Warning: The following article contains major spoilers for X-Factor #1, by Leah Williams, David Baldeon, Israel Silva and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Rachel Summers is one of the X-Men's most frequently overlooked members. Whether she's going by Marvel Girl, Phoenix or Prestige, Rachel is often reduced to relatively minor roles within the X-Men's larger world, even though she's a central figure in the history of multiple timelines and the child of her world's Cyclops and Jean Grey.
While her powers might seem to be interchangeable with her mothers, Rachel has a unique combination of telepathic and time-related abilities that distinguish her from other mutants. And in X-Factor #1, Rachel shows just how unique her powers really are.
In the issue, Rachel joins Northstar, Polaris, Daken, Prodigy and Eye-Boy in the search for Northstar's missing and presumed dead sister, Aurora. The investigation leads the mutants to an abandoned motel room in Bellingham, Washington. While everyone else is unsure how to proceed, Rachel unveils a helpful ability with which she can follow Aurora's trail. Rachel calls this power "chrono-skimming," which allows her to telepathically witness Aurora's last moments in the motel.
The others ask if Rachel can use her ability to simply find out where Aurora is and what happened to her, but the telepath explains that the combination of her telepathic and time-sensitive powers doesn't make things that easy. Rachel must interact with objects which Aurora touched, using them as a kind of "runway" for the trail. This process makes following Aurora's trail rather slow, following Aurora's previous actions in real-time.
To speed up the process, Rachel gets her pet Warwolf, Amazing Baby, to track Aurora's scent, leading the team to a nearby bridge. As Polaris lifts cars out of the Puget Sound, Rachel once again uses her chrono-skimming to find the car which Aurora was driving, locating the missing mutant's body.
Rachel's chrono-skimming powers are clearly very useful, but her time powers are often overlooked next to her telepathic, telekinetic and occasionally Phoenix-related abilities. Indeed, Rachel possesses a number of underused time manipulation abilities. As seen in Chris Claremont and John Byrne's classic "Days of Future Past" from Uncanny X-Men #141-142, Rachel can send her consciousness -- or the consciousness of others -- into the past or the future. Rachel can also slow time, protect herself from changes to the timeline and project past events into others' minds.
While these powers brought her to the X-Men, it's easy to forget about these powers. Rachel is primarily seen as the daughter of Jean Grey, a role that largely overshadows any other characteristics or abilities. This role as a legacy character largely limits Rachel to standard uses of telepathy and telekinesis, even acting as a stand-in for her mother or any given X-team's obligatory telepath.
With her new role in X-Factor Investigations, Rachel has a host of possibilities in front of her. With Jean busy in X-Men and X-Force, Rachel is free to distinguish herself from her mother by showcasing what makes her more than her mother's legacy or one of a dozen telepaths.
The entire premise of X-Factor also fits in nicely with Rachel's history. In the alternate future where she grew up, Rachel was enslaved as a Hound who was forced to use her telepathic abilities to hunt down other mutants. On the other hand, X-Factor allows Rachel to use telepathy to find missing mutants so they can be brought back under the resurrection protocols of Krakoa. This brighter inverse to Rachel's previous life is very fitting for her character arc.
Finally, X-Factor is full of mutants who are commonly overshadowed by their parents, including Polaris and Daken. It seems as if this new team will largely aid these mutants in finding their own voices. For example, Polaris relinquished her opportunity to lead X-Factor, wishing to find her own personality outside of what is expected from being Magneto's daughter. Similarly, Rachel can finally find her own voice outside of being Cyclops and Jean Grey's child.
Despite her impressive history, Rachel Summers is still vastly underappreciated in the X-Men's wider world. However, this new X-Factor series is already starting to show off what makes Rachel one of the X-Men's most unique members.