Dark Phoenix Saga -- Huh?

[Mistwell]

Comics use sequential art to convey a story.

You removed the sequential art, and are surprised it doesn't seem right? Come on man, why not remove the paint from a painting and complain about the descriptive text in the plastic holder next to it on the wall not conveying the painting's image properly.

 

[Welverin]

I'll add a note to the contrary of what everyone else has said, it's old, old things don't always hold up well and only hold their glory through nostalgia.

While I can’t comment on this story in particular, before my time, I read Watchmen 15-20 years after it’s original release and was not particularly impressed. I just read Crisis on Infinite Earths a couple of months ago, and it was actually painful to read at times.

So the impressions you get may be completely accurate, and the reason it’s so beloved is due to what it meant at that time.

 

[Viking Bastard]

While I like the early Claremont stuff, of all the stories I think The Dark Phoenix Saga holds up the worst.

More than anything, it was shocking for it's time.

 

[jasper]

i use to have all the issues and bought the softcover collection. The soft cover nows need lots of glue.
If it ended with her death it would been an epic story. Now just a classic story which has been stomped on by writers who came after. I quit reading most marvel comics due to the inferno story line. Plus the fact it was the 3rd year you had to buy ALL the summer issues (to include the kiddie comics) to get all the story.

yes reading it first hand and borrowing the issues before the saga is what made it great.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I think it's just a matter of taste. Lots of people might have loved the storyline, but I'm a big X-Men fan and I hated it.

I don't think there should be any Omega-level mutants among the X-Men, unless they can't walk! (I think Professor X was crippled by the authors to keep him from saving the butts of the X-Men all the time.)

 

[bolen]

was the animated cartoon a good synopsis of it?

 

[Starman]

While I can’t comment on this story in particular, before my time, I read Watchmen 15-20 years after it’s original release and was not particularly impressed.

Blasphemy! You're not actually a Russkie in disguise are you?

 

[Larcen]

Yes. Chris Claremont's writing, and John Byrne's art.

Most comic book stories sound stupid when written out as a wikipedia synopsis. Alan Moore's Watchmen sounds this way, too.

Just read the comics.

Wikipedia did the same thing for me with the recent Doctor Who series. I have never had a problem with Doctor Who stories, even the old ones, until I started reading them in Wikipedia. With only a short synopsis, the stories are laid bare without feeling or emotion. They are devoid of all the things that make the show great and you are left with only farfetched and very unlikely story elements. What seemed very reasonable on screen, when delivered by the Doctor and friends, suddenly comes across as silly an contrived. Which I suppose, it is. But it's like a joke that loses something in the translation. Or the old "you had to be there" thing. The same can be said of the Dark Phoenix storyline.

... Am I missing something? ... Quasqueton

Having read the original Dark Phoenix comics when they first came out I can tell you that there is no way that a synopsis can do them justice. Like in the Doctor Who story translations, you lose so much.

You lose out on all the wonderul characters involved and their reactions and emotions. You lose out on the great writing. You lose out on the great art. You lose out on the exciting feeling of anticipation you get when you have to wait a whole month for the next issue to come out. You lose out on the story SLOWLY building to it's epic climax. You lose out on seeing a character you got strongly attached to DIE. That was something new at the time, let me tell you.

I would be rather disappointed if they didnt make the DP saga into a movie someday. I mean, think about it, talk about upping the ante on scope and action for a super hero movie. The DP story has aliens. Super powered aliens. Starships. A story that spans galaxies. Entire solar systems being destroyed. Heros making a last desperate stand against what truly are impossible odds. I would love to see a super hero movie like that, wouldn't you?

Sideline note: I don't see what all the fuss about bringing her back was. When I first read how the story ended, I was shocked sure, but I suspected all along she would be back. Her name IS Dark Phoenix after all! And if you look closely in the comic, that was a pile of ashes that was left behind when she committed suicide.

 

[buzzard]

Sideline note: I don't see what all the fuss about bringing her back was. When I first read how the story ended, I was shocked sure, but I suspected all along she would be back. Her name IS Dark Phoenix after all! And if you look closely in the comic, that was a pile of ashes that was left behind when she committed suicide.

Depends on what you mean by bringing her back. If you are referencing the ultra cheesy "no, really Jean Grey didn't die in the first place" retcon crap, then no, I really doubt there was any suspicion that such a thing would occur (and thankfully, I didn't read X Men at the time they did it so I happily ignore it). Were it to be that the Phoenix force would manifest itself again, well sure. It's one of those cosmic level forces of the Marvel universe, and as such it's survival trancends that of one mortal shell.

buzzard

 

[Aesthetic Monk]

was the animated cartoon a good synopsis of it?

As I recall, it's fairly faithful, yes, within the bonds of kid TV. I know they changed the name of the Hellfire Club and changed one of the key characters to one who'd been in the animated series only (but who had some of the same powers). It's of course a bit cheesy being in an indifferently drawn cartoon, but you may still be able to catch it on ABC Family, according to the Wikipedia. The entry says the Phoenix stuff was in 9 parts, which is pretty ambitious for a Saturday cartoon.

Back to the comics: I didn't read the series when it came out, but I do have an old trade paperback with the Dark Phoenix stuff, which I enjoyed a lot at the time. (Actually, my first exposure to the Phoenix storyline was in the Marvel and DC Present one-shot combining the X-Men and Teen Titans.) Agree with those who disliked the Star Trek III'ing of the tragedy.