What To Do With a Problem Like Rachel

[bell]

not as crazy as maddie being her mother

Nope Jean don't want her so why not give her to Maddie. Just another thing it gets stolen from poor saint Jean.
Why was I going to put nick lol

[blanchett]

I don't know why anything needs to be done with Rachel .

Morrison handled three telepaths on one team. Just need a talented writer.

[spirit2011]

Nope Jean don't want her so why not give her to Maddie. Just another thing it gets stolen from poor saint Jean.
Why was I going to put nick lol

when jean said she doesnt want her? on Red she made peace with rachel being her daughter.
Maddie doesnt has any mental stability

[ClanAskani]

My problem with the results of Extermination is that once again Rachel is the victim and we know exactly where the plot will be. She once again has to be freed from being a slave and face the shame and trauma of being abused and likely harming her friends and family while being mind controlled.

Maybe Kid Cable will free her and we can finally get some quality Nathan/Rachel interaction.

While I do want to see Rachel/Nathan interaction - the problem is Rachel will once again need to be saved.

The idea of strong female character isn't just this:


Rachel isn't strong because she can go toe-to-toe with Thor. She's strong from being able to carry on after everything she has endured. And that's a far better message to readers, especially kids and a far more compelling story.

Perhaps the idea is to just rehash over again Rachel recovering from the trauma she endured. But that certainly hasn't happened the literally dozens of other times Rachel has been mind-controlled and enslaved.

Marvel wants to appeal to female readers, then makes stories where over and over and over the same character is mind-controlled, victimized and enslaved and needs someone else to save her. You'd think this would be a complaint in the 1970s or 1980s, not 2018.

[PsychoEFrost]

when jean said she doesnt want her? on Red she made peace with rachel being her daughter.
Maddie doesnt has any mental stability

When eating an ice cream sundae was more important than stopping the torturer and rapist that kidnapped Rachel?

[bell]

when jean said she doesnt want her? on Red she made peace with rachel being her daughter.
Maddie doesnt has any mental stability

On gold, it happen call it what you want but is in the comics. She said she is not Rachels mom.

Jean nevered wanted Rachel seens day one of knowing who she was. I think is a painful reminder to Jean of what she will never have. Try as she might Cable will never truely be hers.


I would like Jean and Scott to have their own child but you guys hate him so might aswell give him kids with other women and remove the one he has with Jean and give Maddie her happy endidng CC wanted.

[Vaishakh]

when jean said she doesnt want her? on Red she made peace with rachel being her daughter.
Maddie doesnt has any mental stability

To be fair neither does Rachel at this point

[bell]

When eating an ice cream sundae was more important than stopping the torturer and rapist that kidnapped Rachel?

I feel sorry for the twins who got left in 616 timeline.

[salarta]

I don’t have time right now to put much into a post like I’d like to, but I want to add I’ve noticed Marvel has this problem with Polaris too. She’s suffered immensely, yet Marvel just ignores all she’s been through. Most damning case being how Lorna survived the Genoshan genocide, with so many elements to it, yet Marvel acts like she was never there and had no stake in Genosha at all.

Marvel has a massive problem with acknowledging and respecting trauma in their characters’ histories. It’s one of those things they seem to be trying to sweep under the rug instead of actually doing anything to address those matters.

[Sardorim]

On gold, it happen call it what you want but is in the comics. She said she is not Rachels mom.

Jean nevered wanted Rachel seens day one of knowing who she was. I think is a painful reminder to Jean of what she will never have. Try as she might Cable will never truely be hers.


I would like Jean and Scott to have their own child but you guys hate him so might aswell give him kids with other women and remove the one he has with Jean and give Maddie her happy endidng CC wanted.

And in Red she acknowledged Rachel as her daughter.

Red happens AFTER Gold. How are you not understanding this?

[Vaishakh]

It is funny when the best showing of Rachel getting mind controlled is one where she turned herself into a dinosaur. They are actually making that look like a masterpiece in comparison.

[Tank]

When eating an ice cream sundae was more important than stopping the torturer and rapist that kidnapped Rachel?

Who cares? There was nothing any of the Xmen could do at the time whether it be Jean or Kitty since she just got teleported out with Ahab and her mental help would require longer than just the moment at the end of Extermination.

God Rachel is like that annoying friend who keeps showing up to parties but no one invited them. They should have just killed her off.

[cranger]

Marvel has a massive problem with acknowledging and respecting their characters’ histories.

Fixed that for you. I hope no one is holding their breath waiting for Marvel to do anything other than go with whatever pitch hits the desk first and run with it.

[sungila]

The fact that the X-Office isn't capitalizing on their own "Heroes in Crisis" (minus the needless death and ableism) by having Doc Samson and Danger start up therapy sessions for some of the teachers and students is beyond me. The way characters like Rachel, Hellion, Magik, Cyclops, Anole, and others are often vilified for their PTSD instead of actually being able to get resources that might help them is just another blunder with the X-Office.

Well stated. I appreciate the clarity of the challenge you express.

But they are profiting. To call this the X-Office's insensitivity and/or 'another blunder' as in any way unconscious or unitentional is to forgive X-Office's immoral industry of exploitation. It has become a hallmark of X-Books to appropriate and corportize the pain of others as property and commodity.

Today's X-books glamorize suffering, they frequently use torture as entrainment and conceal this by calling up cannon as evidence and reason. When neither is true by necessity or intent. Even their modes hardly veil the consistent cliches of this method: suicidal tendencies, rough diamonds, adolescent distress, keep-it-a-secret specialness, orphaned exiles, closed circuit character spirals, rat mazes, fridges, Phoenix ashes, crucifixions and resurrections.

Sardorim, thank you for giving focus and voice to this issue and important topic by speaking clearly and specifically about Rachel. IMO, what is most damning and sickening about this abuse by the modern day X-Office is the harm it causes real life individuals who in any way may incorporate these stigmas and stereotyped displays as the limits and controls of their own private emotions, pain and self narratives.

[raidensix]

I think a lot of Rachel fans are really ticked off with the "pain" and "trauma" angles. She already worked through those in UXM and Excalibur and it's really just the poor writing that keeps regressing her. She should actually be more powerful/experienced than Jean at this point given her training with Xavier and Emma and Jean has been dead for years.

Jean's treatment of her was initially understandable. In DOFPresent, she thought herself boxed-in with choices already made for her (marry Scott and give birth to Rachel) though she had no problem accepting baby Nathan (Scott's son with "another woman"). All this seemed resolved when Jean told Rachel she had decided to marry Scott (Rachel was flower-girl or maid of honor at the wedding). Rachel and Scott have never had issues when Scott found out she was his daughter (same time as Jean but Scott was accepting of it). The recent Jean/Rachel interactions could have been handled better on panel. With Cables death, Jean kept talking about family and reaching out to Hope while ignoring Rachel's own grief. Jean completely ignored the fact he only reason she actually got to raise Cable was because of Rachel.

As for Rachel's background being "complicated", IMO it's just a convenient excuse by writers. Cable's origin is arguably more complicated yet he has had his own solo books. As for derivative, how many Wolverine-Type mutants are currently on the X-rosters?

I agree with others that maybe she's better off either in another franchise group (Avengers) or a separate X-title with minimal ties to the mothership (Excalbur/Exiles) so writers don't have to worry about stepping on their precious Jean Grey.