As the X-Men get ready for the upcoming Hellfire Gala event that promises to give fans a slight reprieve from the normal chaos that these Marvel mutants are usually engaged in, one costume in particular harkens back to a dark future where mutants were hunted down and exploited for all their worth. Worn by Rachel Summers aka Rachel Grey aka the X-Men hero Prestige, Rachel hails from that dark future, and her outfit shows that she isn’t forgetting her time there anytime soon.
Seen in the free X-Men Hellfire Gala Special, Rachel isn’t the only member of the various X-teams that have gotten a stylish makeover. From Storm leaning into her Goddess roots, to Emma Frost showing off her fancy and revealing taste in clothing, to Colossus looking fresher than ever, these mutants are pulling out all the stops to make sure this event is something worth remembering.
Inviting all who would attend to show off the might, beauty and legitimacy of the mutant island nation of Krakoa, the intentions for this spectacle of excess and dizzying wardrobe changes are as exciting as they are intriguing. Ranging from the inspired and outlandishly clothed looks, to the eye-catching and stunningly worn dresses, suits and capes, to the head-scratchingly ugly and uncomfortable looking getups, this gala represents not only who mutants are as a whole but also represents who each mutant is individually, Rachel included.
So although many of these new costumes and outfits are extensions of existing esthetics stemming from any given mutant’s powers, appearance, personality or special tastes, Rachel’s look goes much farther than that. Covered in a full body suit complete with blood red spikes and black facial tattoos (as well as a hair braid leash for her Warwolf pup, Amazing Baby), Rachel’s choice in her outfit calls back to a time when she lived in a near future where mutants were hunted down and forced into camps by “hounds”, only to be subject to conditions worse than death when they were inevitably caught.
Having no choice but to become one of these hounds, Rachel’s future look resembles her Hellfire Gala outfit in a sense that facial tattoos and spikes were her most noted visual accents at the time on top of the black and red color scheme. Further making a statement by having Amazing Baby on a leash braided from her actual hair (his spiked collar is another big callback to Rachel’s hound days), the fact that she’s bringing the pup along at all might be the one stress relief she needs to feel comfortable and safe in an outfit that was no doubt a tough call to decide to wear.
So while this dark future that Rachel Summers has clearly modeled her Gala look on is one that the X-Men are still pushing back against, this potential timeline is one that is still at the forefront of Rachel’s mind. Rachel might have partially reclaimed her time as a hound with this new costume, but the secret, twisted backstory of it is still something she needs to deal with on a daily basis.