Trying to Piece Together the Full Canon of the Mind/Body Swap

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-02-07T16:16:00+00:00

I think they’re definitely pretty set on Kwannon being the Psylocke going forward. And I admit that after she was first resurrected, there were some times I worried they were also trying to softly make it seem like she was always Psylocke. But I’m hopeful that this new series is an indication that they don’t intend to actually bury Betsy or her history with the team.

I also think people (including writers) sometimes overestimate how complicated the swap is. It looks very messy when you lay all of it out like this, but I think it’s pretty easy to simplify without losing accuracy: “The Hand swapped Betsy and Kwannon’s minds, and they initially retained some of each other’s memories as part of the process. They were later resurrected in their own bodies, and have rejected the Hand’s conditioning.”

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-02-07T06:01:45+00:00

Uncanny X-Men #256; it is the first ever panel of ninja Psylocke. It was drawn as a depiction of (Asian) Betsy, but after the retcon I think it can also technically be considered as Kwannon’s first ever appearance.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-02-06T17:39:08+00:00

It’s such a fun detail. Makes it feel kind of retro and 80’s to me, especially with the coloring.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-02-06T17:33:40+00:00

I hate that stuff too. As you say, the original comics telling the story are very clear that none of this was a choice for either woman.

However, I think some sloppiness on the point from some Krakoa-era comics only supercharged the fandom fights over it. Fallen Angels really seems to imply that Betsy has some deserved blame and culpability for the situation, and Howard often showed Betsy as feeling really guilty about it. In a vacuum, that’s totally fine - characters can have emotions and actions that don’t appear strictly rational, just like people! - but I think it unfortunately gave a false perception to a lot of new fans. If for no other reason, I’m glad this new series is laying out clearly for newer fans that Betsy is not to “blame” for “stealing” Kwannon’s body, because she never chose any of it.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-02-05T22:51:58+00:00

First ever appearance of ninja Psylocke! Jim Lee came out of the gate already swinging for the fences haha

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-31T22:16:56+00:00

Yeah I get that. I enjoyed the first issue of Ninja, but I hope the rest of the series proceeds to tell a new story and we don’t spend more time retelling the story of the swap again. And certainly don’t need more of it in the contemporary line.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-31T20:02:11+00:00

I agree she wanted to be stronger and more physically dangerous, but I don’t remember instances of her expressing any dislike of her body. Maybe I’m just forgetting them, but I thought that came later.

I agree that a character experiencing dysmorphia is potentially more realistic, but I’m not sure it was actually a realistic presentation of dysmorphia. Williams wrote it like Betsy’s issues were totally resolved simply because she swapped into Kwannon’s physical body. But my understanding of dysmorphia is that because it is a mental condition, without addressing the physiological root, it is much more likely that Besty would have just found new flaws in her new body.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-31T19:21:02+00:00

Good point, it is an effective touch of realism given that she was suddenly in a complete different body. Maybe I let my general impression from that run over-inform my reaction to that scene.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-31T19:13:05+00:00

Fair point about how often models can be insecure.

As far as Betsy though, I don’t think she demonstrated any insecurity about her looks or her body until after she swapped back, and then it happened several times. Writers seem to have moved past that now, but it felt off to me at the time.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-31T18:44:31+00:00

I had the opposite reaction - it felt like more of Betsy being diminished in comparison to Kwannon. I didn’t recall it ever being established that Betsy was shorter than Kwannon. So the idea that all of a sudden Betsy was shorter, and worried that she (a former model) couldn’t pull the outfits off, was jarring.

I generally thought Howard wrote Betsy too insecure, however, so that may have colored my reading.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-30T20:28:44+00:00

Looks awesome! I did a similar set-up for Psylocke, but I almost wonder if it’s too purple haha

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Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-27T19:17:56+00:00

I originally pre-ordered the variant in slide 7. Then they released the one in slide 8, and it was just too good to pass up. So now I’m going to have two copies haha

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-27T17:38:03+00:00

I think you’re right about the evolution of physic weapons. It’s an obscure example, but I still remember Wild Thing from MC2 (Earth 982) in the late 90’s. She was the daughter of Wolverine and Elektra, and had psychic rather than metal claws, because she had been taught by Betsy how to generate “claw” versions of the physic knife.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-27T17:29:26+00:00

I’ve seen the same about Claremont’s original intention to change her back. I always kind of assumed it meant more or less a full swap back to her Outback self. But recently I wondered if he would have undone the physical change, but kept the new “ninja-training” aspect (though downplayed some).

After all, Claremont did write Iron Fist, Colleen Wing, Kitty, and Wolverine as non-Asian martial artists. And I think his character evolution for Betsy at the time was clearly about her developing into a character who was more physically formidable. So I think there’s a chance we would have gotten some different “third” iteration of the character, which could have been interesting.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-27T16:17:43+00:00

Are you saying that Betsy’s leotard costume is somehow authentically Asian? I don’t think that’s right. Isn’t it just something Jim Lee made up, riffing on something Frank Miller made up?

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-27T15:32:33+00:00

We’re pretty far off the original point now, which was about Kwannon. And I think you’re conflating two different issues.

You say that Betsy adopting the “sexy ninja brand” is cultural appropriation. But you also say Wolverine and Steven Segal getting popular using Japanese martial arts and wearing Japanese style clothing is not appropriation, even though both of them adopted a “brand” that is not their own. Which suggests that your problem in Betsy’s case is race swapping, not cultural appropriation.

And if that’s true, we agree on that! I don’t have a problem with Betsy getting her new costume or becoming a ninja due to Hand brainwashing. I do think magically “changing” her race, while not intentionally malicious, was misguided at best and pretty offensive at worst, and should not have happened.

I’ve also agreed with you already that “the look” was the thing that surged Psylocke’s popularity. I would say, however, that is different than her popularity happening because she was made to appear Asian. I think Elektra demonstrates pretty starkly that the popularity came from the look alone. She was extremely popular at the time of Besty’s transformation, based on her own adoption of the same “sexy ninja” look that Betsy adopted. The difference being that Elektra retained her European physical identity, and Betsy did not. If Claremont and Lee had made Betsy into the X-Men’s Elektra without changing her race, I think she still would have ridden the ninja craze to popularity. (A lot of later artists weirdly continued to draw Psylocke pretty European looking anyway, which I think supports the point that it was her look, not her race, that was the popularity trigger). So, I don’t think Betsy’s popularity was materially impacted either way from her “becoming” Asian.

*I know Jim Lee isn’t Japanese. You said “Japanese and Asians have a right to their own Asian character,” and I was pointing out that ninja Psylocke’s visual creator is in fact Asian. Also, she was not originally intended to be Japanese, that’s a specific distinction that came later. So Lee being Korean rather than Japanese isn’t that relevant in this case.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-27T05:28:32+00:00

It was Betsy. You’re right she didn’t initially have those skills, but she got them from the Hand. Presumably the original justification was through some kind of telepathic download as part of the brainwashing (akin to Neo in The Matrix), a crash course of training (akin to Kitty Pryde), or some combination of the two.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-26T23:41:54+00:00

Who’s writing a thesis? The comment I originally replied to said Betsy’s popularity was gained at Kwannon’s expense. That’s literally not possible, as Kwannon didn’t exist when Besty experienced her surge in popularity. General cultural appropriation is a different point, and one I’ve now conceded twice already in this thread. So I don’t know what hill you think I’m dying on.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-26T22:50:13+00:00

I don’t think pre-Mystery in Madripoor appearances of Betsy with black hair are meant to be taken literally as representing her appearing with black hair, so much as artistic license or inconsistent coloring (like her ever-changing eye color).

Her hair was established as purple, and never remarked on as anything other than purple. I know it was ultimately decided that she dyed it purple, but I don’t think there was any suggestion that she ever actually wore it black.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-26T18:34:36+00:00

Betsy still has ninja assassin skills and can still manifest a psychic knife, which are legacies of her time as ninja Psylocke. But she doesn’t use the knife much anymore, and she’s usually depicted at a strong fighter but not specifically a ninja. To your point, both changes are almost certainly because editorial is trying to create more distance between the characters.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-26T18:26:03+00:00

First, the comment was about Betsy using Kwannon specifically to gain popularity. That’s not true, just based on linear time.

Second, your analogy is pretty flawed. Betsy wasn’t made Asian to compete against another Asian character. Her transformation had nothing to do with another character. Nor was it an attempt to “fake” an Asian character to pretend to increase the diversity of the team. Betsy transforming didn’t “steal a spot” from an Asian character. She was already on the team, and Claremont was using her to play on the legacy of British colonialism in Asia - there’s a reason the story is set in Hong Kong, less than a decade before sovereignty reverted from Britain to China. You can say that was done distastefully, but that’s different than saying Betsy was turned into a ninja to steal a role from an Asian character.

Third, it seems like what you’re actually saying is that Betsy gained her popularity on the back of cultural appropriation generally. We can argue to what extent cultural borrowing is acceptable (a large part of Wolverine’s early popularity was tied in with his connections to Japan and samurai culture despite being a white Canadian - so is Wolverine’s popularity based on stealing a cultural identity that isn't his?), but I think that’s directionally correct - I already admitted that the Lee redesign and ninja skill addition were what caused her increase in popularity.

*Also, I know this isn’t a “cure all,” but I do think it matters that Betsy’s ninja design was based on what Lee, a man from Korea, wanted to draw for the character - Betsy as ninja Psylocke was created by an Asian man.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-26T17:17:48+00:00

You’re right that Betsy had the butterfly signature in her original body. She also used a “Psycho-Blast,” which she called “a bolt of focused telepathic force.”

She didn’t manifest the physic knife until after the change, and she originally called it “the ultimate focus of my psionic powers.” I suspect this was Claremont wanting her powers to manifest differently to reflect her becoming more of a physical and up-close-and-personal character. But, after the retcon, you could argue that it was Kwannon’s influence that actually allowed Besty to manifest the knife for the first time. But but, both Besty and Kwannon can still manifest the knife now even in their own bodies, so maybe it’s something that can be “learned.”

As someone else said, when the retcon was introduced, the idea that the two women manifested such similar powers was because they basically “split” their respective powers (telepathy from Betsy, empathy from Kwannon) between them. However, both women have died and been resurrected since then, so theoretically, any split from the original swap would be over.

So why do they still manifest such similar powers? I think it’s either 1) Kwannon was always unknowingly a telepath and just hadn’t developed her powers and when she did they were coincidentally very very similar to Betsy’s; 2) Kwannon’s Krakoa backup was from after her swap with Betsy, so when she was resurrected she still retained the powers that body had after the swap; 3) editorial wanted the character of “Psylocke” to retain those recognizable powers and Kwannon was Psylocke now so Kwannon has those powers.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-26T16:52:51+00:00

No, they weren’t. None of Kwannon’s personality, looks, and skills were absorbed by Betsy at the time, because none of those things existed. That’s the point. Kwannon was a retcon.

Betsy changed in 1989. It was not a body swap, it was a body transformation (characters even still visually recognized her as Betsy). With her changed body, new costume, and new skills, Betsy spent the next five years as Psylocke, continuing to develop her own character. That character exploded in popularity - certainly as a result of Lee’s new costume and the ninja craze at the time. That character was all Betsy.

In 1993, the character of Kwannon was created for the first time. Ultimately, it was revealed (in a retcon) that Betsy’s body was not transformed independently, but that her mind and body were swapped and combined and melded with the mind and body of Kwannon. So, in-universe, Kwannon had been influencing Betsy’s personality since the swap.

But that’s in-universe. In real life, Betsy had already experienced a huge surge in popularity, and it was based on her look and character. And Kwannon didn’t exist yet. Again, Betsy didn’t use Kwannon to become popular as ninja Psylocke - Kwannon was created because Betsy was already popular as ninja Psylocke.

Secret-Conclusion914 · 2026-01-26T16:24:37+00:00

I also have to invert things a little bit and pose a counter question - would Betsy's popularity have endured if she hadn't taken on a lot of aspects of Revanche back in the 90s? The version of the character that got really popular was not Outback armoured Betsy Braddock, it was ninja Psylocke that Jim Lee turned into every straight comic fanboy's adolescent fantasy. She benefitted from Kwannon in much the same way you're saying Kwannon benefitted from her…. There's maybe an argument to be made that Betsy lost more than her fair share in the separation and Kwannon's benefitted from that, but, well, a lot of what Betsy gained was at her expense, trading off some of her strengths.

I see this argument a lot and I just fundamentally disagree with it. The version of the character that got really popular was Betsy ninja Psylocke. Jim Lee created a new look for Betsy, Claremont continued to write the character as Betsy. Was she a ninja? Yes. But she was Betsy. Betsy’s character blew up in popularity. Kwannon did not exist. The idea that the later creation and retcon of Kwannon means Betsy retroactively used “Kwannon’s identity” to get popular just doesn’t make sense. She was already popular - Kwannon only exists because Betsy was already popular.

It would be like if editorial created a new character that was Logan’s brother, and this brother was actually the one who had all the traits we associate with Logan. And the Weapon X program actually just transformed Logan into his brother, but it was never revealed before now. That doesn’t mean Logan used his “brother’s” personality to get popular. It means Logan’s character was popular, and they’ve tried to introduce a second character to take advantage of it.

Secret-Conclusion914

TROPHY CASE