The Dark Phoenix Saga remains the defining moment for the X-Men in the comics and its greatest failure in its movie adaptations. Life, death, love, hate, and fear - all the classic elements of true human tragedy are present in a truly epic story that had as much to do in shaping comic books in the 80s as Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns.

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But was The Dark Phoenix Saga perfect? Nothing is, and forty years later, some cracks start to show. Here are five ways the classic story has aged well, and five ways it didn't.

10 Aged Well: Longform Storytelling

Dark Phoenix Sexy

Back in the late 70s, going into the early 80s, most comic book storylines were fairly short. Think of the Gerry Conway run on the Amazing Spider-Man - most of those arcs ran a very tight two and three parts.

By contrast, fro start to finish, the Dark Phoenix Saga played out over several years, beginning with Jean's initial transformation in 1976 and ending with her death in 1980. That was an enormous amount of narrative real estate for a story, even by today's standards, in which the graphic novel and collected editions drive a big part of storytelling. One reason they do is because of this epic.

9 Did Not: Impossible To Adapt

 

Perhaps the sprawling nature of the storyline contributes to its misfortune in big-screen adaptations. Both X-Men: The Last Stand and Dark Phoenix condensed the epic story into single two-hour films.

Both were poorly received by fans, and Dark Phoenix has the misfortune of being the worst grossing film in the entire history of X-Men films. Perhaps the MCU will find a way to pull it off. There is hope; the iconic 90s X-Men: The Animated Series did adapt the story and many fans considered it a success.

8 Aged Well: Putting Women First

During the original run of the X-Men in the 1960s, Jean Grey was essentially the token female. She was simply there, and like many women in comics at that time regardless of their power, a damsel in distress or object to be pursued.

When Chris Claremont took over writing the book in the late 70s, he wanted to bring it into the modern-day by making the team more diverse and giving the women more agency. That's one reason why he chose Jean Grey to be the Phoenix, which enhanced her character greatly.

7 Did Not: Limits Imposed By Men

Professor X thinking about his love for the teenage Jean Grey in Marvel Comics

Professor X has not aged well in the last forty years, that much is certain. A major component of the Dark Phoenix Saga is the revelation that Xavier had been telepathically restricting the limits of Jean's own psychic powers, fearing her unchecked power.

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This is on one hand an apt development, as men have held women back in the workplace and in the home for much of history. On the other, it undermines Jean's growth to have her again at the mercy of the men in her life, even as she takes her biggest leaps as a character.

6 Aged Well: Female Anger

One reason the story endures is that it contains many layers, and is open to many interpretations. One way to approach The Dark Phoenix Saga is through the lens of feminist studies. Jean Grey's breaking of the shackles imposed on her by Professor X and lashing out in fury represent the release of long-suppressed anger and frustration on the part of women. With her full power and agency finally in her own control, Jean is able to realize herself in ways she never could before.

5 Did Not: Women Out of Control

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On the flip side of that, the end result of Jean discovering her agency is that she becomes evil and tries to destroy the world. She actually does destroy an entire solar system to consume even more power. That's not a good look for anybody, but forty years after the fact, the message could be interpreted as that Professor X - and by extension men in general - was justified in his actions to hold Jean back. That is only muddied even further by later retcons that dislocate Jean even more from her own story.

4 Aged Well: Bold Decision To Kill Jean

Cyclops reacts to Jean Grey's death during the Phoenix Saga

Jean Grey's death at the end of The Dark Phoenix Saga was a shocking and controversial development. Prior to that, it was extremely unusual for major heroes to die in comics. The biggest Marvel to death before that was Gwen Stacy, a supporting character.

The decision emerged out of a heated confrontation between Claremont and Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter. Claremont didn't really want to kill Jean, but Shooter felt she needed to, to atone for her terrible actions. Shooter won out, and the result was comic book history.

3 Did Not: Turned Comic Deaths Into A Stunt

Joker uses a crowbar on Jason Todd in the "Death in the Family" storyline

Jean Grey's death was shocking - and popular. Publishers made the correlation: killing characters sells copies. The trend continued into the 80s, reaching something of a nadir with the death of Jason Todd, AKA Robin, at the hands of the Joker.

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DC actually created a toll-free number for fans to call in and vote for whether he should live or die. Killing characters off eventually became meaningless, as they were always dying, and always coming back, not unlike Jean herself.

2 Aged Well: Defining Moment For X-Men

The X-Men were well into their renaissance with Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and later John Byrne when The Dark Phoenix Saga launched them into the stratosphere. The story became the defining moment for the franchise, setting off a decade in which the X-Men became the face of Marvel Comics. A run like no other followed the story, including Days of Futures Past, the Age of Apocalypse, the massive expansion of other spinoffs, and the success of mutants on television and in movies.

1 Did Not: Retcons

The lasting impact of the story's shocking end was largely undermined a few years later when Jean Grey was resurrected in X-Factor. Thanks to a suggestion from comics writer Kurt Busiek, fans learned that Jean didn't die. She didn't even participate in the entire Dark Phoenix Saga. The Phoenix Force cloned her consciousness and impersonated her while Jean hibernated in a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. This was great for Jean fans, but spoiled the dramatic power of the story and only served to render Jean even more powerless in her greatest story.

NEXT: Jean Grey: 5 Story Retcons That Fans Liked (& 5 They Hated)