Review: ‘Phoenix’ #4 Steps Up By Slowing Down

An issue divided, Phoenix #4 manages to both significantly improve on previous issues while also underscoring the series’ ongoing issues. In the first half, it slows down, giving Jean a chance to catch her breath and reflect on the circumstances of her new existence for the first time, while also offering a glimpse at how some of the book’s ongoing plot threads might be pulled together.

Yet in the back half, the issue returns to business as usual, as Jean once again faces off against a cosmic Marvel baddie in a routine action sequence. Two steps forward, one step back. 

The issue opens with a conversation between Jean and Carol Danvers. While Carol and Jean have some things in common (including a shared association with the X-Men and a relationship with cosmic powers), it’s a curious pairing. While the two have almost certainly interacted with each other in the past (with plenty of off-page opportunities to do so if not on-page ones), they aren’t exactly two characters with a rich history together.

Nevertheless, one of this series’ big problems has been a lack of interiority for Jean, a sense of how she feels about what she’s doing. By taking some time to give her a chance to talk with someone (who’s not her cross-galactic husband or his uncharacteristically-caddish father), the issue provides at least a bit of that needed interiority. 

Similarly, the sequence in which Gladiator leads the galactic council in a discussion of Phoenix’ activities provides some much needed narrative momentum to the series. It establishes that Jean’s actions aren’t occurring in a (political) vacuum, and also draws the Perrikus plotline closer to her own. Unlike the Carol/Jean interactions, this sequence is drawing on well-established history.

The Shi’ar — and Gladiator in particular — have long had a complicated relationship with Phoenix (the “Grey’s End” storyline is directly referenced). The general ideas of galactic powers convening to address the question of the Phoenix goes all the way back to the original “Dark Phoenix Saga”. Even before Perrikus gets involved, this sequence helps ground the series in the history of the character, something it had been previously been lacking. 

But then in the back half, Phoenix #4 reverts to business as usual. Jean rushes off to face off against Gorr the God Butcher, the latest in the series’ cosmic (and largely Thor-adjacent) baddie antagonists. The ensuing sequence is firmly of a piece with similar confrontations in earlier issues, filled with banter and big cosmic effects.

It gets interesting when Aldani’s narration kicks in, a surprisingly subtle sequence because her words could apply to Jean as much as to her. Yet it’s rarely a good thing when the most engaging part of a comic is the off-panel original character and not the action’s of the on-page title character. 

There’s glimmers of hope in Phoenix #4 for the series. Jean receives a much needed opportunity to slow down and reflect. The Perrikus plot is drawn closer to Jean’s actions as writer Stephanie Phillips taps into the larger history of the Phoenix. Yet frustratingly, one of the series’ biggest flaws — it’s by-the-numbers action sequences involving villains plucked from Thor’s Rogues Gallery that lack clear stakes or agency for Jean — remain front and center as well.