Rachel Grey

DungeonmasterJim · Post by **DungeonmasterJim** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 5:31 am

When I first starting collecting comics I was introduced to Rachel Grey - then Rachel Summers - during the Kulan Gath arc of Uncanny X-Men around issue #180. She became my favorite character.

By far my favorite rendition of Rachel is by Alan Davis (who is my favorite artist [big surprise]) in the first Ecalibur series. He was also about the only artist that made the red hound outfit look really cool by using lots of blacks to highlight her muscles and figure.

I'm not really sold on the 'bob' haircut her gave her in the recent issues of Uncanny that he drew but her gave her a decent outfit on the way out. And he still draws the best 'Rachel' by far.

He also made the Phoenix-effect look awesome. Fire is such a pain in the butt to draw!

DM Jim

Post by **Matt Platis** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:00 pm

I like Rachel's hair better now than the mullet she used to sport.

DungeonmasterJim · Post by **DungeonmasterJim** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 5:26 am

Was that a sympathy post because there were like 43 views without a comment?

Jim

Post by **Matt Platis** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 6:57 am

DungeonmasterJim wrote:Was that a sympathy post because there were like 43 views without a comment?

Jim

HA!

I just want everyone to feel welcome!

And I still think Rachel's mullet was the worse than her current hairdo.

JackalsIII · Post by **JackalsIII** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 4:59 am

I'm not a huge fan of the Hound Rachel but did like how Alan got her/us out of that phase and started humanizing her with her friendship with Kitty

Post by **Matt Platis** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 5:14 am

JackalsIII wrote:I'm not a huge fan of the Hound Rachel but did like how Alan got her/us out of that phase and started humanizing her with her friendship with Kitty

Agreed. Davis picked up the seeds that Claremont planted and moved the character forward. Loved her friendship with Kitty.

JackalsIII · Post by **JackalsIII** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 3:40 am

Matt Platis wrote:
JackalsIII wrote:I'm not a huge fan of the Hound Rachel but did like how Alan got her/us out of that phase and started humanizing her with her friendship with Kitty
Agreed. Davis picked up the seeds that Claremont planted and moved the character forward. Loved her friendship with Kitty.

Kitty really does pick some of the best people to be friends with. Her friendship with Rachel is if not more so, as rich as Kitty's friendship with Illyana. Shame those three never got to hang out as much

DungeonmasterJim · Post by **DungeonmasterJim** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:33 pm

Does anybody know why Rachel's hound costume went from black to red when she was in the early Excalibur issues?

DM Jim

Alan Davis · Post by **Alan Davis** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:19 pm

I hope I'm allowed in on this one, Jim because like that pesky know-it-all kid waving his raised hand at the teacher saying 'I know, I know' I have the answer.

There were a couple of factors. First Nightcrawler's costume had a lot of solid black, which makes the character easy to draw but it can look 'empty', And I didn't want to have to worry about two such costumes overlapping. Also, I like to draw different body types to help define the character and I thought Rachel would look less scrawny with some muscular structure. Finally, I like the colour red, and I liked the Dark Phoenix costume, and giving Ray red leather played into that mythology-- in the same way a green costume would have linked her to the earlier incarnation of the Jean Grey Phoenix-- while retaining the 'Hound' theme.

Re: Ray's hair. The 'bob' cut was a default replacement to the previous 'mop' (??) which I had been presented with as the 'approved' new design (which looked sort of acceptable in the extreme manga style design, from one angle, but had no logic and was clearly not appeal to anyone who liked the character) anyway, by the time fandom had expressed their disapproval of the 'new look' I had already decided to cut my losses and wasn't prepared to waste time negotiating a new design. Someone, Chris I think, had said he liked the look of Power Girl on the second cover of Another Nail so, since the consensus was that Rachel should have short hair she got a Power Girl 'bob'.

Alan

DungeonmasterJim · Post by **DungeonmasterJim** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 5:26 am

Thanks for the answer, it was exactly what I was looking for. I must admit surprise though, I would have figure Chris Claremont would have been the one making the change and the artist at the time (you, obviously) kinda being stuck with that decision.

Did you get to pick her civilain outfits too? I was always partial to some of them. Actually, I always liked the way all of the Excalibur characters looked because they all had a distinctive style whether in or out of costume.

Thanks,

Jim

Alan Davis · Post by **Alan Davis** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:04 pm

The 'change' to Rachel's hound costume didn't seem that radical at the time. Despite the fact it had always appeared as a solid black costume, Chris described it as leather. Adding the highlights and musculature wasn't so much a redesign as my interpretation of the established costume. Having introduced highlights on the 'leather', there was the obvious need to decide which colour they should be... Blue, green, yellow or red?

Chris never described specific outfits for any of the characters. One of the things I enjoyed most about working with Chris was that he had all of the sub-text and motivation covered and his stream of consciousness plotting would describe everything that was necessary to formulate the scene without labouring the detail. Kitty was a young Katherine Hepburn. Rachel a tomboy with a blossoming overt, but unconscious, sexuality. I had found the mini-skirt and thigh length boots outfit in a style magazine while I was working on Detective with Mike Barr (it inspired the look for 'help-me' Rhonda) and it seemed suitably outrageous for
Ray.

Alan

JackalsIII · Post by **JackalsIII** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 2:45 am

Alan Davis wrote:Kitty was a young Katherine Hepburn.

That is a great character description! Classy and yet, approachable. Remember when she dressed up like Rachel, with the spikey indy look

Kitty was so self consious about that

Declan Shalvey · Post by **Declan Shalvey** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:40 am

Matt Platis wrote:I like Rachel's hair better now than the mullet she used to sport.

You can never go wrong with a mullet ........i don't know why i just said that.

To be fair, Rachael had the mullet at a time when they were in fashion. If you look at the old Romita Sr. Spiderman issues you can see the sixties fashion sense everywhere. It's too easy to look back in retrospect. I love Rachael's updated look, but in ten/fifteen years people will probably be commenting on how 'retro' it looks.

Although i'll try my best not to do so myself.

Declan.

j1jes · Post by **j1jes** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:13 am

Alan's Rachel in Excalibur was perfect. Loved it and it made total sense for her not to be aware of her sex appeal as she was raised as a hound.

I hated how post Claremont and Davis 90s destroyed her character. Though she is slowly coming back!

I was always insterested in who/how the use of the Phoenix effect with Rachel was decided. Jean always was just blasts and the full firebird surrounding her, Rachel had that wings extend from her arms and the her head effects SO cool, Plus she grabbed things with her "wings"

Michael P · Post by **Michael P** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:38 pm

Rachel is my absolute favorite character and Alan Davis is my favorite penciler so Excalibur and this past year's Uncanny was amazing.

I love how Alan had Rachel be both butch and beautiful at the same time.