My Psylocke Redesign
It was a couple weeks back that I was listening to the Comic Vine podcast (I'm not sure which) and the topic had turned to some of the costumes worn by many of the female characters. So many look more like swimsuits. Oddly enough, few have pants. Someone talked about all the pointless straps all over Psylocke's arms and legs, and commented they would like to see her in something with pants. The conversation inspired me to try making my own design for Psylocke.
I have nothing against the original Psylocke outfit. Back when I first started reading X-MEN comics, I remember it was Jim Lee's work that I was first exposed to. Pslocke played a noticeable role in getting me to come back. I was a preteen/pubescent boy at the time. What do you expect? Well, I grew up and became mature-------ish. I can notice how ridiculous that outfit can look.
A lot of redesigns have characters in full body suits, which is equally as impractical. In my redesign, I took a lot of inspiration from the BLEACH character Soi Fon, a little bit from the NARUTO series, and some stuff that's my own taste. I wanted her outfit to look like clothes, but I leaned more on Japanese culture to match her ethnicity.
Here is some interesting trivia. The Japanese word for "female ninja" is くノ一(kunoichi). This is actually the woman 女 (onna) kanji broken apart. Look closely at the onna kanji and you can see the three parts of kunoichi. It's even the proper writing order for writing "onna".
Design Notes-
- Body Type: I always felt that Psylocke's body should be both petite but lean muscle tone. She's not overly muscular. She's a fighter who deals a lot with close range, hand-to-hand combat. She's a martial artist. It would make sense. I wouldn't give her the same body as Emma. I reduced her comic-stereotyped DD breasts to a C Cup.
- Hair Pins: I didn't want to cut her long purple-colored hair. A lot of people seem to love cutting hair when changing the design of female characters. I thought she could use hairpins, because having her hair loose on missions made no sense. When I go to the gym or the running track, I almost never see long-haired women with their hair free. It's always in a ponytail, braided, pinned, or something. I wanted to have charms hanging from the hair pins as a little feminine touch. I was going to draw a green leaf and Autumn leaf. I changed it to butterflies, because that's a popular theme with Psylocke.
- Hakama Pants: This is not a skirt. Hakama are a traditional style of pants that are still used during traditional martial arts, such as Kendo, Kyūdō, and Aikido. They are loose and don't restrict movement, and they can make it hard for your enemy to read your leg movements. If you ever watched samurai movies. These are the kind of pants that you see everyone wearing.
- Duel Wakizashi. I opted to change Psyocke's katana with duel wakizashi (short swords). These are basically short katanas. I thought giving her two short swords would be more effective that a larger one. She could sheath them behind her.
- Senbon Needles: As a sort of nod to all the silly straps Psylocke's normal outfit has. I gave Psylocke a holster strapped to her forearm that holds several senbon needles. These are a form of weaponized needles. They are hard to see and can be used for striking acupuncture points.
- Satchel: A touch I always liked from the NARUTO series are the rear satchels you'll often see the ninja have strapped to their backs. They are a great place for putting tools and supplies for people who need to travel light and fast. She wont even need to take it off to get what's inside.
- No Heels: As you can tell, I did not give Psylocke high heels. That's a cliche that's never made sense in people who fight. I still can't believe Nolan gave his Catwoman high-platformed heels.
I hope you enjoy my design, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
-Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ animevice / @ FoxxFireArt
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