Rachel Summers
Rachel Summers is a comic book character that first appeared in X-Men #141
Rachel Summers is the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from an alternate reality. Rachel is the third Phoenix but now goes by the name Marvel Girl as a homage to her mother, Jean Grey. She presently fights with Havok and the Starjammers in Shi'ar space.
Origin
After some time, Rachel ended up at a Mutant Containment Facility where she found other surviving X-Men. In a plan to end the nightmare that was their world, Rachel used her psionic powers to switch the psyche of the X-Man, Kate Pryde with that of her younger self. Kate found herself in the body of a young Kitty Pryde who was still new to the X-Men. Together they prevented the assassination of Senator Kelly.
Rachel was followed by Nimrod and found herself, not in her past, but that of the mainstream reality. She was finally able to come to terms with her situation and found a home with the X-Men of this world.
Time With the X-Men
Upon hearing about the death of Jean Grey, Rachel decided to take on the mantle of Phoenix in the hopes of clearing her mother's name after the destruction the Phoenix Force had caused while in the guise of Jean. She locates a crystal with the mental imprint of her "mother" and relives the most indelible memories of Jean. Through experiencing what a woman her mother was in this time she feels confident that she can carry on with the good her mother had accomplished before becoming tied with the Phoenix Force.
Rachel was a helpful but sometimes unreliable teammate who was driven mostly by her emotions and ghosts of her past. In an early mission, she, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Rogue were sent to save Banshee from James Proudstar who would later be known as Warpath. When given the task to locate Banshee with her telepathic powers, Rachel is unable to come to terms with this use of her power as she spent so much time as a Hound in her time. She panics and becomes a liability to the team.
On a mission to Asgard, she proves her worth and confidence as a member of the team, donning a costume resembling the Phoenix which was a problem for Cyclops.
Rachel is finally pushed to her limits when targeted by the External, Selene. When doing battle with Selene, Rachel gains the upper hand and is about to execute her when Wolverine steps in an nearly fatally injures his teammate. His intention was to save her from doing something that would haunt her but he nearly killed her in the process. She runs off and eventhough the X-Men search, especially her best friend Kitty Pryde, they can find no sign of her anywhere.
Excalibur
Rachel was next found as a prisoner of Mojo and Spiral, forced to perform for the people of Mojoworld. She is rescued by her former teammates Nightcrawler and Shadowcat and are later joined by British Superheroes Captain Britain and Meggan to form Excalibur. During her tenure with this team she came into her own as a confident woman and is frequently shown having to stave off advances from men all around England, much to the chagrin of her teammate Shadowcat. Rachel was a huge asset to the team and battled with several forces such as the Technet and Sat-yr-9. The team ventured through many adventures through time and even found themselves becoming a part of history in World War II.
On the way back to the present, Captain Britain got lost in the time stream and Rachel switched places with him. Rachel found herself in far future where the evil mutant, Apocalypse ruled. She started the Clan Askani who had a hand in saving and raising her half-brother, Nathan Summers, also known as Cable. Rachel used her psionic abilities to bring Scott and Jean's consciousness forward through time to care for Nate. This caused a great deal of strain on Rachel's body.
With Excalibur, Rachel was a big help. Galactus came to earth sending one of his Heralds to tell Excalibur to render Rachel. The herald tells them that Galactus wants take the Phoenix out of Rachel saying Rachel it too dangerous to Galactus to have the Phoenix. Rachel laughed it off and asked was the Herald joking. She use her telekinesis to hit the Herald out of the Earth's orbit and onto the moon. Galactus made a machine that would take the Phoenix from Rachel and send it into orbit. Rachel goes to other dimensions and finds out she is the only Rachel Summers anywhere. She comes back and the Herald returns and charges at her. Rachel use her telekinesis to swing her around and throw her at Galactus.
Later Cable was able to save Rachel and bring her back to the present.
X-Treme X-Men and Transition back into the Fold
After being gone for so long, it seemed like Rachel had been forgotten. In the last story arc of X-Treme X-Men, the team is targeted by Elias Bogan. Through the use of his pet telepath, Elias begins to control members of the X-Men, using Bishop as his own weapon against his team. With the recruitment of Kitty Pryde into the team, Magma, Kitty, Sage and Storm are able to free the telepath and in turn their teammates. Since the telepath is shrouded in a shadow form the entire time the team is unaware that she is indeed Rachel Summers. She is freed and without hesitation rejoins the X-Men.
Rachel continues on with Storm's team of the X-Treme Sanctions E xecutive and is a badge carrying member. She takes on the name Rachel Grey and the code name Marvel Girl with a costume resembling Jean Grey's classic green and yellow outfit all in honor of her mother. She is shown to be far more powerful now then she ever was before, taking on such feats as creating a micro black hole while fighting the Fury and creating a Jovian pressure field while saving the Queen of England from Arcade. She becomes very fast friends with Psylocke who had recently been resurrected and sees more of a distance from Kitty Pryde as her lover Colossus had also recently returned from the dead.
Uncanny X-Men
As a Christmas gift from Cyclops and Emma Frost, Rachel was finally introduced to her maternal grandparents and was quickly accepted with open arms by the Grey family. She spent quite a bit of time trying to become a new part of that family and interacting with her Grandparents John and Elaine Grey. They attempted to throw a party in her honor but was attacked by the Shi'ar Death Commandos, an elite squad of bounty hunters. In the process the Death Commando's killed the entire Grey family in 24 seconds, also marking Rachel's back with some sort of ink that set into her DNA, a sort of scarlet letter for bounty hunters. With the help of the X-Men the Death Commando's were defeated. She was examined by Beast as to the nature of the mark that haunts Rachel, but it is compared to the "M" tattoo on Bishop's eye and Rachel claims to not be able to remove it. She is questioned by Nightcrawler on whether it is just a matter of her willingness to keep it.After trying to cope with the loss of her new family the Death Commando's escaped and attacked her again while at a therapy session. She escaped again only to fight most of the Death Commando's on her own. Once again the X-Men showed to help her battle her new foes. The defeated them but the world was attacked by a Shi'Ar battleship, Rachel combined her powers with Psylocke's to block the attack, redirecting it back to the ship and saving the planet.
House of M
During the House of M storyline Rachel's and Psylocke's combined energies transported them to the White Hot Room and they were able to retain their powers. Upon returning to Earth-616, they realized that Betsy, in this reality, was a princess, sister of Captain Britain, ruler of England. They were able to save Nocturne, alternate reality daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch, from a group of Marauders (in this reality consisting of Callisto, Black Tom Cassidy and Caliban) and they were also vital in Captain Britain's effort to save Earth-616 from destruction.Attacking Vulcan
After The House of M, Rachel, having retained her powers,was chosen by Professor X to be a member of a team, which would travel to space,to defeat Vulcan, thought dead but awoken after the combination of lost mutant powers and the formation of The Collective. Vulcan was a student of Xavier, believed dead after the Krakoa island incident. Other team members included Havok, Polaris, Nightcrawler, Warpath and Darwin (another student of Xavier's who had survived Krakoa). The team launched into space using an old Shi'ar spaceship and started following Vulcan, who having regained his memory,was slowly destroying the Shi'Ar empire. They were soon joined by The Starjammers, Lilandra and Korvus,a mysterious Shi'ar prisoner, originally sent to kill Professor Xavier. Korvus wielded the Blade of the Phoenix, which contained a small portion of The Phoenix Force, being passed on to him by one of his ancestors who, though a Shi'ar, was an avatar to the Phoenix Force. Upon having contact with The Blade, as she was fighting Korvus, Rachel telepathically exchanged memories with him and absorbed The Phoenix Force contained in it. After that, the attraction between the two was obvious and they started becoming more and more intimate. The group fought the Shi'ar, whose leader was now Emperor Vulcan, having married Deathbird and executed D'Ken, who in the meantime had claimed and taken the throne from Lilandra. In the final battle against the Shi'ar, on Vulcan's and Deathbird's wedding day, the X-Men freed the captive Professor X and won, but with a cost; Corsair ,leader of The Starjammers, was dead. Lilandra transported half of the team away from battle, whereas Havok, Polaris and Rachel remained in space to fight and defeat Vulcan, no longer as a team of the X-Men, but of The Starjammers.In the recent mini-series, X-Men: Emperor Vulcan, Rachel continued with the others to rebel against her "uncle". When the Sc'yar Tal attacked, Rachel used her telepathy to contact the Eldest. She was shown how the M'Kraan Crystal was originally theirs. After fighting Gladiator, Rachel escapes with Korvus, while the other Starjammers are taken captive by Vulcan.
Rachel later joins Lilandra and the free Starjammers in freeing her captive comrades. She participates in Lilandra's attempted political coup of Chandrilar while Emperor Vulcan is kept busy at the front lines of the Kree-Shi'ar war. In the same chaotic conflict that kills Lilandra, Rachel finds an opportunity to at last obtain revenge by killing Black Cloak, leader of the Death Commandos and slayer of her family. She ends up saving Gladiator in the process.
Powers
Rachel is an Omega-Level Mutant and oft Phoenix Force Avatar who possesses various psionic powers including telepathy and telekinesis as well as limited chronal abilities.
Phoenix Force
Rachel was bonded to the Phoenix Force for many years as "the one true Phoenix", and had its cosmic powers at her disposal. As Phoenix, Rachel demonstrated heightened psi-powers as well as the ability to manipulate energy and life-forces, and a limited cosmic awareness. Rachel's connection to the Phoenix power was lost in the distant future and did not return with her when she traveled back to the early 21st Century (present) of Earth-616. However, this did not mean she could never host the Force again.
Rachel is also one of the many, and most probably well-known hosts of the Phoenix Force. When she is the host to the Force, her psionic powers are increased to new power levels, with her Phoenix level skills, she was able to go toe to toe with the Beyonder and was even capable of defeating Galactus in one-on-one.
Recently, Marvel Girl absorbed a residual echo of the Phoenix Force left in the sword of a previous host, a Shi'ar named Rookshir. Its full effects are unknown at this time. It was revealed in Uncanny X-Men #481 that the power Rachel has is not the true Phoenix Force, but a shadow or echo of it, which is less powerful, but easier to control. In X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #3 when she manifested it in the form of the familiar fiery bird image with which the Phoenix is commonly associated. In issue #5 of Emperor Vulcan, the echo is also powerful enough to allow Rachel to survive in and fly through the vacuum of space without the need for additional protection. For some as yet unexplained reason, Rachel has lost her connection to the Phoenix Echo and as a result, the power of the Phoenix Force, though she still retains her original powers.
Telepathy
Marvel Girl is an Omega-Level telepath, meaning she has limitless telepathic ability/potential. Marvel Girl's "virtually unlimited" telepathy allows her to read minds and project her thoughts into others' minds as well as form mind links that can connect her with another despite great distances or power inhibitors. Rachel has honed her telepathy to sense, locate and track other mutants based on their thought patterns, but has a moral apprehension about using this telepathic skill based on her experiences as a Hound. Rachel can use her telepathy to project a blast of psi-energy that can disrupt the higher functions of the brain, and defensively shield her mind from other telepaths, create illusions, sensory invisibility and edit memories. In addition, Rachel has demonstrated the ability to telepathically block access to super-powers, control minds, repair minds, swap minds from one body to another, and the sense and manipulate residual energy left in objects and places in order to generate psychic manifestations in the form of psychometry recreations of past events.
Rachel's telepathy, though unlimited in raw power, was mitigated by her limited training and techniques. This was proven in Uncanny X-Men #452, where the admittedly less-powerful (yet more experienced) Emma Frost was able to outflank an incredulous Rachel in a contest on the astral plane. She has had training from Professor Charles Xavier while he was depowered. He allowed her to download his knowledge about telepathy from his mind directly but also trained her in a more traditional fashion.
Telekinesis
Marvel Girl is an Omega-Level telekinetic, meaning she has limitless telekinetic ability/potential. By using telekinesis, Marvel Girl can manipulate matter down to the atomic level. She can channel her telekinesis to create force fields and fire concussive psionic force blasts. By using her telekinesis to levitate herself, Marvel Girl can fly at incredible speeds. While all depictions portray Rachel as an extremely powerful telekinetic, the limitations of her hard-psi capabilities have been somewhat inconsistent. Some instances have depicted Rachel's telekinetic potential to be nigh-unlimited as well, whereas others have shown her struggling against, and even outmatched by, non-Omega-level telekinetics such as Psylocke. Nonetheless even without the Phoenix, Rachel was able to create a micro black hole, levitate an entire city for a time,and sustain shields that withstood Jovian atmospheric pressures. Moreover, Rachel's later telekinetic fine-motor control allowed her to alter molecular valences, create telekinetic swords (much like Psylocke's telekinetic katana)and even rewrite human genomes.
Even with the powers of the Phoenix, magic and magical objects have been shown to have some resistance to 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 then surmised only Kitty Pryde could remove.
Chronoskimming
In conjunction with Marvel Girl's ability to astral travel through astral projection, Rachel can combine her telepathy with her abilities to manipulate time — "chronoskimming" — allowing 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. Rachel combines her ability to manipulate time with her telepathy and telekinesis with varied effects including the unconscious emanation of a fourth dimensional pulse which creates a chrono-shield protecting her from changes in the time line, psychometric projections of past events and physical time travel (a skill that she can now perform without the aid of the Phoenix).
Skills and abilities
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. Rachel also mentions that she had learned lock-picking skills from the Storm of her timeline, knowledge and use of advanced technology and weapons, as well as skills in repairing engines. However, these abilities have not been evident in her more recent appearances.
Potential
Rachel's later level of power is not yet known; in most cases it appears less extensive than the abilities she has displayed as the Phoenix. She was, however, able to more than hold her own against the immensely powerful Gladiator with the aid of the Phoenix echo in X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #5. Rachel is considered an Omega-level mutant just like her mother. The future Sentinel, Nimrod once classified Rachel as an Omega class mutant several years before the Omega-level term came into being. She is described as having virtually unlimited psychic potential, unlimited potential being part of the definition for Omega-level mutants.Characteristics
Gender: Female Height: 5'7" Weight: 125 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Red Distinguishing Features: Facial tattoos most often concealed by her powers. Power Signature: Marvel Girl exhibits a Phoenix emblem energy signature, which appears over her left eye whenever she uses her powers, and can manifest a shadow form (much like the shadow form Jean Grey-Summers gained when she absorbed the telepathic powers of Psylocke). After regaining a small portion of the Phoenix Force echo, the Phoenix emblem over her eye changed from a gold Phoenix emblem to a version made of electric blue flame. Since she gained the Phoenix echo she no longer manifests the shadow form. Rachel has since lost the small portion of the Phoenix force echo, and the blue emblem disappeared as well.Alternate Realities
It has been said, for example in Uncanny X-Men #462, that Earth-811 Rachel is unique and has no counterparts. However several counterparts has been shown in various realities. A male counterpart was shown in Uncanny X-Men #462 and there have been other counterparts shown in "What If" and in Exiles for example. She has no counterpart in the main universe (Earth-616).
According to Rachel Summers' creator Chris Claremont, the Rachel Summers that currently appears in Earth-616, who was originally from Earth-811, is unique in the multiverse and has no alternate time line counterparts. These other Rachels are not alternate versions of the Rachel Summers of Earth-811, but characters that might have the same parentage, name, or the same powers but are not connected due to aspects of Rachel's genetics or history.
This however is not true since there are several alternate realities that branches off from Earth-811, thus any version of Rachel in these timelines wil have the exact same genetic makeup.
Variations of Days of Future Past
In at least three alternate future timelines that derived from Earth-811, a Rachel Summers 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, with the power of empathy, a superhero who appeared in the Spider-Man/X-Men: Time's Arrow trilogy of novels (although Marvel Comics novels tend to be considered non-canon). In the third reality, they produced a child named David Richards, who was rescued from a concentration camp by the interdimensional traveling 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.
Weapon X: Days of Future Now
In a variation of the Days of Future Past shown in Weapon X: Days of Future Now, a Rachel Summers was captured by Weapon X and detained in the "Neverland" concentration camp.
Exiles
In the so-called Legacy Earth Reality, in which the Legacy Virus mutated into a techno-organic plague, a Rachel Summers 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.
House of M
Rachel was the bodyguard and traveling companion to Psylocke, British royalty after her brother Brian became ruler of all England. She became involved with Captain Britain's mission to seal the void that was created by the Scarlet Witch's manipulations.
X-Men: The End
Rachel is the manager of Kitty Pryde's campaign to become Mayor of Chicago however she abandons this position after a series of attacks on the X-Men and allies. She then teams up with Cable and goes to Shi'ar space to face Cassandra Nova who is behind all the attacks. Rachel is killed by Cassandra Nova and is later seen joining several others in creating the "Tree of Life" from the Quabala and presumably transcended this plane of existence.
Earth-967
In this reality Rachel Summers and Franklin Richards has a son - Hyperstorm.
Earth-8545
In the reality known as the Legacy Planet Rachel was a member of the Avengers.
Creators
Marvel Girl was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne
| Super Name: | Rachel Summers |
| Real Name: | Rachel Anne Summers |
| Aliases: |
Phoenix Marvel Girl Rachel Grey Mother Askani Hound Alyzr'n Summerset Executioner R'chel Bright Lady White Princess Rachel Grey-Summers Starchilde |
| Publisher: | Marvel Publishing |
| Gender: | Female |
| Character Type: | Mutant |
| 1st Appearance: | X-Men #141 |
| Appears in: | 323 issues |
| Birthday: | |
| Died: |
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