Phoenix #1
Published and © by Marvel, April 1984
Title: “Phoenix The Untold Story”
Synopsis: Five new pages reveal the originally planned ending to X-Men #137, featuring a different fate for the Phoenix.
Writers (plot): Chris Claremont and John Byrne
Writer (script): Claremont
Penciler: Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Review: No matter how tasty the final product, sausage making is rarely pretty. This is particularly true of mainstream comics, which are often created via artistic assembly line. It’s a system that can be blamed, fairly, for some less-than-inspired comics. But it can also yield spectacular results. Case in point: X-Men #137. In an earlier review, this reviewer called it “the best superhero comic” of its era. This special edition – which reprints X-Men #137 with its originally planned ending – illustrates the positive role creative tension and editorial oversight can play. Phoenix #1 is good, but the originally published version is better.
Grade: A
Second opinion: “… surprisingly bland and anticlimactic next to the ‘real’ version.” – The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide (second edition), 2003
Cool factor: Offers DVD-style extras before DVDs were even invented.
Notable: Includes “The Dark Phoenix Tapes” – a round-table interview with the creative team – and the originally planned splash page for X-Men #138.
Collector’s note: According to the Grand Comics Database, there is a $2.25 Canadian variant of this issue.
Character quotable: “Haven’t you already done enough!?!” — Cyclops, after the Shi’ar complete their “psychic lobotomy” of Phoenix
A word from the editor-in-chief: “… I want to make it clear that it was less my moral problem with a character who was a mass murderer than it was a problem from a story sense.” – Jim Shooter, from “The Dark Phoenix Tapes” in Phoenix #1, April 1984
Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Comics Bronze Age on May 3, 2022.
Was able to get both JimShooter and Terry Austin to sign my copy as they were both at the same Motor City Comic Con. Shooter seemed surprised and a little confused. I think he was expecting me to be an angry fan that would curse him for his part in Phoenix’s death. We ended up having a great conversation about this storyline and the background to this issue.
While I have some issues with Shooter’s tenure as EiC – particularly in the mid-1980s – I always thought he made the right call with “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” It took the entire creative team, including the EiC, to make that epic what it was! – TAW