The sky is illuminated in blinding light as Jean Grey,
now Dark Phoenix, explodes the X-Men’s blackbird, leaving them to freefall to
the ground below. Colossus lands first and Nightcrawler teleports down. Storm
catches Wolverine before she sees Dark Phoenix diving straight for Cyclops. Not
knowing if she means to save him or kill him, Storm swoops down to grab Cyclops
as well, setting up a whirlwind to push themselves away from Dark Phoenix. It
is but a moment’s respite as Dark Phoenix lashes out, her increasing powers
acting as the ultimate stimulant! She quickly and easily takes out all of the
X-Men, turning a tree to gold and dropping it on Colossus and Wolverine, while
turning Colossus back to normal, and more traditionally blasting the others.
Now with the last connections to her former human life
defeated, she determines that her true destiny lies in the stars, lighting up
the sky with her power! Meanwhile, over at the Hellfire Club, Senator Kelly and Sebastian Shaw speak with the police about the X-Men’s recent
“attack.” The police admit they have no way to deal with the X-Men and Shaw
suggests to Kelly that they reinstate the Sentinel program, in order to deal
with the mutant problem. Just as he does, all present witness the telltale sign
of Phoenix’s power, as the entire sky is filled with the image of her firebird
energy signature. A number of heroes across the world also witness or sense
Dark Phoenix’s power including Mr. Fantastic, Thing, Spider-Man,
Doctor Strange, and the Silver Surfer, with Surfer noting that Phoenix’s unchecked
power could threaten the entire cosmos! Dark Phoenix shoots up into space,
narrowly missing the arriving Beast, who tends to the defeated X-Men.
We then cut to the New Mexico home of Angel, where he
and Charles Xavier are on a call with Moira MacTaggert about the recent energy
signature they both detected. Moira confirms that it was, in fact, Jean and
Xavier explains that her power is corrupting her, overtaking her and he
resolves to return to New York as soon as possible. Out in space, Dark Phoenix
zooms past Starcore, where Peter Corbeau is barely able to register what he’s
detected before she’s gone in an instant! Dark Phoenix opens up a star-gate,
transporting her to a far-off galaxy. Realizing that the journey took more out
of her than she thought, Dark Phoenix plunges into a nearby star, consuming it
to restore her power. The resulting supernova sends flaming shockwaves that
completely obliterates a planet that orbits the star, burning it to crisp and
killing all 5 billion inhabitants! And in the center of the supernova, Dark
Phoenix thrills at her power, not a care for the countless lives she just took!
Meanwhile, a nearby Shi’ar battle cruiser registers
the supernova and spots Dark Phoenix as the one who caused it. They fire upon
her, and she retaliates in kind, discovering from a quick mind-scan that it’s
part of Lilandra’s fleet. With moments left, the crew calls Lilandra to warn
her. She answers to discover the ship in shambles, the crew almost all dead,
with the giant fire-bird signature of Phoenix baring down upon them! The line
cuts out, signaling the ship’s destruction and the crew’s deaths and Lilandra
determines that Phoenix must be dealt with once and for all! Back at the
mansion, the X-Men lick their wounds and try to figure out what to do next.
Beast thinks he can whip up some gadgets to hopefully aid them next time they
face Jean, while the others aren’t so sure. Suddenly, Cyclops, who had been
completely silent and motionless since their return, whips his head up, sensing
Jean through their psychic rapport! She’s returning to earth…and she’s hungry!
To be continued!