Chris and I did a storyline that turned Jean Grey/Phoenix into a villain. It was a way of muting the overwhelming presence of the character in X-MEN. Along the way, showing her villainy, I had Dark Phoenix blow up a star, and thus annihilate a populated planet.

Shooter, who had been told what we were planning, unleashed his Whim of Iron and declared that Dark Phoenix must be PUNISHED for his heinous act. Chris and I argued that cosmic characters (like Galactus, who at that stage was still in his villainous phase) were not shown to be punished for their deeds, but the Whim was unshakable on this point. Phoenix must be "taken to a prison asteroid and horribly tortured for all eternity." His words.

Aside from this sounding like some twisted Legion of Superheroes story, it was also obvious it would change the whole shape of X-MEN. There was no way they would just sit back and let this happen. Thus, I spoke the words that still reverberate in the Halls of Eternity: "F**k that! I'd rather kill her!"

Shooter LOVED that idea. Kill an original Stan and Jack character? Huzzah!

So, we did that. And the story was a pretty big deal at the time, tho not as big as it is sometimes remembered. X-MEN was still a "cult" book, and while the story generated waves in the limited fan press, it was not industry-shattering.

I moved on to the next story.

Chris didn't. He couldn't. Chris never lets go of anything, and he certainly could not let go of Phoenix. (The whole time I was working with him, he was looking for ways to bring back Thunderbird, resenting as he did that he'd been forced to follow thru on the death Len Wein had planned.) Every chance he got, he peppered the book with Phoenix references. Nightcrawler thought about Phoenix. Scott thought about Phoenix. Even Kitty, who was not even there, thought about Phoenix. And none of those scene were meant for cogitations about Jean.

Wildest of all (I thought) was when Dark Phoenix showed up as the co-villain in the X-TITANS crossover.

Not too long, and Phoenix was being referred to around the Office as "the least dead character Marvel has!" So when I suggested resurrecting Jean, based on an idea presented by Kurt Busiek, there were no objections. The Death of Phoenix had been so thoroughly diluted, adding a "chapter" was seen as doing no harm.

Only, as it turned out, it did, by opening the door to countless new Phoenix stories, even tho the whole point was that Jean had never been Phoenix in the first place.

And so, three decades later, here we are.