X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga

A great deal of the story in this collected edition is about Jean Grey's eventual breakdown into Dark Phoenix, including a couple of side adventures that may seem superfluous. But stay keen for signs of Grey's stress and increasing loss of control. Once she goes "full Dark," the writing takes on a grandiose tone that fits the situation perfectly - hey, we're talking about the annihilation of the universe, here! If Professor Xavier is going to hold a psychic feud with Dark Phoenix, you're darn right there will be painterly, center-frame images of a handicapped man lying in the wake of Phoenix's all-consuming flames.

I'm going to admit to a small love affair with this story. It may be completely dated, but to me it remains one of the most defining X-Men stories. Ever.

Back in the day, the Chris Claremont and John Byrne run on X-Men was one of the most exciting eras in the comic's history. Quite a bit of what we see happening in the X-Men stories of today are direct results of what these two men did with the characters back then, and nothing seemed to be bigger during that time than the Dark Phoenix Saga. Jean Grey had been reborn as Phoenix after saving her teammates at the apparent cost of her own life. It quickly became clear that her powers had grown tremendously, and seemed to continue growing exponentially. Eventually, through the manipulations show more of Mastermind, the true overwhelming potential of her power became evident and Dark Phoenix was born, a being with powers of a cosmic proportion. To sate her hunger, she consumed a star, causing it to go supernova and destroying an inhabited world. Upon arriving back to Earth, the X-Men attacked Jean and tried to diffuse her power. When they were unable to accomplish this, Professor X took matters in his own hands and challenged Dark Phoenix on the psychic level, and won, supposedly locking Dark Phoenix back away in Jean's mind. However at that moment, in order to pay for her transgressions, Lilandra kidnapped the X-Men and sentenced Phoenix to death. Professor X challenged his X-Men against Lilandra's Imperial Guard for the life of Jean Grey, and both teams were sent to the Blue Area of the moon to battle. During the course of the battle, Jean began to feel Dark Phoenix taking control, and instead of allowing that to happen and to have more blood on her hands, she decides to take her own life, thus ending the battle.

There were so many other great moments in this storyline: the introduction of Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club, Kitty Pryde, Dazzler. All of this was paving the road for some great stories through the rest of the 80s. Like I said before, it it definitely dated. The need to re-introduce a characters name and their power and/or weakness, ever single issue, becomes even more tiring when you're reading a collected edition like this, but even so, I still love to pull this off the shelf every couple of years to give it a reread. This new 30th Anniversary Edition is gorgeous, and the coloring is nice and crisp.

Now, for the only complaint about the collection: charging $75 for this edition is ridiculous. The two Inferno collections cost $75 each, and they each collect roughly 600 pages of story each, where The Dark Phoenix Saga is only 350 pages. To me, this is something of a ripoff. This new edition does collect a short story from Classic X-Men and Bizarre Adventures, the Phoenix: The Untold Story one-shot (which is the original version of the story where Jean Grey lives) and a What If? story about what would have happened if Jean Grey lived, but still, $75 is a steep price for this collection. It is so nicely presented that I can almost forgive them the price, but just barely; obviously, it didn't stop me from buying the edition.

I would highly recommend this edition to any X-Men fans, but for somebody who is just looking for a quick read and is not as interested in all the extras with this edition, spend the lesser money and get the trade paperback edition. This edition is really only for the hard-core fans. show less

It's a very different story than what we see in the X-men movies, in large part because you simply couldn't tell this exact story in a mainstream movie. It is, however, a good story, even if a couple parts seemed contradictory.

I've heard it suggested the the author has issues with women. Yeah, I can see that :)

A reprinting of a nine-book X-Men storyline involving Jean Grey and her gradual transformation into the all-powerful Phoenix. The writer is fully cognizant of the saying about absolute power, and it is utilized to full and satisfying extent here. In the end, though, Jean Grey's humanity wins out for a brief moment, with tragic and heroic results. One of the comic book's best storylines.

This may have been the first graphic novel I ever purchased, back in 1986 or 1987, at a used book store that my dad had taken me to while we were waiting for my mom to get out of work one day. What a book; it blew my 9- or 10-year-old mind. It had everything I wanted to read about: a diverse team of super-powered mutants, alien warriors, a secret Victorian-style gentleman's club, a redhead in leather... Okay, I was very advanced for a 9-10 year old. Before this graphic novel, I read a lot of Archie comics, some Eerie and Creepy comics (reprints? I don't know but there were a lot of them at the drug store down the street from my grandparents' house), and DC comics such as Superman, Green Lantern, etc. After this I was Marvel all the way. show more This tragic story holds up amazingly well, even with the knowledge that it has been replayed and retconned to tears over the years. show less

A very old foe teams up with some new ones in a plot to bring Phoenix over to their side, and everyone gets more than they ever bargained for in this classic storyline from 1980. That's all I'll say about it, in case it's new to anyone reading this. This is how comics should be done.

This 30th anniversary edition also includes a number of supplements:

- A Phoenix story from one of Marvel's B&W magazines.

- A back-up story from the Classic X-Men reprint series. Could have done without this one. It's a lot of metaphysical nonsense, the art is sub-par, and it retroactively inserts a future villain into past events, tainting them in my view. A bizarre and confusing piece.

- The original version of the final chapter to the Phoenix saga, with show more commentary.

- A "What If...?" story depicting yet another alternate outcome to Phoenix's story.

- Cover art from Classic X-Men and previous editions of this collection, plus some pages from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. show less

This was definitely one of the more powerful story arcs and one that would have lasting effects through the universe. The TV adaptation of this was also pretty good. Plenty of action, drama, and twists!