Gauntlet's Guide to Phoenix

And I'm talking about the FIRST Phoenix, here!

Right. Well, I'm not talkin' about the mythical bird of fire here, OH-no. I'm a talking about Jean Gray, Phoenix! Well, some of you may not know her from comic book fame - and fie on you! - so I will begin by explaining her story.

Now let's take a break right here and examine this for just 1 momento! Jean was always the weakest X-man at this point. That's a-right! She was the Princess Toadstool of the group! They probably only kept her around to try to get some action. Well up she went from the bay in a new shiny suit declaring herself Phoenix! Big power-up for Jeanie! What do you say? I'm missing some parts of her origin?? Quiet, fool, I'll get to that! After a few days in a hospital bed she beat the living snot outta the former herald of Galactus, Firelord, and then whipped up a stargate and transported herself and the X-men to face the Shi-ar on the unnamed planet!

 

Blah, blah, blah, saves the universe, yadda, yadda, yadda, power increases with time, and to make a long story short Jason Wyn-something-or-othe aka Mastermind brings out Jeanie's dark side making her become Dark Phoenix!

Now Dark Phoenix was one bad muthah! She went on a fit and beat the X-men like rag dolls and then blew up an entire star system! Then she blasted a Shi-ar warship to pieces for kicks. Upon returning to Earth, she tussled with the X-men for a bit and then faced off against Professor Xavier himself on a psychic one-on-one! Well, as powerful as Darkie was, she just wasn't quite up to snuff yet as the Prof. beat her and restored Jean to her former self. Okay, it wasn't that simple, the good in Jean fought with the bad, but still. Anyways, the Shi-ar came down and agreed that it'll all be settled in a big fight. The 6 X-men vs the 20-or-so Shi-ar imperial soldiers! Not a fair fight...... But they fought anyway and in the midst of all the chaos Jean became Phoenix again! She blasted at people wildly and finally came into a alleyway with Cyclops.

Now, this was before death became a cheesy reader-grab thing that Marvel is infamous for. So, Jean had a real chance of biting the big one here.

Her death was also one of the most emotional in comics .... well, before being retconned to oblivion. Hey, don't get me wrong, I love all the Phoenixes, but retconning the ending into a shambles really cheapens the character!

The Phoenix came back - the very next day. The Phoenix came back - you thought she was a goner! Yup. Phoenix had developed quite the fan following at this point, so she came back in the form of her daughter, Rachel Summers. Rachel came from an alternate time line where Sentinels ruled the Earth (Stop me if you've heard this one!) Well, eventually, she manifested the Phoenix power. But Rachel never could get her head on straight. She was kicked outta the X-men and eventually joined the team Excalibur.

Then the powers-that-be decided they wanted to make a team with the original X-men - X-Factor. To do this they established one helluva retcon! They said that the Phoenix in the Phoenix saga was never Jean a all, but some kinda clone! The Phoenix was actually a galactically powerful force that chose Jean as a template to experience human life. Kinda dulls the entire Dark Phoenix Saga, don't it? Spider-man has NOTHING on the clone-happy saga of Jean Grey! In case you haven't guessed, this is the little plot-wrinkle that made Phoenix's origin just a little more complex than it needed to be - just to bring Jean back. Lemme summ up.

Alright, so Jean herself was never Phoenix. Well, not until recent comics, anyways. But her daughter from an alternate future - Rachel Summers - had gotten herself attached to Phoenix. And Rachel was never quite there. If she wasn't off to kill the Beyonder, her memories were all messed up! Always whining about being a mutant-hunting hound (in her future that's what she did) and then when she finally got her act together, she was flung into the far, far future where she grew up into Mother Askani. Of course she appears in the comic Cable sometimes, so I dunnno what's going on there.

Didn't end there, folks. There have been many, many, many Phoenixes in regular continuity, although Jean and Rachel get top billing.

According to the story Feron was the first Phoenix host. He summoned the Phoenix for a little pet-project until Necrom ripped it from him.
For a powerful wielder of the Phoenix Force, Necrom has a distinct lack of clothing. He ripped the Phoenix from Feron so that, when it returned many years from then, he could take control, collapse reality and become a God. Of course his intricate, delicately - laid plan failed.
The Jean - clone that was Phoenix. I already talked about her.
Rachel (in her first costume) is Jean's alternate - future daughter. She got the Phoenix when it hitched a ride to her future. Taking a liking to Rachel's attitude it saved her and used her mutant power of mind time-travel (amped up) to travel to the current time. It dumped her after a fight in the future, though.
Spider-man! Really? No. It was just a robot of Rachel he cannibalized to make it look like he has Phoenix powers. But it really had you goin' for a while, right?
Giraud AKA Phoenix 9 as in the ninth holder of the Phoenix. Part of the future team called the Galactic Guardians. Although his future timeline DID diverge from the normal one, I'm listing him because the Galactic Guardians did have an entire series. This guy had few really good moments in the series. Only 3 of the issues really featured him at all. Using the Phoenix power or not.
Madelyne Prior. Remember when I said Jean woke up from her cocoon one day? Well, that was because the Phoenix tried to give her her memories - and ones of her as the Phoenix - back. But she rejected it. So, the Phoenix found Mr. Sinister's Jean clone (Mr. Sinister just loves his clones) and gave her the memories. She trapped the small piece of the Phoenix in her head .... not that it did her much good. No real power came with it.
Prime. In a big crossover with Malibu comics, Marvel tried to hype up the "event" called "the Phoenix Resurrection" promising a new host for the Phoenix! Prime was not it. Just sort of a part in the story. Phoenix took ahold of him so it could recuperate from an attack made by ancient alien ships that were part of Prime's reality (don't ask).
Amber Hunt - the hyped up Phoenix host for the "event". She was Phoenix for 10 pages. I counted. And not all of those pages either. Overhyped? Yes. Very. But the crossover isn't even considered in continuity anymore, so it hardly matters. However, it USED to be in continuity, so she's listed here.
Foxfire - the big payoff in the Phoenix Resurrections. Weird future soldier with some Phoenix energy thanks to a blast from Amber-Phoenix. She had a 4-issue miniseries where she got to act all tough around the Punisher.
Jean Grey - for real this time. One issue, Jean just started using Phoenix powers. A few years later and her "emerging Phoenix powers" are still a sub-plot. *sigh*
Diamanda Nero. She came from an alternate-reality future where Apocalypse rules the world and she is one of his generals (yes, another alternate reality). Her mutant power is absorbing other mutant's powers. Remember how I said Rachel had to ditch the Phoenix? Well, it was to pop Nero like a balloon - not killing here, but robbing her of her powers. However, the Phoenix dumped Rachel after this little stunt. Kinda funny since, in Excalibur, it seemed so attached to Rachel.

How about non-continuity Phoenixes? A fairly recent "Amalgam" crossover combined Marvel characters with DC characters creating "Firebird" and later "Dark Firebird". During a earlier DC/Marvel crossover Cyclops briefly became possessed by Phoenix. Nightcrawler became Phoenix in a What If issue where he did so only so that the Shi-ar could destroy the Phoenix before it made the sun go super-nova. Storm also became the Phoenix in a What If issue. Yep, Phoenix by the barrel full!

Despite my saying that all the other Phoenixes are a bad thing, I still love 'em. I love all the What If? Phoenix stories too! I like the fact that Phoenix endures no matter what. She'll always come back, no matter how final the end seems!

I am Gauntlet and this has been Gauntlet's guides.

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