Uncanny X-Men #511: Psylocke (spoiler)
Billy Bissette
explain to me exactly what went on with Psylocke in this issue?
Okay, we've got Psylocke's two bodies, presumably the original British
one as well as the Asian ninja one. This is already a bit debatable
because Land draws both bodies identically. I'm making this assumption
based upon simply having two bodies at all and on related costumes worn
by these bodies. (After all, going by the artwork alone you might just
assume that there were two identical bodies and the bad guys dressed
them differently to tell them apart.)
Inhabiting these bodies are ... what exactly? The presumption has
been Betsy/Psylocke and the original Asian body owner Kwannon. But
then it gets kind of muddled.
British(?) body gets its face half blasted by Dazzler. Said body
then tells Dazzler to stop her, that she isn't her, that she's been
brainwashed, and then stabs herself in the head. Then Dazzler goes
all "Oh no" and "Hold on" to the collapsed body.
After this, ninja-Betsy fights identical evil-red-ninja-uhm...
Kwannon? Or is this Red Queen's brain washing taking Psylocke's
form? Or something else entirely, like Red Queen directly? The
mental fight itself sheds no real clues on the matter, at best
saying that the good of ninja-Betsy is stronger than the evil of
evil-red-ninja.
So, uhm... British body is Kwannon, and Betsy gets control long to
talk to Dazzler and stab herself in the head? But if British body
isn't Betsy, then why would Dazzler be going all weepy and
Don't-die afterwards?
If Betsy took control of the British body long enough to stab
it in the head with a psychic dagger, wouldn't that be bad for
Betsy's mind even if she wasn't currently hosted in that body?
At first I thought evil-red-ninja was supposed to be Kwannon
as well, but that would mean that they were both in the minds of
both bodies. So I guess this was supposed to be Red Queen's mind
control, perhaps merged with Betsy's evil side.
Of course, is the final ninja-body-Betsy even Betsy? The book
seems to treat it as self-evident, but with all the body swapping,
corpse animating, brainwashing, and magic involved. why should
Dazzler just seem to assume that Psylocke really is Betsy?
Honestly, its not like this book is particularly well written
or paced.
We've got Storm, Karma, Dazzler, and Emma attacking the two
Mastermind sisters and British-body. British-body attacks Emma.
The book cuts away to the graveyard battle for several pages.
When it returns, Dazzler and British-body appear to be alone in
the room for the next four pages. And when it cuts away and
back again, Dazzler and British body still seem to be separate
from the other X-women. Because otherwise the three other
X-Women were completely occupied by the two Mastermind sisters
and never even crossed into the path of the Dazzler fight,
Dazzler calling for help, or Dazzler mourning? We finally get
a panel of Emma beating on one of the Mastermind sisters as
Spiral(?) reaches through a portal for the rescue. Then the
next panel is Emma telepathically talking to Scott as Dazzler
and Storm hold Asian-body? Karma seems to have simply vanished,
as she was never shown again after coming in the door with
Emma and Dazzler. Mind, dark haired Mastermind was never shown
again after the panel directly following Karma's last scene,
as if both characters were simply forgotten. (At least the
graveyard fight bothered to show how everyone was occupied.)
Fraction and/or Land seemingly forgetting about Karma has
an extra edge when you consider Fraction's identity blurb box
for her has the joking line "Underestimated and ignored a lot"
grinningdemon
My impression of that whole plotline was that Kwannon never
returned...it was always just Psylocke but with Maddie's
reprogramming...that was what Psylocke was trying to fight off and,
with the British body seriously damaged, she went back to the Asian
one (it's not the first time we've seen telepaths body jump at will
and it may have only been Maddie holding her in the British body
anyway)...although I agree it was a bit silly that they all just
accepted that it was really her there at the end.
>
>
> Honestly, its not like this book is particularly well written
>or paced.
>
> We've got Storm, Karma, Dazzler, and Emma attacking the two
>Mastermind sisters and British-body. British-body attacks Emma.
>The book cuts away to the graveyard battle for several pages.
>When it returns, Dazzler and British-body appear to be alone in
>the room for the next four pages. And when it cuts away and
>back again, Dazzler and British body still seem to be separate
>from the other X-women. Because otherwise the three other
>X-Women were completely occupied by the two Mastermind sisters
>and never even crossed into the path of the Dazzler fight,
>Dazzler calling for help, or Dazzler mourning? We finally get
>a panel of Emma beating on one of the Mastermind sisters as
>Spiral(?) reaches through a portal for the rescue. Then the
>next panel is Emma telepathically talking to Scott as Dazzler
>and Storm hold Asian-body? Karma seems to have simply vanished,
>as she was never shown again after coming in the door with
>Emma and Dazzler. Mind, dark haired Mastermind was never shown
>again after the panel directly following Karma's last scene,
>as if both characters were simply forgotten. (At least the
>graveyard fight bothered to show how everyone was occupied.)
>
> Fraction and/or Land seemingly forgetting about Karma has
>an extra edge when you consider Fraction's identity blurb box
>for her has the joking line "Underestimated and ignored a lot"
This is the problem with making this book for all the
x-characters...there are just way too many to service properly in a
single book.
Kenneth M. Lin
"Billy Bissette" <bai...@coastalnet.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9C31215CB2F3...@216.168.3.70...
> I've finally gotten around to reading Uncanny #511. Can anyone
> explain to me exactly what went on with Psylocke in this issue?
>
> Okay, we've got Psylocke's two bodies, presumably the original British
> one as well as the Asian ninja one. This is already a bit debatable
> because Land draws both bodies identically. I'm making this assumption
> based upon simply having two bodies at all and on related costumes worn
> by these bodies. (After all, going by the artwork alone you might just
> assume that there were two identical bodies and the bad guys dressed
> them differently to tell them apart.)
>
I had no ideas that she was inhabiting different body. Even the great Jim
Lee draws all women the same way.
Also, did you notice that the Beast is drawn differently that when Frank
Quitely drew it after his secondary mutation. He used to have elongated
feet like cats before now he walks with his heels on the group like human.
Billy Bissette
news:qsgs35lo1p5il69dj...@4ax.com:
> My impression of that whole plotline was that Kwannon never
> returned...it was always just Psylocke but with Maddie's
> reprogramming...that was what Psylocke was trying to fight off and,
> with the British body seriously damaged, she went back to the Asian
> one (it's not the first time we've seen telepaths body jump at will
> and it may have only been Maddie holding her in the British body
> anyway)...although I agree it was a bit silly that they all just
> accepted that it was really her there at the end.
Why have two bodies at all then? Okay, Red Queen wanted to test
the body jump that she intended to do with Jean's corpse.
But if it was just Betsy, then she managed to body jump against
whatever Red Queen did to force the switch, before she'd beaten
the brainwashing, and while stabbing herself in the head with her
psionic knife?
Your view makes sense. The story itself is just bad, but that
appears to be par for the course with Fraction's Uncanny run.
>> Fraction and/or Land seemingly forgetting about Karma has
>>an extra edge when you consider Fraction's identity blurb box
>>for her has the joking line "Underestimated and ignored a lot"
>
> This is the problem with making this book for all the
> x-characters...there are just way too many to service properly in a
> single book.
Service properly? They forgot about two characters completely,
and mostly forgot about three others. After making joke about how
one of those characters gets forgotten.
Yes, there are a lot of X-characters, but that isn't the real
problem. The problem is that Fraction specifically does not
appear to be able to handle more than a few characters at a time
in an action setting. He either focuses on one or two characters
for the entire scene, or he revolves characters in and out with
anyone "out" effectively being outside of the battle. He doesn't
have any real large scale interactions. Even his big brawls
become two or three character trade-offs at most.
Take the motorcycle chase from several issues back. The X-Men
take turns one at a time trying to catch a guy on a bike, laughably
failing with utter ineptitude. Some characters aren't even beaten,
they just quit so that the next person can take their turn.
Which also shows Fraction's other issue with action scenes, in
that he won't even address powers or skill-sets if they might
run against the story outcome that he has planned. Now, story is
important of course. But if you are going to have all these
powered and often highly skilled characters running around, then
you should at least put some thought into why they might not be
able to do something. Fraction doesn't. He just tends to write
one-sided battles of winning or losing. The bike chase reeked of
it. The written excuse for the Sisterhood steamrolling the X-Men
in #510 was laughable, more so when they aren't able to do the
same in #511.
Johnny Storm
My problem with the X-men books is this. Why have so many X-men books, and
then only feature the same X-men in different books over and over again? I
understand Wolverine (somewhat) in the old school thinking that the more
times Wolverine appears in a book, the more the book will sell. (I do
believe this is mostly outdated now. Does anyone have proof that this works
anymore?)
But the White Queen and Cyclops I believe appear in every X-Men book
currently, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say Beast and Colossus does
as well. Do we really need to see these 5 characters in 3 different books? I
don't even know how Northstar got back alive, and all we see him is do is
show up for one issue and then leave in the same issue. Really, nobody wants
to talk about him coming back alive? Because everyone is excited over
Wolverine vs Cyclops, part 723, over Jean?
Johnny
Billy Bissette
news:h25ju0$cog$1...@aioe.org:
> I don't even know how Northstar got back alive, and
> all we see him is do is show up for one issue and then leave in the
> same issue. Really, nobody wants to talk about him coming back alive?
Northstar joined the team, even though he isn't present in #510.
In #511, he runs circles around Spiral for a couple of panels.
(Obviously, the X-Men were beaten by the Sisterhood in #510 because
they lacked a speedster......)
In his first issue, the reporter asks Northstar about being dead,
along with other things, and he just brushes the questions off with
quick answers. I'd guess Fraction is just going with the idea that
people like the X-Men already know the answers. After all, it isn't
like they couldn't have kept in touch between Northstar's appearances.
Johnny Storm
Yeah, but we aren't in the X-men, so we don't know. That is truly lazy
writing.
Johnny
grinningdemon
Well, to be fair, it's really only Uncanny and Astonishing that have
those characters in a prominent capacity...and Astonishing only comes
out every few months...Cyclops and Emma do make cameos in the other
books from time to time and, in my opinion, that makes perfect sense
given the current situation with the X-Men all in one place with Scott
and Emma in charge...X-Men Legacy usually doesn't have any of the
characters you mention (not even Wolverine)...also, the X-Men you
mention are popular characters so it's not surprise to see them in
multiple books...and I'd much rather have those others showing up
everywhere than Wolverine in every fucking book Marvel puts out.
As for "Wolverine vs. Cyclops, part 723," you may want to check the
books again because I have a fairly substantial knowledge of the X-Men
history and, despite the unfortunate frequency of that god-awful love
triangle rearing its ugly head, Astonishing #1 is actually the only
significant fight Cyclops and Wolvie have ever had (over Jean)...at
least as far as "in continuity" stories go.
Donnacha
"grinningdemon" <grinni...@austin.rr.com> wrote in message
news:huqd459o8j8rgtblc...@4ax.com...
>
>
> As for "Wolverine vs. Cyclops, part 723," you may want to check the
> books again because I have a fairly substantial knowledge of the X-Men
> history and, despite the unfortunate frequency of that god-awful love
> triangle rearing its ugly head, Astonishing #1 is actually the only
> significant fight Cyclops and Wolvie have ever had (over Jean)...at
> least as far as "in continuity" stories go.
It flared up in Uncanny over the lock of hair. However, Claremont's X-Men
Forever #2 seems to have come up with a solution for it, after raising the
issue in #1.
D.
grinningdemon
They didn't fight over the lock of hair...they just gave each other
the cold shoulder...when written correctly, these two do not like each
other so that's no big shock...Astonishing #1 is, to my knowldedge,
the only time they've ever actually come to blows over Jean...in the
regular Marvel Universe, at least.
As for X-Men Forever, it seems like the worst possible solution to
this plotline...Wolverine is gone but the book and it's new status quo
is still going to be all about him...to me, that's worse than keeping
him around.
Billy Bissette
news:3fff459cglbtqepji...@4ax.com:
> On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:02:40 +0100, "Donnacha"
> <donnacha.d...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>
>>"grinningdemon" <grinni...@austin.rr.com> wrote in message
>>news:huqd459o8j8rgtblc...@4ax.com...
>>>
>>>
>>> As for "Wolverine vs. Cyclops, part 723," you may want to check the
>>> books again because I have a fairly substantial knowledge of the
>>> X-Men history and, despite the unfortunate frequency of that
>>> god-awful love triangle rearing its ugly head, Astonishing #1 is
>>> actually the only significant fight Cyclops and Wolvie have ever had
>>> (over Jean)...at least as far as "in continuity" stories go.
>>
>>It flared up in Uncanny over the lock of hair. However, Claremont's
>>X-Men Forever #2 seems to have come up with a solution for it, after
>>raising the issue in #1.
>
> They didn't fight over the lock of hair...they just gave each other
> the cold shoulder...when written correctly, these two do not like each
> other so that's no big shock...Astonishing #1 is, to my knowldedge,
> the only time they've ever actually come to blows over Jean...in the
> regular Marvel Universe, at least.
Wolverine having kept a lock of Jean's hair itself is annoying.
Fraction brought back the whole overdone love triangle just to push
his poorly plotted story forward. (How did the bad guys know that
Logan kept some of Jean's hair in his room, but didn't know where
Jean was buried? Heck, why didn't they just check the graveyard
first? Or maybe just *ask* one of the X-Men instead of going on
the offensive. One of the bad guys, Lady Mastermind, was even a
member of the X-Men not horribly long ago.)
> As for X-Men Forever, it seems like the worst possible solution to
> this plotline...Wolverine is gone but the book and it's new status quo
> is still going to be all about him...to me, that's worse than keeping
> him around.
I'm avoiding X-Men Forever on general principles. It isn't and
would never be what it was sold as being. Claremont isn't the kind
of guy who can pick up where he left off 20 years ago. He responds
too much to what others do, continually rewrites his own ideas over
the years, needs sensible editorial restraint that Marvel is
currently incapable of giving even if they wished to, and honestly
is only a shadow of his former self anyway.
One can only hope that having Claremont writing in an alternate
timeline will result in minimal damage. Which isn't necessarily
a given considering how Marvel of late likes to latch on to
particularly damaging concepts.