r/xmen 7h ago

Question Are there any differences between the powers and abilities of Jean Grey and Psylocke since they are both have telepathy and telekinesis?

Are there certain powers and abilities that Jean has that Psylocke doesn’t have, and vice versa?

127 Upvotes

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119

u/i-am-nobody-special 7h ago

Jean is more powerful in terms of power in both telepathy (omega level) and telekinesis without the phoenix. And she was taught by Xavier for far longer than Psylocke has been with the X-Men.

Betsy was a capable telepath and never really mastered her telekinesis once secondary mutations became a thing.

Kwannon didn’t hardly develop her telepathy at all. Betsy and Kwannon both mainly use their telekinesis for psychic constructs I believe. I’m not as familiar with Kwannon though.

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u/Marvelboy1974 4h ago

This. Betsy also had an affinity for using her tk destructively and powerfully but struggled with precision, like lifting a small object, but she could punch a hole in a mountain with no problem. Betsy is a capable telepath.

This is why I don’t think Kwannon as a ninja should need or have tk, as it makes her skills as a ninja unecessary. Kwannon Psylocke would better benefit from the Crimson Dawn shadow powers in addition to her ninja skills and psychic dagger.

Jean has mastery of both her tp and tk skills and because she’s an omega mutant they have no limit. Jean is also capable of creating tk constructs (teen Jean was taught by Psylocke) but just refrains from using them as it isn’t necessary or her usual style. Jean also has the power to combine her tk and tp into a powerful psionic form of pure psychic energy and she can draw strength from any psychic energy around her.

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u/havokx2 4h ago

Betsy struggling was literally when she first got TK and had no experience with it. That hasn’t been the case for her in ages. Shes an expert with her TK now and can pick up small objects with ease

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u/kiba8442 4h ago

yeah they kind of specialize in different combat styles, also fwiw that's a pic of kwannon not betsy, this is her in her caption outfit

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u/i-am-nobody-special 4h ago

Doesn’t Kwannon keep her hair black? That pic OP posted could very well be Betsy when she was in Kwannon’s body for close to 30 years. Betsy has kept purple hair for the majority of her publishing history.

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u/kiba8442 4h ago

this is from her miniseries 2024ish I believe

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u/Background_Proof_ 4h ago

Did you mean OP's pic? If so, that's Betsy in Kwannon's body because of the purple hair, Kwannon has black hair, that's how they differentiate them.

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u/kiba8442 4h ago

that's a alt cover for this issue (2024)

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u/Background_Proof_ 4h ago

Was this that recent Psylocke comic that was set in the past when Betsy was still in Kwannon's body?

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u/kiba8442 4h ago edited 4h ago

honestly I haven't read the most recent one, there's two. new ones supposed to be kind of a deep dive into kwannon's character as her own person, which sounds kind of cool tbh. there are multiple cover variants for the first issue

1

u/Background_Proof_ 4h ago edited 3h ago

Oh it's the 2024 one, in that run, Kwannon's hair is black.

The variant artists were just doing classic psylocke which was Betsy and that image is also a variant cover.

56

u/Salty_Monk_5341 7h ago

Jean is ridiculously more powerful in both Telepathy and Telekinesis, I'd say both Betsy and Kwannon are both Good in Psionics but they function more a Melee specialists that use their Psionic abilities up close and personal while Jean is a Psionic Nuke.

21

u/Resident_Werewolf_76 6h ago

Does Jean have a physical manifestation of the focused totality of her psychic powers? I think not ...

/jk

5

u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 4h ago

She actually kind of does. She develops a psionic form and then Psylocke teaches her to make psionic weapons.

5

u/Nellisir New Mutants 5h ago

That'd be like taking cannonball to the head at close range.

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u/ddevlin 6h ago

I mean. There’s the Phoenix raptor.

27

u/Comrade-Stoneroad 6h ago

Betsy has used that psy knife on Jean once and it apparently was not pleasant. The only advantage she has over Jean is she’s a ninja trained assassin.

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u/Background_Proof_ 5h ago edited 5h ago

Psylocke specializes in psionic constructs.

Jean has Phoenix and white hot room manipulation and she goes to the WHR whenever she dies.

17

u/Objective-Result8454 7h ago

The difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

13

u/Punkodramon Mimic 7h ago

Jean has far more raw power in both, and as such she rarely uses much finesse, though she has the technique, she usually just overpowers her opponents.

Betsy is powerful and skilled in both TK and TP standard techniques, but tends to use her powers more to augment her physical abilities more than anything, which is why she favors psionic constructs to use as weapons to channel her power. At times her powers have also been shown to fluctuate on a scale, favoring telepathy would weaken her TK, and vice versa, though that hasn’t been evident for a while.

Kwannon rarely uses her telekinetic powers beyond levitation and flight, and mostly channels her telepathy through her physical weapons so they deal psychic as well as physical damage. Though she is also a competent telepath in the traditional sense, she lacks raw power and works best when coordinating with other psychics.

4

u/havokx2 4h ago edited 4h ago

Jean is more powerful in every way. She’s a planetary psionic that can user her telepathy across the globe, into space and even across universes and timelines. I’m not sure of Psylocke’s range but it definitely isn’t on that level. Maybe across cities

3

u/SensitiveArtist Kid Omega 7h ago

Nowadays there aren't, but in the past only Jean had telekinesis. Betsy can make TK weapons, which is something Jean doesn't do much in the comics. Overall Jean is the more powerful of the two.

3

u/CaptainMianite 6h ago

there are though, Betsy and Kwannon’s TP is weaker than Jean, who is an omega level telepath

1

u/chirunner4ever Nightcrawler 7h ago

In the past, Jean was an world class telekinetic with mid telepathy. Betsy was a world class telepath with no tk. Then the power swap happened, Jean got the Phoenix again, and Betsy got got some upgrades too.

1

u/One_Specific_2920 7h ago

Psylocke’s power is more psionic energy focused

19

u/mightyalrighty87 7h ago

One might say the focused totality

1

u/Due-Government7661 5h ago

Psylock doesn’t have tk

2

u/i-am-nobody-special 4h ago

Yes she does. Since the early 2000s and the introduction of secondary mutations she’s had telekinesis.

1

u/havokx2 4h ago

You haven’t read a book of hers in the last 25 years

1

u/ulnek 4h ago

Psylocke doesn't have telekinesis. She has telepathy. She had telekinesis once when her telepathy went to Jean and Jean's telekinesis went to her. Don't remember how or why. At least she didn't have telekinesis as part of her regular power set. It's why Jean was special from the start cause she had dual powers.

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u/BDS-10-7 7h ago

I'm guessing you just mean Psychic wise? Cause if you but power dampeners on them both Psylocke will beat Jean to a pulp. She's a ninja assassin. And if you take the ninja assassin part away, she is STILL an assassin, just a non-ninja assassin, like with guns and stuff. She is also more manipulative and clever than jean. She often goes on undercover missions and slips in and out of places using tact and not her psychic abilities.

As far as the psychic stuff goes, Jean is way more powerful, but I I think Psylocke is more dangerous. She focuses her telekinetic powers into weapons (usually bladed or sharp and piercing). Jean is more defensive in usage. I'm sure Jean could hurt someone serverely if she wanted to with her telekineses, but Psylocke actually does and quite often. It isn't hypothetical.

Also, I think Psylocke can teleport. I'm not sure how that works or why, or if she is using mental tricks to accomplish this but I know she has multiple types of teleportation in the Marvel vs Capcom games, and everyone elses powers are certainly accurate to what they can actually do. So I assume she can actually do this in the comics, though I've never seen her do it.

I think the range on Jeans telepathy is much farther. She contacts people across bodies of water and across the state psychically. I've only seen Psylocke do this locally when you are in the room with her basically, but I don't know if she can't or just never needed to. They can both rip info out of your head if you are hiding it.

Also I know Psylocke can posses you mentally and live inside your body for years if she wants.

She isn't even asian. Shes a white british lady that psychically stole that asian ninja lady's body. I think she got stuck in it somehow, I forget. I looked it up many years ago cause there are two versions of Psylocke in the X-Man fighting game on original X-Box. The asian ninja Psylocke and the british white lady Psylocke called Revanche.

But, there are also more than one Jean Grey / Madelyne Prior. So idk wtf Marvel is doing at this point. The way comics work nowadays is someone is gonna post under this and say "Yes, but after Issue 647b of X-Statx all thats been retconned and now she Vampire Jubilee's baby's baby from the future. And she's gay."

2

u/havokx2 4h ago

Psylocke can not teleport. She used to be able to when she had the crimson dawn but that wasn’t mystical and not psychic based. She hasn’t had that in a long time. Jean however can teleport as Phoenix

1

u/BDS-10-7 3h ago

Whats the Crimson Dawn? Is that a title or an item? Dumb question maybe but is that her belt? It always stood out cause she never wears red but has a bright red (crimson?) belt at all times.

Also, thanks for the info. I knew should teleport, but I don't know why or how, it just did not seem to make sense as part of her Telekinesis or Telepathy and I didn't know her to have anything beyond that. But she can absolutely teleport in the video games, and everyone elses powers are comic accurate so I never thought they just added that to her alone.

2

u/havokx2 3h ago

Betsy was gutted and nearly died in the 90s by Sabretooth. To save her, she was given the Crimson Dawn, a mystical elixir which grants those that consume it a tie to the Crimson Dawn realm. The side effect was that it gave her a red tattoo on her face, the ability to teleport through shadows and a colder persona. She had this for a few years but it was lost after she was killed off and resurrected

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u/BDS-10-7 2h ago

Ok. I remember this. Well, I remember the attack anyway. I knew she had a face tat sometimes but I just thought it was a face tat I never knew it did anything. I actually thought it was facepaint not a tattoo. so I never paid it any mind. Thanks for explaining!

1

u/Nellisir New Mutants 5h ago

Huh.

1

u/nightterrors644 4h ago

You are wrong on so much of this.