As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

PSYLOCKE vol 2 #1
“Masks”
Writer: Alyssa Wong
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan

Volume 1, if you’re wondering, was a four-issue miniseries published in 2010, featuring the original Psylocke.

PSYLOCKE.

She’s been taking mercenary work on the side, which she isn’t telling the X-Men about. Specifically, in this issue’s opening, she’s hired by politician Mr Acker (he doesn’t get a first name) to rescue his daughter Mila Acker from kidnappers. Mr Acker is apparently very anti-mutant, but Psylocke has no apparent qualms about taking this mission, since it really is just a genuine hostage rescue. She also wipes everyone’s memories of her involvement. This seems to be Psylocke quietly doing more-or-less heroic things in her own time, or just finding ways to keep herself permanently occupied. Her private missions aren’t solely mercenary, though, since she goes to investigate an AIM MGH event with no client. (It’s possible she would have told the X-Men about this if she hadn’t been benched at the time.)

Cyclops insists on Psylocke taking a week or two off because she never stops working. Notably, he sticks to this line even though he knows she’s just come back from Palmdale, California – presumably, he assumes that she’s been on some sort of private mission that she won’t talk about. Psylocke responds by yelling about how the X-Men need all hands on deck because of the ongoing threat to mutants, but of course the mission she just went on had nothing to do with all that. Cyclops implies that he thinks Psylocke still hasn’t got out of the habit of viewing herself as a living weapon (as she was raised to by the Hand), and that he’s trying to steer her away from that.

Psylocke’s immediate response is to go and hang out with Greycrow, who she regards as a kindred spirit – not only is he someone else who used to be used as a weapon, but he’s non-judgmental about her.

Psylocke is very upset about attacking Greycrow in her sleep (however harmlessly), because she sees it as a sign of how thoroughly violence was ingrained into her, and worries about her ability to transcend it.

When she sees that AIM are selling off mutant children, she’s evidently compelled to step in, despite her plan to keep her head down – it’s clearly reminiscent to her of her own exploitation by the Hand.

SUPPORTING CAST

The X-Men. The rest of the Alaskan team – Cyclops, Temper, Juggernaut, Kid Omega and Magik show up at the start of issue, so that Cyclops can tell her to take some time off. Kid Omega seems decidedly annoyed at Psylocke keeping the team hanging around without explanation.

Greycrow shows up as her supportive partner, in the same cabin that we saw in X-Men #5. These two have been a couple since the Krakoan-era Hellions series. He seems a lot more at peace with his lot than she does.

Devon Di Angelo is a new character, who Psylocke claims to have rescued “from an underground lab in Minneapolis where they were being forced to develop anti-mutant weaponry”. They’ve apparently insisted on allying themselves with Psylocke, who has decided to just go with it. They’re a college student with an extensive presence on “the dark web”, and they’re responsible for taking her mercenary bookings. They also make psychic-themed gadgets for her.

VILLAINS

AIM are longstanding Marvel Universe evil scientists, who tend to bump along at the “slightly more serious than just a joke” level, but it varies from story to story.

In this story, they’ve come up with an improved version of Mutant Growth Hormone, a drug extracted from mutants which has been floating around the Marvel Universe since Alias back in 2002, though various earlier stories with similar plot ideas have been retconned into involving the same thing. Usually, as in this story, it gives humans temporary powers.

Donald Pierce and Skullbuster, both members of the Reavers, are working as security for this event, and were also involved in abducting the mutant children. . The last time we saw Pierce, he was an ambassador for Madripoor’s Homines Verendi government, but apparently times are tight for him now. Skullbuster doesn’t seem to have appeared in an X-book, outside flashbacks, since Uncanny X-Men vol 5 #11 (part of the Matthew Rosenberg run), though he did appear in Ghost Rider vol 10 #5 in 2022. Psylocke kills him here, and feels bad about it – or, more accurately, feels bad about the fact that she doesn’t.

The Hand are shown in flashback training Kwannon; for the purposes of this story, it’s just recapping what we already knew, but somebody called Master Hayashi gets named, and he’s new, so I imagine we’ll hear more.

OTHER REFERENCES

Page 10 panel 3. 3K are the main villain group over in X-Men, and their scheme seems to involve turning adult humans into mutants by somehow altering their bodies.

Page 15 panel 2 is a generic flashback to young Kwannon having killed a bunch of ninja as part of the training with the Hand. There are various flashbacks to her abusive upbringing in the Krakoan-era Fallen Angels series.

Page 19 panels 1-2: “Any sign of AIM?” “That’s the weird thing – I haven’t seen them at all tonight.”Eh? The guy on the door was in full AIM uniform. Perhaps that was an art error, since this is supposed to be a regular hotel – do AIM really have an agent standing in full public view?