Phoenix #13: It’s The CABLE GUYYYYYY!

It’s part three of the Sara Grey saga, and as the sisters try to come to terms with them both being alive (something that hasn’t happened since the Phalanx Covenant in 1994). Stephanie Phillips and Roi Mercado bring us this new chapter in the cosmic adventures of Jean Grey, the Phoenix! in this issue we get not one, but TWO guest stars! The first is Cable (obviously from the cover), but the second will be revealed on the last page!

The issue starts where the last one ended, with Cable comes out guns blazing, trying to obliterate Sara Grey, in front of her sister, one of the most powerful forces in the universe, which is never a smart idea. In order to talk some sense into Jean, he brings her into a future incarnation of the White Hot Room at the end of time, and it looks like it’s falling down around their ears. It turns out that when Jean unleashed an enormous amount of energy to stop the Dark Gods, her power created a new Sara Grey, who was now a mutant who jump started aliens mutant abilities, and the only way to save the White Hot Room at the end of time was if Jean destroyed the Sara that she created.

Phillips is really out here trying to flesh out Jean, whose only blood relatives now are her alt reality daughter, Rachel, and the son of her genetic clone, Cable. Joey and Gailyn might be alive, as they were mutants, but I can’t remember if they were addressed at all during the Krakoan era, so their status is currently unclear. It was kind of fun seeing Sara back, since we have so little material featuring Jean’s family, which is kind of a shame. Other than Scott’s family, the next original X-Man’s family we’ve had any fleshing out has been Iceman’s racist dad, and his meek mother, so having Sara back gave me hope to see more from the Grey side of things.

This is Roi Mercado’s third issue on this title, and while his art is serviceable, it’s lacking a lot of pizzazz that’s been expected from this book. Despite the scandal from the last series artist, Mercado’s work feels rather pedestrian. The scope of the stories Phillips has been crafting for Jean has been formatted to create a cosmic narrative, but Mercado hasn’t been able to fulfill that mission. His art has been nice to look at, but compared to what we’re getting in other female solo titles, like Storm, Scarlet Witch, and Psylocke, it doesn’t have the same punch as the other books do. It’s still early in the run, and Mercado could surprise me, which I honestly hope happens, because I’d hate to lose Jean’s first solo series due to sagging sales.