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Noun
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Revanche (Kwannon) was a short-lived Marvel
Comics character,
associated with the X-Men. She was
created by writer Fabian
Nicieza and first appeared in X-Men
(February
1993)
Fictional character biography
Her origins unknown, the woman known as Kwannon was first seen as the prime assassin of the Japanese crimelord Lord Nyoirin, as well as the lover of Matsu'o Tsurayaba, a high-ranking member of a group of ninja mystics called The Hand.When the interests of Nyoirin and the Hand came
into conflict, Kwannon was honor-bound to face her lover Matsu'o in
combat. During the conflict, she fell from an ocean cliff and
suffered injuries that left her brain-damaged and comatose with no
hope for recovery. Shortly thereafter, the telepathic X-Man Psylocke was found
washed up on the shore of the Hand's island base in the South China
Sea after passing through the Siege
Perilous. Matsu'o sought the help of the sorceress Spiral, a
begrudging servant of Mojo, to
save Kwannon (for reasons unknown, Spiral and Mojo have shown a
marked interest in Betsy Braddock prior to these events; Mojo gave
her the codename Psylocke when he attempted to make her his
servant, and Spiral was responsible for implanting her with bionic
eyes to replace the ones she lost, which acted as interdimensional
cameras for a time, recording her adventures with the X-Men).
Spiral informed Matsu'o that it would be possible to use Psylocke's
telepathy to restore Kwannon's mind. Kwannon's limited empathic
power allowed her mind to withstand contact with a high-level
telepath like Psylocke. Matsu'o agreed, unmindful of Spiral's
penchant for trickery and deception. Spiral used her magicks,
combined with the alien technology of her Body Shoppe to transfer
the two women's minds into each other's bodies, also intermingling
their DNA. The result of this merge was that they now physically
resembled each other and each possessed half of Psylocke's mutant
telepathic abilities. Matsu'o tried to manipulate Psylocke, whom he
thought was his lover Kwannon, into becoming The
Mandarin's second-in-command, but an encounter with her
teammate Wolverine
enabled her to break free of his control and eventually rejoin the
X-Men.
Meanwhile, Kwannon was recovered by her employer
Nyoirin (with the assistance of Spiral). Her new body was retrained
in the martial arts, and she was sent to the United States to
confront Psylocke. The merge of bodies and minds between the two
women had left each with memories and personality traits of the
other, leading Kwannon to believe that she was truly Betsy
Braddock. She infiltrated the X-Mansion and fought Psylocke with a
psychic katana that
functioned in the same manner as Psylocke's psychic knife, cutting
through the mind and disrupting the nervous system of it's target.
When the X-Men arrived to aid Psylocke, Kwannon (now assuming the
codename "Revanche") claimed that Psylocke was an impostor. The
other X-Men were unable to determine the true identities of the two
women; according to Wolverine, their scents were identical, and
Psylocke, subject to manipulation many times in the past, was
unwilling to allow Professor
Xavier to telepathically probe her mind in search of the truth.
Finally, the two women left for Japan to uncover the truth,
accompanied by Gambit and Beast.
Revanche surprised her fellow companions with her ability to read
and speak Japanese
perfectly, a skill the real Betsy Braddock never acquired. After a
brief confrontation, it was revealed that Kwannon was supposedly
the first person to happen upon the unconscious Betsy Braddock
after her re-emergence from the Siege Perilous portal. Amnesiac and
disoriented, Psylocke's telepathy ran unchecked and fused the two
women's minds together. This story was later proven to be the
result of false memories generated by Kwannon after being lied to
by Matsu'o and Lord Nyoirin. The group found and confronted
Matsu'o, but he would reveal nothing about what had truly
transpired.
Revanche returned to New York with the X-Men,
becoming an unofficial member of the team for a short time. On a
mission to an island which housed a colony of Legacy Virus
victims, it was revealed that Revanche herself had the deadly
disease. The Legacy Virus slowly increased her telepathic ability,
allowing her to cut through the confusion and distortion of her own
memories, revealing the truth: that she was in fact Kwannon
inhabiting Betsy Braddock's original body, as Braddock now
inhabited hers. It was also discovered that Kwannon was
unconsciously creating psychic confusion in the minds of her
teammates concerning her and Psylocke's true identities. Close to
death, Kwannon asked Matsu'o to end her life swiftly, in atonement
for his transgressions against her and Psylocke, and so that she
might die of her own will and not as a victim of disease. Matsu'o
killed Revanche with a tantō. With
Kwannon's death, Psylocke's full telepathic potential was returned
to her. Revanche also left a portion of her psionic energies within
Matsu'o, who used it at her behest, removing Kwannon's fractured
memories and personality traits from Betsy Braddock's mind, and
restoring those of Betsy's that were possessed by Kwannon.
Kwannon's epitaph, left by Psylocke and Matsu'o
on her grave in Matsu'o's garden, read "Kwannon, love that
transcended body and soul".
Powers and abilities
Originally, Kwannon possessed a low-level empathic talent that allowed her to sense the emotional state of others.Upon inhabiting Psylocke's former body, Revanche
gained telepathic abilities which enabled her to read minds,
communicate with others by broadcasting her thoughts, control the
minds of others, and create realistic illusions by altering
people's perceptions. She could physically manifest her telepathic
powers as a blade (like Psylocke's psychic blade), but instead of a
small energy dagger she created an ornate psionic katana. The blade
could disrupt the autonomic nervous systems of other living beings,
incapacitating them instantly. Revanche 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.
Being relatively untrained in the use of her
telepathy, Revanche rarely employed her abilities beyond generating
psionic blades and unconsciously clouding the minds of
others.
Other versions
Age of Apocalypse
In the 6-part 2005 limited series, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse written by Akira Yoshida and drawn by Chris Bachalo, which was part of Marvel's celebration of the 10th anniversary of the original AOA, a counterpart of Psylocke was introduced, who was most likely also the AOA version of Kwannon. This Psylocke is a ninja who looks and acts almost exactly like the original pre-transformation version of Kwannon in 616, except with black instead of purple hair, and with the ability to generate psychic blades (an ability manifested by 616 Betsy Braddock only after she body-switched with 616 Kwannon), which she used to make the AOA's version of X-23, Wolverine's daughter Kirika regain her suppressed memory. After helping the X-Men in thwarting the machinations of Mister Sinister, she joined the other Japanese members of the X-Men (Sunfire, Kirika, and Silver Samurai) in migrating to the Clan Yashida's refugee colony of New Japan.Ultimate Kwannon
In Ultimate X-Men # 18, S.T.R.I.K.E Psi-Division agent Elisabeth Braddock is killed by Colossus in order to destroy Proteus, who has taken her as his host. In #25, she later appears at the gala celebration held at the X-Mansion in the last issue of Mark Millar's run on the title, this time in the body of a Japanese teenager. She explains that after she died, her consciousness migrated to the body of a comatose Japanese girl named Kwannon, who was "happy to go the light". Despite the disdainful reactions of her listeners, Betsy herself does not mind the change, stating she's "never felt perkier". This version of Kwannon was considerably younger than Betsy Braddock; upon inhabiting Kwannon's body Betsy was too young to be a S.T.R.I.K.E. agent, but was working undercover for Professor Xavier. She eventually became a member of the most recent lineup of X-Men.House of M
She was seen in the House of M altered reality as a member of Magneto's elite guards, as depicted in House of M#7. It is unknown whether or not she continued to live after the House of M reality was undone.Other media
Video games
Revanche has a cameo in the X-Men based fighting
game X-Men:
Next Dimension. In the game, there are actually two separate
Psylocke characters, one appearing as the telepathic Psylocke
(called "Betsy" in the game), and a second, appearing as the
telekinetic version of Psylocke (sporting her trademark psionic
katana). Though neither character is technically Kwannon, one of
the telekinetic Psylocke's costumes is the Revanche costume. The
Revanche costume also alters the look of the psi-katana, making it
white with a pale pink aura (while TK Psylocke, shown next to
Revanche in the screenshot, has a rose colored energy blade)