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Dark Phoenix
Super Name: Dark Phoenix
Real Name: Jean Grey
Nickname:
Universe: Earth-616
The Phoenix Force was called back to Earth when it felt the mind of a human transcend the physical realm, a mind that resonated with the Phoenix's energy. A young Jean Grey had telepathically linked her mind to her dying friend, Annie Richardson, to keep Annie's soul from moving to the afterlife. In doing so, Jean's mind was being dragged along to the "other side" with Annie. Phoenix lent its energy to break the connection and kept a close watch on young Jean, as it felt a kinship with the young mutant.

Years later when Jean was dying on a space shuttle, her mind called out for help and the Phoenix Force answered and saved her. The craft's pilot had to sit in an area without enough shielding to protect him or her from the lethal radiation. Marvel Girl volunteered to pilot, but, while guiding the shuttle to Earth, the solar radiation finally proved to be too great for her to hold back any longer with her powers and she began to succumb to the radiation's lethal effects. The Phoenix Force responded to Jean's anguish and telepathic calls for help, as she was dying aboard the space shuttle. It appeared before her, shaping its form and consciousness after Jean's own. The Phoenix Force told her that she was dying, but that, by taking the Phoenix Force's hand, she would gain her "heart's desire". What Jean most wanted was to save the lives of the X-Men and herself. Jean held onto the Phoenix Force's arm and fell into a coma-like state. Simultaneously, the Phoenix Force fully took on the form, memories, and personality of Jean Grey, by absorbing a portion of her consciousness. The Phoenix Force used its powers to ensure the survival of the X-Men, in their return to Earth and crash landing in Jamaica Bay, of New York City. It was also responsible for casting Jean into a coma-like state and placing her within a cocoon-like construction, which rested for years at the bottom of Jamaica Bay, while her injuries healed completely. Thus, the Phoenix Force fulfilled its pledge to Jean. The cosmic Phoenix Force entity, which had created a duplicate body of Jean and absorbed a piece of Jean's consciousness, acted in her place while Jean's body lay in suspended animation in the bay.

Following the crash landing in Jamaica Bay, the Phoenix Force took Jean's place, as a member of the X-Men. Emerging from the hospital, the Phoenix battled Firelord and provided the power to transport the X-Men to the M'Kraan Crystal's home world, where they battled the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. During this time, the Phoenix scanned the human member and leader of the Starjammers to learn it was Cyclops' long-thought-dead father, Christopher Summers. Using Storm and Corsair's life forces, the Phoenix Force healed the M'Kraan Crystal. After the recent events, Phoenix decided to have a party at the apartment she shared with Misty Knight, and the X-Men briefly battled Iron Fist, until Jean explained he was one of Misty's best friends.[38] After the team was attacked, by Warhawk, Phoenix decided to rejoin and was later controlled by Mesmero to perform in a circus, until Beast rescued them, only to battle Magneto and his robot Nanny after. The Phoenix and the Beast ended up separated from the other X-Men, each group mistakenly believing the other to have died.

At this time, Mastermind began entering the Phoenix's mind and had her question her sanity. After being studied at the Mutant Research Center on Muir Island, by Dr. Moira MacTaggert, it was assessed that the Phoenix entity would become too strong to control, but the other X-Men had no way to know what was happening and little chance of preventing a tragedy. However, the portion of Jean's personality the Phoenix had taken on subconsciously created a series of psionic mental blocks to reduce the level of power she could command at one time, so as not to be overwhelmed by it. After battling Proteus, Phoenix was reunited with Scott Summers. After battling the Hellfire Club Knights and the White Queen, while attempting to recruit new mutants Alison Blaire and Kitty Pryde, Kitty’s parents were about to withdraw their daughter from the school, when Phoenix altered their thoughts. A very questionable move. After battling the Hellfire Club, over the recruitment of Dazzler, Phoenix and Scott shared an intimate night, after Phoenix blocked Scott's optic blast and allowed him to see her clearly.

With the new experience of a cosmic entity dealing with human emotions, Phoenix was thus an easy target for the illusionist, Mastermind, who needed a trophy to join the Inner Circle of the prestigious (and infamous) Hellfire Club. With the help of a psionic device, created by the club's White Queen, Emma Frost, Mastermind made Phoenix believe that she was his 18th-century lover, Lady Grey. Phoenix joined the club as their Black Queen, which would allow her to relish the extremes of human emotion and sensuality. When the X-Men came to her rescue, Jean's true love, Cyclops, faced Mastermind in a psychic duel and was defeated. Cyclops' "death" broke Mastermind's hold over Phoenix's psyche--as well as any control Jean's psyche had had over the Phoenix. It brushed aside the X-Men and departed for the heavens.

As the Phoenix was the light and life of the universe, the Dark Phoenix represented power and destruction. The Phoenix became Dark Phoenix due to allowing human emotions to cloud its judgment. In this state, Phoenix was the strongest, but also an evil entity that thirsted for power and destruction. Totally uncontrollable, Dark Phoenix was a force to be reckoned with as it was not bound by human conscience. When Dark Phoenix flew back into space, her true firebird form was seen across the entire universe and even attracted the attention of Eternity.

To sate its hunger, the Dark Phoenix flew to a distant galaxy and devoured the star of the D'bari system. The resulting nova killed billions of innocent people and a Shi'ar vessel attacked it. The Shi'ar Empress, Lilandra Neramani, was alerted before the vessel was destroyed and called a council of her intergalactic counterparts, including the Kree and Skrull Empires. They concluded that, for the rest of the universe to live, Dark Phoenix must die.

Meanwhile, the Beast had temporarily found a way to neutralize Phoenix's immense power. When Dark Phoenix returned to Earth, the X-Men held it at bay, while Professor X rebuilt the mental blocks in Phoenix's mind, that Mastermind had broken down. Scott, then, proposed to the Phoenix. At that moment, the Shi'ar arrived and teleported everyone aboard their flagship. Lilandra announced that Phoenix, who everyone believed to be Jean, would have to die. Professor X, unwilling to give up on one of his pupils, but romantically involved with Lilandra, challenged her to Arin'n Haelar, a Shi'ar duel of honor that cannot be refused. Professor X named the X-Men as his champions in the duel, while Lilandra chose her Imperial Guard.

The duel took place the next day, in the Blue Area of the Moon. The Imperial Guard made short work of the X-Men, leaving Cyclops and Phoenix to make a final stand. A stray bolt hit Cyclops and Jean's control broke and Phoenix became the Dark Phoenix again. Lilandra ordered Plan Omega, which would destroy the whole solar system, in hopes of eliminating Dark Phoenix as well. Professor X ordered the X-Men to subdue Phoenix so that Plan Omega would not be necessary, and they managed to subdue the Phoenix, for a brief time. In that moment of lucidity, Phoenix fled into a back alley, with Cyclops in pursuit. Phoenix subdued him, with her telekinesis, and told him that she was losing control of herself and that there was only one way to prevent the Dark Phoenix from taking dominance over her again. Unbeknownst to Cyclops, as Phoenix was talking to him, she was using her powers to activate an ancient Kree energy weapon behind her. Phoenix then bade Cyclops an emotional farewell and triggered the weapon, which atomized her on the spot.

It was at the moment of the Dark Phoenix's death that a spark of the Phoenix Force was accidentally bestowed on Jean's clone, Madelyne Pryor. After Dark Phoenix died on the Moon, the Phoenix sought to return the "borrowed" portion of Jean's soul back to her body, which was in suspended animation. Jean instinctively rejected the Phoenix and it wandered the globe, lost. Eventually, it became attracted to Madelyne in Mister Sinister's lab, since she was an exact genetic clone of Jean. The Phoenix Force, mistakenly, gave a spark of itself to Madelyne, granting her a life force and some of Jean's memories.[50] Madelyne had been a failed experiment until she was brought to life by the portion of Jean's consciousness, that had been borrowed by the Phoenix Force, and a spark of the Phoenix Force, which had been rejected by Jean's body while in the cocoon.

After being manipulated by the demons S'ym and N'astirh, Madelyne learned of her true origins and became mad, calling herself the Goblin Queen. The Goblin Queen locked herself, Nathan Christopher Summers, her and Cyclops' son, and Jean inside a psionic barrier, where she explained her origins as Jean's clone. Both X-Factor and the X-Men's combined efforts seemed to be futile in an effort to break through the telekinetic bubble. Pryor-Summers and Grey fought one-on-one, with Madelyne unleashing a psionic force, intending to destroy both herself and her opponents. X-Factor and the X-Men protected each other and Madelyne was the only one affected, but as she lay dying, she pulled Jean into her mind to die with her. Jean would have succumbed, were it not for the Phoenix leaving Madelyne at that time and returning to Jean. Jean was able to resist and, as Madelyne died, Jean recovered the part of her soul the Phoenix Force had mistakenly given to Madelyne.

Another person who served as an avatar for the Phoenix Force was Rachel Summers, Phoenix (Jean Grey-Summers)' daughter from an alternate future. Attempting to change her reality, Rachel used her psionic powers to exchange the consciousness and spirit of the adult X-Man Kate Pryde with that of Pryde's teenage self. Traveling through time and across dimensions to the mainstream reality to learn why their efforts did not succeed in changing her reality, Rachel sent her astral self into that past as well, also arriving in the mainstream reality. While floating above New York City, in preparation for her return, Rachel's meditative astral form was found by the Phoenix Force. Fascinated by Rachel, the alternate reality child of Grey, the Force read her mind and was impressed that Rachel had not given into despair after all she had experienced. Sending a portion of itself into the future of Rachel's reality with Rachel, the Force met Kate, after Rachel passed out from the strain of the time travel. Kate bargained with the Force to save Rachel from the Sentinels' rule and to keep her from remembering the horrors she had experienced. The Force agreed to boost Rachel's powers so she could physically travel back in time, not just psychically. Kate hypnotized Rachel into using her psionic powers to tap into the Phoenix Force and send herself back in time when Kate said the words "Dark Phoenix". Rachel and Kate illegally entered the laboratory of Project Nimrod, which was the attempt to construct the most highly advanced Sentinel possible with the technology of that time, in the hopes of sabotaging the project. Rachel believed herself and Kate to be trapped, but Kate said the words that caused Rachel to project herself back through time.

Rachel was still shocked to learn of the supposed "death" of Jean in this reality. After meeting Scott Summers of the mainstream reality and not telling him of her true origins, Rachel visited the home of Grey's parents while they were absent and she found a holo-empathic crystal that was imbued with an imprint of Grey's personality. Unaware that Jean had not actually been Phoenix, Rachel refused to believe that Jean could be evil, as people claimed Phoenix was, and she decided to claim the name and power of Phoenix as her own birthright. Sensing this, the Force awoke within Rachel, allowing access to its power. From that time on, Rachel was able to draw to a limited extent upon the vast power of the Phoenix Force.

Rachel became apparently disassociated from the Phoenix Force sometime after swapping places with Captain Britain and becoming lost in time, although she has manifested aspects of the Phoenix Force such as the firebird since her mother's more recent death.

Jean and the Phoenix Force were later revealed as being a single-bound entity. The Phoenix Force told Xavier, "Jean is only the house where I live." Jean Grey was the closest thing the Phoenix Force had to a true earthly Avatar or physical embodiment and further that the Phoenix Force empowered Jean with life in a kind of mutual relationship or psychic bond.

Tricked by the Magneto impostor, Phoenix and Wolverine ended up trapped on Asteroid M drifting closer to the Sun. Dying, Wolverine killed Jean and awoke the Phoenix Force within her. Using her incredible powers, Phoenix returned with Logan to New York City to face "Magneto". Defeated, his last act was to give Phoenix a stroke on the planetary level. Dying in Scott's arms, she urged him to live on.

-Marvel Fandom
1ST APPEARANCE
X-Men #134
Volume 1 • June 1980
2ND APPEARANCE
X-Men #135
Volume 1 • July 1980
DEATH
X-Men #137
Volume 1 • September 1980
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