X-Force #9 - PREVIEW (spoilers)

[cranger]

I really hate the fact that they’ve basically been using Rachel as nothing but a prop for others since Extermination after her scene mourning Cable. First Ahab’s, then WiFi’s and now Stryfe. If this is how he views her, Brisson should not write Rachel period.

Well it is pretty much the same thing, the story has just not got around to resolving her plot, but Brisson is keeping her just in view so that whatever does happen is not just out of the blue. I'm sure this is mostly due to knowing he had a mini and another 10 issues to do something and this is how it needs to line up.

[Maestro 216]

I think not many writers can make Rachel anything more than a Hound henchmen or some brainwashed girl.

[RachelGrey]

Well it is pretty much the same thing, the story has just not got around to resolving her plot, but Brisson is keeping her just in view so that whatever does happen is not just out of the blue. I'm sure this is mostly due to knowing he had a mini and another 10 issues to do something and this is how it needs to line up.

I guess we'll see. Until I read the full issue I won't know if it's the Phoenix helping Rachel, or the lifeforce of Mother Askani waking up inside Rachel, but something big is going to happen in the next two issues. I guess this will only mean anything if she gets to be on a team in the fall. If they write her out at a point where she only gets personal agency for a few panels then that just means they had no idea how to write her out properly and dragged their feet waking her up.

[Askani's Flame]

I think not many writers can make Rachel anything more than a Hound henchmen or some brainwashed girl.

In conversation with Jordan White on Twitter he told me that most of the writers who have written recently her only think of her as someone to be turned into a hound or someone's slave. They don't know if her as anything else / they don't bother to research her. A few writers like Bunn, Aaron, Yost, and Weinberg knew how to write a compelling Rachel without her being the sole mind control victim.

[Kurolegacy]

In conversation with Jordan White on Twitter he told me that most of the writers who have written recently her only think of her as someone to be turned into a hound or someone's slave. They don't know if her as anything else / they don't bother to research her. A few writers like Bunn, Aaron, Yost, and Weinberg knew how to write a compelling Rachel without her being the sole mind control victim.

That's awful and horribly incompetent on both the writers' and editors' part. How does such one-note writing get past editorial?

[Vaishakh]

That's awful and horribly incompetent on both the writers' and editors' part. How does such one-note writing get past editorial?

Editors in general would care about their more popular characters more. Also editors are willing to look past continuity problems for most of their characters.

[Tycon]

In conversation with Jordan White on Twitter he told me that most of the writers who have written recently her only think of her as someone to be turned into a hound or someone's slave. They don't know if her as anything else / they don't bother to research her. A few writers like Bunn, Aaron, Yost, and Weinberg knew how to write a compelling Rachel without her being the sole mind control victim.

He admitted that? Damn that feels like unintentional shade at Guggs, Taylor, and Brisson under the bus.

[phoenixzero23]

A few writers like Bunn, Aaron, Yost, and Weinberg knew how to write a compelling Rachel without her being the sole mind control victim.

Yeah, those treated her like her own character instead of a plot device victim.
Aaron did good on Wolverine & the X-men and Bunn introduced her where he could and treated her well. Why can't more writers be like them when it comes to Rachel.

[Vaishakh]

Yeah, those treated her like her own character instead of a plot device victim.
Aaron did good on Wolverine & the X-men and Bunn introduced her where he could and treated her well. Why can't more writers be like them when it comes to Rachel.

Step 1 would be to have them give a damn

[RachelGrey]

Yeah, those treated her like her own character instead of a plot device victim.
Aaron did good on Wolverine & the X-men and Bunn introduced her where he could and treated her well. Why can't more writers be like them when it comes to Rachel.

One of my favorite scenes of Rachel was when she scared the hell out of Quentine Quire in the telepathy class when he though he could attack her easily and she threw all of her lifetime of nightmares at him. I remember he walked out of the class with a bleeding nose because she overwhelmed his mind. Then Logan asked her if she was going a bit overboard and she said the kids had to learn to defend themselves because someday someone would come for them whether they like it or not.

[Omega Alpha]

He admitted that? Damn that feels like unintentional shade at Guggs, Taylor, and Brisson under the bus.

And at Paniccia, that approved all of those stories.

[Snoop Dogg]

#TheBusWasRight

[Askani's Flame]

And at Paniccia, that approved all of those stories.

Correct. The only one JDW approved was XForce under his leadership. He said he doesn't understand why that's the story writer's want to tell when it comes to Rachel. I appreciate his honesty and he gets why readers and Rachel fans are upset at her treatment.

[RachelGrey]

If she does get to be the Phoenix again this fall I am hoping it's to explore the Phoenix in a different way. It would be kind of fun to have Rachel being confronted by X-Men and Avengers with her newfound power and showing how in control of it she is. On the other hand I really want the writers to explore the Starchild part of it, have them go all in on Rachel being the daughter of the Phoenix and now she has her own portion of the Phoenix Force that is permanently part of her and separate from the Phoenix. They could even explain it that since the power is coming from her she isn't as powerful as the original Phoenix, or that she is kind of a baby Phoenix and it would take her hundreds of years to be as powerful as the original Phoenix.

Although I like what the other poster said about the Mother Askani soul fragment rejoining Rachel and merging with her and waking Rachel to her full power and potential. That could even lead into a storyline where Rachel takes the name Starchild going forward.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that she gets an ongoing series this fall. Maybe Hickman will want to keep the Summers/Grey family intact with Jean, Scott, Nathan (Cable), and Rachel all continuing as part of ongoing series, probably not the same series, but separate. I would love a mini with the four of them together.

[cranger]

Correct. The only one JDW approved was XForce under his leadership. He said he doesn't understand why that's the story writer's want to tell when it comes to Rachel. I appreciate his honesty and he gets why readers and Rachel fans are upset at her treatment.

I would not put too much faith in asking JDW to explain other people's reasoning. He has been asking Twitter to explain characters several times. His answers to questions about characters is always based on what he worked on pretty much. And that is not a slam, if Marvel does not have their own internal notes about characters that is pretty bad, but what I am saying is that he does not have any more insight into why whoever wrote a story than you, me or anyone else does if he wasn't directly involved.