Psylocke's Australian look is a useful introduction to where she is in this period: armored, hooded and still recognizably Betsy Braddock in her original body. Her early bravery…

Psylocke's Australian look is a useful introduction to where she is in this period: armored, hooded and still recognizably Betsy Braddock in her original body. Her early bravery has not made her physically indestructible. Wanting to operate in dangerous places means having to think about what happens when someone gets past the telepathy. She supplies the team with a kind of information none of its heavy hitters can replace. Reading minds, establishing mental contact and sensing a threat can change a mission before the first blast is fired. Those abilities also make her decisions unusually consequential. Other people must trust her with access they cannot easily supervise. The Brood storyline in #232–234 offers a useful limit. A mental scan does not automatically reveal everything the team needs to know about an enemy or a transformation. Being the telepath doesn't mean Betsy can simply announce the answer and let everyone else finish the fight. Her relationships with the other women give her more room than a permanent tactical briefing would. In #244, she is part of the trip out with Storm, Rogue and Dazzler. The issue lets the team be a collection of people with tastes and temperaments, even when danger inevitably finds them outside the base. It is worth resisting the temptation to describe every decision here as setup for a later version of Psylocke. The woman in these issues already has a strong identity: adventurous, controlled, sometimes severe and eager for a more active life than others might have imagined for her. Australia gives her an environment where those qualities can matter every day. The armor is practical, but it also makes the point visually. Betsy intends to be in the field, close enough to the trouble that being clever from a distance will not always be enough.