Uncanny X-Force just did something unexpected (spoilers)

[wonderwomanhero]

From Uncanny X-Force #3





I CAN'T. They just revamped Psylocke's entire backstory. What the actual fuck?....




I assume this means that everything, including Revanche, is no more?

Comments

[drmcninja]

I don't understand. What about Captain Britain? That heavy scene post kid-apoc-murder in the holo room with him? What about everything? Why would anybody think that taking away a genuinely interesting and generally coherent (for comics) backstory and replacing it with another "young person grows up in New York" is a good idea?

[lilacsigil]

So she's Captain Britain's adopted twin sister now? Or half-sister? What?

[ghosty732]

Is there more to it than just what's shown above? Because it's been pre-established that Betsy was a model in her youth. It's not totally outside the realm of possibility that she was alone in New York for a bit in her early modelling career when she developed her powers.

[silicondream]

She didn't become a model until like ten years later than this, though. She was a charter pilot before. And she lived a sheltered childhood as landed gentry in a rural English town, tied at the hip to her twin brother--I don't think she could possibly have lived on her own in America for any amount of time.

[majingojira]

Given the general age of models these days, I can see why they'd do something like that for 'modernization' purposes.

Don't make it any less wonky, mind you . . .

[selke]

*slowly closes the window while cursing* I left Firefly for this? BAD MARVEL.

[beyondthefringe]

I try time travelling alternate dimension retcon shenanigans.

Maybe... she went home after that, and her father or the Mastermind computer or Roma erased her memory and locked her powers back down until they surfaced again later in life? She became a charter pilot but always yearned to return to modeling?

I'm holding out for a rational explanation that proves the writer isn't taking liberties with the established history.

[arise]

is it... normal for sixteen year olds to live alone in new york?

[wizardru]

No, it most certainly is not. Speaking of the father of a girl who is almost sixteen....NO.

[theflames]

If they're modelling, then yes. Few shows will inform you that models as young as 15 will fly around for their gigs, stay in cities by themselves every now and again.

[icon_uk]

Except she's hardly a model at all here, she's an aspiring model.

[theflames]

That works too, aspiring models get decent breaks very now and again, if the industry really wants them.

[icon_uk]

Not really my point.

She's not actually a model, which means she's pretty much unemployed.

So she is a 16-year old, foreign national, unemployed and living on her own in New York. There is no aspect of this which remotely ties in with Betsy's personality as seen in the past (Yes her family had enough money to make renting an apartment not a problem, but I can't see them allowing it)

[theflames]

No, 'an aspiring model', or rather model in general won't fit into those rigid views.

An aspiring model, has to uh... model, at one point or another, and Betsy, with her rich background could most definitely afford to pursue such a flimsy/risky job. flying out to New York for work, living in an apartment bestowed on you by the agency, or family (or family owned). What she's doing here doesn't need to actually tie in with her personality, it's jus a phase of her life.

This could have been a snapshot of a few months, or a year, doesn't really matter, but other than the whole looking asian thing - it could slip into her backstory fairly easy.

'Yeah i didn't a bit of modelling in my teen years, even got to fly out to New York and live out there for a few months, wasn't for me in the end though, didn't work out. Now I'm an X-man.'

Funnily enough, i can most definitely see an upper class family allowing their daughter to live and pursue a luxurious lifestyle - happens all the time. I mean, have you ever met an middle class (and upwards) teen who hasn't traveled to various parts of the world?

I can't think of one who hasn't at the moment.

[icon_uk]

I mean, have you ever met an middle class (and upwards) teen who hasn't traveled to various parts of the world?

Yes, many of them.

And certainly not living unsupervised in New York at the age of SIXTEEN.

[theflames]

Then maybe it's a sign of time's a changin'- because from 16 upwards, many many teens do travel, the richer ones more frequently sans parents. University definitely pointed that fact out to me.

If it helps, model, when they do travel and work around that age - normally have a handler, from the agency, so they're 'by themselves' but not buy themselves. So yeah, imo this situation Betsy's in works. But not very well since it's being questioned so much.

[featheredserpent]

I'm so glad I didn't pay for this.

[espanolbot]

Dammit, must every superhero in the Marvel universe have moved to frickin NYC at some point?!

[maxisanacorn]

So she's been Asian the whole time now?

[spacebetween]

I think what has happened is they just did a quick glance into Betsy's history. Resulting in skipping a large percentage of her history and just blindly assumed that she was Asian to begin with.

[icon_uk]

I'm hoping that can't be the case, because it would require an astonishing level of blithering ignorance. She's the twin sister of Captain Britain for pities sake.... fraternal twin I know, but...

[silverhammerman]

I don't think that could be it, I listened to an interview with Humphries a while ago and I'm pretty sure he made mention of Psylocke's weird mindswapping past.

[philippos42]

I've read a fair bit of Excalibur, a lot of X-Men, and a little bit of Captain Britain, and I didn't even notice that this contradicted anything. Model, purple hair, psychic, yeah, that's Betsy.

That's the thing about these characters with long backstories. And Betsy crosses between two franchises, I don't know how many named series, and two countries of publication--and the older Captain Britain stories were out of print and uncollected for a really long time. I don't know about the "pre-Alans" stuff, even now.

Easy mistake.

[akodo_rokku]

I'd like to just step in here and say they can do whatever they want to Psylocke's backstory as long as they keep making this book so good. The sequence inside Bishop's head at the end of this issue? Ermgaherd yes.

[turtlefu]

I'm okay with them trying to get rid of the whole Revanche thing. But remember, this book is supposed to feature Spiral (who if I remember correctly was the one behind the whole Revanche thing), so I think it's likely this is a trick.

This is such a massive retcon (is she born Asian now? Is she still Brian's twin? Is she English?) that there is no Superboy time-punching or Barry Allan timeline shenanigans, there must be some trick.

[theflames]

the ONLY issue here is that she is is still Asian. That's a big no no.

Hopefully we'll chalk that up to a mistake.

This part of her backstory can be logic'd away by her having history as a model, and most models have ins-and-outs with that career, so maybe she got a little taste of it when she was 16. Then did a little more ten years on.

That being said, Psylocke in the Ultimate Marvel universe is having the same backstory/continuity issues. Must be something about the character.

[domino_blue]

Oh god the confusion....to make it worst I just noticed she actually has a original Costume Captain Britain in her room...so now it's kind of cannon....I guess.

[bj_l]

They seemed to get all the mind-swapping stuff right in the earlier issues, so I'm going to play some wait and see. Betsy has always had an overly packed backstory, anyway. Even just with the modelling/STRIKE/psi work/etc, she seemed really back loaded. How old is she even meant to be anymore?

I haven't read the whole issue, but does it specifically say that she is Asian in flashbacks? Because I'd argue that she isn't in these pages, and she wasn't in the Body Shoppe stuff in the first two issues either.

[icon_uk]

Same age as Captain Britain (naturally, since they're twins) , and given he had a long university course and then moved on to research work even before becoming Captain Britain, would be in his thirties IMHO.

[ablackraptor]

I'd argue she has very minor asian-ish features here, so maybe if they are rebooting her, they're either going with 'she's white but LOOKS Asian', like Michael McIntyre or my younger brother, or 'she's mostly white but has some Asian genetics' (sota like Smallville's Lana Lang, who was clearly part Asian but all on-screen family that weren't also played by Kruek were white), which would also mean that Cap B's also part Asian but doesn't look it (sorta like how Chuck Norris is part Native American despite not looking like it), which I honestly see no problem with.

[technarch]

I am so confused.