Too many cliches and a slow start hold back a decent cosmic adventure.
Writer | Stephanie Phillips |
Illustrator & Inker | Alessandro Miracolo |
Colorist | David Curiel |
Publisher | Marvel | 07.17.24 |
Spoilers Ahead
Marvel has a solid and underrated lineup of space-based characters. The Gaurdians of the Galaxy likely comes to the minds of more recent Marvel fans, but the likes of the Star Jammers, Nova, and others will more readily pop into the heads of longtime readers. With Phoenix #1 by writer Stephanie Phillips and illustrator Alessandro Miracolo, X-Men group editor Tom Brevoort is trying to give cosmic comic book fans something different with the adventures of Jean Grey. Unfortunately, the book suffers from an abundance of cliches, vague powers, and canned dialogue. While there's a chance Phillips turns this one around, the first issue isn't anything to write home about.
Right out of the gates we get an unknown narrator spewing the same, tired bit about a corrupt organized religion that social media philosophers like to regurgitate. The Universal Church of Truth (I'm pretty sure Universal is only there because—you guessed it—the story is in space. Sigh...) is the generic stand-in for whichever religion Phillips has a beef with, and it's all pretty boilerplate stuff. One god, redemption, except there is no god and no redemption, and the whole operation is crooked, evil, hypocritical, etc. If you can think of an anti-religious cliche, it's here. And there's even a jab at the narrator's father for good measure because, despite disavowing the church for being corrupt, he apparently didn't do enough to counter... an entity described as so powerful it "conquered entire populations." Way to let everyone down, Dad!
I'll give Phillips this much—unlike some of her fellow From the Ashes compatriots, the exposition at the beginning of the issue actually establishes some background about Jean. And let's face it, if any X-Men character needs some background, it's the Phoenix. The only bit left unclear is what Jean is seeking redemption for, but really, just pick something awful the Phoenix has been involved in and that's enough to get the story going. We see Jean arrive on the narrator's planet where the locals are (rightfully) worried that the Phoenix is there to destroy them. Because the Phoenix historically doesn't represent anything good—it's a primal force that usually destroys things.
This Phoenix, however, is fully in control of herself and her powers and wants to help. The planet's sun is about to puff out of existence, so Jean intervenes to stop that from happening, reigniting it and saving everyone. To be clear, I've never really known what powers Jean has as the Phoenix. Whether or not her abilities have always been ambiguous is unclear to me, but what I do know is that this comic doesn't make things any clearer. Jean reignites the sun because, well, she can. Not much else is given to explain how Jean saves everyone. Which is problematic for longterm storytelling if the main character's powers are "whatever the writer wants or needs them to be because Jean is basically a god, so anything goes."
It kills all the stakes if Jean is virtually invincible or can do anything. I hope that as the series moves forward, Phillips really delineates what Jean is capable of and sticks to it. Regardless, after her mission is done, Jean returns to space and her ship where she gets into a telepathic chat with Scott, who's back home in Merle, Alaska. As he makes coffee, the two talk about Jean's adventure, as well as her absence from home. It's a surprisingly normal sounding conversation from a writer that I've often seen described as having trouble with portraying humanized characters. The dialogue isn't perfect, but the scene does a good job of establishing that Jean is going to be on her own for a bit, but that she still loves Scott and he's supportive of what she's doing.
The rest of the issue focuses on a prison riot as Nova fights to rescue the inmates as a nearby black hole gets ready to absorb the entire facility and kill everyone in it. Nova reaches out to Jean telepathically asking for help, and she zips right over. Why these two have a telepathic link is unexplained, something that would have been nice to know. Regardless, Jean, as with the dying sun, intervenes here to stop the black hole from consuming everything. And once again, there's no real explanation for what Jean is doing, other than that she "became the black hole" and "gave every part of herself to the stars."
Not to beat this point to death, but as noted above, none of that means anything. It's flowery, dramatic language meant to create a sense of grandeur, but as the reader ingesting the scene, there's no context to be had. It's just "Phoenix is really powerful, so she can do anything" and that's it and that's that. The issue goes on to show that, as omnipotent as Jean might seem, she's still a mortal and her decision to let one of the prisoners escape is going to come back to haunt her. That prisoner is the Dark God Perrikus, who longtime fans might remember from Dan Jurgens' Heroes Return run on Thor many moons ago. It's unclear what Perrikus' goal is, but he's suitably sinister thus far. The issue ends with a splash of things to come, with Jean surrounded by a hodgepodge group of heroes.
Look, the issue is... fine. I think it gives Jean a purpose that helps explain her absence from the X-Men and provides a nice, galactic canvas to paint on. The problem is that Phillips doesn't do anything all that interesting with the premise, instead leaning into cliches and hoping that if Jean does enough splashy things every couple of pages that readers will be wowed and not ask too many pesky questions, like "how can she do that?" To be fair, if I'm just ignorant of things that most readers know the Phoenix is capable of, that's on me, but as a new reader, I repeat that this sort of information should be made plain, not assumed as known. I don't know if things will get better in the future, but I'll tune in for the first arc, at least.
All right, now to the elephant in the room: Alessandro Miracolo. In case you didn't know, Miracolo has been accused of swiping (re: copying) other artists' work for Phoenix #1. You can click this link to check it out for yourself. I can't definitively say whether or not Miracolo swiped, but I do see the similarities in poses and panel layouts, which doesn't look food for the artist. That said, the issue is competently drawn regardless. Backgrounds are sparse but the character work looks solid. It's unclear how Marvel is handling the allegations, but Phillips could do a lot worse than Miracolo as a creative partner. I would like to quickly point out, since we're talking art, that this version of the Pheonix suit sucks. No sash and that Gambit-esque faceless mask thing looks awful on Jean. Just put her in the original for crying out loud!
Ultimately, Phoenix #1 isn't a total failure, just disappointing. The setup is right there to do something new and interesting with Jean. Instead, we get the writer's hangups about religion and half-baked super powers. It's also a slow read. It took me a couple of attempts to work my way through the opening narrative, which felt like a chore. If Phillips can reign herself in and hammer out a definitive take on the Phoenix's abilities, there's a shot this stabilizes into a decent cosmic yarn. If not, this will be yet another failed X-Men solo series to add to a long list from across the years.
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