Rachel Summers (Earth-811)

From Marvel Database

Contents 1 History 1.1 Days of Future Past 1.2 Rachel in the Present 1.3 Mother Askani 1.4 Rachel Lives! 1.5 Rachel in Space 2 Powers and Abilities 2.1 Powers 2.2 Abilities 2.3 Strength level 2.4 Weaknesses 3 Paraphernalia 3.1 Transportation 4 Notes 5 Links 5.1 Discover and Discuss

History

I'm not my mother. I'm not Phoenix. I'm my own woman... and before I'm done... they'll wish I were the Phoenix.

-- Marvel Girl

Days of Future Past

Rachel Summers was the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey in an alternate timeline. Rachel inherited her mother's potential for telepathic and telekinetic powers. As Marvel Girl she joined the X-Men, a team of mutant adventurers fighting for peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans.

In the mainstream reality, the X-Men prevented an attempted assassination of anti-mutant Senator Robert Kelly. However, in Rachel’s timeline, Kelly was killed. The assassination caused intense widespread public paranoia against mutants, and, in the next presidential election, an anti-mutant candidate won. His administration unleashed giant mutant-hunting robot Sentinels to eliminate mutantkind, and the Sentinels decided that the best way to do so was to take over the United States. Over the subsequent years they killed or imprisoned virtually all known superhuman beings within North America.

One day, while Rachel was still a child, the X-Men's base of operations at Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was attacked and demolished by federal troops. The only survivor at the school was Rachel, whom the soldiers found by the side of Xavier's body. They used drugs to neutralize her developing psionic powers before she was tortured and brainwashed in the laboratory of the sadistic Ahab. Following extensive behavior modification, Rachel became a mutant "hound," using her psionic powers to hunt down other mutants for the authorities. Rachel's superiors branded her face with a grotesque pattern of tattoos to mark her as a hound, and forced her to wear a leash. Rachel occasionally killed mutants herself, and it is known that some of those were people she loved. Rachel's grief and shame at what she was forced to do as a hound, and her anguish over the deaths of her parents and friends deeply scarred her soul, leaving her bitter and intolerant toward humans who persecute mutants.

Eventually, Rachel was placed in the South Bronx Mutant Containment Facility where she rejoined the surviving members of the X-Men in a plan to end the Sentinels' reign by changing history. There, she befriended the surviving mutant rebels, including Wolverine, Magneto, Katherine Pryde (Kate Pryde) and her lover, the adult Franklin Richards. Within the camp, Rachel and Franklin Richards found a way to break their power-neutralizing collars.

Rachel used her psionic powers to exchange the consciousness and spirit of the adult X-Man Kate Pryde with that of Pryde's teenage self as she existed at a time just before the attempt on Kelly's life. It was hoped that the adult Kate, in her younger self's body at that earlier time, could warn the X-Men about the assassination attempt so they could stop it, thereby preventing the chain of events from occurring that led to the Sentinels' rule. However, history cannot be changed in this manner. Rachel, as it turned out, actually caused Kate to exchange psyches not with her younger self in the past of her own reality, but in the mainstream reality. Kate succeeded in preventing Kelly's assassination in the mainstream reality, after which the Pryde’s psyches returned to their proper times and realities. On her return, Kate found that other X-Men, except for Rachel, had all died in an attack on the Sentinels' Manhattan headquarters.

Kate still did not give up her vain hope of altering her reality's history. She hypnotized Rachel into using her psionic powers to tap into the Phoenix Force and send herself back in time when Kate said the words "Dark Phoenix". Thus Kate hoped that Rachel herself could change history. Together, Kate and Rachel illegally entered the laboratory of Project Nimrod, which was the attempt to construct the most highly advanced Sentinel possible with the technology of that time, in the hopes of sabotaging the project. Pursued by guards, Kate and Rachel locked themselves within the laboratory, whose walls were proofed against Kate's mutant power to phase through solid matter. Rachel believed herself and Kate to be trapped, but Kate said the words that caused Rachel to project herself back through time. Project Nimrod's creation, the Sentinel called Nimrod, then killed Kate and traveled back in time to find Rachel.

Rachel in the Present

Rachel found herself physically transported, body and mind, to a time shortly before the present. But, like Kate's spirit, Rachel had traveled not to the past of her reality, but to the past of the mainstream reality. She went to Xavier's mansion, but could not bring herself to stay on realizing that she had come back to the wrong reality, and fled without identifying herself. Pursued by the psychic vampire Selene, Rachel was rescued by the X-Men. After Xavier read her mind, she was invited to join the team.

Rachel was shocked to learn of the supposed "death" of Jean Grey in this reality. Visiting the home of Grey's parents while they were absent, Rachel found a holo-empathic crystal that was imbued with an imprint of Grey's personality. Unaware that Jean had not actually been Phoenix, Rachel refused to believe that Jean could be evil, as people claimed Phoenix was, and she decided to claim the name and power of Phoenix as her own birthright. Through her own actions, Rachel sought to redeem the name Phoenix in this reality. Rachel also believed that as the new Phoenix she could use her power to help her fellow mutants, and thereby atone for what she had done as a hound in her own reality. It was at this moment while holding the crystal that Rachel first manifested about her the bird-shaped aura of energy associated with the previous Phoenix. From that time on, Rachel was able to draw to a limited extent upon the vast power of the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force. The alien being known as the Beyonder once hinted that Rachel could potentially become equal in power to the previous Phoenix. Indeed, the Beyonder once granted Rachel the full power that the previous Phoenix had possessed, but he reclaimed it shortly thereafter.

Soon after, Rachel's teammate Wolverine severely injured her to prevent her from vengefully murdering Selene. Fleeing to heal herself, she was fooled by the six-armed sorceress named Spiral and taken to the alternate dimension of Mojoworld where she was held prisoner for several months. Rachel eventually escaped to London where she was tracked by agents from Mojoworld. With the help of Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, Nightcrawler, and Captain Britain, Rachel defeated her would-be captors and together they formed the British super-team Excalibur.

Mother Askani

After many adventures with Excalibur, Rachel finally managed to return to the future she had come from. While she couldn't change her past, she and her teammates were able to change the directives of all the Sentinels of the era to preserve all life, thereby ending the genocide that had prevailed for years. On the return journey, Captain Britain was lost in the timestream and it was discovered that Rachel had to exchange places with him for him to return. She accepted, and was carried to another future time that was ruled by the eternal mutant Apocalypse. There, Rachel founded the Clan Askani to help in the struggle against Apocalypse's tyrannical reign. She trained one of her followers to travel back in time and bring her "step-brother" Nathan Summers 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 Summers and Jean Grey into the future, as "Slym" and "Redd", to raise Nathan and tutor him in the use of his powers. After ten years Rachel sent Scott and Jean back to their original bodies seconds after they had left. The effort of transporting the two X-Men exhausted Rachel's frail old body and her physical form died, leaving her to live on in an astral form. Rachel was worshipped by her followers after her "death" and the Clan Askani saw in the young boy the potential to be a great warrior, and trained him to become the soldier known as Cable.

Rachel Lives!

Some time later, Cable journeyed to the end of time and found a youthful Rachel being held prisoner by Gaunt, a man who had been imprisoned there for his crimes. Cable challenged Gaunt to a duel to decide the fate of Rachel and emerged victorious, returning Rachel to the present with him. With her own timeline erased and having been abandoned by the Phoenix Force, Rachel decided to retire from the costumed adventuring life and began attending college. Soon after, Rachel became embroiled in the Dark Sisterhood's attempted takeover of the United States. Rachel aided Cable in defeating the Sisterhood and their leader, Finality, after which she returned to college. Cable promised he wouldn't tell anyone she was back.

Months later, Rachel was captured by the mutant predator Elias Bogan who used her as his pet telepath, enslaving other mutants to do his bidding. After Bogan's defeat at the hands of the X-Treme X-Men team, Rachel was freed from his telepathic control and rejoined the X-Men, taking the codename Marvel Girl to honor the memory of her mother. 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 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 death mark 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."

Rachel in Space

While searching for Charles Xavier, Rachel's uncle Vulcan forced her to unveil the truth about his dark past. She extracted Darwin's sentience from his body, and Vulcan flew off to exact revenge on D'Ken and the Shi'ar Empire. Rachel put her own vengeful urges aside and accompanied a small team, organized by Xavier, to pursue her uncle into Shi'ar space. Word reached a secret order of the government, that lineage of the Phoenix Force was heading in their direction. An assassin named Korvus was sent to eliminate Rachel, but when his blade touched her, a portion of its power was transferred over to her. The two also shared each other's memories and the power she absorbed slowly started influencing Rachel's behavior. She created a darker uniform, pursued a romance with Korvus, and killed her opponents freely.

The X-Men met up with the Starjammers, and the assembly battled the Shi'ar coup that Vulcan had aligned himself with. After Rachel witnessed her grandfather's (Corsair) death, Lilandra sent more than half of the X-Men back to Earth. Havok, Polaris, and Rachel were left stranded in space. They joined the Starjammers and lead the resistance against the new Shi'ar Empire, now under the control of Vulcan and his wife Deathbird

In the weeks that followed, Rachel discovered that a secret order of the Shi'ar Empire was responsible for the massacre of her mother's family. She had been having dreams about that tragic day and also ended her relationship with Korvus. When a hostile alien race calling themselves the Scy'ar Tal ("Death to the Shi'ar") destroyed a Shi'ar inhabited planet known as Feather's Edge, Vulcan called a cease fire with the Starjammers. Rachel was strongly against it and was then introduced to Chancellor Araki's bodyguards, who turn out to be the Shi'ar Death Commandos (the assassins physically responsible for wiping out most of the Greys) She was restrained by Polaris, but vowed vengeance upon them.

Rachel assisted the unlikely team-up in preventing the Scy'ar Tal from exacting their plan of genocide. Unfortunately when Vulcan gained the upper-hand he turned the Scy’ar Tal’s own weapon against them. Rachel fought Gladiator to a standstill until Korvus was struck by a converted resistance member (General Ka'ardum). She took his unconscious body and flew from the scene, just as Vulcan wiped out the entire Scy'ar Tal fleet and the area surrounding the M'Kraan Crystal. While with the Starjammers, in battle with Vulcan's new guard, the fragment of the "blue" Phoenix within her and Korvus' blade mysteriously left them. The "hound" markings reappeared on Rachel's face.

In agreement with the Inhumans she along with the other Starjammers and the Guardians of the Galaxy assaults a Shi'ar vessel in order to free Lillandra hoping to end the conflict while restoring her to the throne. Even without her Phoenix powers she is powerful enough to entrap Gladiator in a illusion in order to keep him distracted from battle. Their gambit pays off and the group is able to free Lillandra.

Rachel is next seen as Lillandra's bodyguard along with the rest of the Starjammers. On the home planet of the Shi'ar, Lillandra assumes her throne, but while making a ceremonial gesture is killed by the possessed Nighthawk. The only person who perceives this is Rachel, since Nighthwk is shielded from the perceptions of others. After Lillandra is assassinated, Rachel fights along side the Starjammers against the Shi'ar Guard and Araki, who has summoned the same Shi'ar commandos that killed Rachel's family and branded her with the Shi'ar death mark. Rachel uses her powers to implode Black Cloak's head, saying "He was the one...He killed my family," though killing him doesn't make her feel happier. She along with the rest of the Starjammers regroup later on and mourn the Shi'ar as they doubt that they will recover from this war.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Rachel inherited enormous psionic powers from her mother. Rachel is an Omega-level mutant. She has great control over her powerful Telepathy and Telekinesis.

Telepathy: can read minds and project her thoughts into other minds within a vast, potentially limitless radius. She has not always had access to her Telepathy due to mental blocks. 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. Her notable powers include:

• Telepathic Cloak: Can mask her presence from being detected by others. Her abilities can at times go undetected or be counteracted by other more powerful telepaths depending on their level of skill in using their own psi abilities. She can extend these defenses to others around her as well.
• Psychic Shadow: ability to mask herself, and other peoples' presence from those around him. Can telepathically disguise himself, making her appearance that of a shadow. Marvel Girl has developed a electric blue Phoenix emblem energy signature, which appears over her left eye whenever she uses her powers.
• Mind Control: ability to control the minds of others upon mere concentration.
• Mind Possession: ability to possess the mind of another, and use that beings body as her own.
• Mind Alteration: ability to alter the minds of others by force of will, changing their personality partially or entirely.
• Psionic Shield: ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of herself and of others minds.
• Telepathic Illusions: ability to create illusions to make herself seem to be invisible, look like someone else, or make others experience events that are not truly happening.
• Mental Paralysis: ability to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.
• Mental Amnesia: Can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia.
• Psionic Blasts: can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and turning someone brain-dead.
• Astral Projection: can project her astral form from her body onto astral planes or the physical planes. In the physical plane she can only travel in astral form over short distances. In the astral plane, she can mentally create psionic objects and manipulate the aspects of her environment.
• Mind Transferal: able to transfer both her mind and powers into other host bodies should her own physical body be somehow killed.
• Mental Detection: can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within a small but as yet undefined radius of himself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being.
• Psionic Firebird: ability to manifest her telepathy as a psionic firebird; whose claws could inflict both physical and mental damage.

Telekinesis: Possesses telekinetic abilities enabling 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. Rachel was able to create a micro black hole, and levitate an entire city. She can sustain shields that can withstand Jovian atmospheric pressures, and even repel nuclear weapon attacks. 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, or even rewrite her own genome.

Time Travel: Possesses the psionic power to displace herself and others at almost any specific point in the timestream and then reemerging in the physical world from as much as a few minutes to years by generating chronal energies. She could apparently travel in astral form as well. She could also travel to points in the future.

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: 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. This probably accomplished through the combination of two powers, telepathy and chronokinesis.

Rachel combines her ability to manipulate time with her telepathy and telekinesis with varied effects including:

• Chrono-Shield: the unconscious emanation of a fourth dimensional pulse which creates a chrono-shield protecting her from changes in the timeline,

• Psychometric Projections: ability to mentally project past events.

Phoenix Force Avatar: For a time, Rachel was also bonded to the Phoenix Force 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 lifeforces, 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 travelled back to the early 21st Century (present) of Earth-616. 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 that the power Rachel has is not the true Phoenix Force, but a shadow or echo of it, it was easier to control, but less powerful. It has disappeared along with the sword.

Rachel created a psi-bond with her half-brother Nathan Summers shortly after his birth. It is unknown if that link still exists.

Abilities

Rachel Summers has trained with Nightcrawler in hand-to-hand combat and learned lock-picking skills from Storm.

Strength level

Normal human female with intensive regular exercise. When possessing the Phoenix Force, Rachel had superhuman strength with an unknown upper limit

Weaknesses

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. This could be the reason why Rachel has not telekinetically removed the Shi'ar deathmark on her back, although Nightcrawler theorized that this was only because Rachel didn't wish to remove it.

Paraphernalia

Transportation

currently Starjammer. formerly X-Men Blackbird, X-Men Stratojet.

Notes

• There are some glaring inconsistencies in Rachel's history. For example in "Days of Future Past" Kate clearly states that Xavier was assassinated with Senator Kelly but when Rachel goes back in time she clearly remembers Xavier being killed by the US Army years later.
• In her home timeline of Earth-811, Rachel's father, Scott, is deceased and her mother, Jean Grey was killed by Mastermind when he blew up Pittsburgh (echoing the fate of Pittsburgh in the New Universe reality)
• She apparently could not remove the death mark now grafted onto her back, but Nightcrawler theorized that this was only because Rachel didn't wish to remove it.

Links

• Appearances of Rachel Summers (Earth-811)
• Character Gallery: Rachel Summers (Earth-811)
• Images that feature Rachel Summers (Earth-811)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Rachel Summers (Earth-811)
• Quotations by Rachel Summers (Earth-811) 
• Uncanny X-Men #141-142 (Days of Future Past)
• Phoenix (Jean Grey)
• Phoenix Force
• Spotlight On... Marvel Girl III at UncannyXmen.Net
• Askani Rising - a Rachel Summers fansite
• Women of Marvel Comics Phoenix Page
• The Phoenix Force

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