Psylocke #9 // Review
There’s an explosion in Tokyo. A couple of shadowy figures look-on. The explosion happened in a complex that serves as the local headquarters for The Hand--an order of evil, mystical ninjas. Some of them may have died, but there’s always more. A couple of former agents of that organization are going to have some difficulty completely trusting each other in Psylocke #9. Writer Alyssa Wong continues a close walk with a former assassin in an issue that is brought to page and panel by artist Vincenzo Carratù and colorist Fer Sifuentes-Sujo. Wong continues an enjoyable walk in the shadows of the Marvel Universe.
Kwannon’s childhood friend isn’t dead. She’s just...different. This becomes strikingly clear as the long-lost girl’s foot presses into the head of a dead man. She claims that all she would have to do is apply a little pressure and the skull would crush, but the crushed bits would slowly wriggle around like little worms gradually. coming back together. This is the same person who would cry if she stepped on a cricket. Of course...a lot has happened since then. She had her life saved by yokai. They taught her a lot. She’s different now. Not every change is a good one...
Wong centers the drama around a lost relationship between two childhood friends and builds-out from it beautifully with Japanese-inspired action horror that is firmly grounded in the Marvel Universe. It can be a bit difficult to reconcile the perspective of Kwiannon given all that she’s been through. How, for instance, could anyone have been through all that she’d been through over the decades and still not believe in miracles? If anything, that’s all reality would appear to be to someone living through such monumental instability. Nevertheless...the conflict at the heart of the story DOES feel very, very real.
Carratù has a firm grasp of the fantastic. There’s a solid execution of the drama at the heart of it all as well. The big splashes tend to land with a bit more impact than much of what happens in between them, but there’s a great sense of conflict that drives the momenutm forward from panel to panel. Kwannon doesn’t come across all that heroically, but her empathy seems quite well-realized in the course of an engaging issue that is quite clearly building intensity for what is to come.
There is much to explore on the Japan of the Marvel Universe that has never really had a chance to develop all that consistently on the comics page. It’s nice to see Wong tangling with the complexities of another nation on the other side of the world. That being said, it feels like Psylocke would really benefit from a few other companion series that would render it all a bit more fully. Ancient Asian cultures would fit quite well into the larger scheme of the Marvel Universe. As it is, Marvel hasn’t had the opportunity to allow the potential for the nation to proliferate.
