Phoenix #10 // Review
A little redheaded girl throws a frisbee into the road and there’s an accident. And someone that she knows dies. And she can feel the death within her. It’s an awful time to discover that you have the powers to peer into the minds of others, but overwhelming stress can do some pretty remarkable things. It’s a great motivator. And now that little girl is all grown-up with much bigger problems in Phoenix #10. Writer Stephanie Phillips continues a long and fascinating journey into the life and mind of Jean Grey with artist Alessandro Miracolo and colorist David Curiel.
There’s a dark figure named Perrikus. He’s put a child in jeopardy. He knows Phoenix has great power, but he knows that he’s going to escape her because he knows that she will choose saving the child over going after him. And he’s right. The child is more important to her than he is. No one should have to go through the kind of trauma that she went through as a child and she wants to spare that from her. She wants to save the child. But that doesn’t mean that she’s not going after Perrikus. She IS Phoenix after all. There really isn’t anywhere that’s safe from her.
Phillips advances her way into a plot that involves her confronting a girl who is faced with a choice that echoes a bit of her own experience around the edges of the narrative. Thankfully, Phillips isn’t trying to cast her as a perfect echo of Jean Grey. The parallels between the Phoenix and the girl she is trying to save are interesting enough to be provocative and interesting without being so lofty that they’re completely un-relatable. It’s a fascinating cosmic psychodrama that draws to a satisfying end.
Miracolo’s art can feel pretty abstract and formless in places. The depth that Curiel is adding to the page in the color allows for a substantially dazzling look into the cosmic end of the Marvel Universe. Demonic forms rush around in a space with no definite “up” or “down.” The challenge with this sort of thing always lies in rendering it for the page in a way that both respects the surrealistic intensity of it all AND gives a potent sense of impact and danger. Going way back, Ditko did a brilliant job of carving that balance out of the page with careful composition in his work on Doctor Strange. Miracolo does a pretty good job here, but things can look pretty unpleasantly nebulous on some pages.
The ongoing cosmic adventures of Phoenix feel suitably cool on a number of different levels. It’s always a bit of a challenge balancing the cosmic against the psychological intensity of what needs to happen in order for the drama to feel at all relatable. It’s pretty fascinating dynamic that Philips is working with. It’s been a ot of fun so far. It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here.
