X-Men: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The Phoenix
9. The Phoenix Is Worshipped As A God
Not just a force of destruction to be feared, some seem to forget, the Phoenix is worshipped as an actual god.
As a cosmic entity, the Phoenix Force is known to many races across the galaxies of the Marvel Universe. However, among one particular race at least it is actually fearfully worshipped as a god: The Shi'ar Imperium.
An imperialistic expansionist race comprising of a multitude of species, the core Shi'ar race are a humanoid avian race, so of course bird people would worship a giant, fiery space-bird.
The Shi'ar's core gods are Sharra and K'yhtri, the married gods, and as part of their faith, it is believed that the Phoenix is born of their union.
Of course, the Phoenix is actually an entity born at the birth of the universe, and if anything is maybe called by the gods union (though they like to believe their own hype and consider it a sister...because what would deities be without weird inter-family oddness).
For their part, the Shi'ar see the Phoenix as something of a dread god, worshipped but feared as well. However, they take a far more proactive approach with hosts and potential hosts of the Phoenix, often happily killing them to prevent potential destruction to come.