"I am always Jean Grey and always the Phoenix."

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:

And that's a little introduction to The Incredible Hercules. Believe me, I've got more of him to share, but I don't want to give it all away in the first post. I'm gonna delay the pleasure. I think Herc would approve.

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.

"I am fire and life incarnate! Now and forever -- I am Phoenix!"

Well, another week, another Mutant Monday! And today, I'm going to be covering an alternate version of my favorite character, Jean Grey. The book in question is What If? #32, What If. . . Phoenix Had Not Died?

The What If? series really doesn't get enough love. It's one of my favorite series, and I've tried to get my hands on as many issues as I can find. In this series, Uatu the Watcher gives you a premise and then shows you what would have happened if events went another way. Not every issue is dark or has a sad ending, but a vast majority of them do. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the angst. And, boy, does this two-parter have angst in spades (I'll cover issue #33 tomorrow)!

Okay, quick recap (or as quick as possible) on Phoenix, for those unfamiliar with her/it. Jean Grey was a mutant who had telepathic/telekinetic powers. In a story from the early 80s, the X-Men were traveling in a shuttle craft through a solar flare, but the radiation began seeping through. One person had to stay at the controls while the rest remained in a shielded part of the craft; Jean used her telepathic powers on the ship's pilot to learn how to fly the craft, all while using the telekinetic portion of her abilities to keep the radiation out. She managed to save the X-Men, but not alone: the Phoenix Force heard her pain and offered to save her life, which she accepted.

The Phoenix took on Jean's form and placed her body in a cocoon on the ocean floor, and when she returned to the X-Men, they believed she had died and was resurrected by Phoenix, but it was just Phoenix becoming Jean.

They went through a lot of adventures with Phoenix, but the power became too uncontrollable for her. She was manipulated by Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind) and the Hellfire Club, she destroyed a planet full of broccoli people by consuming its sun (yeah, you heard me right; I might go into that part of it one day), and, finally, she was sentenced to death by the Shi'ar Empire (an alien race) in order to bring her madness to an end.

Jean/Phoenix had seemed to have her powers back under control by this time, but it wasn't enough for Lilandra, leader of the Shi'ar. The X-Men fought to save Jean by battling the Imperial Guard; Jean brought the battle to an end by committing suicide. She just couldn't stand the risk of Phoenix taking over her again and possibly dooming more people.

And that brings us to the beginning of this What If? issue. See, in this timeline, Jean was taken out early in the battle with the Imperial Guard, and instead of executing her, they performed a psychic lobotomy, removing all traces of her abilities and powers, making her just a normal human.

The X-Men return to Earth, and life goes on pretty much the same as in our timeline, except that Scott (Cyclops) and Jean marry and leave the team. Jean is plagued by nightmares of the horrible deeds she committed as Phoenix, which strains her relationship with Scott.

One night, they have a visitor to their home out on Martha's Vinyard (oh, yeah, purchased for them by Warren Worthington III, Angel): Magneto. He's come to take Jean up to Asteroid M and offer her a chance to have her powers back.

She nearly takes that offer, too. The X-Men come to the rescue, but it wouldn't be a Claremont-era X-Men comic without a some internal monologues (Claremont didn't write this book, but he was credited with plotting it):


And then we get this awesome image, a great homage to the cover of Giant X-Men #1:


Okay, back to Jean. She struggles with the allure of allowing the Phoenix Force to overtake her once more. She finally decides not to give in, and she begins destroying Magneto's energy chamber, and, Magneto being the evil dude he is, nearly strikes her in his anger. Hey, I'd be kind of pissed, too, if someone started bashing my electronic gizmos with a metal bat!

When Jean rants at Magneto and tells him how he could make the choice to become good, too, he turns away and says that his path was chosen years ago, and he lets the X-Men go.

They return to Earth once more, and things start returning to normal. They return to the X-Men, Scott as leader, Jean as a teacher for the younger New Mutants team. And they have a baby, little Rachel Summers (who, in our timeline [well, not really our timeline because she came to ours from another timeline; man, the Summers family tree really messes me up!] became a member of Excaliber in the 90s and a member of the X-Men in the 2000s). Life seems to be going really, really well for them. Which, of course, means that it's all about to go into the crapper.

Little Rachel wakes Jean up one night, crying horribly.

It turns out Jean may have been right about Rachel having powers; Scott enters the room, only it isn't Scott, it's Mastermind. He tries to manipulate Jean once more with his powers of illusion.

Ugh, that creeps me out so bad, especially the image of her covered in maggots!

But in typical convoluted fashion of the X-Men comics of this time period, he's not the only one trying to manipulate. Mastermind himself is being manipulated by the Shadow King, an old X-villain who once crippled Charles Xavier.

Jean tries to fight back, but Mastermind/Shadow King shoot her and steal Rachel; Shadow King has plans for Rachel, but he doesn't really explain those plans.

The shots kill Jean, and as her body lies cooling on the bedroom floor, Phoenix comes back and saves her life once more, but Jean fights back against Phoenix to no avail.

However, Phoenix finally realizes that she has been Jean this entire time. She was always Jean from the time she saved her on the shuttle craft and took on her form and psyche. This knowledge drives her over the edge, and she flies to the ocean where Jean's body lies in its cocoon.

She imagines how Scott will react to the truth that the woman he loves, the mother of his child, is a farce, and she believes that he will hate her for the lie. And she performs a horrible, unforgivable act:

And that is one hell of a cliffhanger. We'll continue with part 2 tomorrow, so come back for that!

In parting, I'll leave you with my top 5 X-Men list. Granted, this list is always subject to change, but these are my top 5 for the moment (and most of them are eternal top 5 members). They're not in any particular order, no method to my madness.

5) Wolverine: Okay, confession time - I have not always liked Wolverine. Phew! That feels good to get off of my chest! When I first got into comics & into X-Men comics specifically, I absolutely hated Wolverine. I thought he was completely over-used and over-exposed. I thought most people gave him more credit than he deserved, that he wasn't that great of a character. What changed my mind? Wolverine #75. It was the aftermath of the Fatal Attractions cross-over, and Logan was adjusting to life after having his adamantium ripped from his skeleton by Magneto. I may cover this issue soon, so I won't go all the way into it, but the clincher for me was the ending. His relationship with Jubilee showed me how much variety Wolverine COULD have when written well, and, for the most part, I've enjoyed him since. I like my Wolverine tough, ass-kicking with a side of gentleness for kids and ladies.

4) Nightcrawler: I've loved Kurt from the first time I saw him. He's Errol Flynn in fuzzy-blue-elf form. He's a bit of a throwback in that he believes in chivalry and loves to fence, but that's part of his charm. One of my all-time favorite images of Kurt is as a pirate. He's kind of been one both in the Excalibur series and in his 4 issue mini-series from the 80s. I don't know if I really care for his current incarnation (he became a priest a couple of years ago), but I do like that he's a man of strong faith, especially given the contradiction it creates with his nearly demonic appearance. If you want to read some really good Nightcrawler stories, search out Vol. 1 of Excalibur, especially through about issue #50. I'll definitely be covering some of those stories here, so keep an eye out for that!

3) Beast: Hmmmmm. . I'm detecting a pattern. Blue, fuzzy, sense of humor. . . I mostly prefer Hank from the 80s-90s; I'm not real keen on the current catlike Beast. Hank is one of my favorites because of his intelligence and his sense of humor. I also love the dichotomy he faced once his secondary mutation kicked in and he became beast-like: the intelligent man who looks like a monster.

2) Jean Grey: I like Jean because she's more than what she seems. For so many years, she was underestimated and underused, but then the Phoenix storyline hit, and the depth of her innate powers was revealed. Jean often gets relegated to second fiddle and usually doesn't get the respect she deserves (she was one of the founding X-Men for heaven's sake, and the first one Xavier recruited!), but when she's written well, she's amazing.

1)Magneto: The first and best X-villain. Like with so many X-Men characters, Magneto benefits best by great writing. He's such a great character: Erik was a child during World War II when he and his family were interred in concentration camps for being Jews, and he went through absolute hell there. Some of his origins have his powers first appearing while in the camps, but what is interesting about him to me is even though he went through this ordeal, he himself believes that mutants are superior to humans, and some of his statements over the years have been rather Hitleresque. One of the best Magneto stories is the Testament miniseries from last year; it shows his years in the concentration camps, and it's utterly heartbreaking. I definitely plan on covering it here.

So, there ya go. Come back tomorrow for part 2 of the Phoenix What If?, and I also plan on showing you a few panels from The Incredible Hercules.