UNCANNY X-MEN #135: DARK PHOENIX

Phoenix has become Dark. Here's what that means for you and your family.

Originally Published July 1980

So.

Just when the X-Men thought they were escaping, more or less intact and victorious over the evil Hellfire Club's bid to use them as fodder for potential mutant world domination, Jean, the ultrapowerful telepathic mutant currently known as Phoenix, turns around and reveals she has taken the identity of Dark Phoenix, after being manipulated into embracing her baser desires and impulses by Mastermind.

In the process, she destroys yet another one of the X-Men's aircraft.

John Byrne illustrates yet another one of those "X-Men fall from the sky" montages made famous by his idol Neal Adams as our heroes wonder what, exactly is up with their friend.

Jean begins to lash out at the X-Men in ways reminiscent of their previous ultimate reality-warping foe Proteus, to prove she is very serious, while writer Chris Claremont, using Cyclops as a medium, explains exactly what we're looking at here.

Rest assured - this is a classic Chris Claremont Sex Type Thing. The scripter is using the medium of superheroes to explore the erotic allure of ultimate power, insofar as these things can be broached in a comic approved for All Ages by the Comics Code Authority. What Chris is saying is that Jean wants to get her cosmic freak on, and that's dangerous. Hot, but dangerous.

The X-Men are ill-prepared to be fighting their own most powerful member, and fall in short order. Jean does favour us though, by telling exactly why she had to slay her dearest friends:

We are treated to a very special montage of various Marvel Characters, who might be in tune with such things, taking note of the "birth" of Dark Phoenix, the unleashing of her powers upon the world:

It's the kind of cute storytelling trick you can do to establish a character or event as a Big Effin' Deal, but must be used sparingly. This feels like a good time to drag it out

At nearby Hellfire HQ, the recently-defeated Sebastian Shaw uses the opportunity to network with Senator Kelly, who had been attending the Club's 'do. Shaw surfaces the idea of reviving the Sentinel program - always a popular option. Kelly is open to the idea seeing as they were all just "attacked" by a group of rogue mutants. You've got to admire Shaw for the way he turns a negative into a positive.

 

After Jean blasts off for the stars, Beast arrives and finds the X-Men thoroughly wiped, but actually pretty okay. Whether this means that Jean still has mercy for her friends, or the Phoenix is not as all-powerful as advertised, or this is just a comic for kids where the heroes cannot be brutally murdered en masse, you can decide.

Elsewhere - in two elsewheres, actually - the Prof and Moira touch base and share what they know about Jean's status - very powerful and demonstrably out of control.

The Prof, for his part, sums it up with a glib, albeit apt enough, statement about absolute power corrupting absolutely, noting that it's all because Jean is just too young to be self-aware about her powers.

Typical Millennial snowflake, incapable of curbing her unlimited psychic capabilities

Out in deep space, Dark Phoenix has arrived, by way of a stargate she opened herself, in a distant star system. Powerful though she may be, she finds she still has limits, taxing her abilities to perform these feats, weakening and in need of refreshment. So she, you know, eats a sun.

Now that is a spicy meatball.

That particular star is being orbited by planet inhabited by a race of hapless-looking asparagus people, whose fate is shown in minute detail courtesy of our creative team. We see the horrified expressions on their faces as a mysterious, beautiful, and irrevocable death comes suddenly for them out of the skies, and then as their planet is reduced to cookie crumbs.

At least in Star Wars, when the bad guys destroyed Alderaan, George Lucas wasn't so cruel as to give us their point of view on it. Yikes.

The destruction catches the attention of a passing spaceship - one of the Shi'ar's Imperial Fleet, who wisely decide to singlehandedly combat the mysterious being that just et up a whole damn sun.

They all die too, but not before contacting Empress Lilandra and apprising her of the strange Earthling Creature that has journey into deep space bent on wanton destruction and malice.

You remember Lilandra, right? Empress of the Shi'ar Empire, battle-hardened warrior Queen, sometimes-lover of Professor X?

She decides, not unjustifiably, that this is the sort of thing she should look into.

Back on Earth, the X-Men are nursing their wounds and reflecting on exactly what level of hopeless their situation is, when Cyclops gets a psychic IM via his rapport with Jean.

Hungry?? She just ate! What's she looking for, dessert??

To be continued!