Monstrous Soft Power

“Welcome to the last moments of a young woman’s life. Her name is Jean Grey…Witness the birth of a god! Her name is Jean Grey.” These are the words that open Uncanny X-Men (UXM) (1975) #101 and #136, written by Chris Claremont with art by David Cockrum (101) and John Byrne (136). UXM #101 and #136 are the beginning and end of the Phoenix Saga and Dark Phoenix Saga, two of the many major arches throughout Claremont’s tenure on the X-Men title, which would come to define the franchise going forward. Dark Phoenix is a masterstroke of a comic – combining the brilliance and beauty of Claremont and Byrne’s writing and artwork, while providing commentary on the United States, and setting the groundwork for what the X-Men franchise will look like going forward. By looking at the way Jean Grey (Phoenix) shifts from a hero to a villain throughout Uncanny X-Men (1975) #129-36, we can see how the Death of Phoenix and Jean's descent becomes reflective of US culture and US self-reflection pre-1980 and how it shaped the X-Men stories going forward; this matters because Dark Phoenix was written at a time of large cultural shift in the United States and it is one of the most recognizable X-Men stories ever written -- there by laying the foundations for the franchise to come.