JUST FOUND THIS IN MARVEL'S WEBSITE

The X-Men franchise's latest mutation takes the action and drama that fans have come to expect from the team and multiplies it exponentially. X-MEN, the new series from writer Brian Wood and artist Olivier Coipel, stars six of the biggest characters in the X-Universe bound together by duty, fate and friendship to form a heavy-hitting fighting force.

Fittingly for a book simply called X-MEN, the women that comprise the team represent time-tested, fan favorite characters with rich personalities. Wood skillfully brought the group dynamics germane to close knit teams to life while writing the previous X-MEN series last year.

Rachel Grey happens to be one of the few second-generation heroes in the Marvel Universe, a fact that's defined her maybe a bit too much in her history with the X-Men. Hailing from the apocalyptic timeline first seen in the classic tale "Days of Future Past," the daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey has made a name for herself in the present day by fighting alongside the X-Men and Excalibur. But with her mother dead and her father on the other side of the law, where does Rachel fit in now?

We spoke to Brian Wood about his take on this time-tossed character.

Marvel.com: Of all of your X-Men, Rachel Grey is perhaps the least well-known, despite her famous parents. What has kept her out of the A-List?

Brian Wood: Hard for me to say without speculating on other writers’ thoughts and opinions, but for me, I have a couple thoughts. I think she has a strike against her, merely existing in the shadow of the elder, much more popular [Jean] Grey. She's changed her name and visual identity around a few times. It seems to me she's ebbed and flowed, in terms of popularity and exposure, a few too many times. I don't know, I'm guessing at some of this, and it's just thoughts I had when I was reading up on her. I certainly like Rachel, and I see some potential there. I sort of miss her EXCALIBUR era bondage suit. All those spikes!

Marvel.com: Rachel played a large role in your WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN: ALPHA & OMEGA limited series. What keeps you coming back to her?

Brian Wood: Well, she keeps sticking around! [Laughs] In ALPHA & OMEGA she was there by default, in a limited role as an administrator. I sort of enjoyed casting her as a tough person, a hardass. Not necessarily in a bad way, and this is her role in the new series. She's aggressive and idealistic, a bit opposite of Storm. If Storm makes controversial moves for noble intentions, Rachel will always frame her decisions around the greater good of mutantdom. She thinks more globally, less passionately, more within set rules. This sets her and Storm up, almost immediately, to be at odds.

We've also selected Rachel to be first up for some romantic entanglements, such as they are. Despite Rachel herself, via Twitter, telling me she's quite happy staying single. Oops.

Marvel.com: When Rachel first joined the X-Men, she was haunted by her nightmarish home time period and her past as a mutant hunting hound. How much of her current motivations are still tied to her traumatic past?

Brian Wood: I'm not deliberately drawing a line between then and now, but maybe someone with some distance from the material can connect that past trauma with her current persona as the enforcer and protector of that greater good?

Marvel.com: One of the cornerstones of EXCALIBUR was the friendship between Rachel and Kitty. Now that the two are teammates again, will they be buddying up?

Brian Wood: Not exclusively, not off on their own. But that's exactly the sort of past that serves as a "glue" for this unofficial team.

Marvel.com: Rachel is a child whose parents cast long shadows. Does she struggle with finding her own identity? Even on a meta level, do you think she's more defined by who her parents are as to who she herself is?

Brian Wood: She absolutely is, and that's sort of what I mean when I said she lives in the shadow of her mother. "Who's Rachel Grey?" is a question that will always be answered right away with the names of her parents. Which is understandable up to a point, but by now she's got a long history as a character and is very much her own person. I'm writing her, consciously or not, very much removed from her parents. Gotta give the girl a break.

More on Marvel.com: http://marvel.com/news/comics/20756/welcome_rachel_grey_to_the_x-men#ixzz3L2r4gRtc

I swear this was posted last year or something...

He actually gives her the type of characterization that it would have been nice to have him write it the book. Coming from a future like she had, she understands actions have consequences unlike Storm who typically takes action to serve her own purposes. If this would have been more clearly defined in the book, it would have made the back and forth much more understandable. Even reading it now makes a light bulb flash over my head why she responded and acted how she had in his time on the book. At least for me this makes me wish he could have written in a way that expressed his goal as it was not obvious in the print. He made her seem OOC and immature, this explanation would have helped tremendously.

his intentions were not clear making rachel seem like she's against storm. storm is just too comfy with her leadership skills that she doesnt give much thought about her decisions while rachel is like jean who seems to a lot first before making decisions. I just wish that they'd explore her other powers like psychometry and chrono skimming/time travel for these set her apart from other tk/tp users. I also wish she'd get to meet franklin soon

Shouldn't Rachel be mourning her father right now ?

And she almost ended with dating a bacteria.

I'm really sad that Wood's run was a failure, his previous arcs were simply excellent.

@avenger85: So we play that card where Wolverine is Rachel's father???

I miss the forums where daily fights would happen on who was Rachel's true father...

There was a time when, between X-Men vol. 4 and his Star Wars book, I actually considered him my favorite writer.

Then I re-read the first few issues of both and that opinion changed very quickly.

@xwraith:

I'll recommend his X-men vol.3 arcs for a read, if you didn't read already.

@adamtrmm: I actually did read that. I know a lot of people liked it, but to me, it was just OK.

@xwraith:

What prevented it from being more than ok? I'm really kinda interested.

Rachel also had a thing for ahab during her excalibur days. the younger ahab that is

Eh...It doesnt seem to me like he was saying much about Rachel.

He was basically taking her in a new direction that was sensible for the character but even that seems more like she was just being a foil for Storm....which wouldn't be a problem really, but if your going to say that she has all this reasoning and a unique outlook that's "worldly" then you should show it off better. Because idk if Rachel said anything to support that caim...heck it actually makes more sense if you say she just didn't like the idea of her friend being a potential casualty of Storm's leadership.