The X-Axis – w/c 9 June 2025
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #10. (Annotations here.) It’s a skip week for the X-Men’s Infinity Comic, before you ask. So, first up we have Exceptional X-Men, as the three kids finally get to do something. I’m all for the slow pace and character focus that Eeve Ewing brings to Exceptional, and while it’s questionable to bill it as an X-Men comic, I’m happy to see the current X-books doing something as commercially… stubborn as this. The flip side, though, is that it has taken an awfully long time for the kids to actually do anything, and even when they have, they’ve remained in the shadows of the established cast. Axo does get his moment in the sun here: Sinister’s goth Alice in Wonderland mindscape is fun and nicely realised by Carmen Carnero, and Axo gets to save the day by bringing to bear a level of empathy that Emma just can’t summon. Bronze and Melée still feel like they haven’t had their chance to shine, though, and ten issues in, it’s starting to feel like the book needs to kick it up a gear. As the coming out moment where the three teens declare themselves X-Men this… works for one of them? It’s still fine but it’s not really the book at its strongest.
PHOENIX #12. (Annotations here.) Mostly an account of how Sara Grey got here, which calls for an awful lot of fudging of the timeline in order for it to work – and on top of that, we’re pretty much encouraged to doubt the whole thing. Visually, it feels a bit punchier than the previous issue, but I’m a bit puzzled by what we’re doing here. Sara Grey is a dropped subplot from the 1980s given a throwaway resolution in the 1990s – she’s hardly someone that was crying out for a second go. Perhaps the idea is to give Sara someone from home to relate to, but retooling Sara as a messiah figure for a world cuts against that. The issue doesn’t do a great deal to make me interested in Sara as a character – there’s a history here but no real hook.
MAGIK #6. (Annotations here.) Moving on from the Liminal arc – or possibly serving as a breather before we return to it – this is a single-issue story with Magik helping Madelyne Pryor to deal with a rebellion in Limbo. Whether Madelyne likes it or not. It makes sense for Ashley Allen to go back to Limbo and nail down Illyana’s current relationship with the place and its new ruler, since although it’s been handed over to Madelyne, Illyana is apparently still linked to it somehow. This issue handles the relationship with Madelyne rather nicely, giving Illyana a range of conflicting ideas – she doesn’t want to undermine Maddie but she can’t resist imposing her authority on the demons, nor can she resist the temptation to snark her way through Maddie’s scenes. But her narration strikes a more fretful note, and I like the idea that Maddie is a good enough psychic to see through Magik’s persona without letting on about it. Some really nice art from Jesús Hervás, too, particularly in the opening scenes on Earth, but he gets Illyana’s mix of persona and sincerity rather well. Best X-book of the week, no doubt.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE #6. By Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill, Guru-eFX & Joe Sabino. I know, I did annotations for the previous issue, but it’s a four-comic week and besides, I really can’t get worked up about this. Basically, yes, this Stryfe is Apocalypse, but not our Apocalypse. He’s the Apocalypse from Cable and Stryfe’s timeline, or some version thereof, who went back to the plan of using Stryfe as a host body and eventually pulled it off. And if the aim is to get a version of Apocalypse into circulation without directly reversing anything that was done with the main Apocalypse during the Krakoan era, there are worse ways of doing it. The issue has fill-in art from Robert Gill, which is completely fine, and probably more to my taste than the regular art, if I’m being honest. But six issues in, I don’t get the impression that anyone involved knows why a Deadpool & Wolverine comic exists, or has any idea what to do with it. Benjamin Percy is writing a story where Deadpool and Wolverine barely interact and take turns to be mind controlled anyway, and the story itself could have been done with pretty much anyone as the affected heroes. The title characters are interchangeable to the extent that they’re even in the book at all, and that’s never a good thing.
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX SAGA #1. By Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Rod Reis & Clayton Cowles; back-up by Steve Foxe, Lucas Werneck & Clayton Cowles. Ms Marvel visits a version of the Dark Phoenix Saga, with Legion hijacking the plot to become Dark Phoenix himself. The overreaching storyline here seems to be that Legion – the personalities left behind when David Haller when to the White Hot Room at the end of the Krakoan age – is trying to get into the White Hot Room to be reunited with him, and is cheerfully wrecking history in order to get there. So clearly the cosmic reset button is going to get hit on all of this.
The plot hinges on Phoenix leaving Jean for Legion, which runs into the obvious continuity problem that, since the 1980s, this version of “Jean” was supposed to be just a duplicate created by Phoenix. I don’t think that’s an error, though, since Tom Brevoort has been publicly musing about the fact that the Krakoan era ended by trying to establish Jean and Phoenix as one and the same. In which case, the whole “duplicate of Jean” thing no longer makes sense. It was always a convoluted affair designed to try and preserve the notion that the Dark Phoenix Saga character was “Jean” while exonerating Jean from genocide, none of which is necessary any more – so if the plan is to retcon all that out and declare that Jean did become Phoenix and just came back from the dead in a cocoon, then fair enough, I can see how that potentially works.
Not sure I’d just throw it into this story without explanation, though, because anyone familiar enough with the source material to care is likely to be very familiar with the established history, and so it’s liable to just be confusing. That aside, the series is still very gimmicky, and runs squarely into the problem that Ms Marvel isn’t particularly a fan of X-Men history and has no real investment in the events she’s visiting. Fundamentally, she’s just the wrong character to be doing this with. It’s a Rod Reis book, so it looks lovely, but the basic concept isn’t good.
The back-up strip is very pretty but doesn’t seem to amount to much more than a five page musing about how Jean and Scott were made for each other, with a reminder about that bonding thing from the Dark Phoenix Saga. I guess we’re re-establishing that that’s a thing (which, again, follows from the fact that Phoenix was Jean After All), but I don’t feel like this is telling me anything new.
Re: Deadpool/ Wolverine:
Note that Wolverine talks like Nick Fury Sr. is dead but the recent Mystique limited series hinged on Nick Fury Jr. thinking Nick Fury Sr. is still alive.
Note that Fury’s hologram claims that there were FOUR X-cutioners.
The Pride comic had a Mystique/Destiny story, with a dream appearance of kid Nightcrawler. Most of it was the dream but Mystique showed no ill effects from the mini series in the real world bit, so I guess she got better after having a rest.
Re: Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga 1:
I think one of the main problems with this series is that it forces Kamala into roles that one of the X-Men usually would fill. In this issue, Jean is feeling guilty about killing the D’bari and instead of Scott, Logan or Ororo consoling her, it’s Kamala.
It’s also weird that Kamala tells Jean that Carol Danvers “might be extremely cool”. At this point, the X-Men don’t know Carol is Ms. Marvel. So Jean’s response should have been to wonder why Kamala idolizes Wolverine’s old friend who became a magazine editor.
The other point of this series seems to be to have Kamala develop her powers, like when she creates a “hard light wall” this issue. But that could have been done in the present day.
Regarding the backup. Breevort has said that this will hint at his “grand unified theory” which will explain Scott’s behavior in early X-Factor. The point seems to be that Jean’s and Scott’s rapport isn’t a “normal” psychic rapport like Xavier’s and Lilandra’s- it was created with the power of the Phoenix and linked their very souls somehow. Jean also says “when I returned, like magnets. we were irresistibly drawn to one another again”. So the idea seems to be that the rapport was responsible for Scott’s behavior in X-Factor somehow.
“Perhaps the idea is to give Sara someone from home to relate to”
That should be “the idea is to give JEAN someone from home to relate to”
Bleeding Cool’s Bestseller list is out. New Avengers 1 (which features Laura) came in at number 4, Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga 1 came in at 6 and Magik 6 came in at 8. Exceptional X-Men 10, Phoenix 12, and Deadpool/ Wolverine 6 didn’t make the list, as usual.
Magik continues to do amazingly well.
@Michael
So basically absolving Scott for leaving Madelyne Pryor for Jean. Due to the Phoenix forging a bond between Jean and Scott, this compels Scott to leave Madelyne for Jean.
I liked Ms. Marvel more in the new Japanese language Marvel fighting game trailer than I have the entirety of her time orbiting the X-Men recently.
They really didn’t have any plans for making Kamala a mutant besides synergy, did they?
I like the idea that Cyclops lacked the free will to resist returning to Jean over and over. If it goes the way it looks like it’s going, it will fit the original stories seamlessly. And it will lead to some interesting tensions for future stories. What more can you ask for in a retcon?
New Avengers also had Namor, and a swole clone of Xavier. 🙂
If they’re trying to capitalize on the success of the movie, shouldn’t Cassandra Nova be the villain in Deadpool & Wolverine? Or were the multiversal hijinks more the draw there? And in that case, shouldn’t they incorporate more alternate Deadpools and/or other alternate Marvel heroes?
I guess I just don’t understand how Marvel conceptualizes these things. It all seems so off target.
Marvel has given up on the idea of any synergy existing between comics and movies for moviegoers who are not regular comic readers. They realized that the idea of cross-promotion is very minimal. There is so much more merchandise that is readily available and appealing to movie fans who want to commemorate watching a superhero movie. “Do I want a comic book with Groot, or this fun Groot mug at Wal-Mart that has his catch phrase on the outside?”
Someone who sees a “Dark Phoenix” movie (using a hypothetical situation) isn’t going to want to go to a comic store and buy “X-Men vol. 24, issue #34, Dark Phoenix is Back Again chapter 1”. If there’s going to be any increase in demand for a comic book based on the movie, it’ll be for a TPB of the original “Dark Phoenix Saga”.
The same with the new Fantastic Four movie. A new fan may come into a comic store and see there’s a new FF #1 comic. “Is this really the first ever FF comic book?”. “Well, no. You see, it’s FF vol. 18, which is a continuation of Ryan North writing FF vol. 17.” If the new fan hasn’t run screaming out of the comic store, he’ll ask the store owner, “What are some classic FF comics and how do I read them?”.
Trades of the new tie-in story-arc are also useless as the casual fan will have forgotten all about seeing Deadpool & Wolverine by the time the mini is complete and the TPB is available. They’ve moved on to the new James Bond, Star Wars, Barbie franchise release and couldn’t care less about the Marvel movie they watched at the beginning of the year.
Basically, Marvel is just trying to make a quick buck off the usual suspects with these comics. “Hey, a new Deadpool and Wolverine comic. I just saw that movie. I buy Deadpool comics anyway, so I guess I need to check out this new Deadpool & Wolverine comic.”
The sales figures for the book show accordingly.
I’ve thought for a while that the Big Two are probably just IP Farm loss leaders for WBD and Disney. If the books are also “good” that’s an added bonus.
Also, went in the shop yesterday. How did I miss there’s a Nick Fury v Fin Fang Foom book?
Some tidbits from Breevort’s blog:
Wyre will be delivering an offer in X-Men 18. If he’s making the offer to Beast. then the Chairman could be Dark Beast.
Weapon X-Men 5 will be coming out this week. I was wondering about that, since there were no previews for it on AIPT.
Catseye and Emma will not be interacting at the Hellfire Vigil.
And Breevort answers some questions:
MARK PAGLIA:In overseeing the X-line (or any line of books), do you aim for a particular ratio of ongoing titles to limited series to one-shots?
TOM: I don’t have a specific percentage in mind or anything, Mark, but I do find it a lot easier to build distinctive series for individual characters than to come up with a variety of purposes for a team of mutants that are distinct enough to give them a decent shot at success. I suspect I lean in the direction of solo outings more than most prior X-Editors have done. Whether that’s a smart or foolish way of going about things we’ll learn over time.
HANK: In Imperial, why do Quill and Nova act as someone you know from work as opposed to close friends, something they’ve been established very heavily as (with some subtext of something a little more than just friends) in recent books such as Ewing’s GotG? Even if Hickman didn’t want to continue that particular thread, wouldn’t you as the editor encourage some reference for continuity’s sake?
TOM: Because, Hank, conflict is the engine that drives stories, and I find nothing more boring and detrimental to good, interesting interactions than everybody getting along all the time and thinking the exact same way all the time. Yes, Peter and Richard have shared some adventures and some history, but that doesn’t mean that they’re intrinsically great, unbreakable friends forever despite whatever may come.
SEASTAR: About that back up story, I really liked it and found it to be pretty interesting and brimming with possibilities. Is it something we can expect to be addressed beyond this story? I know you’ve said before that this was a trimmed down version of your theory, and you just wanted to depict the essence of it. For those of us who love a snack but also want the full steak, is this something you plan on expanding on and developing further?
TOM: We’re going to have to see what happens, Seastar. But I’d need a writer who was interested in exploring it and a story context in which exploring it would make sense. I don’t really think it’s the place of the line to simply carry out my flights of fancy. But I’m sure that we’ll come back to it at some point.
Breevort seems to be missing the point of people’s complaint about Nova and Quill. They’re not saying that Quil and Nova have to be friends NOW- they’re complaining that Hickman isn’t acknowledging that they used to be friends. They’re complaining that the editors always let Hickman get away with ignoring previous characterizations and continuity.
I do think that Breevort’s preference for solos proves he’s the wrong man to head the X-books. I could understand that attitude when he was editing the Avengers- the Avengers have had one or two team books for most of their history. But the X-Books have had 3 team books at least since 1985. The reason for this is that the X-books are full of characters that can’t support their own series but have plenty of fans. So you’re leaving these characters on the shelf unless you have multiple team books. If Breevort wasn’t skilled at creating team books, then he shouldn’t have accepted the assignment. And indeed Breevort’s biggest failures have been the team books- X-Factor, X-Force, NYX, and Weapon X-Men have all been cancelled and Exceptional X-Men is selling exceptionally badly.
“so if the plan is to retcon all that out and declare that Jean did become Phoenix and just came back from the dead in a cocoon, then fair enough, I can see how that potentially works.”
It’s just so unnecessary – for this, anyway. All they gained from it here was half an issue of Legion being Phoenix, and that may well be reset at the end anyway (then again, if they’re prepared to change the cocoon part of the history then maybe by the end of this these Giant-Sizes will be the versions of the stories that all the characters remember moving forward).
Either way, poor Tom is going to be inundated by emails from the radical fringe of X fandom.
“It’s just so unnecessary”
True of every single Phoenix story written after Jean killed herself on the Moon*.
*The Alan Davis Excalibur story is arguably the cutoff point because it’s just so damn good, but everyone since has ignored that story anyway.
“Perhaps the idea is to give Sara someone from home to relate to”
Just to clarify: do you mean Jean or Sara?
Si: Has ANYONE done anything with the concepts from Alan Davis’s Excalibur run? I know Cerise gets dusted off when someone wants a recognizable space alien and Kylun was in Age of X-Man and Knights of X, but have they actually done anything big since Excalibur?
Necrom? Feron? The reformed Technet? Anything?
@Michael: Breevort seems to be missing the point of people’s complaint
Shocking, right? I’m just trying to figure out how much of it is an “act” and how much he genuinely doesn’t get it. No story should be a slave to continuity, but consistency is deeply important in serialized narratives. Characters are obviously allowed to grow and change, but if someone is going to act differently than the last time we saw them, there needs to at least be an acknowledgment of that in the story.
It almost seems like Brevoort has a “let them cook” auteurist approach to his creatives, but what I think it really comes down to is Brevoort having very specific ideas of his own about how chararcters and the MU at large should be depicted, and as along as the stories he’s overseeing fit that vision, he doesn’t care if the vision is inconsistent with what’s come before.
@Taibak — the Technet popped up in February’s Avengers #23. They were hired by Kang and Black Cat to distract the Avengers while they tried to steal back Kang’s data files (which were being auctioned at a space casino run by the Grandmaster). And while the Technet do alright with the element of surprise, the Avengers eventually defeat them. But since their job was to stall the team, not beat them, the Technet technically earned their money.
I wouldn’t call it a “major” story, but it’s their first appearance in a long time. And a lot of them are pretty weird. I mean, Bodybag’s entire schtick is the “vore” fetish, at a time before the Internet.
Kang and Black Cat? That’s quite the team up.
So, it’s Phoenix who’s responsible for breaking up Scott and Madelyne’s marriage. Jean is Phoenix and Phoenix is Jean, so Jean is responsible for breaking up the marriage. Yes, that solved everything!
Every time I read Breevort’s responses to questions, I just come away thinking that he really doesn’t like people and rejects any criticism as being from a small number of fringe people on the Internet. Nothing’s changed since 1999.
The craziest thing about Brevoort’s comment is that “my (former?) romantic partner taking the other side of this conflict” is way more interesting than, “ugh, Peter from work disagrees with me!”
Feel like there’s a remit to dial back queerness on marquee characters here.
@Mr K- I don’t think that this is an attempt to dial back queerness. I think it’s more of a case of Hickman not doing his homework and Breevort not bothering to correct him like an editor should. When Hickman was writing FF and Breevort was editing it, there was an issue that suggested Crystal has no children. Was this part of a concerted attempt to erase Luna? No. Hickman was an idiot who forgot Luna and Breevort didn’t bother to correct him because Hickman was a “hot” writer. Something similar probably happened here- Hickman hasn’t read the last 15 years of Rich’s history and Breevort didn’t bother to correct him.
@Si, Cullen Bunn already did this when he tried to break up Teen Scott (“Tot”) & Tean Jean (“Teen”) in his X-Men Blue by having Tot have a nervous breakdown over having Teen be in his mind 24-7 , which drove him much closer to , believe it or not , the AU teen version of Vampire Storm* (that stayed behind in 616 after the Bendis X-teens beat the multiversal Hex-Men**) to the point that if she hadn’t gotten killed by OG Ahab in the lead-up to the storyline where they were forced* by a Teen Cable (“Table”) * return to the past of 616 and become their counterparts again , they would have very well become full-fledged lovers (at least that’s the direction where it was obviously headed)
* who was the only he knew who could personally relate , having become a slave/concubine of Count Dracula in her home reality
**led by Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars 2’s BattleWorld’s Goblin Queen who was the villain in 616 Fall of X’s Dark XMen
***Cullen Bunn apparently originally planned to keep them in the 616 and reveal that their past had already become an independent branching timeline due to the length of their stay in the present and the at-that-time apparently irreversible changes they had already experienced (Iceman’s coming-out-as-homosexual , Angel’s Black Vortex mutation, etcetera, Scott and Jean’s alienation of affections from each other) , then of course Jonathan Hickman’s Krakoa happened
**** ironically and hypocritically , it’s now been most heavily implied as of Fabian Nicieza’s Two Cables series that Krakoa-Era Table has himself now become an independent AU variant of 616 Cable that even if he never de-ages & mindwipes himself to preserve the timeline , 616 Cable will still continue to exist anyway moving forward
@AMRG / Taibak , Chris Claremont himself used again the TechNet in his late 1990’s FF run , and Al Ewing used them in his 2010’s Rocket Raccoon solo series
…is it possible to count all the Madelynes that have existed in 616? I’ve tried once or twice and I’m not sure I ever got it right. I think there were…
…three? OG Madelyne, sort-of-incestual X-Man Madelyne and the Secret Wars 2015 Madelyne mentioned above?
But wait, was the Matt Fraction Sisterhood Madelyne the OG Madelyne or a separate one?
@Jdsm24
I think the ‘the Teen X-Men are here to stay because their reality branched’ plot was introduced by Bendis – they go back in time and see that ‘they’ are already present there.
And then someone (probably Bunn) revealed that who they saw was actually the… Future Brotherhood from Battle of the Atom pretending to be them back in the past. For reasons.
Hey, here’s a non sequitur. Whatever happened to Brian Reed? Is he still in comics? I haven’t found anything about him after around 2010.
Taibak-I like that Alan Davis’ Excalibur is the closest the X-Men will ever get to having a Vertigo Comics version. A talented British creator being allowed to mostly do what he wants with the characters outside the confines of having to work slavishly within the confines of a shared universe. Sort of like how the DCU-version of John Constantine reintroduced by edict of Dan DiDio was meant to be the same JC from the Vertigo series, except no one really ever talked about the JC from all those issues of Hellblazer. In a similar way, it’s for the best that Davis’ Excalibur stays sort of sequestered.
I would also give the nod to Morrison bringing back Phoenix as being appropriate, considering it takes the concept back to Claremont, but moves it further, and was meant to lock away the possibility of Jean becoming the Phoenix again.
It’s amazing how many creators have attempted to distance Jean and Scott from being fated to be together, only to have later revelations show that it’s simply impossible to separate the two. It’s time for any future writers to give up and accept destiny.
Sam-Ah, but you’re forgetting how Madelyne was already sacrificed to attempt to absolve Scott of guilt over leaving his wife and child by revealing she was a clone created by an evil supervillain for nefarious purposes.
That still wasn’t far enough, I guess. So, now, the new revelation will cement the fact that Phoenix/Jean was attempting to save Scott from making a horrible mistake by staying with evil Sinister’s clone. Scott was totally and completely in the right all along. It wasn’t just Scott’s intuition about Madelyne, he was being guided to the side of light by Cosmic Love.
I think the word “unnecessary” does apply.
Re: Brian Reed-I decided to look online and see what I could find. He apparently moved on to write for video games after his comic career. He wrote the script for Halo 5, which was, I guess, severely panned (I no longer play video games, so I have no idea, but I do love the Super Nintendo). It says he stepped down from his position at the studio in 2017, and that seems to be where his trail ends.
Workshopping a Proust Madeline Pryor joke, haven’t gotten it yet.
Ok, I don’t know what they’re going to do with Phoenix, but ideally, it will be about two people trapped by destiny. Not Phoenix manipulating anyone, definitely not Jean manipulating anyone, just a situation where the very universe is robbing these two people of their free will, maybe so Cable can be born and keep the timeline clean or whatever. It fixes various problem storylines, and it leaves room for a lot of drama. How do they know they’re even really in love? Do they fight their destiny? Embrace it? What if one decides to fight it but the other decides to fight it?
Chances are that what we’ll actually get is a story that just makes everything worse, and/or is immediately undermined by another story. But I think the concept is neat.
@Krzysiek, I believe it’s canon that 1980’s OG Madelyne, 1990’s Incest Madelyne , 2000’s Sisterhood Madelyne are all the same person , she died , was accidentally resurrected by her AU nephew (who she may or may not have hooked up with, but who she obviously chased around , maybe due to the magnetic soul-bond of Scott and Jean , since she’s Jean’s clone and Nate is Scott’s bio son LOL) , was secretly murdered again by an evil AU counterpart of Jean (who ironically posed as her on both Earth-616 and on yet another parallel Earth) , and was resurrected by the Sisterhood during the Utopia Era and lied low until the Krakoan Era.
And keeping the Teen 05 was one Bendis idea that I actually supported (aside from his restorative retcon of Planet X Xorneto being Xorn + Magneto) and wished editorial had kept in the 8th Marvel Cosmos Prime-Earth . And this is not just my own theory , in fact it was theorized on 4Chan’s /CO/ during the “New X-Men” teasing in 2023/4 (that disappointingly just became the All-Wolverine version of the 2000’s Exiles) , that maybe the Teen 05 were resurrected during the Krakoa Era as soul-split split personalities* of their adult selves , who had come once again to restore traditional superheroism to the 616 X-gene mutant community after the supremacism-slash-separatism of the Krakoa Era .
*which has precedent in 616 , this happened multiple times over the decades with Bruce Banner and his alters , this is happening now with Legion and his alters , was done by with Warren during the I vs X with Celestial LifeSeed Nu-Warren in the original body and the Apocalypse Horseman of Death OG-Warren resurrected ** in a clone body when Clan Akkaba began harvesting and implanting his eternally-regenerating metal wings , DC also did this to explain why there are now 2 HawkGirls , the classic WASP HG who is in an eternal couple with Hawkman*** and the modern Latina HG who is not paired with anybody
** Peter David or whoever in Marvel came up with the idea that the first clones of deceased people were indeed their genuine physical resurrections , was indeed a genius , it resolved so many plotholes in 616 continuity
@Si, ***Scott and Jean are now apparently the DC counterparts of Hawkman and Hawkgirl , and the Phoenix is coincidentally-serendipitously a giant alien cosmic spacebird too like the Hawkgods of DC LOL
I really enjoyed most of the stories about the time displaced O5, which is odd because I don’t really have any attachment to any of the adult characters. There was just some undefinable chemistry between them. And between young Cyclops and whoever he was hanging around with.
I’d happily see them back.
Re: Davis’ Excalibur issue (#52?) explaining the Phoenix backstory. I just want to acknowledge how much I loved that issue! Pre internet days, I was still piecing everything together through back issues and missing whole stories. Finally, it all made sense!! So I would just like his grand unifying theory to be recognised for the superlative effort it was 🙂
I also still like the later revelation where Rachel discovers that Phoenix is powered by life as yet unborn. It’s so hideous, it’s amazing. Unsurprised they dropped it, though it could have been a lie by Necrom! 🙂 🙂
I love all the comments for digging over this stuff, thank you X-Axis/HOA for existing
@Evilgus- the problem most people had with that issue was that the idea that Rachel’s mother was a Jean who never became Phoenix makes no sense. And Rachel’s memories weren’t screwed up when she was with the X-Men- the cause was implied to be Spiral, not the Phoenix Force.
Makes me wish we got that miniseries covering Rachel’s time in Mojoverse got published.
It’s wild to me that Kieron Gillen (from IXM to XMF and ROTPOX) actually managed to arc weld all the Phoenix nonsense into something internally coherent and satisfying, and less than a year later it’s back to being both confusing and unexciting.
It’s not the end of the world but it doesn’t give me confidence in Tom Brevoort’s direction for the X-books. I didn’t have a lot to begin with; I know we can do better. Phoenix continuing while NYX, for example, did not feels so arbitrary.
I wonder if the big dumb bird will show up in Imperial
Didn’t Inferno (the original one from 1988) establish that Madelyne was a failed, stillborn clone until a little spark of Phoenix force zipped by and animated her? So she had a little Phoenix in her from the start.
If Scott had a magical rapport with the Phoenix force, it should have made him want to *stay* with Madelyne, not leave her.
@Jason- But it did that because Jean rejected the Phoenix in the cocoon and Breevort has cast doubt on whether the cocoon existed at that point. Breevort seems to be saying that Jean WAS the Phoenix and the cocoon only came Into existence months after her death.So everything we learned in X-Factor 38 is suspect.
@Jason , yeah , but there was still much more Phoenix in OF Jean , than in Madelyne , but Chris Claremont himself apparently agrees with you , Madelyne in XMen : The End * was supposedly , in her own words , the part of Jean’s soul that loved Scott with all her heart ( I.e. WASNT attracted to anyone else , especially Wolverine; indeed , Maddie began hooking-up with other guys only after Scott had definitively dumped her) , while post-resurrection Jean supposedly wasn’t (which is why was now willing to get physical with Wolverine even while she was still in a relationship again with Scott I.e. Genosha) . Now , of course there was that period in the 1990’s that their marriage was 100% solid such that even when Jean was already apparently widowed , she never bother to get together with anybody else , even Wolverine (Chris Claremont’s Revolution Era) until ironically she began to host the Phoenix again (New XMen era of Joe Casey and Grant Morisson) but I No-Prize Jean’s monogamous faithfulness as being due to an extended honeymoon phase from the after effects of merging back with Maddy’s soul (or at least her own memories) after her death during Inferno , until Maddy proper was resurrected accidentally by X-Man after the Afe of Apocalypse event . But why were Jean and Scott still being driven apart from each other , when Jean was hosting the Phoenix again in New XMen! Because this soul-bond only exists in 616 , not in XMen : The End , obviously .
*(originally an alternate future of 616 , now apparently a whole different timeline only superficially identical to 616, after all of Jonathan Hickman’s retcons making the two timelines impossible to still be one and the same)