Psylocke- Dangerous Beauty

She may not seem it on the surface, but Psylocke is perhaps one of the strangest characters in the entire X-Men mythos. And that's saying something.

Originally she was the biological sister of very caucasian Captain Britain. Her mutant telepathy made her a useful member of the X-Men, and she soon proved herself as a capable teammate, fighter, and- arguably- leader of the team.

However, this was also the time that the X-Men franchise was morphing from a team of mutants fighting to defend a world that hated and feared them to Chris Claremont's personal fetish fan fic. Seriously, there were a LOT of stories featuring female characters going through one strange body modification after another. Rogue starts sharing her psyche with Carol Danvers, Storm gets de-aged to a child, Calisto gets her face warped to looking like a supermodel. Even Psylocke wasn't immune to this, so after an attack by the cyborg Reavers and a trip through the Siege Perilous, she is kidnapped by the Hand ninja group and transformed into an assassin.

They also turn her asian.

Granted, this was later retconned into Psylocke having her MIND swapped and placed into the body of an asian assassian. But for a while it was just that the Hand decided to alter Psylocke's race and make her asian. Because apparently they could do that sort of thing. Just "boom" she's asian. And the X-Men are apparently OK with it.

What I loved is that there really was no reason for them to do it. There's barely any justification or explanation. She's caucasian in one story, and asian in the next after she's turned into their assassin. I kind of wondered what that discussion should have been like.

Hand Operative#1: OK, we've got this Braddock chick. What should we do with her?

Hand Operative #2: Well, first thing we got to do is turn her into an assassin. Let's begin the brainwashing program to bend her to our will. Next, make sure to turn her asian.

Hand Operative#1: What? Why? What will that accomplish?

Hand Operative #2: I dunno. But she'll be really, really hot once we do!

Which is why I think the whole thing wasn't retconned later. In her new body, Psylocke has become one of the most iconic characters in the X-Men mythos. Plus, she has quite a lot of sex appeal due to her costume and aggressive and dominant personality. Guess once you've got the cheesecake factor going on, you're safe from any retcons.

Design wise, I really wanted to try drawing a character from behind, just to get some practice at it. And I thought I might as well draw a fun character to draw from the behind while doing so. I also tried a few new techniques to give a more... ahem.. well "rounded" appearance.