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in: Comics, Classic X-Men Vol 1, John Byrne/Cover Artist,
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Classic X-Men Vol 1 43

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Quote1 What else could I be but a part of you? Quote2
—White Phoenix

Appearing in "The Fate of the Phoenix!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
X-Men #137

Featured Characters:

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Locations:

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Vehicles:

  • Lilandra's Shi'ar Flagship
  • Shi'ar warship (Only in flashback) (Destroyed)

Synopsis for "The Fate of the Phoenix!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
X-Men #137

Continued from the last issue.

In his citadel, the Watcher declares he will bear witness to an event of cosmic significance: the fate of the Phoenix.

The X-Men, including the Beast, the Angel, and back to "normal" Jean Grey find themselves teleported onto a Shi’ar starship in the midst of a massive gathering of representatives from across the Shi’ar galaxy. Empress Lilandra declares that the Phoenix must die. The X-Men are perplexed, until Lilandra explains how the Dark Phoenix (the “Chaos Bringer” according to Shi’ar legends) exterminated the D’Barian race and an imperial cruiser. Jean’s friends are horrified by the account.

Xavier demands a duel of honor between the X-Men and the Imperial Guard for the fate of the Phoenix. After consulting this with the Kree and Skrull leaders, it is agreed to allow it. The Supreme Intelligence and R'Kill demand that their emissaries watch over the battle, however.

The X-Men rest up for the fight. Over the course of the night, Jean has an alien tailor create a replica of her old Marvel Girl costume for her to wear. Nightcrawler and Angel practice in a training room. Wolverine meditates. Beast takes a bath and takes advantage of some of Shi’ar hospitality. Storm and Colossus each rest up for the fight. Each of them in their own way ponders the Phoenix’s actions and wrestles with whether or not they can bring themselves to defend her, given what they now know she's has done.

On a deck looking out into space, a similarly conflicted Cyclops broods over his lot in life and that the love of his life might be killed just when they were truly falling in love. His thoughts are interrupted when Jean arrives and shows off her costume. The two then decide to spend what could possibly be their last night together.

The following morning, the X-Men all agree to fight for Jean and are teleported to the surface of the moon, into the ancient Kree "Blue Area". Angel finds out the hard way that he cannot fly too high without breaching the protective atmosphere of the blue area.

They observe their opponents, Imperial Guard members, in the distance, and the X-Men split up to divide the Imperial forces. Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, and Nightcrawler head off in one direction and quickly draw fire from the Guardsmen known as Starbolt.

The other group consisting of Beast, Colossus, Storm, and Wolverine travels into the underground tunnels and clashes with B'nee and his partner C'cil. Guardian rips up the ground beneath them and Wolverine is knocked down a shaft but Storm breaks his fall. They land near the Watcher’s citadel, where they are attacked by Hussar and Earthquake. Wolverine is knocked into the Watcher's citadel while Storm is defeated by the two Imperials.

Elsewhere, the battle rages on: Smasher tosses Angel down another shaft, prompting Nightcrawler to leap after him, leaving Cyclops and Marvel Girl alone and outnumbered.

Inside the Watcher's citadel, Wolverine awakens to encounter the Watcher who curtly kicks him out of his home. Outside the citadel, Wolverine is approached by what appears to be Storm, his enhanced senses detect that it's really the Skrull Raksor. Before he can deal with the shapeshifter, however, he is blasted into unconsciousness by the Kree known as Bel-Dann. Disgusted at being saved by one of his mortal enemies, Raskor shapeshifts into a bestial creature and attacks the Kree.

Meanwhile, down below, Nightcrawler finds no trace of Angel and attempts to get the drop on Manta, only to be blasted by her. Afterward, she is shown to have already captured the Angel as well. Not far away, B'Nee incapacitates the Beast, while Gladiator goes toe-to-toe with Colossus and easily beats the X-Man into submission.

Watching the battle from the Shi'ar flagship, Xavier is upset witnessing his X-Men being beaten, and Lilandra silently mourns for her love.

Only Cyclops and Marvel Girl are left. Marvel Girl uses her telekinetic powers to hide them briefly. The two agree to go out together and after a brief rest attack, the remaining Imperials head-on.

Observing from above, the Shi’ar sensors detect an abrupt and dramatic energy surge on the moon below. A force of pure energy strikes the ship, announcing to all that … Phoenix has returned! In desperation, Lilandra orders her forces to ensure the Phoenix’s destruction by destroying the Earth, the solar system even the entire galaxy if necessary. Professor X sends an urgent telepathic message to his X-Men to alert them to the situation.

Narration captions indicate that in their last stand together, Marvel Girl saw Cyclops get cut down, prompting her to once again become Phoenix. The firebird effect blazes all around her and the now inert bodies of her Imperial Guard foes.

With no other choice, Professor Xavier orders the X-Men to attacking Jean to preempt Lilandra's emergency measure, despite the pain that it brings them to do so. Wolverine performs a reverse fastball special, launching Colossus at Phoenix. He strikes a powerful blow that's strong enough to temporarily jar her mind back to sanity. Having depleted her energy, she begs her fellow X-Men to end her life but nobody can bring themselves to do it.

Jean then runs into a tunnel with Scott right behind. She traps him in a telekinetic shield and tells him that she can barely control the Phoenix; there is no other choice but for it, and her, to die. Cyclops watches in horror as Jean triggers one of the long-dormant Kree laser cannon into blasting her, incinerating her body. As the Phoenix dies, her final words are to scream out Scott's name. With Jean dead, Cyclops breaks down in tears as he realizes that she had planned her death from their arrival on the moon. After the exhausting battle with the Imperial Guard, Jean led the X-Men to the cannon so that they could weaken her enough for the weapon.

Witnessing this event are the Watcher and his Recorder robot. The Recorder finds this emotional tableau puzzling, intrigued by the fact that they resisted destroying the Phoenix. The Watcher points out that regardless of what happened, humans are emotional beings and that despite the fact that Dark Phoenix was regarded as a monster in the end, she died a human.

Appearing in "Flights of Angels"

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  • Yagkh (Only in flashback)

Synopsis for "Flights of Angels"

  • Synopsis not yet written

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. ↑ Spelled "Rk'lll" in this issue.
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