Phoenix #10 annotations
PHOENIX #10
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Alessandro Miracolo
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa
PHOENIX
She sees parallels between Adani’s back story and the way her own life changed when her powers traumatically emerged on the death of her best friend Annie Richardson. This origin comes from the Phoenix story in Bizarre Adventures #27, and involves Jean withdrawing from the world until Professor X comes along to help her out. In this issue, Jean presents it as a turning point that caused her to lose her childhood – not merely because of the immediate period that followed, but by setting her on a path to meet Professor X, join the X-Men and ultimately become Phoenix. (Some stories maintain that she was always destined to become Phoenix, but that’s arguably a chicken-and-egg matter, given the Phoenix’s confusing relationship to linear cause and effect.)
The Dark Gods assume that Phoenix has the power to destroy Adani, but won’t use it because her sense of empathy holds her back. This is correct as far as it goes, but Jean stops Adani anyway by showing empathy to her and persuading her to reject her power and become an innocent child again. The clear implication is that Jean would rather have remained normal and not become Phoenix (or even an X-Man) too.
Afterwards, she sets up an unnamed moon as “a sanctuary to anyone who has been harmed or displaced by the higher powers of the universe”. Consistent with the theme of Adani’s story, the only residents we see are happy-looking children, but it’s not clear whether the entire moon is an orphanage.
She claims that her focus is on cosmic balance and that the universe is a garden for her to tend.
SUPPORTING CAST
Adani. The Dark Gods hope that she’ll use her residual Phoenix power to spread their Shadow Realm across the universe and contaminate it. She’s initially reluctant to reject the power that she gained from her association with Perrikus because it would revert her to being the girl she was in issue #1, where she was helpless to stop Perrikus from killing her father. However, she’s rather summarily persuaded that she will be better off without the power and growing up normally. (To be fair, she’s been wavering about this for a while.)
Sara Grey-Bailey. Jean’s long-lost sister Sara shows up at the end of the issue, apparently in some sort of monastery. She claims that she’s been looking for Jean but everyone claimed that Jean was dead. It seems odd that she’s in a part of the universe where this has only just come to light, but maybe it’ll make more sense as we find out more.
Sara and her husband disappeared in X-Factor #12 (1987) shortly after speaking out in support of mutants, a storyline that never went anywhere. X-Men #36 (1994) finally tied off the loose end (kind of) by revealing that she had been absorbed into the Phalanx, although it could easily be explained away as mind games. However, the flashback montage on pages 2-3 includes an original panel of her being actually absorbed into the Phalanx. Arguably that rules out the easy “it was a lie” option – but if this is meant to be Jean’s mind, then it’s not an actual flashback, because she wasn’t there. It’s what she assumes happened to Sara.
VILLAINS
The Dark Gods. As usual, it’s Zelia, Perrikus, Adva, Tokkots, Slototh and D’Chel. They try to keep Jean busy for a while and then just return to the Shadow Realm. The idea seems to be that they assume the Shadow Realm will be merged with the mainstream universe by Adani anyway, but of course Phoenix stops that.
Thanos has a cameo, reacting to the Dark Gods’ defeat.
GUEST CAST
Nova and Rocket show up briefly, reacting to the story climax, and then visiting the orphanage.
CONTINUITY REFERENCES
- Jean’s flashback to the death of Annie Richardson on the first page comes from her origin story in Bizarre Adventures #27.
- The assorted flashbacks to Jean’s pre-accident childhood on pages 2-3 are new (but nothing very important happens in them, which is the point). Her parents John and Elaine and her older sister Sara put in an appearance.
- The panel of Professor X training Jean in telekinesis is basically from Bizarre Adventures #27, but he’s wrongly shown in the hi-tech wheelchair that he didn’t get until 1991 (and didn’t use in public even then).
- The following panel is simply a generic shot of Jean in action as Marvel Girl in the early Silver Age.
- The next panel shows Jean’s grave following her “death” at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga. The narration in this panel mentions the death of Jean’s family, which was in Uncanny X-Men #467 (where the Shi’ar tried to extinguish her bloodline).
- The following panel shows Jean as Dark Phoenix and refers to “the many lives lost at my hands” – obviously, the genocide of the D’Bari in X-Men #135.
- The final panel on pages 2-3 shows Sara being absorbed by the Phalanx, which is an original appearance – in X-Men #36 (1994), we only saw her as an absorbed Phalanx. The specific character absorbing her is Stephen Lang.
- Perrikus refers to Jean’s decision in issue #1 to save a prison and give him the chance to escape, which is correctly footnoted.
- On the same page, Jean refers to Perrikkus’ decision to kill Adani’s father (also issue #1) and then to bring Adani to the God Quarry (issue #3), which don’t get footnoted.
While I’m not reading this title, because, or, well, everything from previous annotations entries on it, I am curious about how this arc’s ending would seem to relate to the apparently from-the-future narration by Adani and the “questioning religion” themes in earlier issues.
It seems as if that just tapered off in favor of a more generic plot, and Adani’s decision here seems harder to square with the tone and content of her future self’s narration in the early issues.
The recaps of the last couple of issues make it seem as if those themes kind of peter out around after Jean summarily takes out Gorr the God-Butcher. The Dark Gods are still in the story, but they’re more conventional “corrupter” figures, and Adani’s role is to nearly succumb to their temptation only to reject it in the end.
I’ve got to wonder what’s been happening behind the scenes on this title, especially given other moves in the X-titles to help set up Imperial.
Remember when it was revealed that the Shadow King and various other anti-Phoenix deities were banded together/one and the same? I wish that they replaced the Dark Gods here
Is the most obvious reveal for Sara that she is a phalanx remnant. Either independent like douglock or as part of a phalanx plan. They make sense in this book as both X and cosmic and with nova and rocket as support they can also reference conquest the last big phalanx story.
Don’t forget that it was implied in Louise Simonson’s X-Factor that, as Joey and Gailyn Bailey were (unwilling) members of Nanny’s Lost Boys and Girls, Orphan Maker killed Sarah and her husband.
“They try to keep Jean busy for a while and then just return to the Shadow Realm.”
I’m not sure what happens to Zella, Adva and Perrikus. Jean zaps them with the Phoenix Force and then they disappear from the story without any further explanation. Did Jean kill them? Were they banished back to the Shadow Realm? Did Jean destroy their minds but leave their bodies alive like Xavier did to Magneto during Fatal Attractions?
I think we’re meant to be suspicious of Sara. She shows up mysteriously back from the dead, with people kneeling before her. She somehow has telepathic powers. She claims to have been searching for Jean but apparently never asked Scott ,Hank. Warren, Alex, Ororo or Logan where Jean was. Plus, the cover for issue 13 shows Jean and Cable mad at each other- presumably Cable is trying to convince Jean that Sara is up to no good.
@Omar- as I understand it, there are two factors at play. The first is that Phoenix was supposed to be used to relaunch Marvel’s cosmic titles. But Marvel decided to use Imperial for that purpose instead.
The second is that the fan response to Phoenix has been horrible. Last month’s issue ranked 72 in the sales chart. The readers hated Adani- it’s impossible to describe how disliked she was. The readers also disliked Perrikus as a villain and wished that Jean would actually work with other X-characters instead of Nova and Rocket.
This seems to be attempt by Breevort to fix the problems with the book. This issue Adani and Perrikus are gotten rid of. Jean says goodbye to Nova and Rocket, so they can appear in Imperial. (They were probably only in this series in the first place to launch the cosmic books, which is no longer necessary.) And Cable will be appearing in the next arc.
@Sam- This is confusing. First, Nanny tells Jean that Joey and Gailyn’s parents are dead, just like the parents of all the children in her care. Then. Blob tells Jean that the government has located the parents of some of the children in Nanny’s care. Jean concludes that Nanny was lying. Then Blob tells the New Mutants he was lying about the government having located the parents. So that means that Nanny was telling the truth and Sara and her husband are dead, right? Except that shortly after being reunited with the New Mutants after that adventure, Jean puts on a sexy black dress and goes on a date with Scott. That’s odd behavior if she’s just realized her sister is dead. I think Simonson’s idea was that Nanny lied about Sarah and her husband being dead and Blob lied about the government having located the parents.
The Phalanx Covenant confused the issue even further. It’s claimed that the Phalanx were created after X-Tinction Agenda. But X-Tinction Agenda was published in 1990 and Nanny told Jean that Sara was dead in 1988. So where was Sara all that time?
In X-Factor, it’s eventually revealed that The Right were responsible for the firebombing of Sara Grey’s house. Perhaps The Right kidnapped the Grey-Bailey parents for some nefarious purpose, then faked their murder. Nanny heard about the bombing of the house and concluded that the Grey-Bailey parents were dead. After Hodge acquired the techno-organic virus he decided that Sara Grey would serve as a perfect test subject to experiment on with the TO virus.
I think the bigger question is how did Lang and Hodge know about the Phalanx?
Hodge acquired the TO Virus from Warlock’s body. How did they know about the true Phalanx, or did they just happen to choose the same name as the servants created by the Dominions?
No-Prize : obviously , the True Phalanx were secretly mind-controlling Lang and Hodge as is the standard trope for all supervillains using unwitting pawns .
And the terms Shadow Realm and Dark Gods are too generic for proper names in 2025 , it could work if they’re actually appopriately archetypical , but they’re not , so it comes off as rather pompously pretentious on their part
Yeah, much as I dislike the idea of the Phalanx being the all-powerful agents of beings outside of spacetime, it does allow for explanations for all of the glaring contradictions surrounding them (every single appearance contradicts the one before! Every time!). Just say the Dominions did it. And the Dominions are, apparently, idiots.
Jean’s behavior during that period is what convinced me that she’s a horrible character. It was after Scott had to send baby Nathan to the Askani future where Charlotte Jones had to comfort him because Jean was off partying with the Inhumans. Post first Phoenix retcon, she’s been written as a terrible person.
Also, I meant to say it in my first comment, but this sounded like it was an ending point for the series. Not a satisfactory one, because from Paul’s description this issue sounded boring and dumb, but it brought things to a close and should have come to an end.
Scott brought it on himself. He had a wife and kid who loved him, but the grass was greener on the other side. The warning signs were there for Scott to see about Jean, where all she did was reassure Scott that he had done the correct thing to leave his wife and kid because she wanted to get back together with Scott. Of course, it was what Scott wanted to hear. Scott realized that he ruined things with Maddy, and he was stuck with Jean now. The two deserved each other.
Their relationship is one of the most boring relationships in all of comics, except when one of the two is hurting the other. If the X-Men cared about Scott and Jean, they’d tell them the best thing is to stay away from each other.
@Chris V: I like that characterization of Scott and Jean, either boringly clinging together or lashing out at each other.
It strikes me that if I grew up a) with significant childhood trauma, b) basically besieged in a boarding school, c) hated by the populace at large, and d) conscripted to do battle with my elders, I’d probably have the same kind of hot/cold relationship they do. I’d cling to my partner as a safety blanket and then push them away when my trauma was triggered.
But that reading depends on them being written in a more complex way than perhaps we usually get, and also not dragging things out for 60+ years.
Crazily enough, they’ve decided to stay together while Jean is out in space becoming less and less human. That decision seems fated to blow up in their faces. Or maybe it will just fade away as so many unexamined plot points do in this X-era.
Jean showed up on the last page of this week’s Spider-Gwen and is on the cover of the next issue. Gwen is in space and has some cosmic cube related power incontinence at the moment, so I guess Jean will help with that.
It felt like this issue could have been done in about 5 pages, total. Most of what ‘happens’ is very vague – shadow things are appearing but then disappear.