Every issue of Immortal X-Men is narrated by one character. Issue #17, out today, is no different, except that in this case, the narrator is Jean Grey/the Phoenix, who is, well, currently not in the best shape. Is she dead? Is she comatose? Is she reliving all of her past trauma at once? Whatever the case may be, writer Kieron Gillen has chosen to narrate the issue entirely using dialogue from other issues, dating all the way back to 1963’s X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Our team here (Well, Mark) has worked tirelessly to locate the source of each and every caption in today’s issue. So here it is, from start to finish!
Page 6
“Now and forever — I am Phoenix. Now and —”
A caption that should need no introduction, and one that will be revisited elsewhere in the issue, Jean Grey reborn as Phoenix emerging from the spaceship crash in Jamaica Bay in Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum’s X-Men #101. While Jean hasn’t precisely been Phoenix “now and forever,” from this point forward, Jean will always be associated with that cosmic force.
“I thought I was dead. Waiting to come together, in the White Hot Room … incubating … to be born anew … all in good time. But it’s not time, is it? Yet here I am? Am I? Something’s wrong.”
In Greg Pak and Greg Land’s X-Men: Phoenix — Endsong #1, the hostless Phoenix Force is attacked by the Shi’ar Empire, leading a shard of it to resurrect Jean following her death at the hands of Magneto during the climax of Grant Morrison’s “Planet X” story (The Phoenix also restores Quentin Quire’s physical form in the issue, after he was seemingly killed by Xorn following his failed uprising in New X-Men #138). Jean returns to the grave by the end of the five-issue miniseries, but not before Pak spends the series riffing on the Phoenix mythology a bit.
“What kind of school is this, sir? I have a right to know!”
In her first appearance, in the very first X-Men comic, Jean Grey arrives at Professor Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters. Responding to the mystery surrounding her recruitment to the school, Jean demands to learn why she was to keep the school secret, and why she was recruited. It’s here that Professor X reveals that she, along with all of the other students at the school, are mutants, possessed of superhuman powers.
Pages 6-7
“My consciousness — my form and its ability to communicate on this plane of existence — derive from you. They provide an … awareness of your dormant emotions and memories …”
Classic X-Men #8, reprinting X-Men #100, contains a new backup story by Chris Claremont and John Bolton. In it, Jean cries out for help as her spaceship crashes. She then finds herself in the White Hot Room and interacts with the Phoenix Force for the first time. Phoenix offers to help Jean, an offer Jean accepts. The issue ends with the Phoenix Force refashioning itself into a duplicate Jean Grey body and begins to think itself Jean Grey. This is part of the substantial retcon of Jean, showing she was not responsible for the chaos and death caused by the Phoenix Force, since it was all caused by the Phoenix in a duplicate body. Notably, this issue is the first appearance of the White Hot Room (though it is not named as such here).
Pages 7-8
“You guys make me sick!! What happened to your commitment to Professor X’s dream? All I know is — I’m not going to stand around twiddling my thumbs while our kind is totally wiped from the face of the Earth.”
Following her apparent death in X-Men #137, Jean spent the next few years dead, until a combination of factors led to her being resurrected by Roger Stern and John Byrne in Avengers #263 and Fantastic Four #286. In X-Factor #1 by Bob Layton and Butch Guice, Jean is reunited with her former teammates in the original X-Men, and lashes out in the face of their seeming indifference to the X-Men’s then-recent alliance with Magneto and the escalating anti-mutant tension facing their people.
Page 9
“But the fires of the Phoenix burn through lies, you understand? The gaze of the Phoenix is like an x-ray tearing through every deception.”
In New X-Men #139 by Grant Morrison and Phil Jimenez, Jean catches Scott having psychic sex with Emma Frost and then uses the Phoenix Force to torture Emma by shepherding her through memories of painful experiences in her life, from rebellious heir to her father’s fortune, to the Hellfire Club, to the mass death on Genosha.
Page 10
“No longer am I the woman you knew. I am fire and life incarnate! Now and forever — I am fire and life incarnate! Now and forever — I am fire and life incarnate! Now and forever — I am fire and life incarnate! Now and forever — I am Phoenix!”
Yep, it’s that same scene from X-Men #101.
Page 11
“I can’t screen out everyone’s thoughts. Some of the images I’m receiving are so … vile. But I can handle that. Part of me almost finds those thoughts … attractive.”
Uncanny X-Men #130, by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, is the first appearance of Dazzler. In this issue, Scott and Jean investigate a disco in search of a new mutant. It’s a very sleazy club, but Jean finds that the sordid thoughts of the disco crowd are strangely appealing with her new Phoenix-may-care personality.
Page 18
“My destiny lies in the stars.”
During “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” Jean/Phoenix falls under the sway of Jason Wyngarde, Mastermind, who attempts to use his psychic manipulation of Jean to gain admittance into the inner circle of the Hellfire Club. Once freed from Wyngarde’s manipulation, Phoenix continues to act rashly and callously, eventually getting into a fight with her teammates before trouncing them and flouncing off to space, which we see here in Claremont and Byrne’s Uncanny X-Men #135.
Page 20
“Can’t help myself! I don’t want to anymore! I’m reacting to their thoughts, not their words. You fear me, all of you, and with good reason. What I do to this plant … I can just as easily do to you.”
In Uncanny X-Men #136 by Claremont and Byrne, Phoenix returns to Earth (only after destroying a solar system inhabited by billions), and goes to her parents’ house. Her family is, let’s face it, a bit apprehensive at Jean’s new groove. She responds by lashing out at a plant, just like Jesus did.
Page 21
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done — what forces you’ve set in motion?! You came to me when I was vulnerable. You filled the emotional void within me. You made me trust you — perhaps even love you — and all the while, you were using me!”
Phoenix confronts and defeats Wyngarde in Uncanny X-Men #134 by Claremont and Byrne.
Page 23
“So hard to think. Something’s missing … It’s not time yet, is it? Cold … dying? I’m never cold. And I can’t die. Can I?”
Finally, we return to Pak and Land’s X-Men: Phoenix — Endsong #1, where a tiny fragment of the Phoenix Force encounters Wolverine before moving on to the mansion, where it disinters and resurrects the corpse of Jean Grey.
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