Rachel Summers/Grey Appreciation 2019

[askani_son]

Do you want to get depressed? Join the Rachel Summers forum and you will get it! I still have the hope that Rachel will join Excalibur, hope is the last thing I miss! if not I hope that she goes to the future and governs as the mother askani is the only end that I would like for her although I would like it to be a good comic and well drawn if that happened.

[powerpax]

Cast rotates every issue so I really doubt Rachel's going to do much

Just because Rachel is featured in a rotating book does not mean she will appear in the first two issues of the flagship title and then be sent to the Phantom Zone. There is zero evidence to support that claim. Not that she's going MIA, not that she's being sent to the future - there is nothing to support any assumptions of these kinds.

[Vaishakh]

Just because Rachel is featured in a rotating book does not mean she will appear in the first two issues of the flagship title and then be sent to the Phantom Zone. There is zero evidence to support that claim. Not that she's going MIA, not that she's being sent to the future - there is nothing to support any assumptions of these kinds.

In a cast as massive as X-Men, unless she has a significant role she will be mostly just there for a few issues. There is no evidence that she will be in limbo but there is no evidence against it either and then there is the recent history regarding her and the X-men.
Expecting anything other than her being there for two issues and gone is basically setting up for a massive disappointment

[Scott402]

See the whole recent history thing can take you either way. I would argue that though she was mistreated in how they handled her in the Extermination event, the entirety of the last X-Force volume was about getting her back. Also before that she had good roles in Gold and appeared in other books along the way. I get concerned though when I don't hear anything to the contrary of her just disappearing. I remain hopeful she sticks in X-Men along with Scott. Someone around here mentioned before you almost always see him paired with a telepath and with Jean being in X-Force as well and Emma busy with the Marauders. I could Rachel taking the role. There is a part of me that would like to see her with Excalibur but beyond the name there is no one on that team with a strong connection to her. I think it's more likely she shows up in Marauders with Kitty and Kurt being there.

[WallStreeter]

You'd think, right? But people (writers) mostly think she's only good for mind control stories. Or because she's so powerful she's used as a prop to make others seem more like a threat or better. Other telepaths, villains, etc. So she's been written incosistently. She can scan the minds of the entire planet without any assistance in one book, but in the month in a different book she has trouble locating Wolverine with the use of Cerebro (even though she has an established psi-link with him).

She was consistently written as powerful until Guggenheim got his hands on her, then she became easily controlled by Mesmero and Cassandra Nova and the twins and Styfe's monsters. Her future self the Mother Askani reset her thank god. She easily defeated Stryfe. Washing away Guggenheim.

[Scott402]

I hated the whole thing with Mesmero and Cassandra Nova as well but at least they didn't leave it unexplained. Mesmero they explained because she had just leveled up there was still some gaps in her defenses which allowed him in. I accept that as a somewhat plausible explanation. With Cassandra she even acknowledges that Rachel is not as powerful as Jean.... yet. Cassandra took Xavier without much effort so I don't mind her overpowering Rachel while at the same time saying that she will be as powerful as Jean. While they fell into the same standbys of just having her mind controlled I can find them somewhat reasonably explained. Now the whole thing with Stryfe and his monsters controlling her is another matter. At least we got her being a bad-ass at the end though.

[PsychoEFrost]

I hated the whole thing with Mesmero and Cassandra Nova as well but at least they didn't leave it unexplained. Mesmero they explained because she had just leveled up there was still some gaps in her defenses which allowed him in. I accept that as a somewhat plausible explanation. With Cassandra she even acknowledges that Rachel is not as powerful as Jean.... yet. Cassandra took Xavier without much effort so I don't mind her overpowering Rachel while at the same time saying that she will be as powerful as Jean. While they fell into the same standbys of just having her mind controlled I can find them somewhat reasonably explained. Now the whole thing with Stryfe and his monsters controlling her is another matter. At least we got her being a bad-ass at the end though.

The thing is, Mesmero's powers never worked like that, and in his last prior appearance, he was beaten by a powerless 6-year old kicking him in the balls.

[Askani's Flame]

She's not shown at all and nothing mentioned about her anywhere. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that they start the Exiles next year and let Rachel go to that book.

There is nothing saying there is an Exiles book. And yes, she appears to two covers coming up. But for the most part most of the X-Men gave not appeared. House of X and Powers of X are seeing the stage with a focus on Xavier, Magneto, and Moira. I think Rachel will get some focus but not a lot in those issues of X-Men. It's what it is to be honest. She's not a favorite for writers.

My guess is that she will barely even talk to Scott and Jean. She will interact with Nathan and be part of his story, perhaps they even leave Krakoa together and that is why he ends up joining Fallen Angels because Cable and Rachel were living somewhere off the island. If she doesn't end up on Exiles, I just hope they put her with Nathan eventually. I don't think she will hardly ever interact with Scott and Jean after reappearing at the end of X-Men #1 and part of X-Men #2.

Given the lack of emotion and family connection between Scott and Jean so far, I don't expect anyone to be connected or to interact as we might have in the past. Something is up....

The artist doesn't even know how to do anything with her powers at all. The people in Future Fight have a better grasp of Rachel than whatever they plan to do with her in X-Men 1 and 2. She is drawn on the covers as an afterthought and what holding her arms up in the air for some reason that doesn't make sense. Whatever, it's obvious they aren't interested in her as a character, I just hope they don't kill her off or have her enslaved again. I wouldn't put it past them to have someone cart her off in chains so they can show Rachel getting enslaved one more time. Of course Jean and Scott will stand there doing nothing like usual and just let whomever take her.

I disagree with the bolded as you're not seeing what he is doing there with her. If you look at the cover, the creatures they are fighting have tentacles. Rachel is using her TK to create blade weapons with serrated edges to kill the creature.

We've been hurt by the editors and writers, but let's not go down this path. Let's try to be optimistic.

[Askani's Flame]

I hated the whole thing with Mesmero and Cassandra Nova as well but at least they didn't leave it unexplained. Mesmero they explained because she had just leveled up there was still some gaps in her defenses which allowed him in. I accept that as a somewhat plausible explanation. With Cassandra she even acknowledges that Rachel is not as powerful as Jean.... yet. Cassandra took Xavier without much effort so I don't mind her overpowering Rachel while at the same time saying that she will be as powerful as Jean. While they fell into the same standbys of just having her mind controlled I can find them somewhat reasonably explained. Now the whole thing with Stryfe and his monsters controlling her is another matter. At least we got her being a bad-ass at the end though.

I can't speak to why they made Mesmero this crazy skilled tp when he never had been before. But what I can say is that there was supposed to be a synergy of why she was mind controlled 4x that year, namely I think it was to allude to that Ahab was returning so her hound mind was allowing people to use her. But that fell through according to White and instead it just was sloppy.

[Scott402]

The thing is, Mesmero's powers never worked like that, and in his last prior appearance, he was beaten by a powerless 6-year old kicking him in the balls.

I actually didn't know that. Makes the reasoning a little less sound but I still prefer to air on the side of optimism and say that there were gaps in her defense because of her level up.

[Scott402]

I can't speak to why they made Mesmero this crazy skilled tp when he never had been before. But what I can say is that there was supposed to be a synergy of why she was mind controlled 4x that year, namely I think it was to allude to that Ahab was returning so her hound mind was allowing people to use her. But that fell through according to White and instead it just was sloppy.

I like to think they were in fact weakening her for the reappearance of Ahab because that would make her swift conversion more believable. It was executed poorly if that was the intention but at least there was some sort of plan. I remain hopeful that she will have a good role in this new era. This new era that really goes against everything the X-Men stand for and I truly hope there is some sort swerve coming.

[Scott402]

Just finished the last Powers of X. Still no sign of her but again I think it's not so bad. There's been quite a few stalwarts of the X-Men cast that have not been heard from or seen but we now are going to play parts in the relaunch. God I hope it changes because I am not a fan of the new direction so far.

[Infernal-Ginger]

lots of people didn't show up....really hoping Hickman uses Rachel's unique Chrono powers since he likes "science" type powers

[RachelGrey]

lots of people didn't show up....really hoping Hickman uses Rachel's unique Chrono powers since he likes "science" type powers

Yeah, I am still pessimistic on whether he will use her much. She will probably be a supporting character for Cable and will appear with him sometimes. She is appearing in the first two issues of X-Men alongside Cable, so it's possible she'll be a very occasional character in Fallen Angels.

I honestly don't think Hickman has much plans for her other than that, I think she'll be support for Cable going forward.

[Maestroneto]

Not defending Guggenheim's treatment of Rachel, but do people forget Mesmero also put Phoenix Jean under his control?