Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga

[sandoz_iscariot]

For protogarrett, who requested scenes from the Dark Phoenix Saga. Scans from UXM 134-137, by Claremont and Byrne. Image heavy!





Scans of the X-Men vs. the Hellfire Club, and Jean being brainwashed as the Black Queen, have already been posted, so I'll just jump straight into Jean wreaking havoc as Dark Phoenix.

UXM #134 ends with this cliffhanger, a dark mirror of Jean becoming Phoenix in UXM #101:



Then in UXM #135:



(I love this title page, how incredibly foreboding the words "Dark Phoenix" are. Great work by Byrne there.)




Dark Phoenix attacks the horrified X-Men.





Temporarily sated, Dark Phoenix returns to Earth in #136:




(I really like the scene with Jean's family. After the cosmic destruction Dark Phoenix just unleashed, it, well, brings the story back to Earth. "The Dark Phoenix Saga" is ultimately a human story. And considering that Claremont mass-murdered the Grey family in a Phoenix-related story decades later, their presence here becomes even sadder.)

Later, she faces the X-Men once more.




(Love how she just zaps Scott aside without even looking at him.)




But their happiness lasts about a second, as Jean and the X-Men are teleported onto a Shi'Ar battleship. Lilandra breaks the bad news: for her crimes against the universe, PHOENIX MUST DIE! (hey, it says so on the cover.)



They're given a night to prepare for the duel, and what follows are some wonderful introspective sequences where the X-Men ponder their love for Jean and whether they can reconcile it with the horrors Dark Phoenix committed.



Also Wolverine is naked. Sorry.







The X-Men fight bravely but are taken out one by one by the Imperial Guard. Only Cyclops and Marvel Girl are left. Then...






(Classic. One of my favorite lines here is "The choice was never yours." The Dark Phoenix Saga is problematic in that it's another "Woman can't control her incredible power and goes insane" story, but what's really crucial is that in the end, Jean has agency and ends her life on her own terms--choosing to die as a human being rather than live as a god, as it's put oh so Claremontily on the final page. X-Men 3 missed the point so completely.)

Comments

[sandoz_iscariot]

I LOVE Jackman as Wolverine, but the story was changed to make him the central character, not Jean or Scott.

Yeah, I hated that. Wolverine Has to Be the Hero Syndrome. James Marsden bailed for Superman Returns, but I can't imagine his role would have been expanded had he stayed. His role in The Dark Phoenix Saga is sad and significant because in any other X-Men story the brave team leader would have saved the day and the woman he loved, but here he's a helpless observer. Making Wolverine's Manpain the focal point of the story rather than Jean's struggle to maintain humanity really ripped the heart out of the story. And Jean being so without agency that she can only beg Wolverine to kill her was just...no. X(

[chipsnopotatoes]

Yeah. I wasn't happy at all with XMen 3 for the reasons you stated. I also thought they weren't ambitious enough in highlighting her capabilities. Here was a woman who ate planets in the comics and you just have her decimating San Francisco (or was it Alcatraz?). She could do that with her fingernail.

I would have loved to see the Shiar in this movie too.