X-MTDPS
X-Men The Dark Phoenix Saga (hardcover) – When I was a kid, it was the Dark Phoenix saga of the X-Men that took place around 1980 which really got me interested in reading and collecting comics, and for several years after that it was probably all I could think about. The Dark Phoenix story had a lot of cool action, great art by John Byrne (who I really liked a lot at the time), and sexy women with luxurious hair flying around in tight-fitting costumes.
This heavy hardcover issue collects issues 129 (the end of the battle with Proteus and the beginning of Jason Wyngarde’s influence over Jean Grey; also the first appearance of Kitty Pride) to issue 138 (the funeral of Jeay Grey and the day Kitty Pryde joins the X-Men). I didn’t manage to buy all of the issues in this series, but I did get most of them and I read them over and over again. Finding it in a nice collection is great, and it was nice to relive the old magic.
But this collection has tons of bonus stuff too. There’s some wacky tale of Jean Grey in heaven/on some other astral plane post-her demise, although there’s no information about when and where (and why) it was published. There’s a silly “Bizarre Adventures” tale of Jean and her sister being kidnapped by a subterranean prince from Namor’s world. There’s “Phoenix: The Untold Story”, which is the reprint of Issue 137 with the alternate happy ending (where Jean Grey lives), meaning that the issue is basically the same as the true Issue 137 but with a totally different final six pages in the form of a chapter called “Return to the Ashes” that described how Jean Grey is neutered of her mutant and Phoenix powers by Shi’ar technology. That’s followed by the “What If… Phoenix Had Not Died” that explores the natural conclusion of that happy ending scenario – yes, in this case, the universe would have died (very much like “What If The Avengers Had Become the Pawns of Korvac” story, for those who have read that apocalyptic tale, and so many other of the “What If…” tales). Finally, there are the newer “Classic X-Men” re-prints with the new covers, covers of the various “Dark Phoenix Saga” re-prints, and the entrants for the Marvel Universe encyclopedia thingy of X-Men, Cyclops, Phoenix, etc.
There’s also lots of text: a ponderous fore-word, and a boring 12-page interview with the executives of the time who decided whether the character should be killed off and what motivated them. Somehow, while the edition has a lot of stuff in it, it does take itself a weeeee bit too seriously. Hey, guys, it’s just a comic book series!