Rachel Summers

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Rachel Summers (also known as Rachel Grey) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero who has been a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, she first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #141 (January 1981).

She is the daughter of the X-Men Cyclops and Jean Grey from a harsh, dystopian alternate future. She inherited her mother’s telepathic and telekinetic abilities and was originally codenamed Phoenix after her.

She traveled to the modern-day Marvel Universe, where she joined the X-Men and became infused with the Phoenix Force. This immense power, combined with her feelings of displacement and trauma from her childhood caused Rachel to be one of the most unpredictable X-Men.

Although events affecting the time stream left her in literal limbo for many years, she has recently returned to the team, using another of her mother's former code names Marvel Girl.

[edit] History

Rachel Summers comes from an alternate future known as Days of Future Past or Earth 811, where the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly provoked the ratification of the Mutant Registration Act, leading to a dystopian future where the mutant-hunting Sentinel robots rule the world. Rachel was abducted by operatives working for Ahab, who used drugs and hypnotherapy to turn Rachel into a "Hound," a mutant who tracks down other mutants. She fulfilled her duties, but her psychic powers linked her to her victims, fueling her grief and despair, until she attacked Ahab and scarred him. In return, he sent her to the mutant concentration camps. There, she befriended the surviving mutant rebels, including Wolverine, Magneto, Kate Pryde and her lover, the adult Franklin Richards.

Rachel managed to send Pryde's consciousness into the past to prevent the assassination, but it did not change their time; she sent her astral form into the past to find out why and discovered she had sent Kate into an alternate past. On the way back, she encountered the disembodied Phoenix Force and it followed her to her present. Rachel passed out from the strain of astral projection and the Phoenix Force revealed itself to Kate, who asked it to give Rachel a fresh start.

When Rachel and Kate broke into Project: Nimrod on a suicide mission to destroy a new model of Sentinel, Kate spoke the words "Dark Phoenix" and the Phoenix Force ripped Rachel from her timeline and sent her body back to the alternate past to which she had sent Kate's consciousness, a past where Jean Grey was dead and her father was married to someone else. She received additional heartache when she discovered that her father's new wife Madelyne Pryor was pregnate with a son (Nathan Summers) due to believing she was the first child born to Scott Summers.

She had a brief membership in the X-Men, before finding the Shiar holoempathic crystal with an imprint of her mother in it. After she took a vow to remember her mother with the uniform and name of Phoenix, the Phoenix Force fully bonded with her, granting her access to its power on a cosmic magnitude, albeit in a much more limited fashion than the Dark Phoenix. Soon after, the grudge which she had begun with Selene boiled over when Rachel secretly invaded the Hellfire Club with the intention of taking vengeance on her for the murders she had committed, particularly that of nightclub owner, Nicholas Damiano, who had taken Rachel into his home after Selene attacked her. Selene proved to be no match for Rachel's newly increased powers, but just as she was about to finish Selene, Wolverine arrived and was forced to stab her in the chest to prevent her from killing the immortal witch. Mortally injured, she was lured into Spiral's "Body Shoppe."

The various incarnations of Rachel Summers. Art by Alan Davis.

Months later, while recuperating from injuries on Muir Island, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler both had the same dream, where they were actors on a weird set and helped Rachel, who was trapped there, escape. Shortly thereafter, Rachel escaped from the alternate reality of Mojoworld and met up with Shadowcat and Nightcrawler. A graphic novel accounting for Rachel's time spent in the Mojoverse was planned but never made its way to fans. Rachel has once been cited having a flashback to her time there where she is held captive in chains, being tortured. They were joined by Captain Britain and Meggan and founded the British superhero team Excalibur. Rachel remained with that team until an incident caused her to be lost in the timestream. She exchanged places with a timelost Captain Britain and emerged two thousand years in the future, in a world conquered by Apocalypse and crushed under his iron fist. She gathered together a group of rebels and founded the Askani. She trained one of her followers to travel back in time and bring her "brother" Nathan forward in time when he was infected with a techno-organic virus. The Askani cloned Nathan in case he was not able to survive the virus. Apocalypse's followers attacked the Askani and took the clone (who would later become the supervillain Stryfe), leaving Rachel critically injured. Hooked up to life support, she drew the minds of Scott and Jean into the future, as "Slym" and "Redd", to raise Nathan and tutor him in the use of his powers. Rachel finally died ten years later and sent Scott and Jean back to their original bodies seconds after they had left.

Later, after Nathan, now the anti-hero Cable had finally defeated Apocalypse, he went into the timeline to retrieve Rachel. There he discovered a Rachel sans Phoenix Force. With the premature death of Apocalypse, the Askani timeline had been eradicated and as a result, she had been flung into the far future yet subjectively a short time after she'd been lost in the timestream, as the slave of a creature called "Gaunt," who'd used her to lead Cable there for a "battle of the ages." He defeated Gaunt in the battle and Rachel, now free, was able to use her residual Phoenix Force to return them both to the present. She then decided to take a break from superheroics and enrolled in college after she made Cable promise he wouldn't tell anyone she was back. Despite her efforts to live a normal life, however, she was kidnapped by the telepath Elias Bogan and subsequently rescued by the X-Men. She decided to rejoin the X-Men, taking the name "Marvel Girl" to honor her mother (who had recently died) and wearing a costume her mother had designed but never worn; a variation on Jean's first green costume. She has also changed her last name to "Grey" becoming Rachel Grey possibly to express disapproval at her father's continuing relationship with Emma Frost, though she and Emma have made a truce of sorts during one of the team's missions in Hong Kong. After House of M and Decimation, where most of the world's mutants lost their powers, the government had Sentinels instituted at the X-mansion to protect the mutants in case any enemies used this low point to attack. Though their intentions were good this time, it reminded Rachel too much of the previous timeline when Sentinels herded mutants into concentration camps.

Rachel, with the Shi'ar deathmark tattooed to her back. Cover to Uncanny X-Men #468. Art by Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend.

Rachel spent some time with her grandparents, bonding with her grandfather. At a family reunion with all her relatives, a commando unit under the order of the Shi'ar attacked the party, killing everyone including Rachel's grandparents, in hopes of wiping out the Grey genome. Though unable to kill her, they were able to graft a deathmark on her back that would allow them to find her wherever she went. The only remaining member of the Grey family now left on Earth besides Rachel is Cable. Afterward, at the graves of the Grey family, Rachel vowed a terrible vengeance on the Shi'ar and was quoted as saying: "I'm not my mom. I'm not the Phoenix. I'm my own woman. And by the time I'm done... they'll wish I WERE the Phoenix."

The Death Commandos later broke free of their prisons, and found Rachel at the psychiatry offices of Dr. Maureen Lysinski. Rachel saved her, and with the help of Psylocke, Nightcrawler, Bishop, and Cannonball, took them down. She decided to imprison them instead of kill them, saying that "I mean to find destiny in a way that brings us both (Jean Grey) honor."

In Uncanny X-Men #475, Professor X recruited Rachel along with her uncle Havok, Nightcrawler, Warpath, Darwin and Polaris in a space mission to stop her paternal uncle Vulcan from laying waste to the Shi'ar empire. Xavier, who recently was stripped of his powers, recruited Rachel to serve as his telepathic "eyes and ears" during their mission. Aware of Rachel's vendetta against the Shi'ar, Xavier has agreed to use their trip into space to find out who in the Shi'ar Empire gave the order to wipe out all members of the Grey family and has warned Rachel that they will deal with the people responsible for her recent losses Xavier's way.

While in space, the team was attacked by Korvus, a Shi'ar warrior sent to kill Rachel. Korvus's ancestor Rook'shir was a previous host of the Phoenix Force, and a small portion of the Phoenix's power was left behind in his sword, the Blade of the Phoenix. With this power, Korvus made short work of the other X-Men, but when when Rachel blocked the sword their minds were involuntarily linked and Rachel learned that Korvus's family was also murdered by the Shi'ar government because of their connection to the Phoenix. At least part of the Phoenix power from the sword was transferred to Rachel. Rachel claimed that rather than having taken the power, the power chose to go to her, saying "The Phoenix knows me, remember? It likes me." When this happened, Rachel's normally gold energy aura turned blue, the same color as the Blade of the Phoenix. She then telekinetically disabled an explosive implant that the Shi'ar chancellor was using to force Korvus's obedience.

Rachel with the Phoenix Force battles and wins against Galactus. Art by Alan Davis.

[edit] Powers

Rachel possesses psionic powers of telepathy and telekinesis. Marvel Girl's telepathy allows her to read minds, communicate with others mentally, manipulate the perceptions of others to create illusions or render herself and others "invisible" to onlookers, control minds, generate offensive blasts of psi-energy that can disrupt the higher functions of the human brain, travel into the astral plane and "chronoskimming," which allows her to temporarily transplant a person's mind and send it through time into a younger/older version or a close ancestor/descendant, or as a disembodied astral form. Her telekinesis enables her to manipulate matter with the energy of her thoughts, create force fields and fire concussive psionic force blasts. By using her telekinesis to levitate herself, Marvel Girl can fly at incredible speeds. For a time, she was also bonded to the Phoenix Force, called "the one true Phoenix," and had its cosmic powers at her disposal—until a trip to the future caused her connection to the Force to be severed. She has recently reabsorbed a residual portion of the Phoenix Force left in the sword of a previous Shiar host. Its effects are unknown at this time.

Rachel in her standard '90s red street clothing. From Excalibur (vol. 1) #44 (November 1991). Art by Alan Davis.

Rachel's current level of power is not known as yet, but she was unable to penetrate the tremendously powerful psi-shields now active in her fellow X-Man Psylocke's mind and was also overwhelmed by the strength of her newly-increased telekinesis. This has caused some debate among fans who believe Rachel's powers are not as strong as they should be despite no longer having access to the Phoenix Force. Curiously, Marvel Girl has also developed a golden Phoenix emblem energy signature, which appears over her left eye whenever she uses her powers, and can manifest a psychic shadow form (much like the shadow form Jean Grey gained when she absorbed the telepathic powers of Psylocke) which could be due to the fact that Rachel and Psylocke's fates were "bound together" by Psylocke's reality-twisting brother, Jamie. After regaining a small portion of the Phoenix Force, the Phoenix emblem over her eye changed color to electric blue.

Rachel's telepathy, though massive in raw scale, is mitigated by her limited training and techniques. This was proven in Uncanny X-Men #452, where the admittedly less-powerful (but immensely more experienced) Emma Frost was able to outflank an incredulous Rachel in a contest on the astral plane.

Nevertheless, Rachel has demonstrated a few power stunts that indicate that her telekinetic abilities are virtually unlimited: Rachel was able to create a micro black hole (Uncanny X-Men #447), and levitate an entire city (Cable and Deadpool #10, though she still needed Cable's help after a time). She can sustain shields that can withstand Jovian atmospheric pressures (Uncanny X-Men #449), and even repel nuclear weapon attacks (Uncanny X-Men #444). In addition, Rachel’s psionic fine-motor control allows her to manipulate matter on the sub-atomic level; demonstrating the ability to alter molecular valences (X-Treme X-Men #44), or even rewrite human genome (Uncanny X-Men #459 and Annual #14). She apparently could not remove the deathmark now grafted onto her back, but Nightcrawler theorized that this was only because Rachel didn't wish to remove it. Even when her powers are inhibited, Rachel's telepathic abilities are honed to sense residual energy to which she can generate psychic manifestations of past events that even psi-resistant Psylocke can see (MK Spider-Man #6, X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2 and Uncanny X-Men #464).

At times, Rachel has been shown to learn new skills extremely quickly. For example, in Excalibur #16, she mastered a set of "demon ninja" sword skills simply by watching her teammate Shadowcat perform them. However, this ability has not been evident in her more recent appearances.

Even with the powers of the Phoenix, magic and magical objects prove to be an enigma for Rachel's powers. When the Soulsword appeared near the Excalibur lighthouse headquarters seeking Kitty Pryde to become its new wielder, Rachel attempted to remove it from the bedrock it had embedded itself into in order to alleviate her friend's apprehension. Despite using the full extent of power permitted by the Phoenix Force, Rachel was unable to remove the sword which she surmised only Kitty Pryde could remove.

[edit] Other continuities

In at least three alternate future timelines that derived from "Days of Future Past", Rachel married Franklin Richards and had at least one mutant child with him. One such child was the time-traveling supervillain Hyperstorm (Jonathan Richards). Hyperstorm was responsible for causing the Fantastic Four to think that Mister Fantastic (Jonathan's grandfather) and Doctor Doom were dead; he was only defeated when he was trapped in another dimension by Galactus. The second child was Dream Summers, a superhero who appeared in the Spider-Man/X-Men: Time's Arrow trilogy of novels (although Marvel Comics novels tend to be non-canon). In the third reality, the child was named David Richards, who was rescued from a concentration camp by the interdimensional travelling Exiles and raised by the Age of Apocalypse Sabretooth. In this reality, David's traumatic experiences at the camp led him to become a fanatical murderer.

In the so-called Legacy Earth Reality, in which the Legacy Virus mutated into a techno-organic plague, Rachel was a member of the Avengers, the last superhero group. At Morph's behest, she attempts to contact Thor and the Asgardians to help them against the Vi-Locks, a race of beings infected with the techno-organic Legacy virus.

In a variation of the Days of Future Past shown in Weapon X: Days of Future Now, Rachel was captured by Weapon X and captured in Neverland.

[edit] Appearances in other media

• Rachel Summers could be seen in the X-Men animated television series of the mid-1990s as one of Apocalypse's captive psychics in the final episode of the multi-part storyline, Beyond Good and Evil, wearing her red-spiked Hound costume.

• Rachel Summers made one video game appearance as Phoenix, a playable character in the 1990's X-Men II: The Fall of the Mutants for the PC. She wore her red-spiked costume from Excalibur, and during gameplay, had a "psi-flash" attack where her Phoenix effect would glow brighter, and her enemies would collapse (stunned telepathically). If her power was running low, she could sweep her fiery wings towards a nearby enemy and cause physical damage. She was also one of the game's few flying characters (along with Jean Grey as Marvel Girl from the original X-Factor, Archangel, and Rogue)

[edit] External links

• MDP: Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers) - Marvel Database Project
• Spotlight On... Marvel Girl III at UncannyXmen.Net
• The Phoenix Force
• Marvel Girl on the Marvel Universe Characters Bio Wiki