Chris Yost Interview with Preview Art from X-Men: Emperor Vulcan 2

Pulse News has interviewed writer Chris Yost about X-Men: Emperor Vulcan, and posted several pages of preview art from the second issue.

Here are the Rachel-centric highlights from the interview:

THE PULSE: With a miniseries the trick is getting the reader excited about the next issue and totally vested in coming back for more. What are some of the things you’re going to be doing to get your audience putting this series on their pull list? What’s at stake in these five issues that even has Havok teaming up with Vulcan?

YOST: Issue 2 raises the stakes incredibly, and issue 3 puts our heroes in an impossible position. Havok and Rachel especially will have to do things that will make everything in them scream against it. Every issue has the situation getting worse and worse and worse for our X-Men, and quite literally the fate of the universe is on the line.

THE PULSE: How, if at all, does what’s happening in these pages affect the bigger Marvel mutant picture?

YOST: Beyond ‘fate of the universe?’ On the last page of issue five, things will be changing for the X-Men in general.

Rachel on the Cover of Emperor Vulcan 4

Rachel is on the cover of X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #4, in a full Phoenix effect.

Here's how Marvel describes the issue:


X-MEN: EMPEROR VULCAN #4 (of 5)
Written by CHRISTOPHER YOST Penciled by PACO DIAZ LUQUE
Cover by BILLY TAN
It's super-powered space warfare as Polaris leads the Starjammers and the Imperial Guard into battle, while Havok and Vulcan face off against a villain who is way out of their league. And will Marvel Girl's personal vendetta against the Shi'Ar cause her to do the unthinkable? It's the penultimate chapter as the situation goes from “horrible” to “end of all that is.”
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

What If: Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire in December

Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar will get the What If treatment in December.

Here's how Marvel describes the issue (no cover art was released:

WHAT IF? X-MEN: THE RISE & FALL OF THE SHI’AR EMPIRE
Written by CHRISTOPHER YOST
Penciled by LARRY STROMAN
Cover by OLIVIER COIPEL
THE RISE & FALL OF THE SHI’AR EMPIRE was an X-Men event like no other. Fresh off X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS, Ed Brubaker took Marvel’s mighty mutants off Earth and on an intergalactic journey to stop VULCAN, the third Summers brother, from exacting revenge on the Shi’Ar Empire! But in that final battle in front of the M’Kraan Crystal, what if Vulcan absorbed the very energies that contained it many years ago? In other words, what if Vulcan became PHOENIX? When his unlimited rage is fueled with unlimited power...who will be able to stop him now? Writer Chris Yost (X-23, New X-Men, TV’s Fantastic Four) welcomes the return of legendary X-Factor and Alien Legion artist Larry Stroman to the X-Universe with this action-packed issue.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

Marvel Girl Figure Listed on Hasbro.com

It may not be easy to be a Summers, but it's also incredibly difficult for Hasbro to get Rachel's back story straight.

The new Marvel Girl Marvel Legends X-Men figure is listed on Hasbro.com with the following description about Ray:

No one ever said it was easy being a Summers. Rachel was born into a world on the brink of destruction, orphaned as an infant, and raised in a prison camp for people like herself. Despite it all, she spent a lifetime developing her psychic powers in secret, becoming so adept she was able to project her consciousness, and that of others, through time. Unable to use her powers to save her own world, she became determined to use them to the benefit of others. She has traveled from one end of time to the other, met death and dissolution along the way, and returned always fighting for freedom.

Overall, it's okay, but there are some errors (Rachel wasn't orphaned as an infant) and it doesn't include being brainwashed into being a Hound (okay, the figure is for ages 4 and up, maybe that's not appropriate for little kids.) But it's a little disappointing seeing errors like that.

The Marvel Girl figure should be showing up in stores any day now.

Emperor Vulcan #1 Preview

The full preview for X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #1 is up at Comicscontinuum.com.

The color of Rachel's power signature has been corrected. (It had been orange but is now blue).

Rachel Mentioned in Endangered Species Chap. 10

Rachel and Cable are mentioned on the last page of Endangered Species Chapter 10, which is in Uncanny X-Men 490 and written by Christos Gage.

Beast's quest to find a solution to the effects of M-Day has lead him to Bishop.

In the last panel, Bishop explains to Beast why he's not worried about M-Day: "I'm from the future, remember? There were plenty of mutants where I came from."

Beast replies,"You're from an alternate future, like Cable, or Marvel Girl. You're very presence here makes it unlikely that it will ever... wait! That could be it!"

(Although, technically, Nathan isn't from an alternate future. He was born in this timeline and taken to the future by the Askani to save him from the T-O virus.)

In the next issue, Rachel and Cable appear in hologram type projection on the first page.

John Byrne on Rachel & DoFP

John Byrne was asked about creating Rachel Summers for Days of Future Past on his message board:

Question: When you came up with DOFP, was Rachel supposed to be the daughter of Scott and Jean or was that something that got tacked on later?

John Byrne: As originally plotted by me, months before "The Fate of the Phoenix", Rachel was supposed to be Scott and Jean's daughter. As issue 137 turned out, that became impossible, but she was too central to the story to be eliminated, so I just left her as a generic telepath, and assumed Chris would not use the Scottt & Jean connection since it no longer worked.

Byrne continues on with later in the thread with more background information about Days of Future Past (caution, lots of Rachel and Chris Claremont bashing).

Phoenix Costume at Dragon Con

A woman was dressed as Rachel Summers in her red Hound costume at Dragon Con this past weekend. A fan took a picture and posted it on Flickr.