10 Pivotal X-Men Moments The Movies Ignored

This may be a bit weird to say, given that the X-Films as a whole have sacrificed two franchises with a Phoenix finale, but there still hasn't been a proper Phoenix storyline in live action.

The Phoenix Saga, and the climax with the Dark Phoenix Saga, are the pinnacle of long-term storytelling when it comes to the comics medium.

Jean Grey became the Phoenix years after her introduction, so there was true weight to the character when she uses all of her power to save the X-Men during a space shuttle crash, only to erupt from Jamaica Bay, reborn as the Phoenix. After that, she is shown to still ultimately be Jean - just with new powers and amplified abilities.

The Phoenix mega-arc took 37 issues to tell, playing off what the audience had known about the character, the dynamics of the team up to that point and then building a crescendo by turning Jean into the ultimate galactic menace.

While both The Last Stand and Dark Phoenix movies brought elements of Claremont's work in, with Dark Phoenix at least having Jean become Phoenix because of a space shuttle crash, neither built up the character enough that any of the moments from the arc felt genuine.