Kamala Khan’s crash course in the history of mutantkind continues this week in Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga #1. For this installment, artist Rod Reis joins the creative team, which already includes event writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, VC’s Clayton Cowles, and Tom Brevoort. Fellow newcomers to this Giant-Size anniversary extravaganza are Steve Foxe and Lucas Werneck, who deliver this issue’s Revelations backup tale. Old Man Legion was foiled in their attempt to destroy the past by killing off Krakoa before the island could become a mutant homeland. His new target? Dark Phoenix.
2025 marks the 45th anniversary of the original Dark Phoenix Saga. June 1980 saw the release of Uncanny X-Men #137, the story’s grand finale. In the four and a half decades since, the Dark Phoenix Saga has come to mean many things for many people. For years, it acted as the final tragedy of Jean Grey. It was the second time one of the X-Men died, and the first woman from the team to bite the bullet. It’s the story of one woman’s response to sexual violence, harming her victimizer, her loved ones, and numerous innocents in a manic, self-destructive spiral that ends in suicide.
On a symbolic level, the story taps into cultural fears about the increased agency that white women in the United States held as independent consumers following the second wave feminist movement. Importantly, the making of the Dark Phoenix Saga itself gives us insight into the collaborative relationship between writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, as well as perspective on how evil a woman was allowed to be in that era of Marvel Comics before becoming irredeemable and marked for death. In light of all this, it would be a Herculean task to try and force Giant-Size Dark Phoenix to engage with the entire legacy of the original. Thankfully, Ms. Marvel’s presence provides the creative team an element through which they can focus on a resonant theme, making this brief revisit worthwhile.
So, where were we? At the end of Giant-Size X-Men #1 (2025), Kamala Khan accidentally catalyzed her mutant power while fighting an old, time traveling Legion. The adverse reaction to having both her X-gene and Inhuman genes activated racks Ms. Marvel’s body as Legion flings them forward in time, smack dab in the middle of the Dark Phoenix Saga. While participating in the formation of the all-new, all-different X-Men and their mission to save their predecessors from Krakoa, Kamala managed to keep timeline changes to a minimum. The execution differed, but the results–the X-Men being saved and Krakoa exiled to outer space–remained the same. However, it’s apparent that the butterfly effect is already at play, because the events of the Dark Phoenix Saga have already shifted by the time Ms. Marvel and Legion arrive. So begins “Marvel Girl.”
The cascading effects of timeline interference manifests at the beginning of Dark Phoenix as a slight reordering of plot beats from the original saga. Legion and Kamala crash land into the opening of Uncanny X-Men #135, where the X-Men are failing to defend themselves from Dark Phoenix in Central Park. However, this Dark Phoenix has already consumed the D’Bari star system, but her hunger remains. Before Ms. Marvel or the X-Men can deescalate the situation, Old Man Legion offers himself up to the Phoenix Force as a new host. The Dark Phoenix persona is a trauma response, but the inner turmoil between Jean’s morals and her emotions is destabilizing enough for the Phoenix Force to at least consider Legion’s offer. David Haller is gone, his consciousness, his soul, ascended to the astral plane and into the White Hot Room to help enshrine the Eternal Krakoa there. Without a prime self to rule them, Legion offers themself to the Phoenix as an infinite flow of minds, a host that can fully submit and never be fully consumed by her fire. Such a deal is intoxicating, and the Phoenix will have what it wants. Dark Phoenix Legion leaves, and the X-Men return to Xavier’s with Jean and Kamala in tow.
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Emotions are running high at the mansion, and a few misplaced words from her frightened teammates sends Jean to her room in tearful solitude. This sets the stage for the central scene of the issue, and the structural reasoning to elide certain plot elements from Uncanny #135 and #136 clicks into place. The unaltered timeline would roughly find Dark Phoenix at the Grey family home, buzzing on the high from her D’Bari meal. In the midst of her mania, Jean feels her self image as Dark Phoenix beginning to clash with the girl she sees in her childhood photos. Seeking reassurance from her parents and sister, their terrified thoughts have the opposite effect. The tightrope snaps, the thin ice shatters, and the violent loop of Dark Phoenix becomes a downward spiral, one that will eventually lead to Jean choosing to take her own life rather than risk harming her loved ones further. The altered timeline of Dark Phoenix finds Jean still on the precipice of this breaking point, isolated and confused. So, meaningfully, what is different this time? Kamala’s here, and she’s ready to sit with Jean and talk, Ms. Marvel to Marvel Girl.
Kamala Khan is no stranger to gaining confusing new powers, the consequences of her actions causing harm to others, or a classic high drama superhero mental break from reality. Ms. Marvel’s experiences and the unexpected respite from the Phoenix Force’s intensity create a rare opportunity for connection. Their conversation taps into vulnerable parts of Jean that Cyclops and Storm–her lover and her best friend–are unable to reach in the original story. It’s touching, but this story is ultimately about how it impacts Kamala, not how she impacts the past. In this broken and hurting Marvel Girl, Ms. Marvel sees herself. The shame and rejection from her cousin Bilal, the discomfort of lying to her parents again, the fear of embracing her newly awakened powers and the risks attached have been weighing heavily on her. As tragic as the Dark Phoenix Saga is, Kamala can see that if she doesn’t control her power, it will be used to control her. This realization culminates in a remix of Uncanny #137’s Blue Area Moon Battle. In its final moments, Kamala is able to use her hard light powers in a stable manner, restraining Legion while Jean reunites with the Phoenix Force. Phoenix still takes her life in the same fashion, but this time it is heroic rather than not tragic. In doing so Jean is preventing Legion from hosting the Phoenix once more. This is where the main story ends, with Legion determined to rid themself of Ms. Marvel one way or another. However, his attempt to thrust her forward in time has landed them both in the Age of Apocalypse…
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There’s a lot to say about Giant-Size Dark Phoenix, but I need to focus on the art for a minute. Both Rod Reis in “Marvel Girl” and Lucas Wreck in “Song for the Lonely” are delivering spectacular work. Reis is a perfect fit for the emotional intensity that is central to the Dark Phoenix Saga. Fans of Reis’ work in Dark Web: X-Men, and the “Trials of Magik” arc in New Mutants, you will love what he’s doing here. Also, I’m not the biggest fan of Ms. Marvel’s X-gene giving her the MCU hard-light powers, but Reis makes them look really cool in this book. For the Revelations back up, Foxe has written a tender story about the Phoenix in the present, but it tasks Werneck with capturing the vast, epic love story of Jean Grey and Scott Summers in a few short pages. His art accomplishes not just that, but it also gives us the most beautiful version of Phoenix’s new costume.
Ms. Marvel’s next stop in X-Men history brings her to one of its most famous tragedies in Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga #1. More than a simple retread, Lanzing, Kelly, and Reis bring out an emotionally resonant tale that engages deeply with the original story. At its heart is a meaningful connection between the first woman to join the X-Men and one of the latest, and these very different women find themselves struggling with similar internal battles. We still don’t know why Kamala specifically got wrapped up in this time-travel adventure, or if Bruno was also swept up in the time stream, but Ms. Khan is starting to get a handle on her mutant power. However, Ms. Marvel is about to enter a world where “mutant power” means something else entirely. Plus, stick around to the end of the issue for a gorgeous little retrospective on the love between Cyclops and Phoenix.
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