"X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga" by Stuart Moore

The following is a review of the prose novel “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” by Stuart Moore. It is NOT a review of the graphic novel “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” NOR a review of the film “Dark Phoenix.”

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to another review From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I am your guide, Tim Cubbin!

So, if you’ve been here before, you know I write a review of everything I read. Therefore, you know that I must have just read the “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix” prose novel. Prior to this post, I reviewed the graphic novel “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” and within a few hours of posting this… well, post, I will be posting a comparison piece comparing the graphic and prose novels of “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” so feel free to check them all out if you want, that’d be great, and I will tell you if you read all three of these posts, you are THE BEST!

Anyhoo, when I write a review, I keep a similar format for each post, which you will know if you’ve read a few of my reviews before. If not, you’re about to learn it. So, yes, I start with my boring, useless, blah, blah, blah thing where I set everything up (which you are reading now, if you’re still here, and if you are still here, you are THE BEST!). Next, I will tell you a little about the characters since some of you may not even know who the X-Men are but decided to read this post anyway. Or you might not know the characters. I mean, this is based on a story originally published in 1980, which, at the time of this posting was over forty years ago, so the roster has changed since them. Granted the characters in this book are all well-known and highly popular, but I’m doing this anyway, for your benefit. And, oh, my gosh that was boring! Following this, you obviously want to know just what this book is about, so I’ll tell you the story and try to avoid spoilers as much as possible. Then I’ll tell you some of my thoughts about the book, which will be a little difficult for me, actually, because of my upcoming graphic novel/prose novel comparison and I have to pretend to have never read the graphic novel in order to write a fair review (and this comic is actually one of my all-time favorite comic storylines and I’ve read it literally dozens of times). After that, I’ll tell you if I think casual or non-regular readers would understand this book. Then I’ll give a numeric score (if you don’t know my scale, I’ll explain when we get there). I’ll then tell you if I recommend this book, and to whom I think would enjoy this best. Then we wrap up with another blah, blah, blah where I tell you a little more about my blog, the content, what’s there to read, the works. Then I say goodbye and you can do whatever you feel like doing now that I’ve given you freedom (or, y’know, you COULD check out more of my blog posts, such as, I dunno, maybe my review of “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” and my graphic novel/prose novel comparison of “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” if you have a little bit more time, which would be great and you’d totally be THE BEST!) Okay, you ready? Good (if you thought “yes”)! Let’s go!

Alright, let’s start with who the X-Men actually are. So, the X-Men are mutants. Through genetic mutation, they have powers that (I hate this word, but…) normal humans don’t have. We’ll get to those powers over the next few paragraphs. Normal humans hate and fear mutants for being different, and this often leads to violence since this IS based on a comic book. Some mutants (such as the X-Men) just want to be accepted by the normal humans and live in peace and harmony between baseline humans and the mutant population. Other mutants want to establish mutant supremacy and fight anyone, even other mutants (namely the X-Men), who stand in their way. Now, let’s examine these mutants.

Scott Summers/Cyclops: Team leader, cursed with optic blasts he can’t control and can only safely open his eyes when they are covered with ruby quartz.

Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix: A powerful telekinetic/telepath, empowered by a cosmic force. The love of Cyclops’s life.

Peter Rasputin/Colossus: Former Russian farm boy. Can turn his body into steel, which grants him super strength and a relative invulnerability.

Ororo Munroe/Storm: Can control the weather.

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler: Covered in blue fur, with three fingers on each hand, two toes on each foot, and a tail. Able to teleport.

Logan/Wolverine: In love with Jean. Often butts heads with Cyclops. Has a skeleton coated in adamantium, an indestructible metal, with three retractable claws in each hand, and a healing factor allowing him to recover from almost any injury.

Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X: Founder of the X-Men and headmaster of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, the X-Men’s secret base. The most powerful telepath on the planet.

Kitty Pryde: A young mutant girl with the ability to pass through solid objects and walk on air. Soon to be an X-Man.

The Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club (pardon my language): A clandestine group of evil mutants who want to rule the world.

Jason Wyngarde/Mastermind: Evil mutant, able to create illusions. In love with Jean and manipulating her with psychic flashes of their love.

Emma Frost/White Queen: Member of the Hellfire Club, telepath, headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy, the evil counterpart of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning who tries to recruit Kitty Pryde to her school.

Sebastian Shaw/White King: Can absorb any form of kinetic energy and release it as super strength. Member of the Hellfire Club.

Harry Leland: Member of the Hellfire Club. Able to control mass.

Donald Pierce: Cyborg, member of the Hellfire Club.

Lilandra Nerimani: Empress of the alien Shi’ar. Xavier is her royal consort.

The Imperial Guard: Assortment of aliens. Protectors of the Shi’ar Empire.

Alright, now we’ll touch on the plot. While piloting a doomed space shuttle to the earth, Jean Grey dies and is reborn as the Phoenix. The X-Men battle Magneto, an evil mutant, in a volcano and Phoenix is believed to be the only survivor. Over the next year, Xavier goes to space with Shi’ar Empress Lilandra, and Jean moves to Kirinos and attempts to form a new life without using her mutant powers. There she meets the dashing Jason Wyngarde, who creates “time slips” to manipulate Jean to fall in love with him. Jean discovers the X-Men are still alive and joins them while they battle Emma Frost when the X-Men travel to Illinois to recruit the newly discovered mutant, thirteen-year-old Kitty Pryde to the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. The X-Men learn of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, who intend to mold Jean into their Black Queen. When their plan fails, Jean loses control of the Phoenix and becomes Dark Phoenix. She defeats the X-Men and absorbs the sun of the D’Bari system, destroying the inhabited solar system. The Shi’ar then decide that the Phoenix must be destroyed and bring the X-Men into space, where Xavier invokes a duel of honor between the X-Men and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard to decide the fate of the Phoenix.

Okay, that sums the book up nicely. Now for my own personal thoughts. I found this book to be AMAZING! I thought it was very well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Unfortunately, though, that is my only opinion I can give without comparing it to the comic.

Now, yes, I know there are some of you who have never read X-Men before. You might not know the characters and history. Well, I found this book to be very much self-contained. I felt the character descriptions were well fleshed out in the book. The inclusion of Jean becoming the Phoenix at the start of the book was a good ease-in point. I think that any non- or casual X-Men fan could easily pick up this book and follow and enjoy it.

All said and done, let’s just hop right on over to our numeric score! So I put it on a range of one to ten. One means this book is a piece of garbage and should be thrown in the trash, it was not worth the money I spent on it, ten means that this book is the best book I ever read, I give it a nine. This was easily the best “X-Men” prose novel I have EVER read. Mind that I have posted a review of a book also written by Stuart Moore which also garnered a nine, so in my opinion, he is consistent and a very good writer of Marvel comic book prose novels. It should also be noted that I am VERY hard to please and have given other books very poor scores, so a nine is pretty darn good.

Now, we’ll move on to another important part; do I recommend this book? Honestly, do you have to ask? I gave this book a NINE! I don’t think this is just a good X-Men novel, or a good comic prose adaptation novel, but a good science fiction novel. If you’ve never read X-Men before but love science fiction novels, I say give this book a read. And if you’ve read X-Men before and found my review to be compelling, I think you should check this book out. If you love the X-Men, I think this might be the right book for you. And if you’ve ever read “The Dark Phoenix Saga” graphic novel and enjoyed it, I totally think you should read this book. And if you saw the film “Dark Phoenix” and were highly disappointed (as I was), this book is a TOTAL redemption. So, yes, this book gets a glowing recommendation.

Alright, if you’re still here, you are THE BEST! Before I free you from the captivation of my spell over you from reading this review, I’ll tell you that, while reviews are totally one of my major subjects, I do write other kinds of topics, such as short stories (both fiction and nonfiction), I do dabble in free-verse poetry from time-to-time, I write essays and editorials, and my B’ings series where I complain pointlessly about pointless topics that bother me due to me just being me. So, now, you can go do whatever you want to do now (and you would be THE BEST if you went on to look some more at my blog), I just posted this and am now working on a comparison piece between “The Dark Phoenix” graphic novel/prose novel, which will be up in a few hours, it might even be up by the time you’ve read up to here, so I hope you’ll totally check it out. And until you enter From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin again, I say to you, Tim Cubbin… out!