AbramsArts; $39.99

At the peak of the Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin run on The X-Men, the Dark Phoenix saga was one of the most memorable stories ever told with those characters. The creative team had long before put their respective stamps on the team, and at that time everything was building to the story’s epic conclusion in X-Men #137.

Only there was a problem. Jean Grey, as Phoenix, had wiped out an entire planet. She killed billions. Genocide, plain and simple. Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter argued that taking away her powers and wiping her memory wasn’t sufficient. So, it was decided that the character must die.

That meant quickly rewriting the issue and creating new art for several pages to change the creative team’s original ending (which later saw publication as Phoenix: The Untold Story #1).

Of course, Claremont and later collaborators such as Paul Smith found a way to bring the character back – it’s still comics after all – but the point was made, and Phoenix died.

AbramsArts has released Byrne’s alternate take, X-Men: Elsewhen, the first of three volumes collecting the writer-artist’s grand “What if…?” originally posted page by page free of charge on his website. This book proves that one can start from a flawed premise and still come up with something thoroughly enjoyable.

It still doesn’t make any sense that Jean Grey got away with murdering an entire population, but if you can do the mental gymnastics to put that aside, it’s great to see Byrne drawing The X-Men once again. It’s like Blondie’s No Exit, which came almost 17 years after The Hunter, or Top Gun: Maverick, which came 36 years after the original, there are elements of this book that make it feel like he never stopped working on Wolverine, Cyclops, and the rest of the team.

The stories are fast paced by today’s deconstructionist standards, and they’re packed with everything up to and probably including the kitchen sink: Sauron, the Sentinels, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Modok, the Shi’Ar Empire, and Magneto. They’re all in there.

When the pages were originally shown on Byrne’s site, they were only penciled and lettered. Now Byrne and newcomer Paul Wills (what a debut!) have inked them, and a great team of colorists have added their touches. At more than 220 story pages, the dust-jacketed hardcover is tremendous fun, and it makes for one glorious graphic novel.

I think AbramsArts has made a mistake doing the next two volumes a year apart rather than offering them every six months. The first printing has sold out at the distributor level, and they’re already headed to a second printing. You’d just think they’d want to pour some gas on this fire and keep it going. That said, I’m definitely picking up the second volume when it’s offered.

A shout out here to editor Chris Ryall, who Byrne calls “the Byrne Whisperer,” for getting this project done. Nostalgia alone wouldn’t have been reason enough to spend the cover price, but this package is definitely worth it. Thanks, Chris!

– J.C. Vaughn