But just to quickly recap: creators Chris Claremont and John Byrne were heading towards the climax of their Dark Phoenix storyline, in which founding X-Man Jean Grey had been consumed by her cosmic power and become evil, forcing the other X-Men to combat her. As originally conceived, the idea was that Jean’s cosmic abilities would be stripped from her by the alien Shi’ar, and all would be well. However, Marvel’s Editor in Chief had a problem with that ending, saying that because Dark Phoenix had ben shows obliterating a populated planet, she needed to face the consequences of her actions. After a ton of late-in-the-game negotiating, because the issue was just about due to go to print, and even the subsequent issue was largely finished being penciled, the decision was made instead to kill off Phoenix. This development was a bombshell to fandom, and the frenzy created by this shocking and unexpected twist was the wave that propelled X-MEN from being simply a popular comic book among collectors and turned it into a sales juggernaut, the best-selling title in the Marvel line for more than a decade. So by any objective measure, the decision to change the ending to the story and kill Jean Grey was the correct one. But what would these issues have looked like had that not happened? That’s what we’re here to take a look at. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE
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