X-men: The Dark Phoenix Saga (Book Review)

X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga
Written by Chris Claremont
Co-plotting and art by John Byrne
Published by Marvel Comics, 2017
Price: FREE with Amazon Prime

After watching the second underwhelming movie version of the Dark Phoenix saga a couple of weeks ago, I made of point of finally reading the original comics. What made it even better is that with my Amazon Prime membership it was FREE! I don't work for Amazon but I think lots of people do not know that are a selection of manga and graphic novels available in the Amazon Prime Reading section.

Anyway, even though I've been aware of the general outline of the Dark Phoenix Saga I had never read the actual comics. I started reading X-Men the issue after this storyline ended so I completely missed it back in the day!

Jean Grey, also known as Phoenix has shown glimpses of almost god-like powers in some of the issues preceding this collection. Up till now, she has used those powers for good. But there is something weird going on in her mind. Jean seems to be psychically time slipping into a past life in 1780 in which she is immigrating to America with her husband, Jason Wyngarde. She's very much in love. This has been happening but the time slips are getting longer and more frequent. It's almost a precursor of Outlander!

Jason Wyngarde is in actuality a member of The Hellfire Club, a 150 year old exclusive gentlemens club in present day New York. Its purpose is, dare I say it,  to take over the world. Wyngarde is using his psychic bond to corrupt Phoenix to the dark side to aid in their nefarious goals. Unfortunately
once Jean succumbs to her darkest desires, it won't be just the Earth that's in danger but the entire universe!

The first thing that blew me away in this book was the art by John Byrne and Terry Austin. I grew up on Byrne's run on the Avengers in the early 80's and loved it. I wasn't a big fan of his Fantastic Four art. He made everyone look old and emaciated and the colors were always dark and dull. I had only read a few of his X-Men issues so I was blown away by the art in this book. It was masterful, crisp, and colorful. I couldn't believe how well the art has held up. Byrne is like George Perez. He's so great that his style never looks old. He seemed to be comfortable drawing all the characters and took a lot of time and effort even on the backgrounds. There was never a point where I said "That art looks rushed" or "That looks awkward".

The writer, Chris Claremont,  also hit his peak in this book. In fact, I can't even remember another book that he wrote. I just always associate him with the X-Men. We are dealing with a  universal theme that has been around since the beginning of literature thousands of years ago. Namely, that absolute power corrupts absolutely. No human can contain the power of the Phoenix. I mean if anything you think becomes reality, what human mind could control itself?

The thing that shocked me the most was the fact that the story effected me EMOTIONALLY. I mean I already knew Jean Grey's fate before reading the book but it got to me anyway. The writing and art are so good that you get involved with the story. I felt sorry for Jean and especially Cyclops who sees her struggling and feels powerless to help her. I mean, could ANYONE have helped her? You probably needed some cosmic entity like Eternity or something that could have given her advice. Instead, in addition to fighting against herself, she also had to deal with the psychic manipulations of Wyngarde. I feel as though she was doomed no matter what she did. It's a tragic storyline that modern comics cannot pull off. I mean universes are destroyed and reborn almost YEARLY at DC and Marvel. There's no sense of finality anymore in comics. There's no sense of grandeur or epicness when you have an "EVENT" every year.

This was a great book. If you were disappointed in the movie adaptations of the story, please give the comics a try. See what could have been done if budgetary considerations weren't a factor.

My Grade: A+