Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Tracking the Cameo Queens: Psylocke; Real Name Betsy Braddock

This is probably the last of the official cameo queens considering everyone else following is probably debatable. For this post we have the sometimes British, sometimes Asian siren Psylocke aka Betsy Braddock.
Who, like Dazzler, is also a Cover Queen:


She also gets the distinction of being one of the heroes on the Marvel 70th anniversary frame.

Uncanny X-Men #504
# of panels: 1
# of lines: 0
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Craption: None.
She simply appears in a flashback. Wouldn’t count it if it weren’t Fraction. She also graces the cover twice, one as Brit Betsy and the other as Asian Betsy.



Uncanny X-Men #508
# of panels: 10, I count both bodies.
# of lines: 3
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Craption: None
Psylocke plus her British body make an appearance as Betsy’s consciousness is placed in her revitalized old body and she’s all like WTF?
Ok, not really, but WTF sums it up better.



Uncanny X-Men #509
# of panels: 9 counting both bodies.
# of lines: 1
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Craption: None.
Betsy just shows up to have her story explained and then get put under the mental command of the Red Queen. All in a day’s work for a cameo queen. She also gets the cover with both her bodies again just like in #504. Truly an attention whore.



Uncanny X-Men #510
# of panels: 11
# of lines: 5
# of times she uses her powers: 4
Craption: None.
Possessed Psylocke shows up to fight Wolverine, one of her old teammates. So repetitive it could be an episode of Charmed.



Uncanny X-Men #511
# of panels: 32
# of lines: 22
# of times she uses her powers: 4
Craption: Telekinetic psychic. Ninja. Back home. At last.
Betsy fights the X-Men for the Sisterhood. Dazzler fries her original body’s face off, so Psylocke offs herself to get back to the Asian one. She fights the possession is a very unoriginal, Ms. Marvel vs. Rogue way. Then she’s all better and in her Asian body. Joins the team.



Uncanny X-Men #512
# of panels: 24
# of lines: 7
# of times she uses her powers: 2
Craption: Psychic ninja. Recent addition. Out of sorts.
Psylocke’s function here is to be pretty and fight off the people attacking the X-Science Club.



Uncanny X-Men #513
# of panels: 2
# of lines: 0
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Craption: None
This issue we only get a panel of her in the background facing her and one behind her while standing next to Dazzler. Clearly, she’s taking lessons from Diva. And in true learning from the Diva she gets a FABULOUS Bianchi variant cover.


Uncanny X-Men #514
# of panels: 8
# of lines: 8
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Craption: Telepathic, telekinetic ninja. Long story.
This issue Betsy definitely got the most love out of the four official cameo queens. She's got lines, she is essentially leader of an operation to go underwater. It was difficult to tell if she was saying all the lines that had no obvious person linked to them, but from what I could tell it was her. She even got a craption, something none of the other queens managed to get.



Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia
# of panels: 1
# of lines: 0
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Craption: None
Psylocke’s face is barely seen in the one panel she does appear in which is when the X-Men are gathered around the TV.



X-Men Legacy #226
# of panels: 2
# of lines: 1
# of times she uses her powers: 0
Betsy appears for a line and then runs off with Kurt. She’s just too good for panel time.


Dark Avengers #8
# of panels: 5
# of lines: 3
# of times she uses her powers: 1, uses her telepathy for an underwater conversation.
Psylocke keeps her cameoing strong as she probably once again has the most valuable page time out of all the cameo queens.

1 comment:

FSaker said...

I don't know if Psylocke can be considered as a cameo queen... sure, she's being one in Utopia, but she was pretty much a central character in the whole Sisterhood arc (except in Uncanny X-Men #509), as well as in Uncanny X-Men #512.

She may become a cameo queen if her "appearances" keep being like the ones in Utopia so far, but it seems she's getting more panel time in general than cameo queens like Dazzler and Northstar. Let's hope Alison and Jean-Paul get the same attention in the future, and that Betsy doesn't lose hers.