OK, it's my turn to do one of these, or Stephen will start stealing them from me. So, Psylocke. One of my favorite X-Men and one of the most mistreated. This is not very edited, so bear with me. Here's where we would start:
What if, one day, you're blue blood English, and on the next, you woke up and you were Chinese? This has never been dealt with, and it seems to me you can't get anywhere with Psylocke unless you address this. I mean, I'm black, and if I woke up Mexican tomorrow you can bet that would be some shit to deal with.
At the core of it, Psylocke is someone who is always looking to come into her own, to simply be the best of who she is. Fate has conspired to treat this modest ambition most cruelly, beginning with her birth: though older by mere minutes, her brother Brian aka Captain Britain, has always outshone her. He was more powerful, a more experienced and celebrated hero, a scientific genius whose being pervaded the known omniverse. She had purple hair, could read minds, and, uh, modeled. And I think she liked to ski. She became captain Britain temporarily, and got crippled by Slaymaster (can't believe I remembered his name. Slaymaster? That's disco death metal for you). She was also blinded, and I think her brother had to save her. Mojo gave her bionic eyes, and used her to broadcast her adventures with the x-men in his homeworld, where it was a ratings success.
So she moved on to greener pastures, with the x-men. But even there, with her amazing telepathic abilities, she was third behind Charles "I could teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony, with the unbridled powers of my MIND" Xavier, and Jean "I got the power of phoenix and perfect skin" Grey.
After entering the Siege Perilous, she came out the other end remodeled, the product of an ambiguous and unintentional alliance between otherworldly network demon Mojo and the evil ninja clan, The Hand. She came out Chinese, reprogrammed to serve the Mandarin, a Chinese crimelord, and with the ability to create a psychic knife, which was, as the writers never failed to tell us, 'the focused totality of her psionic powers'. That was kind of cool. She also again had eyes that were cameras into another dimension. But again, you don't recognize your face in the mirror; Chinese people keep coming up to you and speaking Chinese, you can't get a table in that exclusive restaurant the Braddocks have eaten at for centuries, and on top of it all you're not sure whether you're completely deprogrammed; you might still flip out and kill all your friends. Which puts a strain on those nights out drinkin'.
And her story only gets more convoluted from there. A quick recap: after rejoining the x-men, she gets put in a coma by sabretooth; she is given a magic potion, the Crimson Dawn, and half of Angel's soul to bring her back. From this she gets a red mark over her eye and the power to melt into shadows. This goes nowhere. She uses her mind as a prison for the shadow king, meaning she can never use her telepathy again. She gains telekinesis. Then she gets killed. Then, pretty recently, she comes back again, with just the telekinesis. you might have noticed I skipped the whole Kwannon/Revanche debacle. The only thing of interest there is what happens when a writer tries to punch outside his weight class.
The only constant in Psylocke's life is change; all she wants is to be herself and be recognized as a valued individual, but all she does is change. She longs for the mundane. Though the well-meaning hippies who ask her about Buddhism cling to the stereotype of the 'wise oriental' bother her, she is kind of zen due to her experiences. She never quite knows who she is, but she knows instinctively that the self is not a static thing, however much she might want it.
Her relationships, except for the romance with Angel, have been pretty hit or miss. A lot of flirtations but not much else, not surprising for someone who barely knows who she is, much less what she wants out of a relationship. Angel worked because they were both freaks, who changed too much, raised in a wealthy environment, and had similar adventuring backgrounds.
She should be cagey, edgy. Since she grew up with telepathy, now that she doesn't have it, she lacks the ability to read body language and nonverbal cues. It's like she's blind, deaf, and mute - cut off from everyone's innermost thoughts. Two ways this manifest: one as a source of awkward humor - she doesn't know when to leave a room, or when to shut up, or when to start talking. Second, she is able to project a crazy, larger-than-life adventuress vibe, because she's liable to just charge into a situation. And she has somebody else's soul in her, keeping her alive (bringing her back? She might believe so), a reminder of how fragile life is, and the sacrifices that bring about a second chance.
Apologies for the rambling.
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