"Stormfront"
writer
Joe Kelly
artist
German Garcia
X-Men 77-78 showed the return of the Shadow King, who freed himself from the Astral Plane (Uncanny X-Men 280) when Xavier was occupied with Onslaught. He tried to use Psylocke’s power to repair and enhance his own. Psylocke overcame her doubt and saved the day by imprisoning the Shadow King in her mind. But it takes the “focused totality of her telepathic powers”* to keep him there, where he will remain as long as Psylocke doesn’t use her powers.
Overcoming her doubt. . .
It’s this part of the story that affected me more. Psyloce had been away for a while (she had recovered from the wounds Sabretooth gave her, she gained some new powers, and she had a boy friend, a pig-headed drone named Archangel **). She returned in this issue. Her behavior in the first few scenes really showed a difference in Pyslocke. She was no longer the quiet girl who stood in the background looking sexy. She spoke up, she smiled a lot, she called people “luv,” and although she always had self-confidence, she was beginning to show it.
Ananasi (the King’s alterego) made her doubt all of that in just a few scenes of fighting. Here Psylocke was, using all her energy to stay in the Astral Plane and fight the villain, while Ananasi distracted her with cold truths.
“No, today you were the X-Men’s ride,” he says, “tomorrow you’ll go back to being ‘that Asian chick who used to be english’! As a telepath you are both ineffective and redundant. Would the X-Men have called you if Jean Grey was around. No!”
* “the focused totality of her telepathic powers”
I used this quote out of context. This used to refer to her psychic knife, which shoots out of her wrist. And when she jabs into a person’s head, it can fry the brain for a while.
**Archangel, a pig-headed drone?
I’m being personal. I think I know someone like Archangel. But anyway, Archangel has more depth than I give him credit for. He just has problems showing it.