PSYLOCKE vol 2 #6
“House of Ghosts”
Writer: Alyssa Wong
Artists: Vincenzo Caratù & Moisés Hidalgo
Colour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan

PSYLOCKE

The last issue ended with her seeing a monstrous ghostly image of herself and Betsy merged, which she chose to ignore. As this issue starts, she’s still experiencing these hallucinations, but she’s chosen not to tell the other X-Men. Since nobody’s noticed her being distracted up to now, it’s probably not long after issue #5.

Her rationale for not telling the other X-Men is partly that she assumed it was an after-effect of the Taxonomist’s hallucinogenics from the previous issue, which would wear off in time. Her narration says that “With the tensions between Rogue’s X-Men and ours, the last thing we need is any sign of instability.” Her paranoia about letting the team down makes sense; the bit about the two X-Men teams feuding is probably there mainly as foreshadowing for later in the issue. Given what we saw about the relations between the teams in “X-Manhunt”, this probably has to go very shortly after “Raid on Graymalkin”.

While in action, Psylocke has a vision of her daughter Himeko. The Krakoan-era Fallen Angels #1 established that Himeko had been taken from Psylocke by the Hand as an infant, and much of her Krakoan arc involved her hoping to retrieve an AI copy of Himeko’s mind, since Himeko herself was dead. Fallen Angels #1 strongly implies that Himeko child was taken as a newborn – Psylocke says that she “never held” her – but in this story she seems to recall singing lullabies to her.

The lullaby in question seems to be original (or at any rate, this English translation is). A brief flashback says that Kwannon “learned it from someone who’s dead now” – presumably Mitsuki, though it’s hard to tell from the art alone. Since Deathdream also knows this song, we should probably take it that it’s just a widely-known Japanese song.

Understandably, Psylocke finds the ghost of her daughter very disconcerting, and has to explain it away in some form – she offers some blather about psychic echoes. As the issue progresses, she also starts seeing ghost versions of Cyclops and Kid Omega. She initially turns to Greycrow for support rather than her teammates, but he’s away working.

According to Deathdream, Psylocke is haunted by literal ghosts, but there’s also “something else … another passenger”. This is presumably the source of the visions of herself and the other X-Men, who obviously aren’t ghosts. Where Himeko fits into the picture is less clear for now, since she really is dead (at least as far as we know).

SUPPORTING CAST

Himeko. Presumably a vision intended as more of a guilt trip for Psylocke than anything else. The butterfly marking on the back of her neck was established in Fallen Angels #1. Psylocke recognises her as a child, presumably from the vision she had of Hideko’s death in the same issue.

Himeko claims here that Psylocke “let” the Hand take her away, while Psylocke protests that she “couldn’t stop the Hand”. The flashback in Fallen Angels #1 shows Kwannon being very distressed at the removal of her daughter but not actually putting up much resistance, so Himeko’s statement is true in that sense – and at any rate likely to reflect the way Psylocke herself sees it, even if her reaction is due to indoctrination.

Himeko’s further claim that she died as a result is much more tenuous; she was killed by Apoth, not by the Hand. The claim is only really true in the sense that, if she’d been raised by Psylocke, her life would have gone in a different direction.

Greycrow. He’s off doing armed robberies. This matches X-Men #5, where Psylocke said that he was “paying that awful Amy Voght to teleport you around the world so you can rob banks”. If the other X-Men know about this, they’re evidently turning a blind eye.

Devon Di Angelo. Doesn’t appear, but does try to phone Psylocke; she doesn’t answer, clearly not viewing Devon as a source of emotional support.

Mitsuki. As noted above, that’s presumably her in the one-panel lullaby flashback, given the lack of other candidates.

Magik. Psylocke likes her because she’s “blunt and straightforward”. Psylocke also appreciates that she never has to wonder what Magik is thinking – evidently Psylocke refrains from just reading her mind. Magik in this issue is relatively cheerful and upbeat, and offers to investigate the theory that Psylocke is being haunted by taking her to see Deathdream, intra-team tensions be damned.

Cyclops and Kid Omega appear briefly to receive word of Psylocke and Magik’s mission at the start of the issue. Glob Herman doesn’t appear but apparently makes great cinnamon rolls.

GUEST CAST

Deathdream. While he’s shown up as part of the Uncanny cast, this is Deathdream’s first time as a solo guest star outside his home book. As in Uncanny, he’s theatrically spooky, enjoys the company of ghosts, and seems unable to recognise that other characters will think that it’s a bad thing when their friends die. He seems completely unfazed by Magik and Psylocke’s arrival, and perfectly willing to help them – he’s met them before in “Raid on Graymalkin” and has no issues with them despite the supposed tension between teams. He’s perfectly willing to help. Psylocke regards him as “weird” even by the X-Men’s standards, but only in the sense of being eccentric.

Rogue. Throws a fit on seeing that two of Scott’s team are talking to one of her kids without going through her.

VILLAINS

Orifice. The opening scene needs a random villain for Magik and Psylocke to hunt down, and the lucky character is Orifice from the Upstarts, who we last saw in X-Men #4. The suit he wears here is the Upstarts’ team uniform from that issue, though it looks more like regular clothes when he’s on his own.

Trevor Fitzroy shows up briefly to teleport Orifice to safety.

A weird black monster is possessing Psylocke and apparently jumps to Deathdream when he tries to inspect it. No doubt we’ll find out what it is next time.

OTHER FOOTNOTES

Page 3 panel 1: “Okaa-san” = mother

Page 6 panel 2: This is a flashback to the previous issue.