Phoenix #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
PHOENIX #7
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Marco Renna
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa
PHOENIX:
She tries to earn Adani’s trust by showing her the edited highlights of her origin story (see Footnotes for the specifics). This was foreshadowed back in issue #1, where the older Adani’s narration talked about Jean sharing her story.
Even though Jean is the Phoenix, she can also separate herself from its power and transfer it to someone with whom she has a psychic link. She’s also able to take that power back again, though it’s not like Adani has any relevant psychic training with which to resist. Whether the Phoenix has a mind of its own in this regard isn’t clear. For some reason, this leads to a flash of energy and Jean being transported to the Blue Area of the Moon.
She sees parallels between herself and Adani as a child suffering “corruptive pain”, which makes her want to trust Adani. As a psychic she should arguably know better, but apparently she convinces herself that Adani will make the right choices.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Adani. Apparently, she’s just wandering around war zones on her own, with no particular goal that we can see. There’s no sign of Perrikus or any mention of what she’s up to. According to Phoenix, they’ve remained connected because the uncorrupted part of Adani is reaching out to reclaim her “stolen” childhood.
Being exposed to Phoenix’s back story makes Adani emotional. In issue #1, her narration said that “When Jean first told me these things, I was overcome with grief thinking of the time she spent as a child lost within her own mind.” At any rate, she sheds some tears and helps Phoenix to locate Thanos. For some reason, Adani says that she can’t tell Phoenix where Thanos is, but can show her (psychically, presumably). It’s completely unclear why Adani can’t just tell her – is there meant to be some sort of mental block, or is it just that she literally doesn’t know what the place is called?
When Thanos tries to seize control of the Phoenix Force, Jean passes it to Adani because their psychic link is the only thing she can access at the time. Adani promptly appears (physically) and, despite screaming, then tries to resist Jean’s efforts to take it back.
Sif. She’s been brought in to help because of her understanding of Asgardian history. You’d have thought she could find someone else suitable instead of abandoning her post at the Bifrost, but there we are.
Nova. He’s still upset and overwhelmed about being mind controlled by Thanos last issue.
Captain Marvel. Jean calls her “the best tactician I’ve ever met”, which seems an odd comment from someone who’s married to Cyclops.
Rocket Racoon is here due to his “technical expertise”. (Let’s be generous and assume that the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy are otherwise engaged dealing with the fallout of Thanos’ takeover.) He uses this expertise to hack into the Black Order’s communications and lure them away from their post.
VILLAINS:
Thanos. Somehow or other, Thanos is able to use the Warlock’s Eye to corrupt the Phoenix force with “death”, whatever that means. Since the Phoenix is supposed to be “life incarnate”, this will somehow create “a void that will cancel out all of existence”. Thanos is currently in one of his nihilist phases where this seems like a good outcome. Jean describes this as “channeling the Warlock’s Eye through me”. Switching the Phoenix’s power to Adani stops this working, presumably because Thanos is attacking the wrong target.
He’s sufficiently confused by this result for Sif and Captain Marvel to take him down, though it’s unclear whether they actually do any serious damage or just take him off his feet. Sif does run her sword through the Warlock’s Eye, and if you look closely it does have a crack in it in subsequent panels.
The Black Order. Right… well, Corvus Glaive was with Thanos already, but the rest of the group – Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, Black Dwarf and Supergiant – are shown arriving outside his citadel in a spaceship, under the impression that Thanos has summoned them back. But it’s a trick! Rocket has lured them there, brilliantly diverting them from a place that isn’t important to the plot in the slightest, to the very location that the heroes are about to attack, thus making sure that they’re right on hand to defend it!
…
…
Hold on…
…
…
He…
…
Hold on, give me a minute here…
…
[re-reads]
…
No, that’s definitely the same building where Thanos is…
…
…
He hacks their communication…
…
… very place the heroes are …
…
He…
…
…
…
I mean, Thanos says it’s “clever”.
…
[re-reads]
…
…
Um… Captain Marvel is a tactical genius operating on a level that only Thanos can comprehend?
Sure. Sure, let’s go with that.
FOOTNOTES:
Page 5 panel 2: As I mentioned last time, the Warlock’s Eye was last seen as a background element in War of the Realms #3. Apparently it’s been stolen at some point but Sif doesn’t comment one way or the other about how.
Page 6 panel 3: Thanos was briefly mind-controlling Nova last issue.
Page 7 panel 2: Thanos is indeed using the Warlock’s Eye to prevent Phoenix from locating him, as he said last issue.
Page 8: Phoenix “helped [Adani] block out the voice and protect your mind” in issue #5. Adani was haunted by dreams of Phoenix last issue.
Page 9: Jean is showing Adani the standard highlights of her back story. The death of her friend Annie Richardson (which triggers the emergence of Jean’s powers) and her early training with Professor X both come from the Phoenix story in Bizarre Adventures #27. The left hand panel is a generic shot of her as Marvel Girl fighting alongside Cyclops. The mid-right panel of the space shuttle is her becoming Phoenix (more accurately, Phoenix taking her place) in X-Men vol 1 #100. The bottom right is Jean as Dark Phoenix. The bottom left is probably meant to be Scott and Jean’s wedding from the cover of X-Men vol 2 #30 (1994), though the colourist seems to have missed the reference and so she looks like she’s wearing a cloak.
Page 26: This is the Blue Area of the Moon, a hidden (and abandoned) city on the moon built by the Kree with a breathable atmosphere. It’s the place where Dark Phoenix died in X-Men vol 1 #137. If I remember rightly, the overgrown plants stem from the Empyre crossover in 2020.
Look, it’s very simple. If he didn’t teleport to Earth to sire children with teleporting power, how would he ever have a way to escape his prison and get to Earth?
Well, thank God other people can still host the Phoenix Force. I was afraid Jean wouldn’t be able to transfer it to random space aliens we’ll never see again after this series ends.
“Jean calls her “the best tactician I’ve ever met”, which seems an odd comment from someone who’s married to Cyclops.”
Also, what about Cable? Jean’s not exactly unbiased- no way would she consider Carol a better tactician than Cable.
Carol isn’t even a better tactician than Rocket- Cable has called Rocket perhaps the finest tactician he’s ever met.
In fact. Carol isn’t even the best tactician in the Avengers. During MacKay’s run, Carol has rarely made tactical decisions in the field. (Among other things, this avoids her giving orders to Storm.) Hawkeye, on the other hand, led the Thunderbolts to victory over Crimson Cowl and her army of two dozen of the most dangerous villains the world has ever known. (Okay- Klaw, Tiger Shark Boomerang, Constrictor and twenty Z-listers but STILL…) The Wasp co-led the Avengers with Captain America through a worldwide war against Kang.
I’m not sure that I buy that the Warlock’s Eye enables Thanos to overcome the Phoenix. When Harokin and Volstagg each had it, all they were able to do was use it to mentally paralyze dozens of soldiers. Now suddenly it’s this all-powerful artifact that the bad guys got their hands on off panel. And yes, Harokin and Volstagg have no experience using mental weapons while Thanos has experience with the Mind Gem. But STILL…
FINALLY we get to see Jean have an internal monologue.
According to the solicits, issue 10 will be the final battle between Jean and Adani and the Dark Gods. Many on the internet have speculated that this will either be Stephanie Philipps’ last issue as writer or the final issue of the series.
And if that’s the case, it’s not hard to see why. There have been major problems with this series from the get-go. Breevort has made it clear that he intended the Weapon X-Men series to re-establish Strucker as a major villain now that Zemo’s running Hydra and this series to restart Marvel’s cosmic titles. The difference is that Strucker’s kids fight the X-Men all the time so using an X-title to establish a new role him makes sense. (We’ll see if it works.) But in this series, it meant throwing Jean in with characters she never interacts with. Jean has to interact with Rocket, Sif, Carol and obscure Thor villains just because Breevort wants them used in a future Marvel series. (And Phillips has to come up with contrived reasons why Rocket, Sif and Carol are there.)
But in addition, it’s an open secret that Philipps’ greatest weakness as a writer is creating her own original characters who steal the spotlight from the actual stars of the book. She did this was Adani and the results were disastrous.
This may be one of the closest moments I’ve ever seen Paul actually approach Blue Screen of Death with a plot choice.
And hey, I can see wanting Rocket because he’s highly useful, Nova for his power and experience, and Carol for her power and experience, but I would in no way call Carol a tactical genius when you have so many other choices. Hell, Richard Rider is a pretty seasoned military leader after Annihilation, etc.
This is just a series which falls flat for me, and regrettably that’s in line with much of Phillips’ work.
So Carol, was a head of security at an Airbase that constantly was infiltrated by Aliens and even managed to get caught in an explosion on her own base. She then quit to edit a women’s magazine. She got brainwashed and abused by Marcus and then attacked by Rogue and left Catatonic. Carol joined the x-men and the star jammers and gained her Binary for at this point she was relearning her skills and personality so her main guide in battle tactics is Corsair (who this book thinks is an absolute fool). Meanwhile the Carol personality arises in Rogue who is more resilient in battle does no seem a tactical genius and that version of her dies anyway.
Carol returns home as here binary powers fade and her old powers come back, which causes here to become an alcoholic who turns up on Avengers mission drunk, to the point of court martial. She bumbles around in low level Govt jobs, but not really making any mark.
She joins the Registration side of the 1st civil war (she is on the winning but morally wrong side of each civil war is the genius ?) And is rewarded by Iron man by being made team leader (may because all the good choices had left, and out of Wonder, Ares and Sentry she was the best choice) But Tony still really makes the decisions. Her Avengers team fail to stop the Skrull invasions, and Moonstone take her name and almost kills her so she rebrands.
Now calling herself Captain Marvel she hopes that the new name and more serious costume will make people forget that Ms Marvel was a washout. It works she gets to be an avenger mainstay and have a run with the guardians to up her cosmic reputation. Which gets her the Sword/ Alpha flight role. To the point where she get to lead the Avengers again. Where she starts a second Civil war, loses She- Hulk and War Machine in battle with Thanos, Tries to kill Miles a school child and almost kills Iron man. Genius at work.
She does little of impact on the wider 616 for a few years and then becomes chair of the avengers again (once again Tony is bored with leading and can’t find anyone else), Her team was Blindsided vampires so could not stop the 1st big emergency on their watch leading to the non avengers having to seek out Doom.
In all this time Jean was dead during here time with the X-men, by the time she came back from space Jean was alive but Carol was a drunk, who got back on her feet only after Kang Dynasty, Jean dies again and does not come back till after Civil War 2, and Shortly afterwards moves to Karakoa. So has only seen carol in a leadership role in the most recent Avenger line up just before she left for space. And she is married to the X-men greatest tactician who even Steve Rodeger admires.
“Um… Captain Marvel is a tactical genius operating on a level that only Thanos can comprehend?
Sure. Sure, let’s go with that.”
The only logical explanation I can think of is that while Phoenix and the other heroes are fighting Thanos and the Black Order, in the rest of the Galaxy, once Thanos is no longer able to use the Warlock’s Eye, the forces of the Galactic Council will regain control, which is why it is important that the Black Order has been distracted and communications disrupted.
@ Michael
“According to the solicits, issue 10 will be the final battle between Jean and Adani and the Dark Gods. Many on the internet have speculated that this will either be Stephanie Philipps’ last issue as writer or the final issue of the series.”
I don’t know, it will also come out with a Foreshadow Variant by Stephanie Hans, depicting future events. If it’s going to be the last issue, it wouldn’t make much sense to have such a variant.
@Midnnighter- as I understand it, the foreshadow variants sometimes depict events featuring the character but in different titles. So if Jean was returning to the X-Men, the foreshadow variant might depict her fighting 3K, for example.
Alternately, of course, they could just be rebooting the title without Stephanie Philips and Adani, since those are the things most fans hate about this title.
@Midnighter- on second thought, Stephanie Philips wrote on Bluesy:
“Phoenix issue 10 cover by Yasmine Putri is one of the best of the whole series. Annnnd maybe a precursor to some new Phoenix news coming soon ”
It does look like they’re rebooting the series without Poochie, er, Adani.
Boy, this has been trying the length of my patience.
For the one solo series that’s trying to do something different from the X-fam…it’s the one I’m liking the least.
We need an X-title Cull, and we need it soon.
I didn’t count, but Jay and Miles said in the latest episode of X-Plain that there are 20 x-books coming out next month.
And knowing them, that probably doesn’t include the Deadpool solo.
“The only logical explanation I can think of is that while Phoenix and the other heroes are fighting Thanos and the Black Order, in the rest of the Galaxy, once Thanos is no longer able to use the Warlock’s Eye, the forces of the Galactic Council will regain control, which is why it is important that the Black Order has been distracted and communications disrupted.”
That still wouldn’t explain bringing them to Thanos’ HQ instead of just sending them to the back of beyond – but moreover, Thanos tells us directly that it’s a good idea because “It weakens my stronghold to remove them from the field.” (That being the very stronghold they’ve just arrived at.)
So, to recap: This is a Jean Grey book that doesn’t seem to understand Jean’s relationships to other characters well-established by successful and popular X-book writers past.
And it’s a cosmic book that doesn’t provide interesting philosophical abstraction in the Starlin/Engelhart/Ewing mode, and doesn’t convincingly set up or depict big galactic conflicts with convincing tactics or political maneuverings in the Abnett/Lanning/Giffen mold.
Who is this for, exactly?
The only explanation I see is that it’s an autocorrect fail that changed ‘it weakens my hold [on conquered space]’ to ‘stronghold’.
Allow me to damn this book with faint praise: Phoenix is a far more appropriate opponent for Thanos than Ka-Zar.
@Omar Karindu: I think the fundamental mistake Phillips made here (or Brevoort if it was his mandate) was sending Jean to outer space without a single supporting character who actually *has* an established relationship with her. If the Starjammers were a regular presence, if Rachel had gone with her, or Sam and Roberto (given their Shi’ar interests), if she were facing X-related threats like Orbis Stellaris or Abigail Brand, then it would feel like “a cosmic X-book” that was making a unique contribution to the overall line.
As it stands? This could just as easily be a Carol Danvers B-title, or a Frankie Raye series. I’m mystified anyone, let alone Paul, considers it an X-book at all.
The curious thing is that in April we will have a cosmic character who will visit Arakko and update us on Apocalypse, but it will be the Luke Cage who came from the future in Power Man: Timeless, and not Phoenix…
How do you put together a team of heroes to fight Thanos and completely skip over all the power hitters who’ve fought him in the past? Doesn’t feel like a Thanos story at all — probably one of those clones that Starlin came up with to explain the variations in his personality over the years.
I guess Rocket being there makes a tiny bit of sense if you accept that he’s so super-genius that even Doctor Doom respects him, per the recent one-shot they were in.
I mean, raccoons do wash their food before eating it. OK, sure, I know they aren’t doing it to clean the food of germs. Still, it’s enough to impress Doom. Doom can speak German so he knows that raccoons are known as “wash bears” in German. Respect.
@Karl_H: Thanos arguably isn’t that big a deal anymore. He certainly isn’t met as sporadically as he once was. I am honestly not sure whether Thanos is still featured less often than Doctor Doom.