issue summaries

Uncanny X-Men 207 Ghosts Writer: Chris Claremont Penciler: John Romita, Jr Inker: Dan Green Colorist: Glynis Oliver Letterer: Tom Orzechowski Editor: Ann Nocenti Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter Date: July 1986

Wolverine comes up behind Phoenix on a dark New York Street. At first, she is glad to see him and asks what's going on. But he charges at her with his claws drawn. She pushes him out of the way with her T.K., but he still manages to cut her on chest. She is shocked that he attacked her, and he tells her that he intended on killing her.

She blasts him back with a psi-bolt and makes a run for it. She can't understand what is going on. She could tell from his thoughts that it was Wolverine - her teammate and friend, and he won't stop until he kills her.

Suddenly, everything changes. Rachel is wearing her black Hound costume. She is now in her future, and sees a Wanted Poster of the X-Men noting which had been captured and killed. She thinks about all of her friends and family that she betrayed and killed. After she was of no further use to the government as a Hound, she was sent to the camps, with the assumption that she would be killed by the mutants as a traitor. But the surviving X-Men at the camp like Kate and Ororo protected her and forgave her.

Rachel wonders escaping her future and her life with the X-Men in the past has all been a dream, and that she never will have the opportunity to make up for the horrible things she has done.

Just then, Wolverine comes up behind her on the stone fence she is hiding behind. He grabs her by her hair and pulls her over the fence. He says her debts are not so easily paid and some crimes cannot be forgiven. He stabs her in the chest with his claws.

She screams, and wakes up. It was all a dream. She is in a room in the Morlocks' tunnels, where the X-Men have been staying. She starts crying, wondering if what Wolverine said in her dream was true. The others she killed deserved a second chance to live more than she did. She notices her reflection in a mirror and sees the Houndmarks on her face. Shouts that the Hound part of her is what is dead, not Rachel Summer, and to go away. The mirror explodes.

Colossus and Shadowcat rush in, wanting to know what's wrong. Rachel hides her face and tells them she must have had a bad dream and lost control of her telekinesis. Kitty scolds Rachel for loosing control like that, and destroying a Morlock's property. Kitty and Peter leave, and Rachel tries unsuccessfully to fix the mirror.

In a nearby room, Wolverine (still recovering from his injuries he sustained in his fight with Lady Deathstrike in Uncanny X-Men 205 and the battle with the Beyonder), murmurs about Rachel and why she is doing this to herself and dragging him into her nightmares. He tries to get up, but collapses. Rogue and Kurt find him. He has reopened his wounds and they wonder how much his healing power can actually handle.

Rogue flies down to tell Storm about Logan. She finds Ororo with a large group of Morlocks and Callisto.

She sees Rachel, wearing punk-style clothing. Rachel asks Ororo how Wolverine is doing. Ororo simply states that he is alive and turns her back on Rachel to continue talking to Callisto. Rachel is pissed off at being ignored, but Rogue tells her that Rachel shouldn't be surprised that the others are angry with her after what she did in San Francisco. Rachel tries to explain that she was only doing what she thought was right. Rogue replies that that isn't the point. She didn't ask Colossus or Wolverine to take their life forces and she took Ororo's even though she told Rachel no. Rogue also questions whether Rachel might have subconsciously influences Kitty and herself into letting Rachel take their life forces.

In another dream, Rachel finds herself in a Japanese temple, wearing a Kimono, with Wolverine after her. She can't hide from him. He shouts at her about stealing his life essence, and how she betrayed his trust. He stabs her and she awakes in an alley.

Rachel thinks to herself how all she wanted was to be accepted as part of the X-Men and why they can't see that she was right in taking their life forces. She starts getting even more depressed, wishing she had died with her family in her future, since she has botch everything she had tried to do since going back in time.

She wonders if turbo-charging Wolverine's healing abilities caused the dream-link between them, but it ended up preventing him from healing. She continues walking down the street, calling herself a useless loser.

She has another dream. She is wearing her black Hound costume again and is in a rocky desert. She falls down a cliff into river. She sees her reflection in the water and the Houndmarks on her face. She scratches at her face trying to get rid of them. She pulls off her face and Hound outfit like she is shedding an outer skin and reveals the Rachel Summers that has a second chance to start over.

Then Wolverine finds her. She tries to convince him that she has changed, but he still attacks her. She fights back and kills him.

She wakes up, crying, on a subway. A police officer asks if she is okay. He asks if her parents know she is out so late, but she replies that her parents are dead. He offers to help find her a place to stay, but she telekinetically opens the door and jumps off the subway.

She runs up to the street and realizes she has been there before. It was where the X-Men first found her (see Uncanny X-Men 184). A nice man had rescued her, but was killed by Selene. She struggles to remember him. Her memories are all clouded. She eventually remembers his face, but cannot remember his name. She decides it is time she does something right for a chance. She needs to even the score and take out Selene once and for all.

Back in the Morlock Tunnels, the X-Men realized that both Wolverine and Phoenix are gone. Kitty notes that Rachel's bed hasn't been slept in and thinks she must have taken off yesterday and no one even noticed. Rogue mentions that Rachel seemed rather depressed when she last saw her and that all of them were being rather tough on her.

Storm decides that finding Wolverine is the priority, due to his injuries. They rush off, with the Morlocks offering to help.

Rachel knocks on the door the Hellfire Club's Friedrich Von Riehm and telepathically convinces him to take her to Selene. Once he gets her inside of the Hellfire's headquarters, she knocks him out and then steals a maid's uniform so she can sneak around.

She enters Selene's room and finds her asleep. She sees her Black Queen outfit and flashes back to Dark Phoenix as the Black Queen. She thinks of all of the misery that the Hellfire Club has caused. But a few weeks ago, she couldn't kill, but can she now? She decides that death is what the Hellfire's Inner Circle deserves. She attacks Selene and telekinetically switches into her Phoenix costume.

Selene is completely blindsided by the attack and shocked by Rachel's new power. Selene hurls everything in the room at Rachel, but she easily blocks it. She grabs Selene with a Phoenix claw and demands she tell him the name of the man she killed.

As the staff in the Hellfire headquarters race to the exits, Wolverine enters.

Rachel tells Selene that her victims are about to be avenged. Wolverine stands at the door and tells her to stop before it is too late. He says he's there to take her home, but Rachel shouts about her dreams and how he is always trying to kill her.

Rachel tells him that nothing can stop Selene but her. No human law can do anything to her. Wolverine asks who appointed Rachel judge, jury and executioner. He says they have both killed in the past and will kill again, but what Rachel is about to do is murder. No matter how Rachel wants to rationalize it, it is still wrong. That isn't something worthy of her or of any X-Man. Rachel shouts that she doesn't care. Wolverine replies that she should. They call themselves heroes and that means they need to stand up for something, no matter how difficult that is. They have to play by the rules.

Ray tells him Phoenix makes her own rules. He gives her own final warning to step away. She asks what if people die because she didn't kill Selene when she has the chance. She will not allow that to happen. The only way he can stop her is to kill her. SNIKT! Wolverine stabs Rachel in the chest.