Ruminations on Psylocke

For some reason, I started thinking about Psylocke today. It's very weird, because I tend not to think about the character. She doesn't appeal to me at all. At least now.

I actually find Betsy Braddock surprisingly appealing in her pre-Kwannonized appearances. When she was just a purple-haired telepathic supermodel who kind of sucked at fighting. I thought she was cute and I liked her personality. And that weird butterfly-aura she used with her powers was nifty-looking.

I'd really like to track down the comics where she temporarily replaced Captain Britain, because I find that very intriguing.

I guess the original Elizabeth Braddock wasn't interesting or appealing enough, because once they did that whole body-swap thing with Kwannon/Revanche, she might as well have become a different character entirely.

Oh and by the way, can someone explain to me why a ninja assassin who is (I assume) supposed to be Japanese is named "Kwannon". With a code name of "Revanche"? Those aren't anything resembling Japanese names/words. They're utter nonsense. Is it that hard to find a name that's remotely Japanese sounding?

And the fact that Betsy, brainwashed and in Kwannon's body, calls herself "Lady Mandarin" makes me twitch. And it's not like this was the 1940s, when some racism was pretty standard (though not excusable, of course). It doesn't take that much to do some research. Japan =/= China. (And if Kwannon is supposed to be Chinese, why the heck are they going around calling her a ninja? That's very nation-specific, you know...)

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, as much as I like Marvel comics usually, this is the company that keeps calling Wolverine a freakin' Samurai.

I know I've complained about the seeming arbitrariness of Cassandra Cain's Asian-ness, as it seemed more there simply because "Asian martial artist girls are hot" rather than a real attempt at an Asian-American portrayal (your mileage may vary, of course), but she will always be vastly preferable to me over the fact that they took a British-Caucasian character and shoved her into a new body and decided "Okay, she's a hot asian martial artist now".

I mean, if you're going to have a hot Asian martial artist, why not create a character to BE a hot Asian martial artist? It's not like new characters didn't float in and out of the X-teams all the time!

There is some very disturbing symbolism in the way a white girl is written to suddenly assume Asian identity, which Jenn from Reappropriate gets into here.

Really though, I just miss Captain Britain's perky, fun twin sister. I don't have any interest in the angry faux-ninja sexpot she became. It seems like such a loss.