Rachel Summers: The reason the original X-MEN: DOFP is so popular?

[starwolf_oakley]

The original X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST story from UNCANNY X-MEN #141-142 is very popular. But I think it is popular for a different reason than most lay-people outside X-Men fandom think.
(Also, a Magneto/Quicksilver theory after the cut.)



http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/08/02/lbfa-rachel-summers-history/

Rachel Summers! Of course, we only got her first name. It wasn't until she showed up in the "present" of 1984 and joined the X-Men we got her last name.



Another thing about this page: I've wondered if "Magneto" was originally supposed to be John Byrne drawing Quicksilver in a wheelchair, and Chris Claremont just identified him as Magneto for some reason. That's just a theory on my part, but this was around the time they started hints for the "Magneto is Wanda and Pietro's father" reveal. I was lucky enough to talk to Neal Adams once, and he told me, yes, he drew helmet-less Magneto to look like Quicksilver.

Rachel Summers is a popular character in X-Men history, since she has awesome powers, an interesting/traumatic back story, and is just really cool. I wonder if she is the real reason DAYS OF FUTURE PAST became so popular, and the non-X-fans just assume it is the Dark Future and Sentinels Killing Everyone the fans like.

Another question: Did the popularity of Jennifer Lawrence result in Mystique becoming more important in DOFP than she usually is in the X-Men books?

Comments

[donnblake]

Hmm. Nope! At least for me personally, it's definitely the Post Apocalyptic Robot Future and Desperate Trip Back in History to Save the World, that made Days of the Future Past appealing. And three years before Terminator came out, no less!

And I don't think Quicksilver in a wheelchair would have had nearly the same impact as Magneto, since Quicksilver was conflicted about the whole Evil Mutants thing to start with, and had long since become more or less heroic. And, you know, wasn't a foil for the X-men character traditionally seen in a wheelchair.

[halloweenjack]

I think that you've got them turned around. Showing future versions of your characters is just about as popular as showing alternate-history versions of your characters (I'm pretty sure that it had already popped up several times in the Superman books, not counting the Legion), for about the same reason--you get to see who lives and who dies, unexpected alliances forming, and even new characters, all of which is predicated by something happening to change history, usually for the worse. At this point, Jean (well, not the real Jean) had already died at the end of the Dark Phoenix saga, so to show a child of Jean and Scott's as alive--implying that maybe Jean would come back to life, somehow (as she sort of did)--would definitely have been of interest, but it probably would have ended up only as a curious footnote in X-history if the story itself hadn't been as good as it was.

Ditto for Mystique, who was set up as a major new X-Men villain by this story. Her popularity and importance to continuity seems to have come and gone in the comics, but I think that there's a reason why she was chosen as Magneto's lieutenant in the first X-Men films.

[chrisdv]

I think that there's a reason why she was chosen as Magneto's lieutenant in the first X-Men films.

Because they decided to make her into a naked blue lady?

[halloweenjack]

YMMV, obviously, but I find the half-covered-in-scales version less sexualized than the comics version.

[flint_marko]

Her popularity and importance to continuity seems to have come and gone in the comics

IDK, she was doing good before Aaron came along. She had her own ongoing, then she had a big role in Mike Carey's run.

[donnblake]

On Mystique- I think that you might have it kind of backwards. I feel like when they cast Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique in First Class they'd already decided to go a more sympathetic, conflicted route with the character- I remember being somewhat unhappy with the casting choice because I personally preferred Rebecca Romijn's unapologetic ass-kicking badass (some of this also might have been a matter of make-up and prosthetics. Romijn just looked more predatory than Lawrence, even when they were both standing still.)

[flint_marko]

Another thing about this page: I've wondered if "Magneto" was originally supposed to be John Byrne drawing Quicksilver in a wheelchair, and Chris Claremont just identified him as Magneto for some reason.

I doubt it, it was supposed to be a parallel of Xavier.

[icon_uk]

Rachel wasn't really a character in this story, she was the plot device to send Kate back to Kitty and that was it. It really wasn't until she travelled back herself that she became a person in her own right and could have stories featured around her.

I also have to join the other who feel that Jennifer Lawrence didn't have that much impact on how Mystique was used, they had established that Mystique was a badass in the other movies and as the naked blue shapeshifter kickass fighter Ms Romijn had already done the groundwork in making Mystique memorable both as a character and visually.

They'd have been fools NOT to utilise her in some way in the earlier movies and I thought it was interesting that they tied her origin to Charles rather than Eric (Which would have been the more obvious way to go). Charles accepted her, but wanted her to hide so she could fit in, Eric was the one who made her realise the truth behind her famous line in X-Men 2 when asked why she doesn't use her powers to fit in "Because Is shouldn't have to". The fact we watch First Clasee knowing that she still becomes a cold blooded killer in the process gives her past an element of tragedy

[wizardru]

Yeah, this.

I remember when these issues came out...Rachel Summers sort of implied that someone had a daughter, but I recall thinking at the time that Scott must have found someone else, not that this was an indicator that Jean had survived.

The reason this comic was so successful is that, in comics, it was the first true use of the travels-back-in-time-to-prevent apocalypse trope in comics. Sure, there were tons of Abra-Kadabra-esque villians from the future and occasional light-hearted silver age 'Batman, don't eat that cheese or you'll become a gorilla!' stories...but nothing like this.

From that fantastic cover, showing most of the X-Men dead or captured, an older Logan or the huge stakes the future had, where three of the core cast are straight-up MURDERED by sentinels, it was a tour de force. Coming so quickly on the heels of the Dark Phoenix Saga, it felt much more dangerous: would someone else permanently die? (Yes, yes, I know...but back then, we thought Jean was totes dead forever; totally dead and buried on-camera was still very rare. This wasn't a 'must have died in that explosion' kind of deal. We had a corpse and a funeral.)

[donnblake]

Was she named as Summers in this initially? I don't recall one way or the other, but binging on Rachel and Miles Explain the X-men recently, I seem to recall they suggested that it wasn't until her return that she got a last name.

[wizardru]

Actually, Rachel and Miles are right: I'm conflating decades of comic reading, there. She isn't specifically named as Summers at the time. I think I had that discussion with friends AFTER Rachel was a recurring character and retro-fitted in memory.

I'm OLD, is what I'm saying.

[starwolf_oakley]

I'm going to have to re-read the 1984 UNCANNY issues to see when they give Rachel a last name.

The X-Men don't find out Rachel was Scott and Jean's daughter until UNCANNY X-MEN #188. The X-MEN/ALPHA FLIGHT miniseries has Rachel and Scott meet for the first time, but Rachel telepathically asks the other X-Men not to spill the beans.

[starwolf_oakley]

Rachel isn't named as Rachel Summers here, and it doesn't become a big deal until she arrives in the "present" of 1984.