STORY: "Soul Possessions, part 2 of 2: The Leopards and the Cats" (21 pages)  After a visit from Spiral, Psylocke tracks down Matsuo and talks him out of committing suicide.  She reclaims the part of her personality which Revanche had held.

What you need to know:
Spiral drops by to explain the plot to Psylocke (in conveniently oblique fashion, although there's an attempt to argue that Spiral is literally incapable of being any more direct than this, because of her mental state).  She also mentions that she's now a free agent again, following the death of Mojo.

Another set of flashbacks round off the explanation of how Psylocke and Revanche are connected.  When Psylocke turned up on the Hand's doorstep (after going through the Siege Perilous), Matsuo enlisted Spiral to swap their minds - hoping that he would get Kwannon's mind in a healthy body.  But partly because of the brain damage Kwannon sustained in the fall, and partly because Spiral was just plain malicious, it didn't quite work.  Psylocke ended up in Kwannon's body with parts of her personality, while Kwannon ended up in Betsy's body as a bit of a vegetable.  Spiral handed Kwannon over to Nyoirin to nurse back to health.  And that's where we came in.

Matsuo kills Nyoirin.  This is apparently an act of revenge for Nyoirin's manipulation of Revanche.

Psylocke talks Matsuo out of committing suicide.  Matsuo has somehow acquired the part of Betsy's persona which was left behind in Revanche's body, and releases it back to Psylocke.  This fully restores Psylocke's original personality (with some extra traits from Kwannon still hanging around), and finally draws a line under the whole affair.

In one final attempt to explain away the previous parts of this storyline, we're told that Revanche was "a confused creature of anger, discomfited in the use of her newfound telepathic powers."  Consequently she "projected that confusion [and] anger" to all other characters around her.  See, it wasn't just an incomprehensible mess!

Gambit is still brooding about Rogue's attitude following his miniseries.

Warren and Betsy officially become a couple.

Comments:
See the comments for the previous issue, really.  This issue completes the job of brushing the whole Kwannon/Revanche mess aside, and leaving us with a nice clear explanation of where things stand (Psylocke is Betsy's mind, in Kwannon's body, with some of Kwannon's skills retained).  The whole storyline is a mess, of course, but it does come to a reasonably satisfying climax here.  Even if a large part of the satisfaction is of the "Thank god that's over" type.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (next in Uncanny X-Men #312-314, then in Uncanny X-Men Annual #18, then in Dr Strange vol 3 #69, then in Excalibur vol 1 #79-81, then in flashback in X-Factor vol 1 #106, then behind the scenes in Wolverine vol 2 #85, then in X-Factor vol 1 #106, then in X-Force vol 1 #38, then in Uncanny X-Men #318, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #7, then in Secret Defenders #19, then in X-Men Annual vol 2 #3)
Archangel (next in Uncanny X-Men #314, then in Cable #16, then in Uncanny X-Men #318, then in Secret Defenders #18-19, then in X-Men Annual vol 2 #3)
The Beast (next in Uncanny X-Men #311-313)
Gambit (next in Uncanny X-Men #312-313)
Psylocke (next in issue #34; also in flashback between Uncanny X-Men #251 and #255)
Rogue

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
The Banshee (last in issue #30; next in X-Force vol 1 #35)
Kwannon (in flashback; last in flashback in the previous issue; next in issue #17)

VILLAINS
Spiral (next in Marvel Fanfare vol 2 #4; also in flashback following the second story in Marvel Comics Presents #87 and preceding Uncanny X-Men #256)
Matsuo Tsurayaba (next in Wolverine vol 2 #127; also in flashback following the flashback in the previous issue, and preceding Uncanny X-Men #255)
Lord Nyoirin (last in issue #23; killed by Matsuo Tsurayaba shortly before his appearance in this issue and appears as a corpse; no further appearances for the corpse; also in flashback following the flashback in the previous issue and preceding issue #18)
The Mandarin (in flashback; last in flashback in the third story in Avengers Annual #19; next in Avengers vol 1 #311)

Written: 31 October 2004

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