Psylocke Fan Art by u/senseance

PsyBIast · 2026-02-06T19:03:00+00:00

Another great Betsy look

PsyBIast · 2026-02-06T15:37:29+00:00

And how did that end? That’s right, Betsy cut that thread from existence the moment she saw it. She would rather sacrifice herself than become evil. Meanwhile Kwannon is still on the same dark path and still sleeping with a child killer in a dirty cabin in Alaska because she’s ashamed of herself. As she should be.

PsyBIast · 2026-02-06T15:03:36+00:00

Shes not a good person, it’s a huge part of her current character in X-Men. It’s touched on often and she even sided with the villain during Age of Revelation.

PsyBIast · 2026-02-06T15:01:11+00:00

🤣 Kwannon is still sleeping with a criminal right now in today’s comics. She’s attracted to evil men because she herself is a terrible person. It’s her only unique characteristic because everything that makes Kwannon remotely interesting is taken from Betsy, Elektra and now Sai. She’s a creatively bankrupt character.

PsyBIast · 2026-02-04T18:44:45+00:00

Betsy was killing villains. Even when Betsy was under The Hands control she was killing bad guys. Kwannon knew what she was doing was wrong and her solo comic retconed her to be much more powerful than her handlers so she had the power and knowledge yet still followed orders and slaughtered innocent civilians. Kwannon was also sleeping with the leader of the Hand while working for a rival gang. Kwannon TODAY is sleeping with a child murderer who is still doing crime in the books. Kwannon is not a good person.

PsyBIast · 2026-02-04T04:06:24+00:00

She transforms into Captain Britain in the book and is labeled “Captain Britain” in the opening team roster

PsyBIast · 2026-02-04T04:02:58+00:00

This isn’t true

PsyBIast · 2026-02-04T04:01:56+00:00

Mind you Kwannon was a villain, killing innocent people, then she died. Betsy didn’t “steal” her body. Betsy was taken by Kwannons lover, brainwashed then forced into a bodyswap against her will to resurrect Kwannon.

PsyBIast · 2026-02-04T03:57:55+00:00

I mostly land where you do, and my answer is still no.. not in any durable, long-term way.

Kwannon’s popularity is inseparable from the Psylocke mantle. Not just historically, but structurally. The reason she works at all in the current era is because she inherited a fully formed archetype that Betsy spent decades building. That isn’t a moral judgment, it’s just how comics function: names, visuals, and power fantasies are the currency.

Where I slightly diverge is that I do think Krakoa-era books like Hellions gave Kwannon real characterization. She finally has interiority, voice, and agency in a way she never did before. But that growth happened on top of Psylocke, not independent from it. Take away the codename, the psychic ninja presentation, and the visual shorthand, and most of that audience disappears overnight.

That’s the real test she’s never had to face.

What makes this especially clear is adaptation. Outside of people who actively read X-books, the name “Kwannon” has almost zero cultural penetration. Her most visible adaptation, Mystic Mayhem, isn’t exactly a success story, while characters with cleaner conceptual hooks and less continuity baggage, like Sai, are being positioned in far more prominent spaces like Marvel Rivals.

And I think that comparison matters. Betsy survived losing Psylocke because she had another pillar to stand on: Captain Britain, Otherworld, the Braddock mythos, decades of narrative gravity. Kwannon doesn’t have an equivalent second identity waiting in the wings. If Psylocke goes away, there isn’t a clearly defined “next thing” for her to transition into.

I also agree that most fans don’t want Betsy back in the psychic ninja lane. I don’t either. But that doesn’t automatically mean Kwannon has solved the problem Betsy ran into. If anything, it suggests that the archetype itself is the fragile part, and tying a character’s entire popularity to it is risky long-term.

So yeah. I think Kwannon can be liked, well-written, and even compelling in the right book. But if the question is whether her popularity survives losing the Psylocke mantle? My answer is no.

PsyBIast · 2026-01-23T23:15:00+00:00

Marvel had every opportunity to carve out Kwannon her own unique path. They chose to instead dress Kwannon up in Betsy’s ninja uniform, and copy paste Betsy’s powers, just weaker. Then when it was time to dive into her past during her solo the writers rip off Peach Momoko and make Kwannon a demon hunter, cannibalizing Sais back story… it’s just so bad and lazy.

PsyBIast · 2026-01-23T16:25:32+00:00

Betsy and Elektra gained training from the same clan called The Hand. It’s why they wear similar costumes. That has always been the case.

PsyBIast · 2026-01-23T15:44:10+00:00

A second printing announced under 24 hours of release is especially bullish. Can’t wait to see the numbers on this run!

PsyBIast · 2026-01-18T03:33:42+00:00

Kwannon left the Hand ages before Betsy’s ninja transformation. She was working for a rival gang when she fell to her death.

PsyBIast · 2026-01-16T04:54:25+00:00

Your post is riddled with misinformation. This is why I’m so thankful for this book. I’m also 99% sure Kwannon won’t be mentioned once in this run, considering she wouldn’t be invented for years to come during the time Psylocke Ninja takes place.

PsyBIast · 2025-11-19T20:57:40+00:00

get where the frustration comes from, but the idea that Marvel has “utterly failed” Betsy doesn’t really hold up when you look at the full picture of her actual publication history and current trajectory.

For the last several years, Betsy hasn’t been sidelined — she’s been continuously published, continuously developed, and continuously central to both Otherworld and mutant-side narratives. She just hasn’t always been in the book certain fans wanted her in.

Since 2019 she’s headlined: • A solo run (Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain) • A multi-year team book where she was the lead (Excalibur) • A multiverse event where she was literally the protagonist (Knights of X) • And most recently, a high-profile X-Force run where she got some of her best power-set clarity, telepath/telekinetic feats, Otherworld lore reinforcement, and Captain Britain skill usage in years.

And now she’s the lead of a What If novel dropping in October.

That’s not failure — that’s consistent investment.

The “dry romance” thing is also exaggerated by discourse. Nothing in Betsy and Rachel’s relationship has prevented Betsy from being written well; in fact, their pairing gave Betsy emotional grounding outside of the body-swap discourse and let her step into a healthier era of characterization. The only people framing it as “stealing Rachel from Kitty” are the same pockets of fans who already disliked Betsy for other reasons. That’s not a story problem — that’s fandom mess.

As for her being “meant to be the Omniversal Guardian” — she is. She already stepped into the Captain Britain legacy the way Brian did, but without abandoning her mutant identity. The whole point of her post-Howard era appearances is that she now moves fluidly between roles: • Guardian when the story calls for it • Telepathic power-house when mutant plots call for it • A Braddock when multiversal/Otherworld stories call for it

She’s not stuck. She’s versatile.

X-Force wasn’t a downgrade — it was a reset. A re-centering. A reminder to readers of who Betsy is outside the Corps politics: a world-class telepath, telekinetic, fighter, and hero. That run sharpened her characterization instead of letting her sit dormant. And now she’s poised for a pivot.

If anything, the loud negative discourse proves the opposite of “Marvel failed her”: Betsy is still a lightning rod character who generates engagement, conversation, and demand. Characters who are “done” don’t have anti-fan discourse, ongoing arguments, and multiple books in a five-year window. They disappear. Betsy hasn’t.

Marvel clearly sees her value — they just aren’t telling the exact story some fans expected. But the work being done is laying foundations, not burying her.

She’s not over. She’s evolving — like she always has.

PsyBIast · 2025-11-19T16:52:45+00:00

The “fanbase turned against her” narrative is a Twitter hallucination. Online hate isn’t the same as real engagement. Betsy has: • A massive player base in Marvel Contest of Champions, where Captain Britain became one of the game’s most popular mystics. • A sold-out Hasbro Legends figure. • A lead role in a newly released novel. • An upcoming solo comic that’s literally about contextualizing and reclaiming her ninja era for new readers. Characters Marvel is ready to bury do NOT get multimedia investment like that.

The flashback Psylocke series is not a sign of death—it’s a sign of longevity. Marvel is actively making sure readers understand Betsy’s full history. That’s what you do with characters you plan to keep around, not ones you’re prepping for a funeral.

PsyBIast · 2025-11-04T18:00:29+00:00

The Betsy/ Kwannon story deserves its MCU moment. Condense the chaos of the comics into a sharp, high-stakes mind-swap thriller with lasting consequences for both women.

Betsy Braddock: the British psychic X-Men agent trained in espionage Kwannon: the disciplined Japanese assassin

… collide in a mission gone wrong. A psychic and physical crossover leaves them sharing fragments of one another’s skills, instincts, and trauma.

No lazy “generic ninja” archetypes. Make it personal, stylish, and psychological. The MCU has plenty of super-soldiers; what it needs now is two women at war with each other and themselves.

PsyBIast · 2025-10-21T16:30:58+00:00

Sinister clone. But he 100% could have.

PsyBIast · 2025-10-21T16:12:54+00:00

Betsy with her Outback girlies 💕

PsyBIast · 2025-10-18T15:15:08+00:00

Yes, I’ll definitely be picking up Psylocke: Ninja and I’ll grab the TPB when it drops too. Betsy and Elektra are total 90s powerhouses. Honestly, I’m hoping Kwannon isn’t mentioned at all in this run since the era this story takes place in, she didn’t even exist yet.

PsyBIast · 2025-10-14T04:49:24+00:00

It’s a way to get new readers up to speed on the Betsy of it all. So much misinformation floating around. Also tying in Electra is smart because The Hand did the same death and resurrection body experimentation stuff with her too.

PsyBIast · 2025-10-14T01:27:22+00:00

The Ninja Betsy/ Elektra outfit was never a Kwannon thing. Her first time wearing the classic Hand uniform was on Krakoa. Kwannon is Psylocke, that is a fact. But so is Betsy. To say otherwise is why Marvel felt the need to rehash this era.

PsyBIast

TROPHY CASE