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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Gold Standard of Comics, Jun 1 2004
By A Customer
I still remember the day when X-men #137, the finale of the Dark Phoenix saga, came out at my local comic shop all those years ago. I got the last one there, and it was hidden in the magazines. Even then, I had the sense that this was a major event in comic book history - possibly the best comic book story ever written. It's amazing to me that, after all of this time, that still holds up. Other comic epics are routinely compared to the Dark Phoenix story, and I have yet to read or even hear about anything that approaches it.For those that think comics are exclusively for kids, I hold this book up as Exhibit A. After seeing the X-men movies, my wife actually read it out of curiosity. She's the antithesis of a comic book person and had never heard of the X-men. She was actually impressed enough to read the rest of Byrne's X-men in Essential X-men Volume 2, and now looks down her nose a bit less at my childhood hobby. From the reviews I've seen so far, I don't need to go into detail about the story. For those of you who are relying on the X-men movies to give you the scoop, I have one word of advice: DON'T. The movies are really messing with the stories in an unacceptable way. While it's clear that they're going to attempt some kind of Phoenix plot in the next movie, it won't do the real story justice. The only way to truly experience this story is through these pages, panel by panel. I moved on from the X-men and comics a few years after the Dark Phoenix story was done, and I missed the whole return of Jean Grey. When I heard about it, I was severely disappointed that Marvel would take such a tragic character that transcended comics and reduce her to just another super hero that avoided death. Phoenix was so much more significant at the end of X-men #137, and bringing Jean Grey back has made both much less so. Most unfortunate. Still, it doesn't change my view of this story - truly amazing.
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