Jean Grey’s New Beginning Needs More Jean: Reviewing ‘Phoenix’ #1

Wolverine and, occasionally, Cable, aside, the X-Men don’t have a great history of supporting solo series for their members. Many have been attempted throughout the years, from Cyclops to Jean Grey to Nightcrawler, Rogue, Gambit, and more. But none had significant staying power or cultivated strong followings.

The new From the Ashes publishing initiative is seemingly steering into this skid with the release of Phoenix, a new solo series starring a “in sync with the Phoenix Force” Jean Grey. Unfortunately, while Phoenix #1 isn’t terrible, it’s not terribly strong, either. 

The issue opens with a mildly clever narrative trick. The action unfolds with commentary from an off-page narrator. At first, it seems like the narrator must be Jean, speaking about her father’s religious beliefs. But then it becomes clear the narrator is actually Adani, a young female child of an adherent to the Universal Church of Truth from Jim Starlin’s Adam Warlock stories.

Adani proceeds to narrate the majority of the first half of Phoenix #1 and a few pages at the end. Once it gets past the initial twist, this decision becomes more questionable. Handing over so much of the first issue of a new series to a brand new character rather than the title character, one who appears mostly off-page as a passive commenter on the action rather than a driver of action on their own is a…curious decision on the part of writer Stephanie Phillips.

Unfortunately, it’s also not a very effective one. It keeps Jean out of the action too long, and makes the opening pages of the issue more disorienting than engaging. 

Once Jean does enter the action, a clearer picture of what this series will be about emerges. Not just a solo series starring one of the original X-Men, this will also be a cosmic title, a spiritual successor of sorts to Al Ewing’s SWORD and X-Men Red series during the Krakoa Era.

The connection to those series is underscored by the presence of Nova (a supporting member of Ewings’ casts), as Jean works alongside him containing a prison break on the Kyln-2 space station prompted by the collapse of a nearby black hole. Not only does this offer an opportunity to showcase Jean in all her cosmic glory, it kicks the main plot of the issue into gear, as it becomes clear one of the escapees is poised to be the first antagonist of the series, looping Adani back into the story. 

Like the issue itself, Jean’s superheroing is a bit of a mixed bag. Artist Alessandro Miracolo renders her actions in full cosmic glory, filled with the glorious oranges and yellows of the Phoenix fire effect. A two page spread in which Jean fights to prevent the collapse of the black hole is an effective synthesis of words and art as she literally and metaphorically dances across the page. But at times, the coloring becomes distracting. There’s so much orange and yellow on the page it becomes exhausting to look at. It drowns out the action and visual characterization.

Similarly, the moments when Jean feels the most engaging and relatable are the brief pages in which she’s telepathically conversing with Cyclops back on Earth. The easy back-and-forth between the couple, both expressing their love for one another even as they acknowledge the importance of their respective missions keeping them apart, is a highlight of Phoenix #1. That the best material comes in a sequence with one character who’s not a regular cast member located light years away is not a good sign. 

That kind of give-and-take is the main takeaway from the issue. The Adani setup is clever, but goes on too long, pushing its title character into the background of the opening pages of her solo series. It’s fun to see the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe continue to be explored by its mutant characters, but the best moments of the issue include a character back on Earth. The art manages to be appropriately grand and bombastic, but at times, also overwhelming and exhausting. There is definitely potential here, but there’s also no denying the X-Men’s latest effort at launching a solo series has something of a rocky start.