[net.comics] X-Men 189 [

rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (10/19/84)

Okay, so Rachel has another run in with Selena.  I'll get to this
in a minute.  We get to learn a little more about Rachel.  I thought
the comment about "I swore I'd never wear a collar again" was 
pretty intense (especially since she went ahead and wore it).  We
got to see Magma, which was good, since we haven't seen much of
her in NM lately.  Now, don your asbestos...

Goddammit!  Why doesn't Xavier let Magma (or anyone else, for that
matter) kill that witch?  She is Dangerous, with big D.  Maybe
we're supposed to see that she can be easily overcome by the
way Nightcrawler took her out (he'd never kill, the wimp.  If
it were me, "Gee, Chuck, I musta pinched her a little too hard.
I didn't mean to make her head fall off.  Oh, well.").  I suppose
that's the point, that Rachel had a little trouble, but that
Selena is now match for those Uncanny X-Men.  I still think she
should be taken out, however.

Another interesting thing is Rachel's TK powers.  They seem pretty
formidable.  I'm not sure if they were mentioned before.  If
her TK is that good, I can 't imagine her having been in such
a bad state in the 21st century, but maybe I can, so don't flame
at me about it.  What you can flame about is whether her TK is
inheritted from Jean Gray or Phoenix, since I don't seem to remember
Jean having much natural ability in the way of TK.  I'm starting
to think that the Phoenix force is going to come back through
her in #200.

-- 
Randwulf  (Randy Haskins);  Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh

lmaher@uokvax.UUCP (10/22/84)

> /***** uokvax:net.comics / mit-eddi!rh /  4:28 pm  Oct 19, 1984 */
Re: Selene
> Goddammit!  Why doesn't Xavier let Magma (or anyone else, for that
> matter) kill that witch?  She is Dangerous, with big D.  Maybe

Because the whole point to the X-Men is that they're heroes, and
heroes don't kill.  Not ever, not for any reason.  Once you start
killing people, evil mutant or not, just to make the world safer
for yourself, then what's the difference between you and the
villains?

Consider X-Men #150, when Storm had a knife in her hand standing
next to a sleeping and defenseless Magneto.  She believed that he
was probably going to take over the world, she knew he was a mass
murderer, and she still couldn't kill him.  I like *that* Storm
much better than the one that plunged a knife into Kallisto's
heart in the duel to the death for the Morlock Leadership, even
if she did know there was a healer available.

A second consideration is that your enemies can sometimes become
your allies against worst enemies, and that sometimes there's
even hope they'll reform.  Consider Rogue, or Magneto in the
graphic novel, or the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver; I could go
on and on.  X-Men 190 illustrates this with a vengeance.

Note that all this philosophizing doesn't mean I wouldn't be more
than happy to see Logan and the Girls (Amara, Dani, Rachel, and
possibly the new-and-deadly Kitty) pay a visit to Valerie Cooper
or to Jason Wyngarde in his cell, and repay some old debts.

What's that you say about the Brood Homeworld...?

> Another interesting thing is Rachel's TK powers.  They seem
>pretty formidable.  I'm not sure if they were mentioned before.

They were shown in X-Men #141, when she slags a Sentinel after it
kills Franklin Richards.

> If her TK is that good, I can 't imagine her having been in such
> a bad state in the 21st century, but maybe I can, so don't flame

Even Phoenix got cut down by a dart gun (#110) when she wasn't
looking.  They grabbed Rachel when she was still stunned from the
death of Xavier (remember she can feel deaths - she's a
telepath), and brainwashed her and kept her drugged until they
had no further use for her, whereupon they shipped her off to the
holding camp and slapped the neutralizer collar on her.

> at me about it.  What you can flame about is whether her TK is
> inherited from Jean Gray or Phoenix, since I don't seem to
> remember Jean having much natural ability in the way of TK.

Jean had quite a bit of TK, but nothing compared to what Phoenix
had, of course.  Marvel Girl was a real wimp in the original X-
Men, but was somewhat better in issues 94-101.

> to think that the Phoenix force is going to come back through
> her in #200.

I hope not.  Like Paul Smith said, let her rest in peace.  I think #200
is more likely to be Rachel's birth, to Scott and Madelyne, a few
years behind schedule.  Don't forget #193, the 100th issue of the
New X-Men, and the Annual that comes in there somewhere.  Other
possiblities for large issues are Kurt and Amanda marrying, or
Magneto and Aletys marrying.  Or Sara Grey's two children coming
to Xavier's School, although that's more likely to happen in the
New Mutants.  Tommy's 14 by now, after all.

Carl
{allegra,ihnp4}!convex!ctvax!uokvax!lmaher