A hero published by Marvel Comics. Psylocke first appeared in Captain Britain #8 in 1978.
Among the myriad of dimensions in the Marvel Universe exists a dimension called Otherworld. This dimension has in the past been ruled by Merlyn, the wizard who was a companion of King Arthur and later by his daughter Roma. From this dimension came an agent of Merlyn to live in the dimension of Earth. This agent adopted the guise of James Braddock, who during his life excelled in scientific pursuits and eventually was made a knight. Sir James and his wife had three children: Jamie, the eldest and fraternal twins, Elizabeth and her brother Brian.
Elizabeth, or Betsy as she was called, differed from her twin brother like night and day. While her older brother was retiring and shy, Betsy was outgoing and bold. Betsy used her good looks to break into modeling and became a much sought after fasion model. During this time, Betsy dyed her hair a lavender color which she kept even after she quit her modeling career.
During this time, Betsy discovered that her brother Brian was the hero Captain Britain, after he returned from battling the villain Mad Jim Jaspers in another dimension. Soon after his return, Captain Britain was replaced by an exact double from another dimension. This doppleganger attacked Betsy and attempted to rape her, triggering her latent telepathy, which she used to kill her attacker.
Betsy stayed with her brother at their family estate, which was used by a secret branch of the UK government to house a group of children who had been affected by Jasper's Warp. These children or Warpies had all been strangely mutated by the Warp. The constant pressure of having all the children staying with him and manipulation by the UK government eventually cause Brian to quit as Captain Britain. The government approached Betsy and convinced her to take the roll of Captain Britain, teaming her up with Captain Britain's counterpart from another dimension Captain UK.
Betsy adventured only a short time as Captain Britain when she was attacked by one of her brother's foes, the villain Slaymaster. Slaymaster overpowered Betsy and blinded her by slashing out her eyes. Her psychic cry brought her brother to her rescue. Brian took back up the mantle of Captain Britain, killing Slaymaster in revenge. Betsy adapted to her blindness by using her telepathy to "see."
Betsy set off to travel the world with her boyfriend during which time she was captured by the other-dimensional villain Mojo. Mojo fitted Betsy with a pair of artificial eyes which allowed her to see, but also acted as cameras, showing Mojo's audience all that Betsy saw. Betsy was rescued from Mojo by the members of the New Mutants, a group of young mutants that were being trained by Professor X. Betsy returned with them to Xavier's Mansion, where she began to live. During this time, one of the New Mutants Cypher developed a crush on Betsy and though the feelings seemed to be reciprocated nothing ever came of this.
Betsy was present during the Mutant Massacre, in which agents of the villain Mister Sinister called the Marauders attacked the mutant Morlocks. When a number of the X-Men were injured attemping to defend the Morlocks, one of the Maurauders, Sabretooth, attacked the X-Men's mansion in attempt to kill the injured heroes. Betsy defended the injured mutants from Sabretooth, eventually driving him away. For her heroism and abilities, Betsy was asked to join the X-Men, which she did under the name of Psylocke.
Psylocke served with the team for a number of years, even sacrificing her own life to help trap the villain the Adversary, though she and rest of the X-Men were later resurrected. After her resurrection, Psylocke began to wear armor for combat and to be more aggressive. She even used her telepathy to influence her teammates. Eventually, when the X-Men were facing seemingly overwhelming odds, she used her abilites to coerce her fellow X-Men into passing into the Siege Perilous, a mystic portal that passes judgement on the person and raises them back up in a form and fashion suitable for who they were but with no memory of their former life.
Psylocke reappeared in the Orient with no memories of who she was. She was found by Matsuo Tsuyaba, the head of the ninja assassin clan, the Hand. Tsuyaba attempted to have Psylocke use her telepathy to restore his girlfriend Kwannon who had been injured. To this end, Tsuyaba called upon the help of one of Mojo's henchmen, Spiral. Spiral however used her mystic powers to switch the personalities of the two women, trapping Psylocke in the body of an oriental assassin.
Tsuyaba attempted to train Psylocke to be an assassin, even having her be used as a tool of the villain the Mandarin, but she was eventually rescued by Wolverine and Jubiliee. During this time, she also first began to use a new manifestation of her powers, by focusing her psychic abilities into a psi dagger that would disrupt the mental processes of her targets.
Psylocke continued to adventure with the X-Men. Eventually, she was confronted by Kwannon in her old body. Kwannon had contracted the Legacy Virus, a virus that targets mutants. The virus caused Kwannon to regain her memory of what had occured to the two women. Kwannon confronted Tsuyaba and eventually succumbed to the virus, leaving Betsy no chance of ever returning to her real body.
Psylocke later was critically injured when Sabretooth escaped while he was being held by the X-Men. She only recovered due to the efforts of Wolverine and Archangel, with whom she was romantically involved. The two tracked down and exposed Psylocke to the power of the Crimson Dawn. The ultimate effect was that it left her with a tatoo over her left eye and the ability to be able to meld into shadow. Later still, in a confrontation with the massively powerful telepath the Shadow King, Psylocke was forced to trap him within herself, at the cost of cutting herself off to her telepathic abilities lest he escape again.
Psylocke later returned to the X-Men with telekenetic abilities, though how she gained these was never fully explained. She became involved with new X-Men member Thunderbird, breaking up her long time relationship with Archangel. Soon after, Psylocke was killed battling the villain Vargas in an attempt to save the life of her teammates.
The character has appeared on film, played by Meiling Melançon in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and by Olivia Munn in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).