Kwannon (Marvel)
Kwannon is a female comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Kwannon
It was known that she came to be raised as an assassin and an 'enemy of peace'. However, she fell in love with a boy and gave birth to a daughter. This came to displease her masters who killed Kwannon's lover and took her daughter away as the child was deemed a weakness. (Fallen Angels v2 #1)
At some point, she came into the service of the crime lord Nyoirin and served as his prime assassin. (X-Men v2 #18)
By this point, she was a deadly assassin bound to the service of the Japanese crimelord Matsu’o Tsurayaba. Though already a master of martial arts and an unparalleled telepathic combatant, her fate became entwined with that of the X-Man Betsy Braddock. In a tragic act orchestrated by Matsu’o and the sorceress Spiral, Kwannon and Betsy’s minds and bodies were mystically altered and merged, leaving Kwannon in possession of fragments of Betsy’s identity while inhabiting a reshaped body designed to serve as Matsu’o’s weapon. (X-Men v2 #17) Now operating under the alias Revanche, she sought to define her place in the world amidst the fractured remnants of her own mind and the pieces of Betsy’s she carried. Initially she confronted the X-Men, claiming her identity as the true Betsy Braddock, and demanded recognition from the team. This led to tension and confusion among the mutants, as both she and the altered Psylocke claimed authenticity. Her actions revealed a mixture of hostility and vulnerability, as she attempted to reconcile her fractured sense of self while engaging in battle against those she sought to convince. (X-Men v2 #20)
Kwannon was later diagnosed with the Legacy Virus, which further complicated her struggle for identity and survival. Despite her weakened state, she continued to act decisively, engaging in missions alongside the X-Men and showing flashes of her own independent will distinct from Betsy. Ultimately, her confrontation with Betsy led to a moment of mutual recognition, where the two women acknowledged the truth of their intertwined souls. Kwannon’s final act of clarity came in choosing her own death, relinquishing the psychic fragments of Betsy that she carried, thus restoring Psylocke’s mind to wholeness while ending her own tormented existence. (X-Men v2#31)
Rebirth
Sometime afterwards, Psylocke was part of a group of X-Men that were investigating the return of Wolverine on Madripoor where her soul was absorbed by Sapphire Styx leaving her body dead. Betsy Braddock's soul eventually managed to escape causing Styx's body to explode whereupon Psylocke instinctively reforms a new body from Sapphire's soul power thus restoring herself in her original form. A result of this was the resurrection of Kwannon in her own body that returned to life where she ambushed several of Viper's henchmen at her warehouse as she sought answer to some questions. (Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor v1 #4) After the X-Men disappeared, public opinion turned against Mutants with more aggressive acts being done against the race. During this time, Joseph emerged and sought to have humanity fear Mutants again as he believed this was what kept their people alive. Thus, he disguised himself as Magneto and made a public attack in an effort to instil fear. He was defeated by Cyclops and his allies with Joseph taken into custody but then Kwannon emerged from the shadows where she cut off his head before he could be taken away. (Uncanny X-Men v5 #16)
House of X
Upon settling on Krakoa, she fully embraced the name of Psylocke thus forcing Betsy Braddock to use a new code-name. Kwannon then received a dream about a threat in the world called Apoth. With several of the X-Men, she ventured off Krakoa in secret in order to battle this threat where she came to ally with Mister Sinister to enlist his resources. (Fallen Angels v2 #1)
Despite her intention to leave the island, Psylocke found herself chosen by the Quiet Council to become one of the Great Captains of Krakoa. (Inferno v2 #1) Before abandoning Krakoa, she was informed that Nanny had adopted an android baby which had been captured by the Right, prompting Orphan-Maker to retrieve it in Arizona on a one-man mission. As a Captain of Krakoa, Psylocke insisted on aiding Orphan-Maker by herself, but her former Hellions decided to back her up. Journeying to the Right's Zeta base, the group engaged in a brutal confrontation. Nanny met her demise at the hands of the robotic child, causing Orphan-Maker to lose control in fury and kill two human rangers. (Hellions v1 #17) Sentenced to the Pit of Exile by the Quiet Council, Orphan-Maker was punished alongside a resurrected Nanny, contrary to Psylocke's efforts to avert their penalty. In the aftermath, the Hellions were disbanded. Kwannon decided to remain on Krakoa as a Captain, contemplating the potential for personal growth and redemption. She stopped Greycrow from murdering their former teammate Empath for his part in the Hellions' downfall, prompting Greycrow to confess his feelings for her. The two began a relationship thereafter. (Hellions v1 #18)
She was later called to assist Excalibur after the seeming death of Betsy Braddock during the Contest of Swords. They had managed to get her body but her soul was missing with Kwannon going into Otherworld in search of it due to the connection they had one another. She came to find it in Jackdaw Village where Betsy's essence wanted to be left alone but Kwannon managed to convince her to return. This saw her housing Betsy's soul and she helped in returning it to her body. (Excalibur v4 #19)
From the Ashes
Travelling to Japan, Psylocke decided to use this time to find peace for herself. Alongside Greycrow, her time off was short lived when a vampiric invasion took over the planet. Engulfed in darkness, the world was vulnerable to the dark creatures. Determined not to let innocents die, Psylocke protected Osaka from monsters. As the ancestral entity known as the Slit-Mouthed Woman brought immense terror, Psylocke psychically probed into her mind only to learn her sorrowful story. As an act of mercy, Psylocke slayed the villain to end the suffering. (X-Men: Blood Hunt - Psylocke v1 #1) Eventually, the heroes of Earth defeated Varnae and put an end to the ascension of the vampires. (Blood Hunt v1 #5)
Cyclops reformed the X-Men, relocating them to the desolated town of Merle, in Alaska. (X-Men v6 #35) As one of the top enforcers in his assault team, Psylocke acted as one of the psychics of the X-Men. She joined them because, seeing herself as a tool, she considered the X-Men gave her a purpose. (X-Men v7 #5) From the remnants of Orchis, an organization known as Fourth School emerged, being related to the activation of mutations in adult individuals. In fact, they were secretly manipulated by the cabal called the 3K. (X-Men v7 #1) One of these individuals was Ben Liu, who got into the X-Men's custody. (X-Men v7 #2) Alongside Quentin Quire, she performed a psychic rescue inside the depths of Liu's mind. The immensely boobytrapped psyche proved to be challenging to Psylocke's skills and Quire's raw power. They were tormented, but managed to overcome the attacks together. As a result, Psylocke identified the existence of 3K and determined Cassandra Nova was one of them. (X-Men v7 #5)
During this time, Psylocke also maintained her career as a mercenary to protect innocents through her connections to the criminal underworld. She had backup from Devon Di Angelo, a proficient hacker Psylocke had rescued from an anti-mutant facility in Minneapolis. However, these operations clashed with Psylocke's efficacy in the X-Men, prompting Cyclops to withdraw her from missions. Completely focused on her solo activities, Psylocke was informed by Di Angelo about A.I.M. smuggling a variant of Mutant Growth Hormone using trafficked mutants. During an auction she infiltrated in Phoenix, she clashed with the Reavers Donald Pierce and Skullbuster, ultimately killing the latter. (Psylocke v2 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Kwannon was a striking woman of Japanese heritage whose body was reshaped through Spiral’s surgical and mystical intervention. She bore long dark hair, sharp facial features, and the athletic musculature of a highly trained assassin. When operating as Revanche, her costume resembled Psylocke’s iconic deep violet combat attire, consisting of a high-cut one-piece outfit with matching gloves, boots, and sash, designed to balance both functionality and striking visual impact. (X-Men v2 #17) For a time, she was given the name Revanche when she served Lord Nyoirin. (X-Men v2 #21) On Krakoa, she decided to take the name of Psylocke and abandoned Kwannon. (Fallen Angels v2 #1)
Kwannon displayed a hardened and pragmatic outlook shaped by her life as an assassin. She carried herself with a cold confidence, her words often curt and direct, revealing a woman used to control and command. Yet beneath this hardened surface existed a deep conflict, as she wrestled with the psychic entanglement of Betsy Braddock’s memories and emotions. This left her both fierce and vulnerable, torn between asserting her own selfhood and being consumed by the confusion of dual existence. (X-Men v2 #20)
As Revanche, she was fiercely confrontational, determined to reclaim her stolen life and name, often clashing with Betsy over who was the 'true' Psylocke. Even when weakened by the Legacy Virus, she refused pity and carried herself with dignity, preferring to die on her feet. (X-Men v2 #31)
After her resurrection, she tempered her harshness with focus, acting as a disciplined leader in battle and someone who valued clarity of purpose. Kwannon showed restraint and calm even in dire circumstances, contrasting with her earlier intensity. (Fallen Angels v2 #1)
She shared the symbol of the butterfly with Betsy Braddock but claimed that she hated the symbol. In reality, she lied as Kwannon hated that she and Betsy had something in common. Furthermore, she resented the idea that destiny linked them and that she had been fated to have her body taken by Braddock. Upon her return, she held onto the symbol of the butterfly in the hope of it meaning something to her and it was part of her redemption. (Fallen Angels v2 #2)
Kwannon one served the underworld crime lord Nyoirin and was considered his most elite assassin. (X-Men v2 #18)
She had a complicated relationship with Betsy Braddock due to their prior encounters with one another. Kwannon had said the two were bound (Excalibur v4 #19)
Powers and abilities
Physiologically, Kwannon was a human mutant whose natural psychic gifts included potent telepathy and precognitive sensitivity. As Revanche, she demonstrated advanced telepathic capabilities, able to read thoughts, project illusions, and engage in psychic combat. Her body, reshaped and enhanced by Spiral, was conditioned for martial combat, granting her strength, agility, and endurance beyond that of most humans, though not on a superhuman scale. Combined with her assassin training and mutant telepathy, this made her a lethal opponent in both physical and mental confrontations. (X-Men v2 #17) Kwannon possessed formidable telepathic powers, allowing her to read minds, project illusions, and incapacitate foes with psychic attacks. Her signature weapon was the psychic blade, often unleashed as a katana-shaped construct that could pierce the minds of her enemies and overload their nervous systems. (X-Men v2 #31)
She was shown as being highly skilled in martial arts and was easily able to cut through an entire gang of thugs. (X-Men v2 #17)
Originally, Kwannon's powers manifested as a form of intuitive empathy, which allowed her to access the minds of others. (X-Men v2 #32) This granted her a reputation in Japan as a killer who could hear thoughts. (Fallen Angels v2 #2) Once infected with the Legacy Virus, Kwannon's telepathic powers increased to the point where she was able to cut through the fog of her own clouded memories and recall the truth of her origins. She was also shown to read minds and project her own thoughts, even across continents, and to psionically mask her mind from Professor Xavier's own telepathic abilities, even while standing right beside him. (X-Men v2 #31)
With her psionic senses, Psylocke can track other sentient beings by their psychic emanations. (Uncanny X-Men v5 #17) However, she was shown to possess enough skill and power to successfully shield her mind from Jean Grey's telepathic scans and sneak into the X-Mansion undetected. (X-Men v2 #20) It was later explained that because of the discomfort of using her newfound telepathy, Kwannon unconsciously projected her frustration and confusion onto the X-Men whenever she was around them, causing them to be more agitated and aggressive in return, and to believe the same lies she herself had been told by Nyoirin. (X-Men v2 #32)
In Betsy Braddock's body, Kwannon physically manifested her telepathic powers as a blade, created as an ornate psionic katana. The blade could disrupt the autonomic nervous systems of other living beings, incapacitating them instantly. (X-Men v2 #20) Kwannon could also use her psychic katana to force her way into an opponent's mind and reveal any thoughts that were originally shielded from her telepathic powers, including those of other telepaths. (X-Men v2 #22)
As a trained assassin, she combined her telepathy with expert swordsmanship, acrobatics, and martial arts. Even without her powers, her agility and lethal skill with dual blades made her a dangerous combatant. After her resurrection, Kwannon demonstrated greater focus in her psychic projections, generating psychic katanas, short blades, and constructs that gave her more versatility in battle. (Fallen Angels v2 #1)
Shortly before her death, Kwannon displayed a butterfly-like psychic energy aura whenever using her powers, as Braddock did in both her original and Japanese bodies. Kwannon was also somehow able to temporarily imprint Matsu'o Tsurayaba with telepathic energy that freed Braddock of the portions of Kwannon's mind she had absorbed. (X-Men v2 #32) Kwannon came to refine her powers to allow her to manifest a pair of psychic butterfly wings that allowed her to fly in the air. (Fallen Angels v2 #1)
She was shown to be capable of housing the soul of Betsy Braddock with the two being one in the process. (Excalibur v4 #19)
Upon inhabiting Braddock's body, she gained telepathic abilities and the power to generate a katana and other bladed weapon constructs composed of psionic energy. These blades were capable of disrupting a person's neural functions on contact, generally rendering them unconscious. The appearance of the katana varied; on at least one occasion Kwannon was shown to generate a small psychic dagger instead of a full blade. (X-Men v2 #23) Using her psi-blade, Kwannon could force her way into another telepath's mind. (X-Men v2 #22)
Kwannon used to own Braddock's former indestructible armor crafted by Landau, Luckman & Lake. (X-Men v2 #20)
Notes
- Revanche was created by Fabian Nicieza and Andy Kubert where she made her first appearance in Uncanny X-Men v1 #256 (December, 1989).
Alternate Versions
- In X-Men: Age of Apocalypse v1 #4 (2005), an alternate version of Psylocke appeared in the Age of Apocalypse reality that was designated as Earth-295 in the Multiverse.
- In Captain Marvel v11 #22 (2020), an alternate version of Kwannon appeared in an alternate reality that was designated as Earth-20368 in the Multiverse.
- In Excalibur v4 #17 (2021), an alternate version of Kwannon appeared in an alternate reality that was designated as Earth-21270 in the Multiverse.
- In Ultimate X-Men v2 #7 (2024), an alternate version of the character named Kanon Sainouchi appeared in the new Ultimate Marvel reality that was designated as Earth-6160 in the Multiverse.
In other media
Television
Video games
- In Marvel Future Fight, Kwannon appeared in the setting of the mobile video game as an alternate skin for Betsy Braddock.
- In Marvel Realm of Champions, Kwannon made a cameo appearance in the setting of the mobile video game.
- In Marvel Mystic Mayhem, Kwannon as Psylocke appeared in the setting of the mobile video game.
Appearances
- Uncanny X-Men v1: (1989)
- X-Men v2:
- Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor v1:
- Uncanny X-Men v5:
- Fallen Angels 2:
- Hellions v1:
- Excalibur v4: (2021)
- Uncanny Avengers:
- X-Men v7:
- Psylocke v2:
External Links
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