SPOILER WARNING: This article contains minor spoilers for Uncanny X-Men #1 by Ed Brisson, Matthew Rosenberg, Kelly Thompson, Mahmud Asrar, Rachelle Rosenberg Mirko Colak, Ibraim Roberson, Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessy, Guru-eFX and Joe Caramagna, on sale now!

Psylocke, the X-Men's resident purple-haired, telepathic martial artist, has been through a lot this year. Betsy Braddock is the only person who remembers that Professor X, her old mentor, has seemingly been resurrected in the body of Fantomex, her ex-boyfriend in Astonishing X-Men.

When tracking down a lead on another late teammate during the Hunt for Wolverine, Psylocke was attacked by Sapphire Styx, an immortal energy-absorbing vampire. By the end of that adventure, Betsy found herself in a completely new body for the second time in her life.

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While Psylocke used her mutant abilities to create a telekinetic katana or psionic knife that represented the "focused totality of her psychic powers" for years, Psylocke has a new pair of telepathic weapons that draw on her complex history in Uncanny X-Men #1.

Psylocke New Weapons

When dozens of Multiple Man duplicates start attacking a political rally, the X-Men start trying to hold back their former teammate. After Angel abandons Betsy and flies off to parts unknown, Psylocke brandishes two new telekinetic weapons, a shield and a European-style long-bladed sword.

While this might seem unremarkable at first glance, her weapons mark a logical endpoint to a convoluted character evolution that's been going on for decades.

When Psylocke was created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe in 1976's Captain Britain #8, Betsy was a Caucasian model from a wealthy family who played a supporting role in the adventures of her brother, Captain Britain. When she joined the X-Men in the 1980s, Psylocke's telepathic mutant powers manifested as a pink psychic butterfly around her face and the occasional "psycho-blast" to knock out an enemy.

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After serving on an X-Men team that was based in Australia, Betsy led the team the Siege Perilous, a magic portal that scattered the team across the globe. Betsy ended up on an island near China, where she was discovered by the ninjas of the Hand and their leader, Matsu'o Tsurayaba.

In one of the X-Men's most controversial storylines, Matsuo put Betsy's mind into the body of the assassin Kwannon, his comatose Japanese girlfriend. After briefly serving the Hand, Betsy joined Wolverine and Jubilee for a series of adventures where she got to use her newfound martial arts skills and her famous psychic knife.

Psylocke Bachalo

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Even though it wasn't her original body, Psylocke's new Jim Lee-designed look helped make her a key part of the X-Men during the team's most popular era in the 1990s.

While the precise nature of the body swap and mind meld between Betsy and Kwannon grew more complex in subsequent years, the now-Asian Psylocke gained fame via toy lines, video games and cartoons. While her psychic butterfly still occasionally appeared, her powers evolved to include telekinetic abilities. Betsy embraced her more aggressive side and even started using a telekinetic katana, a type of Japanese sword.

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Throughout deaths, resurrections and reconstructions of reality, Psylocke stayed in her second body for most of the next 30 years. But earlier this year in Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery In Madripoor #4, by Jim Zub, Thony Silas and Leonard Kirk, Betsy got a new version of her Caucasian body.

Psylocke Hunt for Wolverine

After Sapphire Styx tried to absorb her soul, Betsy psychically overloaded the villain and used Styx's raw energy to build herself a new body, "molecule by molecule."

Before Uncanny X-Men #1, Psylocke apparently came to terms with her time in Kwannon's body and channeled her varied experiences into new types of weapons. Instead of using her powers to create the sword that Kwannon would've used or the psionic knife that the Hand helped her develop, she creates a shield and the kind of double-edged longsword that's more traditionally European.

While others controlled or compelled Psylocke for years, she chose these weapons for herself, and they're inspired by the kinds of weapons that are traditionally associated with European aristocrats like the Braddock family.

While several of this issue's variant covers indicate that Psylocke will still use smaller psionic daggers, Psylocke's new weapons reflect how she's changed during her time with the X-Men. While she still has her psychic butterfly, Psylocke also keeps the warrior's killer instinct that her time in Kwannon's body helped awaken. Now, Betsy is channeling dueling aspects of her time as an aristocrat, X-Man and ninja assassin into a unified whole that feels like a natural progression for the character.

Since mutants represent the next evolution of humanity in the Marvel Universe, change is a consistent in the X-Men's world. And so far, Psylocke's latest evolution is shaping up to be her best yet.