Phoenix Resurrection #4: Therein Lie Spoilers

[ariwl1]

Jean awakens in the rubble of her house, completely unaware of what happened the night prior. She heads out the door lamenting that she’s late for work again. She walks down the street of Illusion-ville, running into manifestations of dead mutants as she goes. She speaks with them normally, going about her day never realizing that the entire world is burning down around her.

The X-Men stand outside the door to the Phoenix Egg, trying to decide what to do. Kitty asserts that whatever it intends, the Phoenix is bad news. Hellion says they should just go kill it then. Adult Beast reminds him that as a cosmic being of life and death, ultimately they can’t. So they should go in and say hi instead. Glob Herman asks who’s going to be crazy enough go first. Old Man Logan silently obliges.

Inside, everything is a fiery nightmare as the bodies of dead mutants litter the ground. The Bobby’s make a joke as they begin to try and put out the flames. Kitty tells them to stop. None of this is real, she hopes.

At that moment, a squad of dead X-Men, including Scott Summers, stand in the way of the real ones. Without speaking, the manifestations attack the X-Men. Warpath grapples with the vision of his brother John (Thunderbird). Colossus tells him not to be phased. They aren’t really the people they look like. Storm agrees and tells everyone not to hold back. The battle rages.

Kitty muses that the Phoenix is trying to slow them down. Warpath proclaims it’s going to kill them. Kitty assures him that everything always is but always fails. Kitty has most of the X-Men stay to tangle with the illusions. She bolts with Iceman (adult), Polaris, Old Man Logan, and Magik to try and find Jean. OML takes the time to stab a Jamie Madrox clone, claiming he’s always wanted to do that and that it was better than he’d hoped it’d be. (???)

Kitty’s squad finds Annie’s diner, thinking it may be where Jean is as it’s the one place in this world that isn’t a towering inferno. Bobby makes a joke. Lorna tells him to shut it. Suddenly the door opens and Jean comes out, carrying out the diner trash as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Logan calls to her, but she doesn’t respond. Kitty realizes she can’t see any of them.

Inside the diner, there’s no one but Jean and Annie. Annie asks how dinner with Scott went, noticing she seems to be in a good mood. Jean says she had to cancel the dinner because of her car. Annie begins to tease Jean that she did that so she could spend time with Mr. Howlett instead.

Jean says no, but she instead had a weird dream the night before where a goddess followed her home, wanting to talk. But when Jean saw her up close, it was her.

Annie: You were a goddess? Must be nice.
Jean: I don’t think she was me, exactly. She was so powerful and confident. So at ease. And it was like she was trying to prepare me for something.
Annie: That sounds lovely.

The rest of the X-Men catch up with Kitty’s squad. The manifestations they were fighting just vanished. Logan says they found Jean, and Beast theorizes this whole world was made for her by the Phoenix so it could merge with her again. Kitty ask why it would go to all this trouble. Beasts says Jean’s rejected the Phoenix before and it’s had other hosts that didn’t work out as well. It wants to get it right this time, but it hasn’t merged with her yet.

Young Cyclops asserts they need to get her away from it. Beast says that’s impossible and once they do finally merge…They’ll all be dead.

In the diner, Jean is becoming more disturbed and trying to write off the dream she had. Annie, very pointedly, presses her to take the dream seriously because her mind is telling her something she needs to hear. There’s a big change she needs to be prepared for. Is she prepared? Jean doesn’t know.

Outside, the X-Men ask if the Phoenix made the egg to protect Jean, why let them in? The X-Men aren’t sure, especially when the Phoenix had them running all over the world distracted by illusions. The two Beasts muse back and forth that maybe the Phoenix didn’t cause those but Jean did as a cry for help. Storm asserts that if Jean is crying for help they will answer before the Phoenix does.

The Phoenix shows up at that moment, perching atop the diner and staring down the X-Men. Logan gets ready to fight, but Kitty stops him saying maybe that’s what the Phoenix wanted as a way to wake Jean up and push her over the edge. Instead, they try talking. They’ll send one person in to talk to Jean.

Young Cyclops volunteers, but Old Man Logan stops him, saying it should be him. That’s not young Scott’s Jean in there. The one he loves (teen Jean) will turn up fine, but he didn’t love the woman in there. Old Man Logan did. Kitty agrees and tells Scott sorry as he walks back dejected.

(If they give awards for the biggest ouch… in a comic story, I expect this page to be in the running.)

Before Logan goes in Kitty whispers to him.

Kitty: Logan, I know you love her…but if the Phoenix manages to bond with Jean…
Logan: I know what I have to do.

Logan walks towards the diner; the Phoenix poised ready to strike.

[Harpsikord]

I got where they were going with the Logan thing but all I could really do was roll my eyes.

I enjoyed the issue otherwise, but feel like this story would have been better suited to an OGN.

[Crimz]

I liked the issue up until the end. The fight between Scott and Logan over who got to save her was unnecessary and an annoying call back to them fighting over Jean in the past. Neither of them should have been the one to go in as one is from early past and the other from an alternate future. Most of Jean's existence has been centered around two things: the phoenix, and the men in her life. I am happy that the phoenix is going away and I wish that her life isn't revolved around men again. I would have preferred if Storm went in there to save her, it would have been symbolic of Jean no longer needing to rely on the Scott or Logan and be a nice nod to their sisterhood. But no. We get Old Man Logan going in. He is from an alternate future so this Jean isn't his Jean, neither him or Young Scott should have been the ones to go.
I would have loved if when they were arguing, Storm just strolled on past them and went in herself.

The X-universe is going to much less appealing with 6 Wolverines running around....

[Dthirds3]

But isn't this this Jean a diffrent version of the one OML knew ?

[Magneto]

One more issue... seems like nothing happened...

[The Thunderbird]

But isn't this this Jean a diffrent version of the one OML knew ?

To be fair, Old Man Logan's timeline diverged from 616 after Jean died in Morrison's run. So he does know her quite well. Jean on the other hand might be confused at how old Logan looks.

[Ambaryerno]

To be fair, Old Man Logan's timeline diverged from 616 after Jean died in Morrison's run. So he does know her quite well. Jean on the other hand might be confused at how old Logan looks.

It still made no sense for Logan to be the one to do it. ESPECIALLY since they already established in numerous What If's that Jean + Logan + Phoenix = Phoenix Devours Everything and that it's ALWAYS been Scott that was able to break through to her.

[ariwl1]

If I had my way, I would have had Storm be the one go in.

If I'm looking for an in-universe way to justify sending OM Logan in, I figure it's because he's the one who would most likely be able and ready to kill Jean should things go lopsided.

[nandes]

Ok but Joshua Guthrie was really serving it in that crop-top uniform.

[Harpsikord]

Logan was the one that Jean could hear when she couldn't see the others. We didn't see anyone else. Just Logan - and on top of that Annie was hinting all over the place about the love triangle.

I'm sure if Scott were here it would have been him instead. Adult Scott.

[Fokken]

Ok but Joshua Guthrie was really serving it in that crop-top uniform.

I haven't read, nor seen,---- but this is easily my favorite post of the day so far.

[Gray Lensman]

It still made no sense for Logan to be the one to do it. ESPECIALLY since they already established in numerous What If's that Jean + Logan + Phoenix = Phoenix Devours Everything and that it's ALWAYS been Scott that was able to break through to her.

If they wanted to set up Jean and Scott not being together, then they could have used young Scott and have the conversation turn towards letting go. Maybe they can do it with dead Scott instead.

[Ambaryerno]

Ok but Joshua Guthrie was really serving it in that crop-top uniform.

And the dye-job. For some reason he went from red to blonde between his first and last appearances.

[Harpsikord]

If they wanted to set up Jean and Scott not being together, then they could have used young Scott and have the conversation turn towards letting go. Maybe they can do it with dead Scott instead.

I don't think they will, since Jean and Scott is sort of the flagship couple of the X-Men. And Scott is sure to be coming back soon, and surely they'll want to capitalize on that... so of course it couldn't have been little Scott.

[ariwl1]

Logan was the one that Jean could hear when she couldn't see the others. We didn't see anyone else. Just Logan - and on top of that Annie was hinting all over the place about the love triangle.

This what made me wonder how much of this world is the Phoenix vs. how much of it is Jean's. With Annie it very much seemed like the Phoenix was talking to Jean when talking about her preparing for something but it's never remotely cared about Logan.