Readthrough: Classic X-Men 8

[sheliak]

Twenty-seven minutes to Earth's atmosphere.

Not long at all.

Just the rest of my life.

Nothing like going out in a blaze of glory.

So long as I don't take the X-Men with me.

Keep it up with the jokes, girl. Anything to keep from screaming.

Jean is facing higher levels of radiation than expected--far more than she can expect to withstand for the half-hour she needs. Peter Corbeau observes that any of the others would be dead in seconds; Jean will be lucky to last minutes.

Overwhelmed and afraid, knowing her telekinetic shields won't protect her long, she prays desperately for luck or aid.

She is answered.

An ancient cosmic being has been listening to her desperate struggle, and now, as she is dying, it reveals itself to her. Jean demands to know who she's speaking to. "The sum and substance of life and hopes and dreams," is the answer.



Sometimes Jean's thought balloons have the normal format; sometimes they're thick-edged like the other's speech balloons, as if the boundary between the two of them is already becoming indistinct. And as the conversation goes on, the glowing form becomes more human--and more similar to Jean, though still faceless.

Jean asks what this stranger wants with her.

You called, child of man.

And I, mother of stars, answered.

It is for you to name your heart's desire.

Jean doesn't know exactly what she's signing onto, but she's cautious. Rather than reassuring her, the being tells her she's right.

Be warned-- the fire I offer can burn as well as warm-- destroy as easily as heal-- and it always consumes. The glory I offer is transcendent; likewise, the danger. And the flame, once taken, can never be extinguished.

All things are possible, child

and you may yet

-- dance with the devil without.

... and the far more terrible one within!

The glowing form of the entity takes on Jean's features at this point; her mortal body is apparently discarded as her senses expand into the cosmic--and then she realizes that her body is not yet dead. Some part of her refused the bargain, she thinks.

--I am Phoenix!

Taken on its own, I find this story a bit awkward--although the Phoenix has some great lines. But this is one case where context makes a big difference.

Originally, Phoenix was simply Jean Grey: Jean Grey with her powers supercharged, but nothing and no one else. She struggled with cosmic power, saved the universe, and finally sacrificed herself to preserve it from herself.

At the time that this story was written, Jean Grey was back from the dead, and the price of her return was a retcon. As Phoenix, Jean had been a great hero; as Dark Phoenix, she had destroyed an inhabited planet, and Marvel's then-editor in chief wouldn't allow her to live while she was guilty of that crime. So, to have her return, the crime had to be pinned on someone else: the cosmic entity the Phoenix, which took her form and lived her life, finally dying in her place.

The original draft of this idea had the Phoenix as a purely malevolent creature; Claremont fought back against that, and the end result is that it's well-meaning but fundamentally alien, as overwhelmed by humanity as a human might be by its power. That compromise was enough to preserve later stories with the Phoenix, including the ones about Rachel Summers, Jean's daughter, who took on her name and power and sought to honor both. But it did rather hollow out the stories immediately after Jean's resurrection.

This story is, essentially, Claremont's attempt to reconcile the Phoenix retcon with the emotional heft of Jean's sacrifice and, ultimately, the Dark Phoenix Saga. Did Jean die on the moon, or did she sleep the years away underwater, waking to find a changed world? The official line at this point was the latter, making Jean innocent, making the existing story a lie. But if the Phoenix has simply persuaded herself that she is Jean, she also knows that the other Jean Grey is real too: they both exist, and both choices may be right.

The last words of the issue are Jean's famous speech--from her rebirth as Phoenix and fall as Dark Phoenix--but slightly altered. "Forgive me," she says. What for is ambiguous. The Phoenix retcon initially suggested that the Phoenix took on Jean's form as a deception; that's not the case here. Whoever speaks those words believes that she is Jean Grey. But she also knows that she's balanced precariously between humanity and something else entirely, and she knows--as the reader does--just what the risk of losing that balance is. And the name "Phoenix" isn't used until the final page of this story, the end of that speech: we still see the words "I am Phoenix!" coming out of Jean Grey's mouth, and that's the closing image of the story.

Poll #21445 That Retcon

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

View Respondents

What do you think of the Phoenix retcon?

View Answers

I’m glad it happened and that Jean wasn’t responsible for killing a planet anymore.
1 (8.3%)

I hate it, and I think she should have stayed dead.
1 (8.3%)

I think it weakens an era of stories, but I’m glad we got Jean back anyway.
1 (8.3%)

I’m glad to have Jean back, but I wish she’d been allowed to come back without being absolved of her guilt.
1 (8.3%)

Well, it’s been retconned enough times that I’m happy to just take the pieces I like and ignore the rest.
8 (66.7%)

Next Thursday: Another view of the Phoenix. Also, Cassidy family drama.
Next Sunday: A ghost story.

Comments

[theemdash]

I don't mind the retcon, mostly because I didn't know it any other way. It's likely this Classic X-Men was out before I read 137, but honestly, I was so young reading these comics that I didn't really grok the continuity until much later, so for me, the Phoenix and Jean were always linked but separate.

[sheliak]

On the one hand, I kind of resent the retcon even though I came to comics well after it happened--I really imprinted on the early Claremont stuff, and early X-Factor really did not live up to it.

On the other hand, this version ends up working really well for Rachel's story, and even if the Jean end of things is a bit wonky it ends with her being usable as a character again. So, net positive.

[theemdash]

Yeah, I think that's part of it for me. I love all the other Phoenix stuff So. Much. and I love Jean, so I just sort of shrug about the retcon and roll around in flaming birds. Also, whether it's Jean sacrificing herself or Phoenix, both of them were sacrificing something and didn't know they were going to live after the moment (whether you're talking about here or 137), so to me, the fact that she comes back doesn't cheapen the sacrifice.

[sheliak]

There are some parts of the later story that I think are really weakened by Phoenix not being Jean (not so much by her coming back in the end), but this version of the retcon mitigates that, because the Phoenix here really does come across as being Jean as much as Jean-in-the-bay is.

And I like the Phoenix as its own character, related to Jean and Rachel but not quite the same as either. So there's that!

[greerwatson]

I read the original, way back when. So that's what's fixed in my mind as the "real" version; and, basically, I still think of Jean as a world-killer. On the other hand, the X-Men without Jean are missing something/someone important to the group dynamic; so I'm glad to have her back.

Very few retcons make total sense; and this is a hell of a lot better than Elektra's resurrection!

[sheliak]

Yeah, for my part I'm glad to have her back--I just wish they'd done it without trying to absolve her of all responsibility for the whole sun-eating business.