The 2nd issue of Phoenix creatively highlights Jean’s struggles with being a cosmic defender that has to be on constant patrol protecting the defenseless against cosmic forces while also yearning for a bit of normalcy. It’s a great point of you to have as a reader and see that regardless of how powerful she may be that ultimately she is still a human. I appreciate Stephanie’s approach on this matter because it allows us to understand the intense inner pressure that Jean has to endure while being out in the galaxies alone being its latest protector. Then you throw in some family drama to the mix, something that as readers we can relate to. It allows us to relate to Jean on a human level which I appreciate. This issue albeit less action sequences than the 1st issue was a solid follow-up. The narration from the new character, Adani feels like Stephanie is setting up a deeper story rather than it just being the usual mindless cosmic being just being all too powerful displaying awesome power feats. This could potentially be a deep villain origins story for a potential threat to Phoenix. There’s a lot of potential with this series and I can honestly see it being an ongoing title in Marvel. As for my gripes… there definitely is a bit of an inconsistency with the art. There’s no doubt that Miracolo has been influenced heavily by other well known artists and I find that he struggles to have his own artistic identity. He isn’t a horrible artist but the art, personally, seems to suffer because of that and it can be a bit distracting. I don’t mind Adani and getting to know her backstory as the story progresses BUT I do hope that her narration does not pass issue 5. It is a Jean solo book after all and having more in depth insight into her thoughts would definitely enhance the series.

The art is better than the previous issue which definitely enhances the already stellar story from writer, Stephanie. This issue sets the stage to the exciting upcoming match up between Phoenix and Thanos. This series is still one of the best from the ongoing X-Men relaunch lines.

This series continues to get better and better. This issue isn’t held back as much as previous issues due to the narration of the other character. It’s more focused on Jean and her struggles to let loose from time to time and not only focus on being the cosmic savior. Stephanie continues to do a great job in writing Jean in this series and having her interact with other well known iconic characters is always fun. The art isn’t the worst by any means but I still wish that Marvel would finally hire Russell Dauterman or Pepe or R.B. Silva to draw this series. Fingers crossed that one of those amazing artists will eventually helm the book. The only drawback is that I feel that these books can be at least 5 or 6 pages longer.