Knights of X #4: "Part Four: The Seat of the Self"

[alliterator]

"I definitely had some folks in mind at the beginning that got dropped when I was narrowing down the team. I know, 'narrow down,' it’s a huge team, but I put a lot of thought into it. I wanted to bring some more people in from classic Excalibur — I've been using Rachel more and more since X-Factor ended, so it seemed right to bring her back to the Otherworld side of things."
-- Tini Howard

Comments

[deh_tommy]

“Rachel Summers has no variants and is an anomaly in the multiverse. There are other daughters of Scott and Jean and sometimes they are also called Rachel Summers, but they don’t count because shut up.”

[scorntx]

"If you continue to nitpick, we'll suggest that this Rachel is actually Jean and Wolverine's daughter again, see if we don't."

[cainofdreaming]

You got my Betsy/Doug ship in my Rachel/Kate/Illyana ship. Or vice versa.

[scorntx]

Of the several pointlessly cruel things Claremont did to Ray, the whole "there are no other Rachels" was... somewhere in the middle.
And it's a really weird thing to go back to.

also I disapprove of this ship.
But it is in keeping with Rachel's making questionable at best romantic decisions.
(I've no idea if it's better or worse than the Shi'ar guy, but it's not exactly a long way off no matter what direction it's in.)

[alliterator]

"I've no idea if it's better or worse than the Shi'ar guy"

She was only attracted to Korvus because he had a piece of the Phoenix in his sword, so...this is better.

[nyadnar17]

Rachel's choice in romantic partners is so wild. Like they all seemed like blatantly bad ideas right from the start.

[cainofdreaming]

Even Franklin? I mean, there's gotta be positives in dating God.

[shakalooloo]

I don't think any romantic partner will ever be worse than genocidal, sentient virus Sublime.

[windleopard2]

Considering Betsy once hit on Rachel's father, I'm not quite sure where she falls on the good/bad scale.

[blues32]

Okay, I don't know much about Rachel, but with Betsy this seems entirely out of the blue. ...which is kind of weird because both of them had a thing for blue men in the past.

I don't think the writer understands the concept of alternate selves. If there are other people called Rachel Summers in the multiverse, Rachel Summers isn't alone in the multiverse. It's also nonsense since I'm pretty sure there are What If realities with Rachel in them. Like one where's she's still a Hound or something.

[redmagpie]

Betsy's been bi for ages.

[blues32]

Hrm. When did that start? I don't recall that at all...and I recall her being attracted to Fred Dukes in the House of X which was REALLY weird. I mean...that mustache is just...

[cygnia]

....I swear I remember Betsy flirting with Scott back in the days of her being in Kwannon's body...

[blues32]

They actually formed a brief mental connection that caused a sudden attraction between them.

[alliterator]

"Okay, I don't know much about Rachel, but with Betsy this seems entirely out of the blue"

Betsy and Rachel have basically been flirting with each other throughout Excalibur and Knights of X. Hell, they danced together at the previous Hellfire Gala. So this is not out of the blue.

"I don't think the writer understands the concept of alternate selves."

I mean, the writer who made Rachel Summers into a singular entity in the multiverse was Chris Claremont. This is just covering up the plotholes of the "other" Rachel Summers we've seen, saying, "Oh yes, we've seen other Rachel Summers...but they weren't alternates of this Rachel Summers."

[starwolf_oakley]

Rachel being "unique" is a bit confusing.

A letter in Excalibur asked why Rachel shows up in WHAT IF. The answer was WHAT IF worlds are "fictional fiction." (Don't remember the Excalibur issue the letter was in.)

The "House of M" UNCANNY X-MEN issues explained it: there are worlds where Scott Summers and Jean Grey had a daughter named Rachel, but they aren't variants of "our" Rachel.

Comic books are weird.

[blues32]

I'm thinking what it means is that while there is a single Rachel Summers...there's also multiple of her. Regardless of universe she's in (like the issue of The Exiles where the Legacy Virus became a techno organic plague), she still came from Earth-811. The same person with different memories.

[lordultimus]

Okay, kudos for making it official.

[arilou_skiff]

X-men seems to doing this thing where they're confriming characters who have long been hitned to be gay/bi but then not going for the previously hinted at/preferred ships, and I'm not sure if it's brilliant or annoying.

[mastermahan]

DC's doing the same thing. Both a Robin and a Superboy came out as bi, but rather than making one of the two popular SuperRobin ships possible, it was one from each.

Is making long-time popular ships more possible without making them happen an evolved form of queerbaiting? Or is it just good marketing?

[alliterator]

I mean, they have been hinting at Betsy/Rachel since the beginning of Excalibur and X-Factor. And this relationship, in fact, goes all the way back to Claremont's time on UXM during the mid-2000s.

[mastermahan]

MARVEL: Rachel Summers is bi!

*enthusiastic applause*

MARVEL: And she's with Betsy Braddock!

*confused applause*

[alliterator]

Lots of people were rooting for this to happen.

[giraffesforever]

Pardon my ignoring the more significant parts of this, but does anyone else find the pacing of this book confusing?

The third scan is a fine example. Rachel is talking to Kylun for two panels, then in the next panel the whole team is there, and even they are confused how they just show up. Betsy goes from not present to arm's reach of Rachel in consecutive panels. Did she materialize? Fly over from somewhere else? Bip into existence? It's comics, so I don't require the reasons or process to make sense, but isn't the medium designed to show me what's happening?

[alliterator]

These are individual pages from a longer issue. The issue itself goes along at a brisk pace, but it's not rushed, it just effectively packs a lot of story into a small amount of pages.