X-Men #31 pg 2 - Kwannon origin, Spiral and Matsu’o (Nicieza story, Kubert art, Ryan ink)

The BUTTERFLY and the HAWK

I somehow landed this page a few years ago and still can’t believe I have a page from SOUL POSSESSIONS which tells the origin and death of Revanche/Kwannon. The storyline from Nicieza is prime 90’s X-Men character development, twists and disfunctional family. The two issue story arc focuses on my favorite characters Psylocke (Betsy Braddock) and Revanche (Kwannon); their history, connection, love story between Matsu’o, hunt from Spiral and eventual death of Kwannon in Betsy’s old body (code name Revanche) due to the legacy virus. It’s beautifully sad, elegantly twisted and deadly dynamic just like everything I love about Psylocke and Revanche.

Andy Kubert is among my top favorite artists in X-Men, he took on the epic run after Lee and Thibert. His stylings for Psylocke and Revanche was Lee reminiscent, but in my opinion when I think about my favorite Psylocke art, I’m thinking about his pages. He and Ryan masterfully tell the story, in their beautiful dynamic art, lines, shading and play in the shadows and light. This page features Kwannon in her original body, as her lover and once rival, Matsu’o trains her. Spiral takes sinister watch in the bottom third of the page, spinning her spiteful revenge as recounts the love story of these now twisted characters that she had her many hands in destroying. The design on this flashback page is gorgeous. Spiral’s look hidden in the shadows is devious, calm and cruel, everything I love about Rita. Her relationship with Psylocke and Kwannon has always been a favorite when I see them on the page together, I know there will be some deep cuts that come out of it.

Kubert’s design and panel cuts feel like an action sequence in movies, the wides, then extreme closeups and quick cut inserts to tell the story beats. I also like how the subtle choice of having Kwannon’s hand extend out of the panel bondaries. The art of this era was extremely rich and this team up hit it perfectly.

This page also features a few checklist points for me:
-a page that has Kwannon in her original asian body
-mention of 3 of the 4 known names for two of my favorite characters twisted up in this era (Kwannon, Revanche, and Betsy Braddock, only missing the name Psylocke)
-Butterfly and Hawk (title for the issue) being part of the dialogue between Kwannon and Matsu’o
-Kubert Kwannon
-Kubert Spiral
-love story in distress and X-family drama

This page is a monumental find and something I am so thankful to finally share on here.