PhoenixoftheTides

Lame ending to a lame story line. Tons of WIS and PIS. Just a mess.

To be honest, even with all of his drama, I think Cyclops has one of the more coherent and relatable issues compared to other X-Men so a lot of these arcs are not really things I would want to forget or even hold against him considering the kooky messes that some characters' backgrounds are. I think I am just more willing to accept a space pirate for a father and a clone for an ex-wife over being the son of a demonic overlord from another dimension populated by bamfs or the mess that is Wolverine's background.

@ursaber: I think this is the problem with the Phoenix. It gave the X-Men it's arguably most epic and greatest storyline but it locked the core X-Men into a perpetual cycle where it had to be inserted into runs because writers liked it and were raised on it. A Phoenix is supposed to symbolize death and rebirth but it never seems to do that for Jean or Scott - it just results in a death for Jean and then an angsty return to a status quo for the rest of the title. Even Morrison, who specifically set out to write the "New X-Men" storyline to break them out of this pattern, fell into it by basing the end of his series on it. I disagree with the premise that transcending into godhood or a cosmic power level needs to result in alienation - we've had characters like Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Thor, and Odin walk around with incredible power levels for years with no issues...this only seems to be a problem for heroines, so I think there could be an element of either sexism or just plain lazy writing. IMHO just having Jean operate as a cosmic level telepath/telekinetic is an amazing leap forward for mutant potential that should be explored but instead we just get hamfisted Big Fights and Big Events ad nauseum.

The Phoenix as a concept itself is a McGuffin that has served it's purpose but try as writers might, it can't actually drive or support a plot, but it can definitely sell comics.

I will try to dig up the issue of "New X-Men" when he and Jean discuss this. If I recall correctly, it was for a very understandable reason (and therefore human and sad): Emma became his therapist after the storyline where he merged and then was separated from Apocalypse. He was traumatized and Emma helped get him through it. He developed a close relationship to her after that which evolved into a psychic pseudo-sexual relationship that became romantic. The re-emergence of the Phoenix in Jean and her developing a more assertive leadership role pushed him further in Emma's arms - simply put, Jean and Scott were growing apart.

I think what is important to remember is that Jean realized that Scott and Emma truly loved each other. This is why at the end of the New X-Men storyline, one of Jean's last acts was to change a timeline by allowing Scott to make the mental leap necessary to put his shame aside and make his relationship with Emma public.

Emma has her own issues, but a lot of this relationship had a lot to do with Scott rebelling (at least that is my interpretation of it). A LOT of issues with the direction of the series can be corrected if you timetraveled right before Jean's death in New X-Men and had a different outcome.

All for it - I have no issues with this endgoal.

#I'mWithHer

Stealing part of Hawk2916's idea. Iceman, Jean Grey, Justice, Firestar, Crystal, and a bunch of Inhuman corpses. I.E. basically an X-Man team plus rando Inhuman.

Hopefully she takes over as headmistress.

I guess this is a zombie thread, but I did not have much of an issue with this outcome. Kind of brief but these suits have tanked worse and the team here has advantages and disadvantages that makes them especially vulnerable in a fight against War Machine - one is a flying glass cannon fighting against an aerial combatant with direct offensive power and the other is a landbound armored opponent that could be outmaneuvered or avoided until it is time to take him out. The team just doesn't have the ability to effectively coordinate, especially with tactical overlays and on-board countermeasures. If the Sentinels had the capabilities of Iron Man and War Machine's armor, then mutants would be in big trouble. Was this done in the battle forum?

They definitely need to use him more. He was a great treat in X-Factor. I would add chess pieces to his overall equipment load and emphasize his often under-estimated planning ability to make his name fit more. He's one of the few X-Men that has enough physical energy on a page to make for fun panel fight sequences with a powerset that just brushes being very powerful.

I agree with cattlebattle's comment above - but I kind of liked "Age of X" so I guess I'm in the minority!

@cattlebattleYeah, a lot of characters had really good developments in Age of X, makes you sad that characters in Marvel aren't allowed to really progress outside of miniscule changes. Rifle carrying Gambit was a good idea, as was Cyclops and his Basilisk identity, and merged Cypher/Warlock, and Cannonball and Husk being sibling leaders of their own strike force and so on.....Age of X, while not a very good story, had some neat ideas.

Please do not buy this. I only purchased the first issue after flipping through the pages and seeing Dazzler get some screen time. It was only a matter of time before the X-Men starting jobbing, and they started jobbing hard. I mean, Jean Grey being neutralized by Karnak? Cute. Real cute. Prime example of buffing a character with PIS to such extreme levels that it's ridiculous - the seeing "flaw in death" thing really made me -_-...If it was adult 616 Jean, it would have been more effective to just break all of his limbs with TK, though her morals would have to be off.

My main issue with these events is that the jobbing always ends up being lopsided, when each character brings their own absolute advantages and absolute disadvantages and IMO Karnak should have been able to see the flaw in the X-Men's strategy but not be able to defeat a telekinetic on Jean's current level. I think it's often forgotten that his abilities come from training and are not superpowers gifted from the Terrigen mists, so hyping him too much distorts what made the character both weak and strong (i.e. interesting).

My advice is flip through the pages of these issues and don't buy the issues which are so ridiculous that you want to type up a scathing review on Comicvine after reading it.