Real Name: Rachel Summers
Former Aliases: Mother Askani
First Appearance: X-Men (1st series) #141 (as Rachel Summers), Uncanny X-Men Annual #9 (as Phoenix III), Cable #6 (as Mother Askani)
Known Relatives: Scott Summers (Cyclops I, father), Jean Grey-Summers (Phoenix IV, mother), Madelyne Pryor (ex-step-mother, deceased), Nathan Christopher Summers (Cable, half-brother), Alexander Summers (Havok, uncle, believed deceased), Christopher Summers (Corsair, grandfather), Tyler Dayspring (Genesis, nephew, deceased), Franklin Richards (alternate future husband), Jonathan Reed Richards (Hyperstorm, alternate future son)
Group Affiliation: None, formerly Clan Askani, Excalibur, X-Men, former servant of Ahab
Known Allies: Cable, Blaquesmith, X-Men, Phoenix Force, formerly Excalibur, Kate Pryde
Major Enemies: Dark Sisterhood, Gaunt, Spiral, Mojo, formerly Selene, Apocalypse
Powers: Telepathy, telekinesis
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
BIOGRAPHY
The daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey in an alternate timeline, young Rachel inherited her mother's potential for the telepathic and telekinetic powers that Jean Grey possessed as Marvel Girl.
In the "mainstream" universe's reality, the X-Men prevented Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly, an investigator of the alleged menace that superhuman mutants posed to society. However, in Rachel's timeline, the Brotherhood succeeded in killing Kelly. The assassination caused intense widespread public paranoia against mutants. In the next presidential election, a rabid anti-mutant candidate won. His administration unleashed Sentinel robots, giving them an open-ended program with overly broad parameters to eliminate the mutant menace permanently. The Sentinels decided that the best way to do so was to take over the United States, and over the subsequent years they killed or imprisoned within concentration camps virtually all known mutants and other superhuman beings within the United States and Canada. Finally the Sentinels controlled the entire North American continent.
One summer morning, when Rachel was still a child, the X-Men's base of operations, Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State, 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 corpse. They used drugs to neutralize Rachel's developing psionic powers. Later, she was tortured and brainwashed in prison. Following extensive behavior modification, she became a mutant "hound," using her psionic powers to hunt down other mutants for the authorities, who would kill or imprison them. In the process, Rachel occasionally killed mutants herself, and it is known that some of those, who are as yet unidentified, were people she loved. 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's grief and shame at what she was forced to do as a "hound", and her anguish over the deaths of her parents and other friends during the anti-mutant reign of terror has deeply scarred her soul, leaving her bitter and intolerant toward human beings who persecute mutants.
Eventually Rachel was placed in the South Bronx Mutant Containment Facility. Rachel used her psionic powers to create the illusion in other people's minds that she does not bear the tattoos marking her as a "hound", thereby concealing her shame. In the camp she rejoined the surviving members of the X-Men. She was instrumental in their plan to end the Sentinels' reign by changing history. Rachel used her psionic powers to exchange the consciousness and spirit of the adult Kate Pryde, a member of the X-Men, 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, and that the X-Men would foil 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 ("Kitty") in the past of her own reality, but with the Kitty of our own "mainstream" reality. Kate, in "mainstream" Kitty's body, succeeded in preventing Kelly's assassination in our own reality. She then returned to her own body in her own time and reality, causing Kitty's psyche to return to its proper time and reality as well. On her return, Kate found that the other X-Men, except for Rachel, had all died in an attack on the Sentinels' Manhattan headquarters.
Kate Pryde 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 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. Nimrod later went back in time to find Rachel.
Rachel found herself physically transported, body and mind, to a time shortly before the present. But like Kate's spirit, she had traveled not to the past of her reality, but to the past of this "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. She went to Manhattan, where she was pursued by the psychic vampire Selene. Rachel was rescued by the X-Men, and after her mind was read by Professor X, 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 Shi'ar holo-empathic matrix crystal that Lilandra had given them. The crystal was imbued with an imprint of the essence of Jean's personality. Unaware that Jean was not actually the 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, and through her own actions 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 that she took the name of Phoenix while holding the crystal that Rachel first manifested about her the bird-shaped aura of energy associated with the previous Phoenix. It may be speculated that from that time on Rachel Summers was able to draw to a limited extent upon the power of the Phoenix Force. The alien Beyonder has hinted that Rachel could potentially become the equal in power of 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 fellow X-Man, Wolverine, severely injured her to prevent her from vengefully murdering Selene in the heat of passion. Fleeing to heal herself, she was fooled by the six-armed servant of Mojo named Spiral and taken to Mojoworld where she was held prisoner. Rachel escaped with the help of Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, Nightcrawler, and Captain Britain, and together they formed the British super-team Excalibur.
After many adventures, 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 Cable's future where she founded the Clan Askani.
As the Mother Askani, Rachel was responsible for bringing Cyclops and Phoenix to the future to care for a young Cable, but this effort exhausted her old body and her physical form died. She lived on, however, in an astral form.
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.
Rachel started college to further her education, but soon became embroiled in the Dark Sisterhood's attempted takeover of the United States. Rachel aided her half-brother Cable in defeating the Sisterhood and their leader, Finality.
Rachel has since returned to the X-Men, changing her last name to Grey and taking on the code name Marvel Girl in honor of her mother. She is currently appearing in Uncanny X-Men.