Rachel Appears in ClanDestine #2

Michael Sean posted on CBR that Rachel makes an appearance in ClanDestine #2:

Checked out clandestine issue 2 advanced copy. don't want to get into big spoilers but rachel and the classic excalibur team make an appearance in this one too. So big rachel fans may want to keep looking at this mini.

Rachel and Excalibur made a cameo appearance in the first issue of ClanDestine, and are on the cover of #3. So this is turning into a rather major appearance for Rachel and the Classic Excalibur team.

ClanDestine #2 is due out next Wednesday.

Thanks to Michael for the heads up.

What's Next For Rachel & The Starjammers After Emperor Vulcan?

So far, there hasn't been any word about what will be next for the Rachel and the Starjammers. With Emperor Vulcan’s cliffhanger ending with Havok, Polaris, Ch’od and Raza captured, and Rachel, Lilandra and Korvus regrouping and Vulcan announcing plans to expand the Shi’ar Empire and kill Professor Xavier, obviously the story will continue – the question is where and when.

A short story with Alex and Vulcan will be appearing in Divided We Stand Issue 2. So they haven’t been completely forgotten.

Emperor Vulcan scribe Chris Yost posted on CBR that “There are plans, from even before I came onboard”.

So what could those plans be?

In light of everything that’s happened in Messiah Complex, a Shi’ar invasion of Earth or even a rescue mission seems unlikely.

Professor Xavier is, for all intents and purposes, brain dead. X-Men becomes X-Men: Legacy and will for at least 12 issues be an Xavier solo book with Xavier trying to piecing his memories back together. Vulcan coming to kill him is rather pointless until he recovers.

Meanwhile, the X-Men are officially disbanded while Scott figures out what to do next.

Could Rachel returning to Earth with news of Alex and Lorna’s capture bring the X-Men back together? While it's nice to think that could happen, all signs point to the return of Magneto in Uncanny X-Men 500 as what will bring the X-Men together – a classic storyline for such a major milestone issue. Another space story in Uncanny any time soon seems highly unlikely.

Ed Brubaker stated at Wizard World Los Angeles in 2007 that he had no interest in finishing the story, preferring to leave it as a dangling storyline for another writer to pick up. So as long as he is writing Uncanny X-Men, it seems incredibly unlikely the story will continue there in any form.

That would leave the Vulcan story for either a crossover event (with the X-Men, Marvel Universe or Cosmic Marvel having to stop a Shi’ar invasion) or a separate miniseries.

Is Vulcan even popular enough to carry his own crossover event, whether it’s within in the X-books, Marvel universe or Cosmic Marvel? Space X-Men stories are generally unpopular, Vulcan himself hasn’t caught out with readers and Rise & Fall of the Shi’ar Empire isn’t all that well-regarded of an arc. Sales did steadily decline for Emperor Vulcan, and it wasn’t just fans of Rachel, Alex and Lorna who were thoroughly pissed off at the lack of an ending with Emperor Vulcan. Will that limit the possible avenues to finally end this story?


Some of the possible places for the story to continue:


Secret Invasion

One of the other problems with Vulcan and the Shi’ar attacking Earth is that they have to wait in line for the Skrulls to finish their secret invasion.

Editor Tom Brevoort told IGN that the X-Men will be involved in Secret Invasion, but it will be handled in a separate limited series to avoid disrupting the X-books’ plans for the aftermath of Messiah Complex. This likely will be similar to X-Men: Civil War and will deal with any X-Men revealed to be Skrulls. It's incredibly unlikely anything with the Shi'ar will be involved.

Could something following the Secret Invasion involve the Shi'ar, like a Skrull and Shi'ar alliance? Perhaps, but there is no proof of anything like that happening.


Starjammers Limited or Ongoing Series

From what we heard this time last year, some at Marvel are dead set against another Starjammers series because historically they’ve done poorly.

Emperor Vulcan has sold marginally well, but with sales to comic book stores around 36,000 copies and lots of unsold copies still on the shelves, is there a mandate for an ongoing? Probably not, unless it's another limited series killing time until the "plans" to finally happen. But with the backlash from the last non-ending, would Marvel put other another filler series?


Annihilation

Currently, Marvel is wrapping up the second Annihilation storyline, Annihilation: Conquest (the last issue is out in April). Sales have been okay, but nothing spectacular, with the Conquest books selling less than Emperor Vulcan. Hints have been dropped that there could be another Annihilation series, but it probably wouldn’t be for at least six months or a year. There are also hints that the cosmic Marvel characters could get involved in Secret Invasion.

Former Annihilation editor Andy Schmidt is one of the writers involved in Divided We Stand #2, prompting speculation the Alex story could be a bridge to bring the Annihilation/Cosmic Marvel characters into the Starjammers/Vulcan storyline.

It would be just like Marvel to want to prop up the sales of the Cosmic Marvel titles by adding the X-Men, Starjammers and Vulcan to the mix.


Guardians of the Galaxy

Out of Annihilation: Conquest is coming new Guardians of the Galaxy ongoing series in May, and there has been speculation that they could go and help the Starjammers.

Writer Andy Lanning told Marvel:

"One of our first stories will deal with somebody taking advantage of the aftermath of CONQUEST to expand their power base. [And] apart from the new threats and menaces, we're planning on the return of at lest one old, old foe and an even older hero."

If Vulcan is looking to expand the Shi’ar empire, he’s a likely candidate to be taking advantage of the aftermath of Conquest.

If the Starjammers and Vulcan are going to be part of Cosmic Marvel instead of the X-Titles, the Guardians getting involved in stopping Vulcan or rescuing the Starjammers is a strong possibility.


Uncanny X-Men and Legacy

Like previously stated, it’s unlikely that any Starjammers or Vulcan story would take place in Uncanny or Legacy this year since they are still dealing with the aftermath of Messiah Complex.

Once Xavier recovers from his brain injury, he could gather a team and go help the Starjammers in Legacy.

Or, the story could continue in Uncanny once Ed Brubaker is no longer writing the book.

In several years, there could be an X-crossover with multiple books getting involved in stopping Vulcan. The X-writers don't seem eager to do another crossover event any time soon, and the storylines coming out of Messiah Complex could play out for years to come.

One point often brought up in discussions about an X-Men rescue mission is Scott having to go save his little brother, and how Scott’s involvement would once again repeat the pattern of Alex never escaping the shadow of his older brother. Unfortunately, if the other X-Men are involved, it would be impossible for Alex to avoid being overshadowed by Scott, especially after Scott has solidified his role as commander-in-chief of the X-Men following Divided We Stand.


Astonishing X-Men

Axel Alonso mentioned that there will be a strong sci-fi theme in Warren Ellis’ Astonishing X-Men run (which is expected to start in July 2008). It seems unlikely that it will deal with Vulcan, since Astonishing is designed to be less continuity heavy than the other X-books and the sequel to a long running space storyline wouldn’t easily accessible to new readers.


My conclusion:

Unfortunately, I think all signs point to the Starjammers becoming part of Cosmic Marvel and the most likely scenario is that the rescue mission will be in a Cosmic Marvel title like Guardians of the Galaxy and then Vulcan will be the antagonist for Annihilation 3. Then in several years, Vulcan could target Earth and Xavier and that would be a storyline for one of the X-books or an X-crossover.

Last year at Wizard World Los Angeles, Rachel fans heard an ominous report from a fan who spoke to Ed Brubaker and got the impression that the characters left behind at the end of Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire would be in space for a very, very long time. It wasn’t merely them being written temporarily out of X-books, it was a permanent status quo change. Vulcan becoming Emperor seems to have been part of a long-term plan to establish him as a reoccurring, major villain, and it looks like those left behind were intended to become the new Starjammers for the foreseeable future.

Of course, WWLA '07 spurred the Bring Rachel Home Campaign. Whether or not that worked remains to be seen, but it appears that Emperor Vulcan was merely trying convince fans to like Vulcan and the new Starjammers, and filling time before whatever “plans” are going to happen.

For me, I absolutely hate space stories and wish this would all end as quickly as possible and Rachel would be back in one of the core X-books.


Update 8/26/08 - Marvel has announced that the Starjammers' saga will continue in X-Men: Kingbreaker, a mini-series that will start in December and will serve as a lead-in to the cosmic cross-over event, War of Kings.

Read the latest news about Marvel's War of Kings

Marvel May 2008 Solicitations

CBR received advanced May 2008 solicitations from Marvel, including information about X-Men: Divided We Stand #2, whose cover was leaked last week. But it doesn't give us much more information about what the Havok short story will be about, or even who is writing or drawing each of the stories:


X-MEN: DIVIDED WE STAND BOOK 2 (of 2)
Written by MIKE CAREY, C.B. CEBULSKI, DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI & ANDY SCHMIDT
Penciled by SCOTT EATON, DAVID LAFUENTE, FRAZER IRVING & MORE
Cover by BRANDON PETERSON
Exploring the fallout of Messiah CompleX, the second part of this collection of short stories follows some of our favorite mutants as they make their way in a world without the X-Men. And only those who adapt will survive. Featuring Beast, Dark Beast, Havok, Vulcan and Surge!
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99


It's likely that Mike Carey is writing the Beast and Dark Beast story as a follow-up to Endangered Species, Loners writer C.B. Cebulski would likely be writing the Surge story since he's good at teen angst, and Duane Swierczynski could be writing Forge (who might show up in Cable). That would leave former X-editor Andy Schmidt to write the Havok and Vulcan story.

Update: It's been confirmed that C.B. Cebulski and David Lafuente are doing the Surge story, but no confirmation on the Havok creative team.

Is the Messiah Complex Baby Rachel Summers? - Probably Not

There has been a lot of fan speculation about the identity of the mysterious mutant baby who sparked the Messiah Complex crossover event. While the X-writers initially said that the baby was a new character that is not related to any known characters, that didn't stop endless speculation on who the baby is.

One of the most common guesses is that the newborn baby girl is a reborn Jean Grey. While the baby's hair color seemed to change randomly in the first few chapters, as the series went on it became more apparent that the baby has red hair.

This has also sparked some speculation that the baby may be Rachel. It was even asked in an X-Position column on ComicBookResources:

Question: I have my own theory as to the baby’s identity. Since the baby was found in Alaska, original place of Madelyn Prior, perhaps the baby is Rachel Summers (and her mother is the aforementioned Madelyn). We have never really been told Rachel’s origin, since it may have occurred in a future that no longer exists thanks to her trip back to the past. Am I warm?

Peter David (X-Factor): I don’t know. I haven’t felt your forehead.

While Rachel's origin is actually quite clear, it could be possible (although highly unlikely) that Rachel would be some how randomly born on Earth-616 without being conceived by Jean Grey and Scott Summers. Although for years now there has been hints that Jean might eventually give birth to a Rachel-616, it's likely that plot line would be reserved for when Jean actually does return.

Also, keep in mind that time travelers are not impacted by changes to their futures. Any time a character like Rachel or Bishop or Cable travels back in time, even if their future changes, they remain the same. Their future becomes an alternate future. So anything that happens in current continuity will not impact Rachel's future (Days of Future Past, Earth-811), nor will it change Cable's past (the Askani future, Earth-4935).

The writers and editors working on Messiah Complex seem to be toying with readers and feeding this speculation that the baby may be a known character (especially Jean), but it may be nothing more than a misdirection to spark fan interest.

Mike Carey (X-Men: Legacy) had this to say to Newsarama on the topic:

In terms of the baby’s identity—I think at various points in this story some readers, to a certain extent, are starting to ask a bunch of questions—which is cool. There has been a certain amount of misdirection involved. Lots of people want to know who her parents are—if the union that produced her was significant—there has been fan speculation that she might be an old character brought back from the dead—reborn in some way.

Clearly, the baby is special. She’s definitely unique; otherwise, how could she be born with powers in spite of the Scarlet Witch’s edict? But it’s far from clear that her powers arise from her lineage – from her being, or being born from, somebody who was already significant in X-Men continuity. It remains a possibility, but I’m not sure that that’s the best way to look at it. I can’t say anything more than that at this point though.

Some readers have also guessed that the baby may be some how connected to the Askani, since there have been so many flashbacks to Scott having to give up baby Nathan Christopher to the Askani in X-Factor 67.



The flashbacks in X-Men 207 point towards the sacrifices Scott has had to made. The top is Scott having to entrust the Askani to save baby Nathan Christopher knowing he would never see him again. The left corner is when Scott had to say goodbye to Nathan a second time at the end of the Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix when Rachel's death forced Jean and Scott's psyches' to return to the present.

The member of the Askani Sisterhood sent back to bring baby Nathan to the future was never specifically named. It was revealed in Cable #7 that she was a volunteer sent by Rachel (Mother Askani), and she had died in the process of bringing Nathan to the future. So she had sacrificed herself to save baby Nathan.

While it could be interesting, albeit a bit confusing, to see the process come full circle - the person who sacrificed her life to save Nathan is the baby whom Nathan raised, it's difficult to say why the baby would end up as a member of the Askani Sisterhood 2000 years in the future as a member of a group formed by Nathan's sister.

There is one clue that the baby has nothing to do with the Askani from Chris Yost in X-Position 35:

Question: If the baby is so crucial to Cable’s future, why wouldn’t Cyclops know about it? He spent twelve years there – or is that motivating his decisions?

YOST: Cable’s future is much, much farther away. That baby’s role in his future is ancient history, something Cyclops wouldn’t have casually stumbled across. And we don’t know the baby’s full role yet – it might be something behind the scenes of history, but crucially important. Bottom line, most Americans can’t name more than seven or eight of our presidents. It’s possible this didn’t come up.

This makes it sound like the baby is firmly tied to the immediate future and specifically what potentially causes Bishop's future and mutants to end up in camps.

While that wouldn't directly prohibit her for eventually ending up in the Askani future, that may needlessly complicate the situation.

I think that the flashbacks are only references to what Scott is thinking about without resorting to thought bubbles, not some clue about who the baby is.

The baby could have a role in something mentioned in Askani lore though.

In the Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix , Mother Askani tells Jean and Scott, that "for almost a century before this, the world enjoyed an almost unprecedented racial harmony. The Age of Xavier was a time when all races lived in peace. A peace Apocalypse used against an unsuspecting, trusting planet. "

It could be that the baby grows up to have some role in causing the Age of Xavier, and Cable wants to ensure that history repeats itself. Or, could it be that Cable wants to alter history so that people aren't quite so peaceful and trusting that they can be prayed upon by a tyrant like Apocalypse?

If the baby’s connection to Cable is only due to her role in history, then what about the locket the baby is seen holding in the flashbacks? One of the clues readers point to that the baby may be Jean or Rachel is baby playing with Scott's locket that has a photo of him and Jean in it. Is it simply something the baby was playing with? A clue that the baby is Jean or related to Jean? Or that Jean was involved in restarting the mutant population some how from the White Hot Room?

Or, is the locket merely one of the "misdirections" Mike Carey referred to?

Marvel continued to toy with fans about Jean's return by releasing a cryptic "Phoenix Rising?" cover with no details. The image and post seem to imply Jean may be returning, but it is clearly a misdirection and a merely a cover for X-Men: Legacy.

I suspect that all of these hints about the baby being a known character is to simply increase reader interest in the new Cable series, since a major plot will be revealing the background of the messiah baby. Marvel staffers may assume that readers might pick up the book just to find out if the baby turns out to be known character, such as Jean or Rachel. But I think it's highly unlikely that she will be.

This also could be testing the waters for a return of Jean Grey. It seemed like as speculation grew that the baby was Jean, the more "clues" there were that it was her. Cynically, I'd say that was Marvel being mean spirited and messing with emotions of Jean's fans who are desperate for her to return. However, it could have been a light bulb going off at Marvel and the increased number of “clues” is to make sure they leave their options open for one possible way that Jean could return.

When Cable was first introduced, it was never intended that he turn out to be Nathan Christopher Summers. While more planning has likely gone into the story for the Messiah Complex baby then Cable‘s introduction, her ultimate fate, or even her name, might not even be decided yet or could deviate from plan.

So, is the baby Rachel? Or an Askani? It's highly doubtful. Is it Jean? I also highly doubt that, but you never know. My guess is that the baby is the indirect cause of the peaceful Age of Xavier mentioned in the Askani future and a new character.


Edit: A new blog post about the Messiah Complex baby has been added on 7/11/08: Who Is The Messiah Complex Baby?.

Havok on the X-Men Divided We Stand #2 Cover

Artist Brandon Peterson posted the cover for X-Men Divided We Stand #2 in his gallery, and it shows a very angry Havok in the upper left hand corner.

The first Divided We Stand issue was solicited last month, and featured short stories about what happened to various mutants following the end of Messiah Complex, as they went their own ways. The first issue included stories about Cannonball and Husk, Storm and Gentle, Anole and Nightcrawler.

It looks like the second issue will feature Havok, Surge, Forge and Beast.

So far it's unknown what the story will be about Havok. It's likely to be about his imprisonment at the hands of Vulcan. Rachel could possibly be mentioned, and it hopefully will give an update on what the situation is for the Starjammers following the cliff-hanger, non-ending of Emperor Vulcan.

Marvel's May Solicitations are due out early next week, so we'll likely know more about this then.

Askani Era Rachel Images in Thunderbolts 118

While Rachel isn't appearing in the core X-Books, she is showing up in some rather odd places - like Thunderbolts 118, which was written by Warren Ellis with art by Mike Deodato, Jr.

Several images of Rachel from X-Men: Book of the Askani are shown in Dr. Leonard Samson's office. If you recall, Doc Samson is the superhero psychiatrist who (rather unsuccessfully) tried to treat Rachel following the massacre of the Grey family in Uncanny X-Men 469. I guess he's rather proud of working with her if he has pictures of Ray all over his office.

Here's the panels with Doc Samson's office. It's like playing Where's Waldo with Mother Askani!






On the right hand side, in both panels there is the Rachel Summers: Askani Warrior painting. And in the upper left hand side of the bottom panel is the classic Mother Askani painting. Also, the cover of Excalibur 83 is on the coffee table in the middle of the bottom panel.

For reference, here's the images that are being shown:



Thanks to Cerridwen for the heads-up!

Excalibur Cameo in Clandestine #1

The solicitation for Clandestine #3 revealed that a timelost Excalibur would be guest starring in the new miniseries. But we get a sneak peak of Nightcrawler and Phoenix in the first issue, which was released last Wednesday.

Clandestine is written and drawn by Alan Davis, co-creator of Excalibur.