My Favorite Comic Storylines: Dark Phoenix Saga

 Jean Grey: redemption through ultimate sacrifice

The story is simple enough: Jean Grey, a young telepathic/telekenetic mutant, literally rises from the ashes and finds her psionic abilities magnified beyond belief. Though her powers are held back by a series of psychic circuit-breakers, the dam is slowly being chipped away at. She is manipulated and pushed over the edge by the Hellfire Club, until she finally bursts in raptor-shaped flames to become a dark god-like being, voracious in thirst for raw energy.

In order to satiate her quench, she consumes a far-flung star system populated with inhabited worlds. Consequently, the Shi-Ar empire seeks retribution and hounds her futilely through the vast expanse of space. She returns to Earth, and in a battle of the highest psychic order, Professor Xavier manages to re-bind the mental circuit breakers. She is eventually put on trial by the Shi-Ar, to which Xavier counters with a rebuttal via a battle-challenge.

On the moon, Jean Grey and the X-men make their last stand. When she sees Cyclops struck down, the rebound psychic barriers crumble apart, and she slowly transforms into the dark godling once again. But she realizes that the duality of her persona would haunt her for all eternity, and riddled with the guilt of having taken billions of lives, she chooses to annihilate herself while still in a vulnerable phase of transition.

The theme of redemption through self-sacrifice and the idea that absolute power corrupts were huge concepts for me as a kid. It held, and still holds, a fascinating sway over me. I can remember buying the trade paperback when I was around 11 or 12 yrs old, and patiently reading it through in one sitting. Revisiting it as an adult, the dialogue seems to be a tad bit stilted and dated in style and flow. However, the basic narrative remains intact, and ultimately, powerfully moving. Whatever his writing faults are, Chris Claremont remains the definitive writer of the X-men for me. John Byrne, inked over by Terry Austin, is at his classic best. I will always associate his artwork with his early impressive runs on the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Alpha Flight.