UNCANNY X-MEN #138: Elegy (Featuring Final Thoughts on the Dark Phoenix Saga!)

Ashes to ashes...

Originally Published October 1980

We begin back on Earth, where the X-Men - both the originals and the new - have assembled for the funeral of Jean Grey. Cyclops reflects on how just a few days ago he was planning on marrying her, and now she's gone. He thinks about their time together...

Beast kindly shaved for the occasion

All of it...

From the very beginning...

In great detail.

Great. Detail.

Despite the cover's promise of an  "All New" issue (something they don't usually bother to highlight) this is in fact, essentially, a clip show, with Byrne and Claremont revisiting many of the highlights of the X-Men's adventures from the 1960's and 70's.

Also he was a robot. Everybody forgets that.

It's actually a bit of a trying read. I mean, who on Earth would want to re-live the entire history of the X-Men in one go?

It's understandable - the creators had to basically throw out whatever they were planning when they ended up killing a major character, so doing a clip show issue is a fine way to buy time while you rebuild your plans. But the story meanders away from the framing device of "Scott thinking about his time with Jean" to "Scott thinks about every single bad guy they've ever fought." While Scott and Jean's budding romance was always present in the original stories, it was never really in the foreground, so if you're purely working with what was on the printed page, you're not actually going to get a lot of romance, but you are going to get a lot of Magneto.

And just a smidge of these guys.

I actually wish the story had been more revisionist in some way, to really wrench the bittersweetness of losing Jean and construct some kind of consistent narrative for the first 15 or so years of X-Men stories, instead of taking this route, which actually severely downplays Jean's presence in the original X-Men stories.

There is one real addition that I quite enjoyed, which is a (very brief) scene of Scott confessing to Jean about his insecurities - not just about his optic blasts, but about not feeling like he belonged anywhere. If the entire issue had taken that tack - embellishing on what was there instead of merely reprinting it - the issue might have been very artful. In its way, it would be the predecessor of X-Men Classic - and you can read all about that on Jacob's new blog.

This scene highlights Chris Claremont's interest in exploring Cyclops' past, which we've already seen in the character of Corsair, whom Jean knew to be Cyclops' father. Earlier, I had thought that the book hadn't established that Cyclops was an orphan in the original run, but I was mistaken. In fact, it was included - albeit in an extremely missable throwaway line - in the first part of Cyclops' origin backup story - you know, the one with Jack O'Diamonds.

The story since Jean's transformation into Phoenix gets skimmed pretty badly, which is a shame since it would seem the most coherent stretch of story, and it's the part that could use the most summing up despite being more recent. It would be nice to go back to where the ball really started rolling on this Phoenix thing and pretend it was all planned from the beginning.

Oddly, one figure who is completely dropped out of the narrative is Shakari/Eric the Red, who appeared to be the main antagonist of the X-Men until we met Emperor D'Ken, and then disappeared  completely with his master, never to be heard from again.



Never forget.

In the end, Cyclops decides he needs some space and announces he is leaving the X-Men. Xavier is cool with that, pretty much assuming he'll be back eventually. The issue ends with Kitty Pryde arriving at the Xavier School for her first day of class, and finding it pretty much deserted.

Seriously love it when a story ends with "The Beginning..."

Further Thoughts on the Dark Phoenix Saga:

There is a lot more to say about the Dark Phoenix Saga. In an era where we are more conscientious about how female characters are treated, I think there is a genuine debate to be had about whether the creators here did right by Jean, or if she is merely a prop in the X-Men's story. I think their intentions, to examine the nature of power through the prism of one young woman's psyche and heart, is noble enough. One thing that makes it so great is that it unsettles the foundations of the very genre of superhero adventures, without ever toppling it outright. And it's relatively revolutionary to do so with such a longstanding character, who has the cachet of being a "Stan & Jack" original creation. Whether some of the storytelling decisions to pursue that don't hold up... that's another convo, and one we absolutely should continue to have.

For kids.

When I was a kid, I had a collected edition of the Dark Phoenix Saga - from the issue after Proteus' defeat until Jean's sacrifice on the moon. The idea with these editions (formally called Trade Paperbacks) is that you are reading a complete story, rather than getting it in pieces. But that's a lie. You're getting multiple full stories, but also only a small piece of it.

As I read through that TPB - repeatedly, every summer - I was innately aware I was reading individual comics. First we're fighting the White Queen, then we're meeting Dazzler. Then we're at the Hellfire Club. Then before you know it Phoenix is eating a sun. This does not scream of being one story chopped up into pieces and proceeding apace, even as you have the ongoing cliffhangers like Wolverine making his big comeback or Cyclops' supposed death at the hands of Wyngarde. These are entries in an overall arc about Jean Grey becoming Dark Phoenix - all satisfying for themselves, in action, suspense and thrills, and only when you look back you say "Oh, now I see it."

And of course, it's only a sliver of the story. You come in long after the beginning. On that first page, the X-Men are saying, "Boy, that Proteus was really tough" (maybe not a direct quote) and Jean has been having her timeslips for several issues. And she's been "Phoenix" for years, but we are aware she was once a relatively normal young lady called Marvel Girl, who wore a funny yellow mask and green minidress.

And when it's over, it's over - the menace has ended for better or worse - but it's not over, because the X-Men will never be the same (really!) but will go on to innumerable further adventures. That's underscored by the presence of Kitty Pryde at the end of this issue, taking her place as the new young X-Man.

The older I get, and the less things generally impress me, the more I am enthralled by this simple trick. You read a comic, and you get a full experience (ideally) but you also want to come back for more. And there is more. Certainly when you're dealing with the X-Men, there is a lot more.

The reason I love The Dark Phoenix Saga is that it is an essential comic book story, not just a great story told in comics. Any medium would be a fine place to tell a tragic story about a humble girl who gains the power of infinity and destroys herself before it consumes her. But to let it be part - ultimately a key part but not intended to be more than merely another part - of this giant, sprawling, neverending cycle, this rollercoaster punctuated by little episodes that could amount to something much bigger - that stoked my imagination years ago, and it does today. It's why this site exists.

Sometimes, as we see in this very issue, it's messy to think about all at once, but when it works, the results are legend.