Well, I don't like the concept of Rachel. I think alternate reality time lost children characters are lazy and uncreative.

I also think that Rachel and Maddie should never have been created. If they wanted a character that was like Jean, they should have just resurrected her instead of creating two rip offs. The original inevitably always comes back. And if they wanted her to truly stay dead they shouldn't have created rip offs of her to begin with either.

I view Rachel the same way I view Scrappy Doo, Chibi-Moon (from Sailor Moon), and Dawn Summers from Buffy.

Sure Scrappy was iconic and popular but he ruined the show and was not as good as Scooby.

Rachel Grey is a rip off of Jean Grey. Now that doesn't have to be a negative value judgement but it is the truth. Jean Grey is the base character from which Rachel was made. Rachel was created to be a Jean replacement. Maddie was made to give Scott his happily ever after and Rachel was made to replace Jean's role in the team and later as the Phoenix. Rachel is being used as a Jean replacement currently.

Here are my two main points...

1. Rachel threatens Jean's iconic solidarity. She has Jean's red hair, green eyes, telepathy, telekinesis, and phoenix power. She has had Jean's Phoenix codename and costumes and she currently has Jean's Marvel Girl codename and a derivative of her Marvel Girl costume. Rachel also has the Phoenix eye and shadow form that Jean had in Revolution. Rachel now has a tribal phoenix tatoo on her back. A tribal phoenix tatoo on the back was first used with Jean in X-Men the End.

Rachel also has Jean's last name Grey now as well as the Red nickname. She also has Jean's temper. Like Jean she also has a Hellfire club member as an enemy.

People try to claim that Rachel has more of a temper but her temper is obviously based on the temper that Claremont gave Jean during the original Phoenix Sagas. Remember how Jean wanted to literally kill Firelord, how she told Proteus to "say your prayers butcher", or when she nearly killed Emma Frost. Recent examples of Jean's temper would be New 120 and 139.

Rachel does have a tragic past with being a Hound like Jean does with being Dark Phoenix.

However, this is not to say that Rachel doesn't have some of her own qualities like the Hound personna and imagery and the Mother Askani personna. Rachel also has a more childlike personality at least in recent times.

And not to say that Rachel has never been fun, interesting, or cool. I kinda liked her in End of Grey's and I liked her in some of the stories in the original excalibur.

2. Rachel's stories do effect Jean. Rachel's Phoenix stories did have a negative effect on Jean's Phoenix stories because Rachel's stories in Excalibur kept saying that Jean wasn't Phoenix, retconned over parts of the original story, and ignored the Classic X-Men backstories.

Its so irritating when some fans argue that Rachel is a truer Phoenix than Jean when Jean was the original Phoenix, originally.

Rachel also healed the M'Krann crystal just as Jean did.

I also hate it when people say Rachel was a better Phoenix than Jean. Rachel nearly chose to destroy the entire universe to get the Beyonder. Wolverine also gutted her to keep her from killing Selene. Rachel has blood on her hands too because of her hound years as well.

3. Rachel is a Jean replacement and even takes over her stories. The Jean-Betsy power switch is now being done with Rachel and Betsy. Rachel now has the Phoenix Eye effect and shadow form and a mysterious bond with Betsy.

Rachel's role in Wolverine Enemy of the State is what Jean's role would have been. Millar pretty much mentioned that Rachel was being used in Jean's place on another message board.

Rachel's role in Deadly Genesis would have been Jean's role. The villian captures Cyclops and Marvel Girl but realizes this isn't the same Marvel Girl that he knew of. Later, Cyclops mentions that Rachel is behaving exactly the way Jean would.

When X-Men Unlimited was doing consecutive stories about the original X-Men and it came for Jean's turn they did a Rachel story instead.

End of Grey's should have been Jean's story instead of Rachel's. As mentioned in the story Rachel had already seen her family killed in her own timeline. These were alternate reality versions of her family. This was Jean's family Not Rachel's.

The editors once responded to a letter saying that they only wanted one redhead around at a time.

Joe Quesada recently commented that when a major character is killed there needs to be a replacement.

I am convinced that Jean would be back by now if it weren't for Rachel.

4. Rachel effectively ages Jean. This also goes/went for Nate Grey, Cable, and Stryfe. Why does Jean need adult children in her own age group? It also reinforces the denmother stereotype.

Jean has had too many clones, alternate versions, and time lost children. And most of them share her powers and similar destinies. Its just too much.