Because it's about time someone did!
Rachel and Magik interaction.
Q: Do Rachel and Magik have any significant interactions within canon?
Follow up Q: If they don't, why not? You would expect for someone to, at least, have them interact with each other. TBH I'm not even sure they were ever in the same scene.
I mean I don't expect them to have a long, complicated history (even though they are X-Men, so I should expect a complicated history) but something. Anything.




Right? I can't believe there was never a heavily coded filler issue involving Magik, Kitty, and Rachel; with Illyana & Rachel as the Betty & Veronica to Kitty's Archie. 'Who's your BEST gal-pal, Kitty!? Better get gal-palin' and find out!"
But also I get the feeling that modern X-Men completely overlooks Kitty's history with Rachel, no? But I must say I was SO happy when Brian Michael Bendis narrowed in our Kitty and Magik's friendship during his run.
I think @jtabon is right when he says that Rachel was never the same after Excalibur (a HUGE shame onto itself).
The thing that made me wonder about this though is not related to the mutual kinship to Kitty but rather their similarities, and I think there is a lot to explore between the two that is not just being queer and having a lot of subtext revolving around Kitty.
Kitty and Rachel hung out a bit during the Battle of the Atom If I recall correctly. It was good to see. I feel like Claremont brought Rachel back and no one's really known what to do with her since, especially given the period where she was dressing in a go-go skirt....
Right?? I feel like she's the only character that's been around since the 80's that somehow got YOUNGER in the 2000's.
At least we'll always have this Waiting for the Trade strip: http://waitingforthet.tumblr.com/post/115197099196/kitty-usually-only-has-one-special-friend-on-a
I think it's largely tied to how Rachel gets discounted overall. How many issues is she around in after Alan Davis leaves Excalibur, 5 or 10? And then shloop! off she goes to the future for YEARS in the real world. She eventually came back, but I think the War of Kings crossover is the most play she's gotten (feel free to correct, I would love to be wrong about this) since?
And for the remainder, I would chalk it up to Marvel's overall reluctance or inability to acknowledge and develop queer subtext. Or, you know, baldly stated canon. Which may be unfair of me, but I don't think it to be unearned.
I just don't know Marvel can really ignore it. As you said, when you realize how the art, script, etc. is such heavy coding for queer content in so much of the Claremont era, it seems so foolish to ignore. You're not being unfair at all.
I really think had the Comics Code not been a thing, Claremont & Co. would have made it very explicit. There are some times I really wonder how much the Code (and the heterosexist Red Scare roots it came from) really damaged queer narratives in comics long term.
Someday, we'll get the Illyana/Rachel/Kitty love triangle stories we deserve. Or, you know, just write them ourselves.
I think you two hit the nail on the head. The Code (or at least the heterosexist attitude behind it) still seems to have lingering effects on Marvel editorial. It is so easy to ignore queer subtext, erase queer characters through retcons and reboots, sideline canon queer characters...
"Someday, we'll get the Illyana/Rachel/Kitty love triangle stories we deserve. Or, you know, just write them ourselves."
Thank the queer heavens for Archive of Our Own.
You have me searching for fic now. And finding it. I'll tuck this away for later reading.
I'd say some of Claremont's Uncanny run used Rachel a lot - the 'End of Greys' storyline featured her as the star, for instance.