New X-Men? #108 (Existence Saving Edition)

All-New, All-Different X-Men #108

“Armageddon Now!”

Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Synopsis

As the fight continues, the X-Men are pulled into the very heart of the M’Kraan Crystal, where Phoenix must fight to save the very universe itself.

Rolling Commentary

Umm. Well, Cockrum apparently had a cover or two left in him. Meh. That’s cool. Onto the story, then.

Page 3: Sigh. You can always tell when something very, very bad is happening in the X-Men. That’s because whenever things get very horrible they always cut to the Baxter Building and the Avengers Manor for a couple of reaction panels. That’s how you know the universe is in dire peril.

Page 4. He’s the goddamn Wolverine! Of course he’s still alive! That being said, I thought we wanted to, uh, keep D’Ken away from the crystal. Or something. So why are we charging at super powered gatekeepers who would, theoretically at least, share in our goals?

Page 5. Thankfully, Ch’Od proves the voice of reason. Unfortunately this Jahf dude is as crazy as Wolverine. Oh well. Ch’Od rules.

Page 9. I’m not sure how throwing D’Ken into the crystal transported all of them in, but whatever. The Crystal seems to alter reality itself, so whatever works.

Page 15. Amidst Phoenix saving the universe from complete annihilation, the truth is revealed about Corsair. Yay and such. Sure, having Cyclops’ father be a crazy space pirate is contrived and completely illogical. But it has a certain charm to it, don’t you think?

Post Mortem

It is finished.

Now what the hell just happened?

Honestly, the actual plot makes very little sense, though it is certainly on a grand scale. If you want a better explanation of what just happened, I suggest you go hunt down the X-Men TAS episodes of the Phoenix saga. They’re a good translation of the events and are considerably clearer than this. That being said, I’m not actually going to complain about the craziness of the plot at all. It doesn’t make complete rational sense, because it doesn’t need to. That’s because this isn’t a science fiction story, so much as a fantasy story.

This entire issue is about magic, to an extent. If you think about Phoenix as a sort of cosmic sorcerer and the Crystal as a magical weapon- indeed, crystals are used in lots of types of magic- things start to seem much more clear. The crystal is a magic bomb designed to destroy existence itself, and start everything anew. D’Ken has aligned the crystal up with an astrological alignment, a celestial trigger that is pulled every million years. Once this happens, the bomb goes off.

Enter the Phoenix. Supreme telekinesthetic, she can control matter at the molecular level, even though she’s not fully aware of it yet. The bomb goes off, and yet she manages to contain its detonation. She stops the entire destruction of the universe through sheer force of will. That’s the very definition of magic- changing your environment through will power. She uses Storm and Corsair to anchor herself for the final push to save everything. This is more magic, often time magicians use others to help anchor themselves and keep control of both what they’re doing and their own sanity.

And what of the vast numbers of coincidence and chance that allowed Jean to save existence here? There are no coincidences. Think of reality as an organism, biological in nature. When organisms come under attack from parasitic and bacterial entities, they summon an immune system to fend them off. D’Ken and the crystal threatened the universe itself. To save the universe, a Phoenix was needed to be present. Jean becomes Phoenix. Lilandra finds Charles, and Eric captures her. Phoenix allows them to follow Eric. When the Crystal is activated, Phoenix is there, because all that has happened leads her there. She’s swallowed into the crystal, where she needs to be to stop it. A pattern is present in everything, giving Jean the chance to keep the universe alive.

But why does D’Ken do all this? Well, something as power as this crystal may in fact be sentient (a common theme in fantasy stories). If the crystal is alive, considering its power level it could easily manipulate D’Ken’s lust for raw power and get him to activate itself without really thinking of the consequences. The crystal exists to destroy this universe and rebuild it (indeed, if I recall correctly, we’ll see more of the crystal in the future). Just as the universe called forth champions to protect it unknowingly, so did the crystal call forth people who would help it to achieve its purpose.

I know it sounds insane, but it really works for me. The Phoenix is the universe’s white blood cells. It’s defense mechanism.

I do, however, wish things had been just a little less jam-packed. D’Ken and the M’Kraan Crystal would have seemed considerably more threatening if we had seen them more before last issue, you know? Still, it’s a noble effort of an issue, especially considering how early into Claremont’s run we really are here.

And before I leave this issue, I suppose I should give a pat on the back to this early John Byrne artwork. It’s not like they’d want to give him something easy to warm up on, or anything…