"I am fire and life incarnate"

efore Onslaught, before Parallax, before Dark Knight Returns, or Watchmen, or any of the other "grim and gritty" stories that shaped comics as we know them today, there was Dark Phoenix. Of course, the final panels of X-Men 100 were hardly the first cliffhanger in comics history, but NO one saw the ending to issue 137 coming. These were the days before Previews or advance copies sent to comic retailers. There were no comic retailers then... every issue you bought, you got off the stands at the grocery store or at the local 7-Eleven. When Jean Grey died, there had been nothing that final happen to a major character before. And then they had to go and bring her back, again and again and again.... but, the impact of the original storyline is still there.

he Phoenix Entity is an ancient, ageless cosmic force of life. It came to Earth in X-Men 100, when Jean was prepared to sacrifice her life to save her team mates and friends. They were on a space shuttle spiralling helplessly back into the Earth's atmosphere. The only person on board who could pilot the shuttle was a human astronaut, who couldn't possibly survive the heat and radiation of re-entry long enough to guide the craft to a successful landing. Only Jean, who could get the knowledge from the pilot's mind telepathically, and protect herself from the heat and radiation with her telekinesis stood a chance. It was enough to get the ship and the occupants back safely, but Jean's powers weren't enough to save herself. At the moment before her death, the Phoenix Enitity entered her body, made an exact replica of it, and placed the original Jean in a protective cocoon at the bottom of the ocean. The Phoenix copied Jean so well, that it didn't even realize what it had done, and truly believed itself to be Jean, taking her place in the X-Men.

he Phoenix was unaccustomed to powerful emotions, however, and this proved to be her fatal flaw. The original Mastermind, Jason Wyngarde, was preparing a power play within the ranks of the Hellfire Club, and he saw in Phoenix great power that might be tapped. He used his illusion-casting powers to make her believe that she was the reincarnation of a Black Queen of the Hellfire Club from the 19th century, and that she loved him. Mastermind underestimated the will of the Phoenix, and the love for Cyclops that she had duplicated from Jean Grey. However, the powerful and conflicting emotions that Mastermind's tampering had unleashed caused her to snap, and become Dark Phoenix - the manifestation of chaos and all the darker emotions.

eveling in the full scope of her power, the Phoenix became even further corrupted. Searching for extreme experiences, she came upon the D'Bari system, within the Shi'ar Empire. She caused the sun to go nova, and absorbed it, and all life within the system into herself. Drunk on the power, she returned to Earth and utterly defeated her former team mates the X-Men when they tried to stop her. The only thing that saved the X-Men, and possibly the solar system itself was the "Jean" part that still existed within Dark Phoenix, that stopped her. However, the fourth planet in the D'Bari system was inhabited, and the Shi'ar came to exact their vengeance upon Dark Phoenix. The X-Men would not stand aside and let the Shi'ar kill the being they believed to be Jean Grey, and as the battle turned against the X-Men, Phoenix used her powers again to defeat the Shi'ar. Feeling the temptation to succumb to ultimate power rising within her again, and knowing what it would lead to, the Phoenix chose to commit suicide.

ut the story of the Phoenix doesn't end here. The Phoenix is a cosmic force, and therefore cannot die. Phoenix-as-Jean made an appearance in a backup story to Classic X-Men #43, and Dark Phoenix appeared in the Elseworlds/Alterniverse-type X-Men/Teen Titans crossover. The Phoenix Entity itself has appeared to Jean's alternate-timeline daughter, Rachel, on numerous occasions, and allowed Rachel to tap into its power to augment her own. The Malibu/Marvel "Phoenix Resurrection" storyline never happened. (And anyone who maintains that it did can expect a nightime visit from a rather large, flaming bird bent on convincing them otherwise.)