"X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix" by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Jo Duffy, and Scott Edelman

            The following is a review of the Marvel Epic Collection “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” written by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Jo Duffy, and Scott Edelman. This is NOT a review of the film “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.”

            Howdy, all, welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin. I am, myself, Tim Cubbin.

            So, this is one of my reviews. Prior readers of my reviews will be familiar with my structure, but for those of you who are only reading my blog for the first time after being intrigued by hashtags on Twitter, I’ll be nice and map it out for you. Now, I know some of you have had absolutely no interaction with the X-Men; never picked up a comic, never watched a cartoon, never seen a movie, never played a video game, never collected trading cards, so I feel like I should introduce the major characters for you. That would be prudent. Then, of course, I’ll give you a synopsis of the stories. Following that, I’ll give you my own personal thoughts about the book. After that, I’ll give you a numeric score of the book as its individual stories and then the book as a whole. Then I’ll tell you if I recommend this book and to whom I would recommend this book to. Then I’ll say goodbye and we can both be on our merry way. Some of my previous readers will notice the structure of this review is slightly different, but I feel this would be more efficient to write it this way and for you to read it this way. So, are we good on that? Good! Let’s begin!

            So, let’s talk about who the X-Men are. The X-Men are a group of mutants, born with genetic super powers. Regular human beings are jealous for and afraid of their powers, and mutants are hated and feared and often wanted imprisoned or killed. There are mutants, such as the X-Men, who want peace between mutants and baseline human beings. Other mutants, such as the Hellfire Club (pardon my profanity, I hate to use this word, but it’s essential to say) and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants want to establish mutant supremacy. The X-Men fight the evil mutants and the humans who want to eradicate mutants to try to establish human/mutant peaceful relations.

            So, obviously, you’ll want to hear about our prime mutants. First off is the founder and mentor of the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X, confined to a wheelchair but one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet. Scott Summers/Cyclops, X-Men field leader with uncontrollable optic force beams. Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, blue furred, three fingered, two toed, prehensile tailed, teleporter. Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, Russian farm boy with the ability to transfer from flesh and blood to organic steel skin, granting him super strength. Ororo Munroe/Storm, able to control the weather. Logan/Wolverine, able to heal from any wound and with an adamantium skeleton and claws. Kitty Pryde/Sprite, young mutant with the ability to turn intangible. Warren Worthington III/Angel, able to fly with natural wings. Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix, a cosmic powered telepathic and telekinetic woman. The Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club (including Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, Donald Pierce, Harry Leland, and Jason Wyngarde/Mastermind), a group of mutants who want to enslave the world. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (including Raven Darkholme/Mystique, Fred Dukes/Blob, John Allerdyce/Pyro, Irene Adler/Destiny, and Dominic Petros/Avalanche), a group of mutant extremists who want to establish mutant supremacy. We also have some other major players. Senator Robert Kelly, an antimutant presidential candidate. The Sentinels, mutant hunting robots. Lilandra Nerimani, alien empress of the Shi’ar. The Imperial Guard, super powered protectors of the Shi’ar Empire.

            Phew, that’s a large cast. Now, let’s talk about the stories. Unfortunately, this will have to include the fate of the Phoenix spoiler in order to be effective. First off is “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” The X-Men’s mutant detecting device, Cerebro tracks two new mutant signatures. The X-Men teams split up. Xavier, Logan, Ororo, and Peter head to Illinois to try to recruit Kitty Pryde to Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters (the X-Men’s base of operations) while Scott, Jean, and Kurt go to New York City to try to recruit Allison Blaire, the mutant singer Dazzler. Kitty goes to a malt shop (which we really don’t have anymore, and some of you might not even know what a malt shop is) with Peter, Logan, and Ororo, who inform Kitty that she is a mutant and they are the X-Men. The X-Men are attacked and kidnapped by agents of the Hellfire Club, under orders of Emma Frost, the telepathic White Queen. Kitty is able to save the team. Allison turns down Scott and Jean’s offer to join the X-Men. Jean, meanwhile, is having “time slips,” seeing what she thinks is an ancestor, and her romance with Jason Wyngarde, but in actuality it is Wyngarde seducing Jean to become the Black Queen and to up his bid for a higher position in the Hellfire Club. This turns Phoenix into Dark Phoenix when Mastermind’s plan fails, who then wishes to destroy the X-Men, despite having spent years on-and-off with the team. She then soars to space and destroys the D’Bari star system, killing five billion lives and destroying a Shi’ar star cruiser, thus changing their peaceful standing with the X-Men, who now wish to destroy the Dark Phoenix. With the aid of former X-Men/now Avenger Hank McCoy/Beast, Xavier is able to suppress the Dark Phoenix. But the Shi’ar abduct the X-Men and Beast to destroy Jean/Phoenix. However, Xavier challenges the Shi’ar Imperial Guard to a duel of honor over the fate of the Phoenix. As the X-Men fall, Jean feels the Dark Phoenix returning, and, rather than turning evil again, ends the threat of the Dark Phoenix ever returning. Following this, Scott leaves the X-Men as he feels he has no place with the team. Storm is made leader, and Kitty Pryde becomes the youngest member of the X-Men.

            Kitty is resistant to accept Nightcrawler as a friend. In “Nightcrawler’s Inferno,” Kurt and the X-Men fight the evil witch Margali, who blames Kurt for a crime Kurt did not commit.

            After this is “…Something Wicked This Way Comes!” where Logan and Kurt head to Canada to cure a man turned into a demon called the Wendigo.

            Next up is “Days of Future Past!” In this, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants assassinate presidential candidate Senator Kelly in 1980. Soon after, the Sentinels are reactivated and in time, mutants are eradicated. The survivors are placed in concentration camps, and inhibitors are created to suppress their mutant powers. In 2013, a nuclear assault is planned for the United States in an effort to end the threat of the Sentinels. Logan, Piotr, Ororo, Kate Pryde-Rasputin, Franklin Richards, Rachel, and Magneto plan to stop this world from ever coming to be. The mutants are able to jam the inhibitor powers, and Rachel uses her power to swap Kate and Kitty, sending Kate Pryde-Rasputin back in time to 1980, and Kitty Pryde to 2013. The choice is made as Kitty is the newest member of the X-Men and not as psychically resistant and most likely to be believed. Kate must now convince the X-Men, who head to Washington, D.C. to try to save Charles Xavier, X-Men ally Doctor Moira MacTaggert, and Senator Kelly from the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

            Following this is “Demon.” Kitty is left alone at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters on Christmas Eve, where a demon is able to enter the School and Kitty, by herself, must fight the demon to save her life.

            There are also mini-stories “At the Sign of the Lion,” “Joyride into Jeopardy” “Cry—Vengeance!” and “Phoenix: The Untold Story” a director’s cut of “The Fate of the Phoenix,” the final issue of “The Dark Phoenix Saga” with different dialogue and a different ending.

            Okay, I know this was a lot to take in, and if you are still here at this point, you are THE BEST! So, now for my thoughts. “The Dark Phoenix Saga” is, at the moment, my FAVORITE X-Men story. To me it is just PERFECTION! The film “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” just DID NOT do it justice. BUT! I felt that “Nightcrawler’s Inferno” and “…Something Wicked This Way Comes” were just mediocre stories, but I did like how it shined a spotlight on Kurt. BUT! “Days of Future Past!” I thought it was such an AMAZING story! Granted the future has passed, but in 1980, 2013 seemed like such a long time away and the ages of the surviving mutants had to be believable in order to still be fighting the Sentinels. And I guess that meant that the X-Men were able to change this future from happening. (Kidding! Or am I?). And “Phoenix: The Untold Story” having different dialogue and a different ending was rather interesting, but this just would not have worked out if it had been published as the originally published ending.

            Okay, I know you’ve been waiting for this! My numeric score. I’ve said all I needed to say, so now I’m going to give my scores. In this case, I won’t justify my scores because I’ve probably bored you slightly, so if you’re still here, you are THE BEST! Just going to say, I score on a scale of one to ten, one being amazingly awful, while ten being simply amazing. And I am a VERY hard to please reviewer as my prior readers will know, so a high score from me, well… Anyway! “The Dark Phoenix Saga” Ten! “Nightcrawler’s Inferno” Eight! “…Something Wicked This Way Comes!” Seven! “Days of Future Past!” Ten! “At the Sign of the Lion” Six! “Joyride into Jeopardy!” Six! “Cry—Vengeance!” Six! “Phoenix: The Untold Story” Ten! And finally, “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” as a whole book! Nine!

            Now, finally, do I recommend this book? YES! If you like X-Men comics and have never read this, I totally say you should pick up this book! I thought it was AMAZING! (Hmm, that’s Spider-Man’s thing, but I feel “Uncanny” just isn’t enough.) If you’ve never read any X-Men comics or never even heard of the X-Men but want a good place to start, this is definitely my recommendation for you! I felt that prior knowledge of the X-Men is not required and that this book is very much self-contained. So if this review has whet your appetite, totally check this book out!

            Okay, so I’ve been typing for a while now, and you’ve been reading this for a few minutes, so now I free you. BUT! First, I will say that I’ve done so many reviews on this blog, so if you liked this post and want to read more, and I haven’t bored you, please feel free to browse the rest of this blog. I also write short fiction and nonfiction, poetry, editorials and essays, including my “B’ings” series, and some other stuff I feel you might find interesting, so browse ‘til your heart’s content. I am a certified journalist, but unemployed due to my disabilities, so this is how I get my ideas out there to you (for free, I must add), so your support is greatly appreciated. Feel free to retweet, follow, like, share comment, whatever you can do on the platform you found me on, and if you do, you are THE BEST, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!