(Almost) All You Ever Wanted To Know About Phoenix...

If you were one of those Marvel readers who went as far as you could in trying to make some sort of sense of all the subsequent appearances of Phoenix after the "death" of Jean Grey, let me just say that I'm awed by your tenacity--you've actually tried to bring order to chaos, and unfortunately may have come up empty like the rest of us. If Dark Phoenix were here right now, she would likely be amused at our effrontery and chide us for our hopelessness; nevertheless, we've likely at one time or another been part of a loose-knit circle of ardent and dogged "Phoenix-chasers" who occasionally attempt to connect the dots in the hope of justifying the many, many appearances of Phoenix though the decades that tried to build on what came before.

As your humble host at the PPC, I believe I threw in the towel on the subject at some point, though it's still enjoyable to come across a Phoenix story from the past and pull on its thread a bit to see how well it adds to--or how much it detracts from--the character's mystique (though referring to the Phoenix force as a "character" feels a little like reaching the point of no return). One such story involves Rachel Summers, herself one of those threads which was woven into the story of Phoenix simply by virtue of the fact that she is the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from another timeline. Rachel has the dubious distinction of being the character who started the ball rolling again on Phoenix following the end of the original storyline; and after she made a number of appearances in X-Men adventures, she was plugged in as a charter member of Excalibur, a new super-group based in Great Britain, as a sort of "Phoenix-lite" whose own connection to the Phoenix force unfolded as the book progressed.

In terms of becoming a full-blown Phoenix in her own right, however, we'll discover that Rachel finally gets to have her cake and eat it too following the events of a battle which leaves her fate uncertain--until the Phoenix itself intervenes with its own solution.

The scene where Phoenix returns to the stars (with Rachel "in tow," as it were) takes place in a story written by Alan Davis bearing a title which Phoenix-chasers no doubt applauded for its audacity, if not its accuracy: "All You Ever Wanted To Know About Phoenix... But Were Afraid To Ask," a truly laudable attempt to tie together the many appearances of Phoenix to date (in this case, July of 1992), though the story narrows its focus to those instances leading up to and involving the power's manifestation in Rachel (i.e., "All You Ever Wanted To Know About Excalibur's Phoenix..."). Davis would have probably needed an Omnibus, along with a few gallons of espresso, to tackle and bring coherence to the entire saga of Phoenix--even Mark Gruenwald would likely have balked at the task, and that's saying something.

At any rate, it's the Phoenix itself that now takes center stage in its ongoing story, sharing Rachel's body but suppressing her consciousness as Rachel continues to heal. The question is: What does it plan to do, while still tied to the mortal plane?

In reading this story, it's understandable for those of us who have the luxury of "skipping ahead" if it feels as if Davis is cutting to the chase in wrapping up the story of Rachel and the Phoenix force almost immediately after this development--though it wouldn't have felt so for the reader, given that Davis didn't touch base on the situation for another nine issues from the point when Rachel was injured and Phoenix left the Earth (which, in publication terms, worked out to six months without any updates on their status). And so when Phoenix resurfaces, Davis, in full worth-the-wait mode, proceeds with resolving this story over a span of four issues, while, in the process, adding yet another tangent to the story of the Phoenix power being embodied in a human host. And to quickly put the Phoenix on that path, Davis arranges for it to gain perspective on its existence from one of the heaviest hitters in the universe.

After a little heavy hitting between them, that is.

We get the sense from the words of Galactus that he knows a great deal more about the nature of the Phoenix than the Phoenix itself is either ignorant of or denies--which may indeed be the case, given how Davis has stressed the point that the Phoenix is now a being which views the universe from a singular, mortal frame of reference that has allowed it take notice of the infinite details which make up the whole. As such, it has come to define itself in a more basic sense: it is the embodiment of life, which now only sees Galactus taking lives on a massive scale out of malice in order to sustain his own.

Yet Galactus realizes that both he and the Phoenix have their roles to play--and in stepping outside its own, the Phoenix has become a danger to the very thing it treasures.

(Wallpaper courtesy of Alan Davis, Mark Farmer, and the PPC. :D )

With respect to Mr. Davis, there really is no way I can buy Galactus's assertion that, should he need to feed on an inhabited world, he only targets civilizations in decline. Aside from the many examples you and I could cite to the contrary, he's been known to liken the victims of his planetary upheaval to ants, remaining completely indifferent to their fate. If he indeed considers the Phoenix to be hypocritical, then it's a fair term to apply to him, as well.

Nevertheless, Galactus is on solid ground with the threat that Phoenix now poses to life, a revelation which in human terms renders it near-catatonic--leaving it to ponder its existence, and its future. Yet there is another universal force which offers (in so many words) to restore the balance which the Phoenix had rashly forsaken, but at a cost--the only price which this particular entity will accept.

Which leaves us with a very confused girl, who finds herself lost in the depths of space. But only until she is joined by the force which finally bids Rachel, and a life which was never really its own, farewell.

And so with the departure of the Phoenix, it's not clear at first what Davis has accomplished here in terms of development, other than having the Phoenix itself exit the mortal plane for all time. For Rachel, nothing has really changed (aside from the considerable benefit of regaining her own mind and memories)--she is still Phoenix, she remains part of Excalibur, and she still embodies the Phoenix force with certain limitations. The only apparent difference of note is that there is no longer a cloud hanging over her head as far as the possibility of the Phoenix force corrupting her and making her a threat to the universe, which, granted, is a significant burden to be free of.

Though if that's the case, then how do we explain her next transformation?

The answer, and the relief that comes with it, arrives when she rejoins her teammates, pleasantries are exchanged, and Rachel resolves to use her power to put to rights the first concern that comes to mind.

All things considered, Davis has presented an intriguing take on the Phoenix which may not agree with everyone: humanizing it to a certain degree and giving it a platform to express itself, in order to have it come full circle and accept the reason why it had to return to its former state. It remains to be seen whether we're now better off with the concept as revised--a physical character in the form of Rachel, effectively carrying a "license" to wield the Phoenix power, with the Phoenix force itself returned to being an abstract concept whose home is the entire universe. Put another way, we have Rachel with Phoenix super-powers--a description in which perhaps something feels lost in the translation.

BONUS!

Excalibur's coat of arms, as presented by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer.

(with a nod to Sven Larsen)