What Covers Has Marvel Used for the Dark Phoenix Saga Collections?

Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is, of course, one of the most famous stories that has ever been published by Marvel Comics. There is a reason why it has been adapted into not one, but TWO different films! Not to mention countless other forms of media. Because of this, it has become one of the rare Marvel storylines that has almost constantly been in print in a collected edition. Not a whole lot of Marvel stories can claim that honor, as even classics like "Born Again" were out of print for years at a time.

Marvel really tried the whole "trade paperback" market for the first time in 1984. They, of course, had tremendous success in the mid-1970s with their Fireside Books collections of their stories in books like Origins of Marvel Comics and Bring on the Bad Guys, but those were generalized collections. Even the later books in that series, like Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (all books that I cherished growing up) were still just general collections of stories.

That changed when Marvel began to collect a few notable recent stories in 1984, including, of course, the Dark Phoenix Saga. The great Bill Sienkiewicz was brought in to do the covers for a few of these new collections and he did one for the Dark Phoenix Saga...

That trade paperback then became a MAJOR mainstay in the world of comic book fandom, as that 1984 trade was reprinted constantly throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s.

In 1991, they did a revision of the original trade dress, while keeping the Sienkiewicz cover image (this would be the seventh printing of the overall trade)...

In 1997, Marvel did a black and white "Essentials" collection of the storyline. Byrne did a new cover for the book, which had a curious trade dress that obscured the main image...

In 2001, the Marvel Essentials was reprinted with a more traditional cover, adapting Byrne's cover for X-Men #136...

In 2000, Marvel did a widespread revamp of their trade paperback program, with the introduction of Marvel's Finest. This time, they went back to the original work and took an iconic John Byrne and Terry Austin panel and made it the cover...

Around the same time, Marvel also issues a rare variant edition of the trade. I assume it was a variant for the Marvel's Finest, since it came out in 2000, but it is possible that it was a sort of "farewell" to the previous edition...

Marvel then revamped their trade paperback program AGAIN after they made sweeping changes to the company period around 2001. Thus, in 2002, they introduced the Marvel Legends series of trades. In one of the more baffling decisions in the history of this story being reprinted, Marvel decided to go with a Salvador Larroca image from Uncanny X-Men #387 as the new cover to the Dark Phoenix Saga collection...

It's not even a bad image, but it's just so odd that if you're going to be reusing artwork (and not commissioning a new cover, like they did in 1984), then why would you not use the classic art from the original story?

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Byrne returns!']

In 2005, Marvel did another printing of their Marvel Essentials series (I believe that this was it for this series), this time adapting Byrne's cover for X-Men #137...

In 2005, Marvel reached the Dark Phoenix Saga in their hardcover Marvel Masterworks series. There were two versions of the cover, both using Byrne's cover for X-Men #136...

In 2006, Marvel released a new trade paperback version of the Dark Phoenix Saga separate from any specific initiative. They kept this one in print for a while, and they went back to Byrne for the cover, adapting his cover for X-Men #135 (itself an homage to one of Neal Adams' earliest X-Men covers)...

Due to the trade being JUST put back into print in 2006, when Marvel began their Marvel Premiere series of hardcover collections later that year (the ones with the distinctive black backgrounds), they didn't do one for Dark Phoenix Sage. They did one for the RETURN of Jean Grey, but not for the Dark Phoenix Saga...

In 2010, Marvel did a hardcover edition of the story, adapting Byrne's cover to X-Men #136...

Since it was the 30th anniversary, they did some 30th anniversary trade dress, as well...

In early 2012, Hachette Partworks included Dark Phoenix in their "Ultimate Graphic Novels" collection, using the X-Men #136 cover again...

Later in 2012, Marvel did an omnibus version of the Dark Phoenix Saga, adapting Byrne's X-Men #137 cover for the hardcover...

Finally, in conjunction with the new Dark Phoenix Saga movie, Marvel is doing an X-Men Milestones line of trades and this one is included, with a cropped version of Byrne's X-Men #135 cover...