The Dark Phoenix story takes its time getting into the damage Mastermind is doing. His Jason Wyngarde identity and the Hellfire Club’s manipulation work through perception, desi…

The Dark Phoenix story takes its time getting into the damage Mastermind is doing. His Jason Wyngarde identity and the Hellfire Club’s manipulation work through perception, desire and a false history. By the time the consequences become obvious to everyone else, a lot has already happened inside Phoenix’s mind. That makes the situation more disturbing than somebody simply losing control during a fight. Someone is deliberately interfering with her understanding of who she is and what is happening around her. Being extraordinarily powerful doesn’t stop that manipulation from reaching her. Once Dark Phoenix emerges and the destruction reaches the D’Bari system, the consequences are far beyond a private struggle among the X-Men. The Shi’ar have a reason to see a threat to entire civilizations. Scott and the others are still fighting for someone they know and love. Those two sides of the situation are happening at the same time. The ending on the Moon is why the later cocoon explanation has to be handled carefully when talking about this period. The story was experienced as Jean’s death by the people in it. The grief afterward is real for them, even when the explanation of Jean’s physical survival comes later. For Jean herself, coming back means inheriting a history that everybody else has already lived through. People remember loving her, fearing her and losing her. She has to deal with those memories before she even understands everything they’re remembering.