Fantastic Four Vol 1 286

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #286 January, 1986 Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter Cover Artists John Byrne Terry Austin "Like a Phoenix!" Writers John Byrne Chris Claremont Pencilers John Byrne Jackson Guice Inkers Terry Austin Colourists Glynis Oliver Letterers John Workman Editors Michael Carlin Previous Issue Next Issue Fantastic Four #285 Fantastic Four #287

Appearing in "Like a Phoenix!"

Featured Characters:

• Fantastic Four
  •  Human Torch 
  •  Invisible Woman 
  •  Mr. Fantastic 
  • She-Hulk

Supporting Characters:

• Avengers
  •  Captain America  (Appears in flashback and main story)
  •  Hercules  (Appears in flashback and main story)
• Edwin Jarvis
•  Marvel Girl (Appears in flashback and main story)

Adversaries:

Other Characters:

• Beast
• Avengers - (Only in flashback)
  • Black Knight - (Only in flashback)
  • Captain Marvel - (Only in flashback)
  • Sub-Mariner - (Only in flashback)
  • Wasp - (Only in flashback)
• X-Men - (Only in flashback)
  • Banshee - (Only in flashback)
  • Colossus - (Only in flashback)
  • Marvel Girl - (Only in flashback)
  • Nightcrawler - (Only in flashback)
  • Storm - (Only in flashback)
  • Wolverine - (Only in flashback)
  • Angel - (Only in flashback)
  • Cyclops - (Only in flashback)
  • Iceman - (Only in flashback)
  • Professor Xavier - (Only in flashback)
• Phoenix Force - (Only in flashback)
• Dr. Corbeau - (Only in flashback)
• Stephen Lang (Only in flashback)
• Sentinel Mk III (Only in flashback)
• X-Sentinels (Only in flashback)

Locations:

• New York City
  • Avengers Mansion[[Category::wikipedia:Avengers Mansion/Appearances]]
  • Jamaica Bay (Only in flashback)
• Jean Grey's Parents Home
• Luna (Moon) (Only in flashback)
  • Blue Area of the Moon (Only in flashback)

Items:

• Captain America's Shield
• Atomic Steed (Only in flashback)
• Holemphatic Crystal

Vehicles:

• Quinjet
  
  

Synopsis for "Like a Phoenix!"

• Synopsis not yet written.

Notes

• Cover art by Byrne and Austin, per signatures on original art.

• A flashback sequence (3 pages) was re-done by Claremont, Guice and Austin.

• The story is continued from Avengers #263 and continued in X-Factor (1st Series) #1.

• Page One says "Special Thanks to R. Stern and K. Busek. (See trivia section below for more details)

• The flashback portion of this book was severely altered and, as a result, John Byrne (who had written and drawn most of the story) refused to have his name appear on it. According to Byrne, the changes were written and drawn by Chris Claremont and Jackson Guice. Hence, the story reads somewhat disjointed in part, regarding the nature of the Phoenix.

• The flashbacks shown are from X-Men (1st series) #98-100.

• At the time, the Fantastic Four were houseguests at Avengers Mansion, thanks to the destruction of their headquarters in Fantastic Four #279.

• The background story of how Phoenix copied Jean is told in greater detail in the back-up story of Classic X-Men #8.

• The FF and Avengers saw the X-Men team up with Magneto during the first Secret Wars Vol 1

• Magneto stepped in as head of Xavier’s school, starting with Uncanny X-Men #200.

• Sue Richards was brainwashed and victimized by the Psycho-Man in Fantastic Four #280-282. Afterwards, she changed her name from ‘Invisible Girl’ to ‘Invisible Woman’.

• The Fantastic Four’s uniforms changed from blue and black to black and white as a result of a trip to the Negative Zone.

• The holempathic crystal was given to the Greys by Empress Lilandra in the wake of Phoenix’s death (X-Men (1st series) #138.

• The other presence Jean senses in the crystal is either Phoenix’s or possibly that of Rachel Summers, as Rachel added her own essence to that of Phoenix’s in Uncanny X-Men #201.

• This issue is reprinted in comics and books, see references for more info.
  

Trivia

• In Byrne’s original version of the story, Phoenix was intended to be a clearly selfish, evil being that trapped Jean to use her humanity as a pattern to gain a body. Jean fought back with the only weapon left to her, by telepathically dumping her entire personality onto Phoenix, making the creature believe it was truly Jean Grey and act accordingly.

• Kurt Busiek (whose name was misspelled in the credits as "Busek") was still a fan during the Dark Phoenix Saga. However, he came up with the idea of how to bring Jean Grey back from the dead, circumventing Shooter’s edict that Phoenix, being a mass murderer, had to stay dead.

See Also

• Write your own review of this comic!
• Discuss Fantastic Four Vol 1 286 on the forums
• Images from Fantastic Four Vol 1 286

Recommended Reading

• Avengers #263

• X-Factor (1st Series) #1

Footnotes

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