Hey there! Glad to see you came back for part 2 of this Phoenix story, What If? #33, What If. . . Phoenix Rose Again? If you missed part 1, well, scroll back up and read it or else this story won't make much sense.
But first, a little impromptu poll before I continue. How is this style of post working for you guys? Do you enjoy the full issue recaps, or do you prefer the smaller segments I've done, like the top Deadpool quotes & moments? Lemme know in the comments, if you would. I'd love some feedback.
This part of the story is a little different in that it's completely from the perspective of Phoenix. The narration is all first-person, and it really adds to the story and gives us a lot of insight into this version of Phoenix.
As the story begins, Phoenix is reviewing the previous issue's events in her mind before she decides to hunt for the Shadow King and rescue her daughter, Rachel. She uses her powers to locate the Shadow King, and she finds out that he is on Muir Island, home of Moira McTaggart (ex-lover of Professor Xavier)'s research facility.
Knowing how powerful the Shadow King is, Phoenix enters the facility warily, scanning for any sign of him, but she finds none; she does sense that something is blocking her scans, and she quickly finds out who that person is: her daughter, Rachel.
The Shadow King has used some of the facility's technology to rapidly age Rachel, which unleashes her mutant powers and which has also given the Phoenix Force to her because of her heritage. However, Rachel still has the mind of the infant she truly is; the Shadow King is using her as his puppet.
Phoenix fears using the full force of her powers because she doesn't want to harm Rachel, but the Shadow King forces her hand. Instead of fighting him in reality, she takes the battle to the Astral Plane where she can face him with the entirety of the Phoenix Force.
She just rips him to shreds, which returns Rachel to herself, only she's a baby in the body of an adult. Phoenix uses her powers to turn Rachel back a baby, and I've always found these panels to be really touching. Phoenix may be a cosmic entity, but she has absorbed some humanity and truly does love her child.
She and Rachel return home to the X-Mansion, and life goes on much as normal for the next eight years. Phoenix lives the life of Jean Grey, but she feels conflicted in living this lie, in hiding the truth from her family and friends. And like all good things, this too must come to an end: an anti-mutant candidate is elected President, and the Mutant Registration Act is passed in 1990. As usual, the X-Men plan to resist this law.
One night, Wolverine is returning to his room when he hears Rachel having a nightmare. I'm going to share this entire page because it encapsulates all the reasons I gave for loving Logan yesterday:
Logan being the experienced & pretty smart guy that he is realizes that Rachel's nightmare is more than just a dream. He knows something is up with Jean. And boy, is there!
Phoenix travels to the White House & uses her powers to mindwipe the President, making him more sympathetic towards mutants. Unfortunately, this was a horrible move because someone assassinates him for his changed beliefs the next day.
Henry Peter Gyrich (an X-villain who also appears in our timeline's stories) pushes forward creation of the Mark V Sentinels. If you're not familiar with the Sentinels, they featured quite a bit back in the 80s and in more recent times. They are giant robots created just for eliminating mutants or superhumans, and they can read energy signatures to tell who is superpowered and who isn't.
The Sentinels begin eliminating superpowered threats. They not only kill many mutants, they also eliminate a lot of superheroes (a full-page panel shows the Sentinels hunting down Iron Man, Captain America, The Avengers, the Fantastic Four with a line of gravestones along the bottom of the page; they even killed Daredevil & the Hulk). The X-Men take refuge in the Mansion, but they know that their time is short.
Wolverine takes this time to confront "Jean." He knows that she is Phoenix, but she denies this is true. The next scene has always made me a little bit uncomfortable, and I'm gonna warn you now that it's a bit triggering.
He beats her to make her unleash the Phoenix, and it works perfectly. Now, I understand what he's doing here in his efforts, but I still don't like the idea of Logan beating a woman. Anyway, she fries him with her powers, but it doesn't do too much damage because of his healing ability.
Mid-kiss, Logan pops his claws into Phoenix's chest and vows to eliminate her because he's like her, a killer, but she can't control her bloodlust. He doesn't want to kill her, but he knows that one day she'll snap, and she could wipe out everything with her powers. He doesn't succeed. Phoenix catches him in the air with her telekinesis and wipes his memory.
Not the best move. Cyclops & Professor X have been outside of the room the entire time, and they've heard everything. Phoenix leaves, and she couldn't have picked a worse time to do that. The Sentinels strike once she leaves, decimating the X-Men. They manage to escape to an abandoned Sentinel base in the Adirondack, and as they are planning their next strike, they receive an unexpected visitor: Magneto.
Of course, Wolverine immediately wants to gut him, but Magneto has come in peace. He realizes how all mutantkind is on the brink and that they must bond together or be completely wiped out. They begin the next phase of their attack against the Sentinels.
The Sentinel base is in the Baxter Building, the once-home of the Fantastic Four, and the mutants make their way there through the old Morlock tunnels, with Magneto providing a magnetic field to shield them from the Sentinels, but the Sentinels use that magnetic field to find them.
Magneto attacks the Sentinels, but they counter him with a ray, breaking his back & paralyzing him (hmmm, that's familiar!). Just when it seems the X-Men are doomed, Dark Phoenix appears and just destroys the surrounding Sentinels.
The X-Men are afraid at first, but Phoenix informs them they have nothing to fear from her; she's just there for the Sentinels. And boy, is she! She uses her powers to explode the Baxter Building, wiping out a bunch of Sentinels in the process, but they soon surround her.
One of the Sentinels uses a scrambler on Phoenix, overwhelming her, and before they can terminate her, the X-Men attack to protect her. This whole next segment is very reminiscent of Days of Future Past, which, of course, is the intent.
The team hit & run the Sentinels, and they experience a loss straight away: Nightcrawler. He's always had a bit of a weak heart, and the strain of teleporting so many X-Men in is too much for him. Kitty Pryde comes to the rescue now. She phases herself and Colossus into the Baxter Building.
The loss of Kitty is great, but the destruction of Master Mold provides the mutants an opening. Phoenix completely unleashes her fiery powers upon the Sentinels, completely wiping them out.
The battle over, the X-Men return to their new base. Jean approaches Scott tentatively, but he shows her acceptance.
The precog mutant Destiny comes to speak to Phoenix, knowing Phoenix would request to speak with her. She asks Destiny what she sees in her future, and Destiny informs her that death is all she sees, unless Phoenix leaves. Phoenix already knew this was her future, and she leaves Earth to return to the stars, even though she wants to stay with her child and the man she loves.
*sigh* Bit of a downer, huh? I think it's time to liven things up with a little trip through a couple of my favorite panels from The Incredible Hercules.
If you aren't reading this book, you SHOULD be! It's probably the book I enjoy the most, month in and month out. It nicely blends action, drama and comedy in a way I haven't seen done ever.
Hercules has always kind of been thought of as the poor-man's Thor; like Thor, he's one of the few true gods in the Marvel universe, and he was also a member of the Avengers. He's a real womanizer and can be a bit of a cad, but he's incredibly lovable. I'm not going to go through his complete history, but if you're interested, you can read about it over here.
A couple of years ago, post the World War Hulk cross-over, Hercules inherited the Hulk's title when it became The Incredible Hercules. Herc joined forces with a young genius named Amadeus Cho, and after World War Hulk, the pair took off for fun and adventure.
First, The Incredible Hercules always contains the best, the greatest and the funniest recap page in any comic book. Here's an example from issue #123:
And one from the newest issue, #134:
One of the things I love the most about this book is how the sound effects so often echo what's going on in the story:
Earlier this year, Herc & Amadeus ran into some Amazons who kidnapped Amadeus because they wanted him to use his abilities to find an object of great power. Herc comes to rescue Amadeus, and he finds him with the Amazon leader, Artume, and, Herc being the rogue he is, thinks Cho's about to get a little action, so he has this now-classic response:
Tomorrow is Wacky Wade Wednesday, so there will be much Deadpool. I'm not 100% sure what yet, but whatever it winds up being, it'll be funny.
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