The X-Men‘s Rachel Summers, daughter of Cyclops and Phoenix, has the darkest origin story. The Summers family is one of the craziest in comics; Cyclops’ father is a space pirate who was spirited away when Scott was just a boy, his son grew up in a dystopian future timeline, and he even has a daughter who was technically never born in this timeline. Rachel originates from a reality where Phoenix never died in the classic “Phoenix Saga,” and she’s one of the most powerful mutants on the planet.
Introduced as the first official Omega level mutant, Rachel is the only one to have wielded the power of the Phoenix Force for years without ever falling to darkness. Her relationship with Cyclops and Jean Grey in this timeline has sometimes been quite a difficult one – Jean initially resented this daughter she had never chosen to have – but she’s become a key member of the X-Men and Excalibur. Rachel recently got a new costume in Knights of X where she’s played an important role. Looking back though, she also carries a burden of trauma beyond almost anything seen in comics, largely because she originates from one of the most disturbing timelines of all.
Rachel Summers hails from the “Days of Future Past” timeline. Senator Robert Kelly was assassinated by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and anti-mutant hysteria swept the U.S. – building even further after a disaster at Pittsburgh in which Rachel’s mother was killed. The government used this as an excuse to outlaw mutants, and launched a devastating attack upon Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Rachel saw her friends and family murdered before her eyes, and she was captured by the U.S. government, subjected to horrific experiments that transformed her into a mutant-hunting Hound.
The true nature of the Hound is explored in Uncanny X-Men #140.5, published as part of the Marvel Made Paragon Collection: Chris Claremont Bundle. It reveals Rachel was essentially reduced to a mindless animal, her body host to highly-infectious nanobots. She was tasked with using her psychic powers to hunt others of her kind, and a single scratch from Rachel Summers infected her targets with the nanobots, transforming them into a Hound as well. Though Rachel was possibly the Phoenix’s greatest host, she was freed and began a quest to regain her humanity even as she used time travel to rewrite her past. There is a sense in which this serves as a metaphor for Rachel’s entire character arc, as she attempts to confront her traumatic past by living in a better world.
Tragically, Rachel didn’t even find peace in the present day. The Shi’ar feared the Phoenix Force, and decided to destroy any potential host – meaning no sooner was Rachel reunited with her family in this time than she watched them die at the hands of alien marauders. Somehow, though – in spite of all the suffering she has endured – Rachel has found her emotional center, and become one of the most notable X-Men. Cyclops and Phoenix have good reason to be proud of their daughter.
