Wait, Is That Psylocke? Nope - Insomniac Says Marvel's Wolverine Villain Is Lady Deathstrike

A minute and a half. That's all the launch trailer for Marvel's Wolverine needed to send half the internet into full detective mode. Somewhere in that short burst of claws and chaos, a villain shows up swinging what looks an awful lot like a glowing purple blade - and X-Men fans everywhere jumped to the exact same conclusion: Psylocke is in the game.

She isn't. Insomniac has stepped in to settle the debate, putting out a short clip that names the character directly. The sword-wielder in the trailer is Lady Deathstrike.

Honestly, I get the mix-up. A purple energy-looking blade is basically Psylocke's calling card - it's one of the most recognizable visuals in all of X-Men. Give any mysterious woman in a trailer a weapon like that and comic fans will connect the dots before the video even finishes buffering. But the clues were there all along. The character in question also comes at Logan with those long, wicked finger claws, which is about as Lady Deathstrike as it gets. And this isn't even her first appearance - Insomniac had already shown off an early look at her in a previous trailer.

What I actually love about this whole mini-drama is what it says about the game. Insomniac clearly isn't doing a straight copy-paste of the comics - this is their own interpretation of Lady Deathstrike, the same way their Spider-Man games remixed familiar faces into something that felt fresh without losing the soul of the character. Sometimes that means a design choice that trips people up for a day. I'll take that trade every time.

And let's be real: if the biggest controversy your launch trailer kicks up is fans arguing over which iconic villain they're looking at, you're in a pretty good spot. It mostly tells me people are watching this thing frame by frame because they can't wait to get their hands on it. As a PS5 exclusive from the studio that made Spider-Man sing, Wolverine has a lot to live up to - and judging by how worked up everyone got over ninety seconds of footage, the excitement is very much real.

Now Insomniac just has to stick the landing. No pressure.

Image: William Tung / CC BY-SA 2.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Diego_Comic-Con_2024_Masquerade_-_Deadpools_and_Wolverine_9.jpg