Unpublished Art From A Phoenix (Rachel Grey) Mini-Series!!

[Beast]

I saw this posted over on ComicBoards.Com, and thought you guys would like to take a look at it. It's art by Rick Leonardi from the Chris Claremont's unpublished Phoenix Mini-Series which was announced in the Uncanny X-Men #208 letters page and then scrapped. It was supposed to take place between Uncanny X-Men #209 (when Rachel leaves with Spiral) and the Excalibur Special (where Rachel escapes from the Mojoverse and ends up in London) back in the 80's. There's only three pages up there, but it's nice to see what might have been.

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryP...&GCat=0&UCat=0

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryP...&GCat=0&UCat=0

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryP...&GCat=0&UCat=0

[Vegetarian Goat]

What's stopping them from finishing this, like with the X-Men: True Friends mini?

[Beast]

Who knows. It's so long ago, that Marvel probably doesn't care anymore. Someone should ask Chris Claremont over at ComixFan about it. In fact, I may just go do that. :)

[DDM]

The Phoenix limited series still has value. Yes, I remember reading the letters pages as the editors were advertising that the Phoenix limited series was coming soon. It was one of the reasons why Claremont wrote Rachel Summers out in Uncanny X-Men #209; furthermore, he did not want the upcoming Mutant Massacre to be compared to Days of Future Past. That's why Chris Claremont wrote out Shadowcat &, temporarily, Colossus.

Although Excalibur Special Edition #1 was published in 1987, it did not take away the events of what was going to happen in the Phoenix limited series. In a way, the Phoenix limited series had endless possibilites since the story took place on MojoWorld.

I would like to see the original Phoenix limited series published by Marvel...

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I'd pick It up. Be nice to see them go back and work on It. Like have Rachel have a flashback to her 1st time on MojoWorld and do this series.

[Brian M.]

Maybe the "End of Grey's" storyline in UXM#466 will be a little bit like this story that was going to be published. Claremont is getting to use a lot of his old ideas, be it in "The End" or UXM.

[Babylon23]

Those are some lovely pages. I'd love to see more.
I remember reading about this series in the letter pages at the time, only to be disappointed when it never appeared. I'd definitely buy it if Marvel published it today.
I wonder if Claremont has a script or synopsis of what the series was about.

[streator]

man, claremont had power pack in a lot of stuff back then.

[xakko]

wonderful art, great look

Yeah, I'd buy that for a dollar. Or $3.99, for that matter.

[Uncle Nobs]

HOLY CRAP!

I'd been asking about this for YEARS, fishing around to see if ANYONE had any pages! Thanks, Beast! Love the sentinel-birds, and I much prefer this more human character design for the hound-master, as opposed to Ahab. Fat, gruff, absorbed with his own power over others, sees himself as a "tamer"... Love the whip, the coat, the spats, everything. Way more grounded than Ahab's design. You get who he is just from one look at him.

I agree with the rest of you; there's no reason why Claremont couldn't take another stab at this series. Rachel's popular enough--or she could be, given the right treatment. I mean, if they're going to call her the new Marvel Girl, let's back it up! Give her an impactful, iconic costume design... reveal her hidden history in DoFP and Mojoworld (PLENTY of story potential there!)... give her a bold new direction that sets her apart from being "just another X-Man"... and BOOM! You've got your new flagship character for the new century right there--one that bridges the gap between generations!

Now if only someone had some of those Arthur Adams pages from the unpublished Longshot ongoing monthly that was supposed to come out soon after Uncanny #250... (*BIG sigh*) :(

[DDM]

The Shadow King plays some kind of role on her doomed world. He treated the current ruling members as his puppets. He also tormented Rachel Summers. I believe the Shadow King used his vast telepathy to spread the anti-mutant hatred as well. Rachel alluded to this in Excalibur #21-22. The Hound idea, ironically enough, may have come from her own world's Shadow King...

[DDM]

HOLY CRAP!

I'd been asking about this for YEARS, fishing around to see if ANYONE had any pages! Thanks, Beast! Love the sentinel-birds, and I much prefer this more human character design for the hound-master, as opposed to Ahab. Fat, gruff, absorbed with his own power over others, sees himself as a "tamer"... Love the whip, the coat, the spats, everything. Way more grounded than Ahab's design. You get who he is just from one look at him.

The fat guy is not Ahab. He is Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King.

[Uncle Nobs]

He's clearly not Ahab, as I said in my earlier post. He is clearly a character based on the concept of the hound-master, which I said I preferred to Ahab.

I do agree with you that he could likely be the Shadow King. In fact, when I first saw this picture, I immediately thought of Jacob Reisz, Amahl Farouk, and the Shadow King. The character in the drawing is clearly not Amahl Farouk because Amahl's body is long gone. To be honest, he just doesn't look much like Farouk, aside from being fat. Too much of a western look for him to be Farouk.

I think that most likely, it could be the Shadow King (whether Amahl is truly the SK's original identity or not) possessing another man's body, positioning himself as the hound-master and driving force behind DoFP. Which, again, I much prefer to Ahab's character design.

[DDM]

He's clearly not Ahab, as I said in my earlier post. He is clearly a character based on the concept of the hound-master, which I said I preferred to Ahab.

I do agree with you that he could likely be the Shadow King. In fact, when I first saw this picture, I immediately thought of Jacob Reisz, Amahl Farouk, and the Shadow King. The character in the drawing is clearly not Amahl Farouk because Amahl's body is long gone. To be honest, he just doesn't look much like Farouk, aside from being fat. Too much of a western look for him to be Farouk.

I think that most likely, it could be the Shadow King (whether Amahl is truly the SK's original identity or not) possessing another man's body, positioning himself as the hound-master and driving force behind DoFP. Which, again, I much prefer to Ahab's character design.

The splash page is of Rachel's memories. The Shadow King plays an important role on her doomed world. We just don't know what role her alternate Earth Shadow King did. I believe he incited the anti-mutant hatred; he intensified an already bad situation & made it worse.

[Beast]

Here's another page from the unpublished mini-series. :)

http://img32.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p16wp.jpg