles would be Kwannon, Kimiko, and Katana.

 

[Silvermoth]

I’ve been watching the Monarch series and theres an incredible actress on it called Anna Sawai who would be an incredible Kwannon

 

[Lily Adler]

I wonder if they'll get an actual Japanese actress for the role.

 

[psylockolussus]

I hope they ignore Kwannon and just adapt Betsy as the default Psylocke, and make her Asian. I'm just not a fan of Kwannon. I feel like she's Psylocke 2.0 in a way that X-23 is Wolverine 2.0.

When they brought back Revanche/Kwannon in the comics permanently, I'm still having a hard time distinguishing or separating Betsy/Kwannon, especially Kwannon is now called as Psylocke. Like everytime I see Kwannon, I always have to remind myself this isn't the Psylocke that appeared in plenty of comics/videogames.

 

[ALittlePush]

I hope they ignore Kwannon and just adapt Betsy as the default Psylocke, and make her Asian. I'm just not a fan of Kwannon. I feel like she's Psylocke 2.0 in a way that X-23 is Wolverine 2.0.

When they brought back Revanche/Kwannon in the comics permanently, I'm still having a hard time distinguishing or separating Betsy/Kwannon, especially Kwannon is now called as Psylocke. Like everytime I see Kwannon, I always have to remind myself this isn't the Psylocke that appeared in plenty of comics/videogames.

I don't even know who Kwannon is. I thought Betsy Braddock was Psylocke?

 

[psylockolussus]

I don't even know who Kwannon is. I thought Betsy Braddock was Psylocke?

Kwannon was the character that was introduced in the early 90s, that served as a member of the X-Men for about two years, until that character was killed. I don't remember which issue, Betsy swapped to a different body. But it was that time when the body swap became prominent to Psylocke's story, with Kwannon's introduction.

Sometime in the late 2010s, Kwannon officially returned to the comic books in a regular basis. The soul of Kwannon/Betsy were both returned to their respective original body. I don't know eXactly why Kwannon started using Betsy's codename Psylocke. But at that time, Betsy was Captain Britain. Kwannon was also wearing Betsy's signature costume, so it can be really confusing distinguishing the two.

Personally speaking, I don't really like Betsy as Captain Britain in the Excalibur comics I've read. I prefer Betsy as a member of the X-Men being called as Psylocke with dark purple hair. The current Betsy in the comics has light purple hair. I dropped Excalibur because the story wasn't good, and I don't really know what has been happening with Kwannon and Betsy that much in the recent comics, so that doesn't help. I only read Adjectiveless X-Men in the last two years and skip the other titles.

The relaunch of Uncanny X-Men should help as Kwannon is part of the roster. But for me, the definitive Psylocke is Betsy Braddock. I would hate it if MCU introduced Kwannon and makes her as their default Psylocke.

 

[Silvermoth]

Kwannon is fantastic and deserves a fair go. We can probably do better in 2024+ than have an Asian character who is actually a white character plus it does Betsy a disservice to bind her story to Kwannon’s again.

If you keep them seperate you get two great stories

 

[ALittlePush]

Kwannon was the character that was introduced in the early 90s, that served as a member of the X-Men for about two years, until that character was killed. I don't remember which issue, Betsy swapped to a different body. But it was that time when the body swap became prominent to Psylocke's story, with Kwannon's introduction.

Sometime in the late 2010s, Kwannon officially returned to the comic books in a regular basis. The soul of Kwannon/Betsy were both returned to their respective original body.

So Kwannon was the asian body that Betsy body swapped into?

 

[psylockolussus]

So Kwannon was the asian body that Betsy body swapped into?

Yup. When she joined the X-Men for about two years in the 90s, she was called as Revanche. I don't know why they aren't using "Revanche" for her codename anymore. Betsy will always be Psylocke.

 

[ALittlePush]

Yup. When she joined the X-Men for about two years in the 90s, she was called as Revanche. I don't know why they aren't using "Revanche" for her codename anymore. Betsy will always be Psylocke.

They could just simplify it in the MCU by just having a british asian called Betsy Braddock. That way there's no need for Kwannon or a body swap.

 

[Sithborg]

They could just simplify it in the MCU by just having a british asian called Betsy Braddock. That way there's no need for Kwannon or a body swap.

It is in the realm of stuff that should not be adapted. Much like Madelyne Pryor, even though I have grown to love her in the comics.

The fact that what people want from Betsy essentially all comes from Kwannon is a bit of a reason I created this thread.

 

[Silvermoth]

I don’t know why people think Kwannon as psylocke is confusing but a Japanese girl called Betsy isn’t?

Kwannon is Psylocke. Betsy can be captain britain

 

[psylockolussus]

I don’t know why people think Kwannon as psylocke is confusing but a Japanese girl called Betsy isn’t?

Kwannon is Psylocke. Betsy can be captain britain

May I ask you, Betsy was called as Psylocke for how many decades? In cartoons and videogames, she's called as Psylocke, so as in plenty of action figures and toys.

If someone picked up the recent comics who isn't up to date with every status quo change, don't you think the character being called as Psylocke in the recent comics won't be confused with Betsy Braddock???

Also, Betsy being raised in the UK is a simple explanation. I googled if there are J-pop female artists who have an English sounding name, I saw 3 names.

Also, I doubt Marvel Studios would have the time to properly develop both Betsy and Kwannon. We would be lucky if they somehow managed to release a X-Men 4 and X-Men 5, at this rate. Thats why I'm not clamoring for Kwannon to show up, when Betsy, the first and more iconic Psylocke – have yet to get a substantial role in a X-Men movie. Its not like we already got Psylocke (Betsy) as a X-Woman in the past, for several movies, working side by side with the Professor, Cyclops, the Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, etc...

And no I don't want her in X-Force and Excalibur, I want her in the proper X-Men team.

 

[Venom 1988]

They could just simplify it in the MCU by just having a british asian called Betsy Braddock. That way there's no need for Kwannon or a body swap.

It isn't that it would be confusing, it's that it's adapting something that is a bit problematic. Even if the MCU version of Betsy is British Asian person from birth and no body swap, it's still acknowledging the original concept of Betsy taking over an Asian person's body. Not to mention it's erasing a minority character to prop up white one.

I've personally dug reading Kwannon in the recent Hellions book. Despite Wells doing a poor job on ASM, he really knocked it out of the park in that book and made me actually care about about of c and dlist characters like Scalphunter of all people. So it would be cool to see if they could adapt both Betsy and Kwannonon their own as indivuals instead of just merging them together.

If someone picked up the recent comics who isn't up to date with every status quo change, don't you think the character being called as Psylocke in the recent comics won't be confused with Betsy Braddock???

In a world where we have characters constantly taking over different hero's identities, not really no.

 

[Lily Adler]

So I'm assuming Betsy Erasure is a no go here?

 

[Silvermoth]

Correct. And we can do better in 2024 than having the most prominent Asian character in the x-men secretly a white woman doing yellowface. Especially in a franchise about diversity and acceptance.

Plus this way you get not one but two great characters!

 

[Sithborg]

It is a question that I am not quite qualified to answer. Is a character who is known to be an asian character was only asian for very, very, very bad reasons a solid asian rep? Hell, the main reason they want her as asian rep is because of the stereotype/fetish they have seen for a long time. To be honest, going with asian ninja betsy feels like trying to do the Mandarin, not a great idea.

Betsy has been a favorite character of mine since Uncanny X-force. And Kwannon has been fun since people have started to flesh her out. (yeah, I'm a weird one who liked Fallen Angels) Besides, you bring in Kwannon, you bring in Matsuo. And have a better chance of redeeming the Hand.

 

[psylockolussus]

Correct. And we can do better in 2024 than having the most prominent Asian character in the x-men secretly a white woman doing yellowface. Especially in a franchise about diversity and acceptance.

Plus this way you get not one but two great characters!

And that's if we get Kwannon and Betsy. There are so many X-Men to choose from.

Also its not Betsy's fault that some writer decided to give her that body swap story arc. Outside of the body swap, she still made a lot of contribution in the comics more so than Kwannon as a member of the X-Men.

And if people are okay to racebend certain characters like the Professor, Magneto, Rogue, Gambit, Jean, Cyclops. I don't see why they can't make Betsy an Asian from birth in these movies. She was already portrayed by two Asian women in the movies as well.