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

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

The thing about X-Men Forever is that in many ways, it's a "take that" to what happened on the X-books after Claremont left. It's not an accident, for example, that Cyclops is a devoted dad but also a bit of a cock to everyone, because Claremont would've broken them up if he'd stayed on the books.

To his way of thinking - and this comes from a surprisingly angry exit interview I read years ago in, I think, Wizard - Scott abandoning Madelyne to run off after Jean was basically character assassination. It's evidence of a fundamental character flaw of Scott's that would eventually drive a wedge between him and Jean, because neither of them are the same people now as they were then.

Keep in mind that we're still talking about ten years of continuity between the Dark Phoenix Saga and the Forever era, too. Characters change in that time period.

[northstarfan]

I'm mostly picking up the X-Men: Forever trades for the trainwreck factor, but Cyclops as a conflicted father is the most I've liked the character in years. I don't think I'd like the development as much if Jean had choosen/been allowed to step in and take Madelyne's place as wee!Nathan's mom, but Cyke essentially being a single dad -- not mention being responsible enough to keep his son the hell away from the X-Men, potential mutant powers or no -- works for me. And Scott Summers giving tummy buzzes? Too frickin' adorable for words.