See Psylocke Control Minds While Getting Mind Controlled Herself

A picture really is worth a thousand words... That's why today's entry focuses on a single panel from the past, but this time using a lot more words and a bunch of extra pictures to fully explain the magnitude of the mind control involved...

Case in point:

"I return these things... won in fair combat... to their rightful lord and master... who has for now and for all time... become mine."

Back in 2008, this image from Uncanny X-men # 256 was included as part of  a previous entry, but there's so much more mind control to cover from that issue. How did Psylocke go from a British, pink haired telepath and member of the X-men to an Asian assassin subservient to the Mandarin?

Well, remember how she mind controlled the X-men into entering the Siege Perilous, effectively having them commit suicide so the Reavers wouldn't ambush and kill them? Psylocke went through the mystical reincarnation gem as well, only to resurface in Uncanny X-men # 255.

Literally.

She washed ashore on a very familiar island, now controlled by the Hand. Naked and absolutely amnesic, no one knew who she was, until local crime kingpin Matsuo Tsurayaba arrived and got a good look at her...

"She is the mutant X-man Psylocke. And by all the gods who ever were...
I know full well what the Hand may do with her."

Tsurayaba's big plan unfolded in Uncanny X-men # 256 when he visited the Mandarin with an intriguing proposal: after some proper modification (read: mind control) Betsy would be ideally suited to be the Mandarin's mind reading premiere assassin. Taking care of his enemies ánd learning all their hidden secrets in the process.

Intrigued, the oriental warlord tentatively accepted Matsuo and the Hand's offer. They began Betsy's mental reconditioning using a combination of mystical influences and sensory deprivation, .

"Our ambition is to reconfigure her mental mosaic into a more... useful pattern"

Mind control by any other name, really.

Incidentally, probably the biggest reason the Mandarin appears in this storyline at all is the fact Uncanny X-men # 256 happened to be the first of three Acts of Vengeance crossover tie-ins. 

The big idea behind this Summer event was simple, yet elegant: tired of getting beaten by their archenemies, the villains decided to swap and attack heroes who weren't used to fighting them... Daredevil got Ultron, the Punisher fought Dr. Doom and the X-men had the Mandarin show up.

So, how was Psylocke's mind control going?

Honestly, who knows? Claremont writes a rather hard to grasp, perhaps purposely disjointed string of scenes that depict Betsy in the various stages of her life.

You remember how she started out as Captain Britain's blonde twin sister? Here she is, little more than a child, sitting in a prop Spitfire airplane on a carnival ride, imagining about really flying and killing Germans... And then the fantasy becomes all too real.

"A monster. A demon... No... Coming to claim me. No. No. Body and soul... No no no..."

After leaving the carousel, she finds a pretty ring. And pretty soon afterwards, she finds another. These are the ten rings of the Mandarin she is somehow collecting. But she's a bit too busy getting pushed around in her own mind to notice the villain's presence... or the rings' powers. Until she gets a make over that is...

"THERE you are, my naughty, naughty toy!"

By this time, she'd miraculously grown to adulthood, started wearing skin tight black leather outfits. 

"We can't have a westerner running the Hong Kong underworld. Art as life... I do love it so!"

By now, it's obvious we've reached the part of Psylocke's life in which she was under Mojo's thrall. Back in New Mutants Annual # 2, the ruler of the Mojoverse already mind controlled her and even transformed poor Betsy in a copy of himself. 

"And yet, for all that's changed... the oldest hurt remains"

And here we have the debut of the Asian style Psylocke.

There are just a few problems here: for one, all of this allegedly only plays in her mind. Changing Betsy's mental form should have no impact on her physical body. And yet it does. Also: what's with all the memories she has to work through? Didn't we establish earlier in the same issue she washed ashore a complete amnesiac?

Ah well, onward and upward... Betsy's about to resume her quest for the rings. And now, she knows they're powerful ánd that her former friends the X-men have them. With Storm conveniently enough standing next to her, she starts with Ororo who refuses... And this is when a mind controlled Psylocke uses mind control to get what she wants...

"You have no will but mine... That's my girl. Give it here."

So, a proven, strong telepath also uses the Mandarin's mind controlling 'mento-intensifier' ring (not to mention a flame blast) to get her hands on Storm's bauble. Well, one might call that overkill, but hey... whatever works.

Psylocke then goes on to kill Colossus, Dazzler and Havok for their rings. And, in a nice, foreshadow heavy nod to a future storyline, she doesn't have to fight Rogue, because she's already fought Ms. Marvel to the death...

Her brother Captain Britain would have been next on Betsy's hitlist, but then the unexpected happened:

"The impact beam is mine, Psylocke... And so now my pretty, at long last, are you!"

The disembodied voice belonged to the Slaymaster, a Captain Britain villain from back in the day who fought Betsy when she took over for the titular hero and was blinded by him in the process. The appearance of Slaymaster wasn't part of the mind control strategy the Hand and Mandarin had set out.

The whole idea was to force Psylocke to actively kill off everyone she cared for in her old life, so she would be hurt, vulnerable and open to whatever the villains wanted her to do. The Slaymaster threatened to throw the proverbial monkey wrench in that scheme. Luckily, Betsy overcame her fear for the villain and struck back, discovering not everything is quite as it appeared...

Smashing the Slaymaster's helmet, the face of the Mandarin was revealed. He immediately used whatever rings he still had left (count em in the upcoming panel, if the story makes any sense he could only have two out of ten). Not that he'd have time to count, because Psylocke was about to end him.

But even when caught at a distinct disadvantage, the mastervillain still tried to come out on top...

"Cast aside your boulder, Psylocke... And acknowledge the Mandarin as your lord and master."

Looks like he now has all his rings back. How come Psylocke doesn't have any left? Also why are Mojo and Spiral there, hovering in the background? And, more importantly, did Betsy just say 'no'?

"Your mind may control the ring... But mine... through my telepathy... controls your thoughts."

Ooh snap.

So, even while she herself is busy getting mind controlled, she controls others a record total of two times in the same issue. That girl sure is a pro. But surely, she wouldn't actually follow through on that threat now, would she?

Well, guess she would.

So, judging from this story... after witnessing her coming to terms with being changed against her will, after seeing her face and deal with childhood trauma and insecurities, not to mention having her stare down her greatest fears while fighting the Slaymaster ánd beating the tale's actual villain in the process... You'd think ... It's only logical to assume Betsy would end the issue a free woman.

Yeah, you'd think...

And so, with Psylocke killing everyone who tried to control or shape her, we come full circle, with this scene: Psylocke fully submitting to the Mandarin's rule after all. It makes very little sense indeed.

Y'know, not unlike an actual ring of the Mandarin.

Celebrating 125 Mind Control Moments: Psy versus Psy

Its official! It took close to 5 years, but this is blogpost 125!

And what better way to celebrate 125 moments of mind control than by focussing on Psylocke, star of this blog's second most popular post? Well, focussing on the most popular blog, sure, but that's the first part of the Sage Saga and though it took five mind control stuffed chapters, her story has pretty much been told.

Still, Sage does make an appearance in today's entry, because she was part of Chris Claremont's 2008 Exiles reboot, the rather unimaginatively called New Exiles. Fans of the original Exiles were a little afraid Claremont would blatantly ignore the beloved continuity outgoing writer Tony Bedard had created in favor of his own pet characters...

They weren't too wrong.

Claremont came on board with issue 90 and did indeed get rid of most of the cast, replacing them with his personal favorites. As is any incoming writer's prerogative, to be fair. Claremont decidedly made the book his own by writing out everyone but Sabretooth and Morph, bringing in the 616-versions of Psylocke and Sage, and pairing them with alternate reality versions of other favored Claremont creations such as Kitty Pryde (Cat), Rogue (erm, Rogue), Mystiq (Mystique) and Gambit (the son of a black Namor and the Invisible Woman!) Staying on from the team's previous incarnation were Morph and Sabretooth.

But make no mistake, this really became the Psylocke show, as Betsy quickly took center stage and  remained there for all of the 18 issues New Exiles lasted.  Of course, when you're the feature star in a Chris Claremont comic, getting mind controlled is as inevitable as death and taxes. But this time around, she actually mind controlled herself... No really!

In New Exiles # 7, the team lands on an alternate Earth where the French are a world power and are about to invade the United States. The Exiles are sent in to right some wrongs, but seconds after arriving Psylocke is struck down by a mysterious force.

Just as her teammates come to her aid, Betsy wakes up a totally different person; speaking Mandarin Chinese and not recognizing any of them, Betsy uses her telekinetic powers to flee the scene.

For some unknown reason, she flies halfway across the globe to Shanghai, all the while feeling like she should be someone else. 

The rings she thinks of are actually the powerful Mak'luan artifacts worn by Iron Man's arch enemy the Mandarin. Late in Claremont's first run on Uncanny X-men, Betsy was brainwashed into believing she was Lady Mandarin, and wielded the same power rings as the villain. Arriving in Shanghai, she makes a terrible discovery.

Finding her alternative self dead at the hands of an equally alternate Slaymaster brings back unpleasant memories for Psylocke. She herself was once blinded by the Slaymaster of her own reality and this incident always left her more than a little afraid to face the villain. With good reason, because for a man without superpowers, the ruthless Slaymaster is remarkably lethal...

And now it seems a Slaymaster is killing Betsy Braddock in every alternative world he visits. Psylocke is so rattled by this discovery, she doesn't notice that someone is sneaking up behind her until its too late and he knocks her out. Much to her chagrin, she doesn't find it was all a bad dream after she recovers.... And worse than that, this world's Lady Mandarin might not be as dead as she looked.

But before we get to that, Psylocke is confronted by the owner of the house she just broke into: it happens to be none other than everyone's favorite immortal sensei/demon Ogun. Lady Mandarin was his prized pupil and he is more than a little annoyed at Slaymaster for killing her. After a brief struggle, Ogun makes an offer Psylocke can't refuse: he will train her to face her fears so she can stop Slaymaster and avenge his victims.

Naturally, she agrees, but during the intense training sessions in New Exiles # 10, it becomes apparent that, in her dying moments, Lady Mandarin used her own psychic powers to place her mind inside Psylocke. Lady Mandarin is slowly changing Betsy's body to mirror her deceased form, starting with the Crimson Dawn tattoo appearing on her face. As the training continues, the differences between Betsy and the assassin's apprentice slowly melt away. They become one.

But before she is allowed to pursue Slaymaster, Ogun asks his obedient pupil to perform one final, tiny little task: go to Paris and kill France's emperor Bonaparte. She merrily agrees and takes off for Europe, only to discover nothing was quite the way it seemed.

Yup, turns out Ogun was just grooming her to be a lethal weapon in Bonaparte's war with the Atlanteans. Namor's race rules the oceans with an iron fist and doesn't allow mankind to defile their waters. All they're allowed to use are wooden galleys from the 18th century. As fascinating a story idea as this really is, let's get back to the mind control mirth at hand...

Emperor Bonaparte uses a mind lock on Lady Mandarin's psyche in hopes of controlling her. However, the lock actually allows Psylocke to regain control of her mind and body. Quickly seizing the emperor, she uses him as a hostage to end the crisis the Exiles had come to prevent and everyone went home happy. Except for one little thing: Lady Mandarin was still in Betsy's mind and she brought company...

In New Exiles # 13, Betsy discovers both Lady Mandarin and Ogun have taken up residence within her mind, once more ready to completely take over. But just as the battle seemed hopeless, Betsy was pushed to the limits....

"Its not fair. I just want to live. I swear I'll be good. I can help..."

Ignoring Lady Mandarin's soul rendering pleas for life, Betsy finishes what Slaymaster started and kills her other self in a flurry of all things pink.

"Finally... I'm free."

Well, for the moment at least... So long as you're in a Chris Claremont comic, one is never truly safe... as we'll continue to highlight!

Psylocke learned mindcontrol from the best

I suppose its inherent to the nature of telepaths, but most of the X-men's telepathic members have used mind control at one point or another. Back when Stan Lee was writing the team, Xavier used his powers to make Beast's parents forget all about him. Talk about a doozy, but while Claremont was writing, team telepaths made the mind their personal playground. Jean Grey, as Phoenix, was guilty of manipulating Kitty Pryde's parents for instance. But near the end of his run, Claremont had Betsy Braddock, aka Psylocke, commit several mindcontrol transgressions against members of her own team! Lets review some of the highlights...

After returning from a mission to the Savage Land, Psylocke sensed that the cyborg criminals known as the Reavers had invaded their Australian homebase. Knowing they were severely outmatched, Psylocke decided to give the team an easy way out: the Siege Perilous. This was a gift the X-men had received a while ago from the otherdimensional ruler Roma. The gem shaped device turned into a portal to the afterlife. Whoever entered through it, was granted a new leash on life, providing a form of instant reincarnation. Prefering this over certain death, Betsy used her mental control to convince her fellow X-men to enter the Siege as the Reavers approached to finish them off. Certainly a powerful moment, but also remarkable as she gives the other X-men no say in the matter. They have to die, because Betts says so. Doesn't really seem right, does it?

Still, Betsy also used the Siege and was got reincarnated. Sort of. I'll spare you the convoluted history of early 90s Psylocke, but basically: she didn't reincarnate into a new form at all. An amnesiac Betsy appeared on an island near Japan. There, she was recovered by Matsu'o Tsurayaba, a businessman who had close dealings with the crime syndicate known as The Hand.

One of their best operatives was the female assassin Kwannon. This minor telepathic hitman got severly injured on assignment, which gave Matsu'o a brilliant idea: lets combine the two women! He got his wish, thanks to the outerdimensional villain Spiral and her Body Shoppe. Spiral placed Betsy's mind inside Kwannon's body, much to Matsu'o's delight.

Also, because this storyline ran during Marvel's Acts of Vengeance crossover, in which heroes fought villains they were unfamiliar with... for that reason alone, the Mandarin showed up in X-men. One of the Mandarin's ten rings of power lets him control minds and... well, I suppose you can see where this is going, right?

"Next: Lady Mandarin!" Ow, next issue blurbs... sometimes you ARE downright profetic. Yes, I suppose because of the Acts of Vengeance, Claremont had Psylocke 'retrieve' the Mandarin's rings, binding her ever closer to his will. In a startling dream-like sequence, Psylock was forced to kill her fellow X-men and her brother Brian Braddock. They all had one of the Mandarin's rings. Once she completed the set, she was under his complete control, allowing for the transformation into Lady Mandarin. But in her new form, this Psylocke really was into mindcontrol. Lets see what she does when she encounters her former teammate Wolverine and his sidekick Jubilee...

"I am Lady Mandarin"... *SIGH*... I suppose I could fill another blog with THIS particular writing tick of Claremont's. At one point or another most of his characters feel the need to enter the scene shouting their own names. I get why he started doing this, its a great way to introduce new readers to the often confusing array of characters running around any given X-men comic, but still... its hardly realistic. Yet, 'Lady Mandarin' had 'nailed the kid', but her real target was Wolverine. The Hand wanted to forcibly recruit him as their new assassin. Mind you, this was in 1990, a good 15 years before Mark Millar introduced the same concept during his Wolverine run.

Yup, its mind control at its finest... using her telepathic powers, Psylocke tried to brainwash Wolverine, in an attempt to get his primal, violent urgings to work for the benefit of The Hand. It seemed to work for an instant or two, but Logan broke free. So, if at first you don't succeed... try, and try again... In her new body, Psylocke fought Wolverine and used her psychic knife, the manifestation of her mental powers, to get the job done.

Awww, Betsy Braddock... Once, your telepathy floated like a butterfly, now your knife stings like a bee-yotch!