What If #27: Phoenix didn't die

[lordultimus]

Comments

[scorntx]

-"What happens in this reality is perhaps worse!"-
Hmm, gee, ya think, Uatu?
Let's see.
Option 1: Woman / energy construct gets fragged, Cyclops is heartbroken but the world keeps on spinning.
Option 2: Woman / energy construct gets lobotomised, then eventually regains her phenominal cosmic power, kills her friends and family, then cracks the entire earth like an egg, followed by everything else.

Pretty easy to tell which outcome is worse, no?

[tcampbell1000]

YA RLY

[bruinsfan]

Eh, it's the Marvel Universe. They had it coming.

[every_spiegel]

But you see, he's NOT judging! He just stated an opinion. Which is NOT his. For he is the Watcher! You know. Not that he has ever shipped some non-canon ships... Yeah?

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

I always had a really hard time reading this one when I was young, because, well, the meat of the book is about Jean killing my heroes one by one. That's the whole draw. It was never easy to read. :(

Appreciate your leaving out Kitty's death, though.

[tcampbell1000]

It's a problem with these alt-universe stories in general. Writers relish the added emotional punch of piling on death scenes they could never get away with otherwise, but after you see a few of those arbitrary superhero slaughters, you've more or less seen them all. The best What-Ifs (and Elseworlds) look elsewhere for interest or are very restrained in their bloodshed.

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

I think it's that this one is not remotely arbitrary. Every single death is intensely personal for all parties involved.

[stolisomancer]

That's a solid observation. It's not the typical bit where they get mowed down in a panel each by a relatively impersonal force; it's Dark Phoenix being rather specifically cruel to each one in turn.

[tcampbell1000]

"If the Phoenix had not died... then the Phoenix WOULD have died, just along with LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE."

[scorntx]

"Guess that answers that question, huh? See ya next time, folks!"

[rfmcdonald]

Is this panel-by-panel destruction of the X-Men Grand Guignol?

[freezer]

So this boils down to "The universe dies because Scott Summers was a putz?"

[tugrul]

Stop with the Cyclops-blaming!

[scorntx]

"Cyclops was wrong. This time. Not all the other times."
... doesn't really fit on a t-shirt.

[philippos42]

This was the first What If...? I ever read, probably when I was eight years old, and I didn't even know that What If...? was a series, let alone that they mostly ended with over-the-top terrible no-good bad endings. So I really took it as, "This is why the Jean Grey Phoenix had to die." I've disliked Jean ever since.

[stolisomancer]

This one's rough.

I think there's probably a reason why it's the only one that got effectively retconned in volume 2, with a plot by Claremont and George Caragonnes (who'd go on to be the brains behind Penthouse Comix). That one's at least as much of a slaughterfest, but it's not as bad and it's got a much stronger ending.

[lamashtar]

What annoys me is that this is riffing off of the original Dark Phoenix ending, which doesn't include Jean committing genocide and never intended her to die, because why the fuck would they do that?? Its a "Jim Shooter Was Right!" story.