PHOENIX #15
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Roi Mercado
Colour artist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa

COVER: Well, that’s Phoenix being a bit upset, I guess.

This is the final issue of Phoenix before “Age of Revelation”, where it’s being replaced by Binary. Spoilers: it’s a bit of a mess.

PAGES 1-3. Flashback: Oblivion is persuaded to join the intervention against Phoenix.

This flashback takes place before the final scene of the previous issue, where Marvel’s pantheon of abstract cosmic entities lured Phoenix to the White Hot Room to confront her about her refusal to destroy Sara Grey. We established in issue #13 that Sara is not Jean’s real sister, but rather a copy inadvertently created by Jean from her memories of Sara in issue #10. We are assured that Sara’s continuing existence leads to a future timeline which is some sort of zombie wasteland, and so she must be destroyed. Why? It just does. But it’s really important to the plot that it just does. It’s literally the entire premise of the plot. So make a note of that, we’ll come back to it later!

Oblivion apparently thinks that the pantheon intend to destroy Phoenix – which he’s opposed to, because he regards Phoenix as serving a vital role of creation to balance out his own function. Eternity insists that this is a last resort, which is apparently enough to persuade Oblivion to participate after all. He was with the rest of the pantheon last issue, after all. The rest of the issue also seems to imply that Oblivion is obliged to serve as the executioner, presumably because… well, he’s Oblivion.

PAGES 4-6. Phoenix and the former hosts fight the pantheon.

I explained who the guest stars are in the annotations for last issue.

None of these guest stars really contribute anything – aside from one line from Rachel, they don’t even get any dialogue. Instead, we move straight on to the point that Sara’s existence will destroy the White Hot Room and all the souls inside it, “followed by the rest of the universe collapsing inward on itself.” In fact, cracks seem to appear in the guest stars just as we’ve seen cracks in the White Hot Room in previous issues of this arc.

So again, let’s just note that it’s absolutely central to the plot that Sara somehow jeopardises existence, even if there’s no apparent reason why that should be the case.

PAGES 7-8. The pantheon decide to destroy Jean.

Oblivion puts up no real resistance to this, and everyone else just recites their agreement.

PAGES 9-12. Phoenix tries and fails to hold the White Hot Room together.

We get a recap of what Jean has done so far in this series: she “reignited stars” and “stabilized black holes” in issue #1, “ended a god-killer” in issue #5 (Gorr), and “stood against the Dark Gods” in issue #10.

Oblivion appears to draw a distinction between Phoenix and Jean Grey, since he claims that she’s changed it for the better – but also immediately claims that she is the Phoenix, which is more in line with current established continuity. In fairness, that continuity still involves the two being separate and distinct entities for extended periods, so Oblivion is probably meant to be conveying that the Phoenix has finally been made whole in its current merger with Jean, both being aspects of one another.

PAGES 13-15. Sara argues for Jean’s life.

Sara makes a fairly standard argument that the gods need the perspective and compassion of mortals. Remarkably, everyone is immediately persuaded by this. However, Eternity immediately reminds us of the problem posed by her existing. He claims that Jean used “a piece of [the universe’s] spine” to create her, and Sara responds by offering her own life.

Now, presumably this is more complex than just killing her, because if Sara was up for that – and by all appearances she was willing to die last issue too – then it would have been a lot easier to just kill her without bringing Jean along to object. And that makes some sense, because presumably she needs to be un-created in some way.

PAGES 16-17. Phoenix refuses to let Sara die.

Jean gives us a greeting-card speech about how her sister is worth the entire universe, and tells us how all life is sacred. She simply refuses to accept the premise that any sacrifice is ever needed for anything, and that difficult decisions ever need to be made. No evidence is provided for any of this – she just asserts it as self-evident.

PAGES 18-19. Epilogue: Sarah becomes “Beacon”.

Sara is now Beacon, a sort of conscience of the gods. The end.

What’s that you say? What happened about the bit where the entire premise of the story was that Sara’s existence would end everything, and we even saw the White Hot Room literally cracking apart as a result of her very existence? How did that get solved? Well, as near as I can fathom, it just stopped being an issue because Jean said it wasn’t allowed to be a problem any more.

Five issues, for that?