American Update: The Rising of the Phoenix! X-Men #100 and #101
*Marvel: Following the arrival of the ‘New’ X-Men, in Giant-Size X-Men #1 and thereafter, a lot of people felt the ‘old’ X-Men were somewhat redundant. This was more so in the case of Jean Grey, Marvel Girl, who didn’t seem to have any identity other than being an X-Man and Cyclops’s love interest. But that was rectified in spades in #100, in which the ‘New’ X-Men were faced with murderous versions of the original team, and then, escaping from a plummeting spaceship bombarded with radiation (as you do), Jean was transformed into the cosmic-powered entity known as the Phoenix – and the X-Men would never be the same again! Although Phoenix herself doesn’t appear until #101, the entire set-up of her origin is in the preceding issue, so we list the pair in this update. #100 is GD/VG p at £35, while the #101 is a nice FN/VF p at £140. With the Phoenix looming large in the forthcoming X-Men movie franchise, now is the time to get these highly sought-after issues!