{"id":10967,"date":"2025-04-10T21:19:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T20:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10967"},"modified":"2025-04-10T21:19:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T20:19:21","slug":"phoenix-10-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10967","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix #10 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>PHOENIX #10<\/strong>
\nWriter: Stephanie Phillips<\/strong>
\nArtist: Alessandro Miracolo<\/strong>
\nColour artist: David Curiel<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Cory Petit<\/strong>
\nEditor: Annalise Bissa<\/strong><\/p>\n

PHOENIX<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/em> #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.)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

She claims that her focus is on cosmic balance and that the universe is a garden for her to tend.<\/p>\n

SUPPORTING CAST<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adani.<\/strong> 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.)<\/p>\n

Sara Grey-Bailey.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

Sara and her husband disappeared in X-Factor<\/em> #12 (1987) shortly after speaking out in support of mutants, a storyline that never went anywhere. X-Men<\/em> #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.<\/p>\n

VILLAINS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dark Gods.<\/strong> As usual, it’s Zelia, Perrikus, Adva, Tokkots, Slototh <\/strong>and D’Chel<\/strong>. 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.<\/p>\n

Thanos\u00a0<\/strong>has a cameo, reacting to the Dark Gods’ defeat.<\/p>\n

GUEST CAST<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nova\u00a0<\/strong>and Rocket<\/strong> show up briefly, reacting to the story climax, and then visiting the orphanage.<\/p>\n

CONTINUITY REFERENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n