Jonathan Dobres

Season 3 is the Season of the Phoenix. The season’s generous allotment of 19 episodes covers just 10 distinct stories, many of which are either about the Phoenix or related to it. “The Phoenix Saga” and “The Dark Phoenix” by themselves occupy about half the season. The two-part season opener “Out of the Past” is a prelude to the first Saga, while “No Mutant Is an Island” is a direct reaction to its aftermath. Altogether, fully 12 of the season’s 19 episodes are tangled up in the Phoenix Sagas, or 13 if you include “Orphan’s End” (which I do).

I think the season is pretty good overall, especially its adaptation of “The Dark Phoenix”. I’m not as keen on “The Phoenix Saga”, but more on that below. It’s certainly an improvement over the meandering second season. We only wasted two episodes on the Savage Land this time! Of course, being so beholden to the Phoenix story arcs presents a few problems for the show. Those stories predate characters like Gambit and Jubilee, giving them little to do. Even Rogue, who can easily substitute for Colossus in the Phoenix stories, is just absent for a lot of the season. If you’re not interested in Jean and Cyclops, you’re out of luck for the year.

Although the Dark Phoenix presents an interesting antagonist for the show, the lack of a season-spanning Big Bad gives these episodes a different feeling compared to seasons 1 and 2. We’ve traded nefarious government contractors and all too believable anti-mutant hate groups for cosmic entities and glam rock galactic empires. That said, season 3 gets a lot right, especially as it leans into the high emotions that come with camp, romance, and tragedy.

Season 3’s storytelling ambitions were frequently in conflict with production problems and meddling from the network. The network wins from here out, so I’m not expecting great things from season 4. Then again, season 3 did things I didn’t expect, like keeping the Inner Circle’s misogyny mostly intact. So I guess we’ll see how things go!

How I’d Rewrite Season 3

I realize that it’s easy to play script doctor with thirty years of hindsight, and that no matter how good my ideas might be, I still don’t have a time machine. But I’ve been slowly reviewing this season for six months, and I can’t help but think about how it might have been better, so humor me.

To start off, just get rid of the first Phoenix Saga entirely. There’s no need for the show to tie itself in knots to adapt a stretch of comics that weren’t even conceived as a coherent story in the first place. Spare us most of the Shi’ar and all of the Starjammers. Instead, tweak “Out of the Past”. It proceeds mostly as it did before, except that the Phoenix is released from the prison ship along with the Spirit Drinker, or alternately, Jean explores the ship with Xavier and accidentally discovers the Phoenix. Either way, make Jean/Phoenix the one who ultimately defeats the Spirit Drinker, and only because of her strange new powers.

From there, the season could tackle whatever stories it wanted, but with Jean gradually becoming more and more powerful, just as happened in the comics over several years. You could even do—dare I say it—interludes that check in with Jean, either to show off some worrisome new Phoenix thing, or to slowly ramp up Jason Wyngarde’s psychic manipulations leading into “The Dark Phoenix”.

Treat “The Dark Phoenix” as the season finale it’s meant to be. If planetary genocide is still too hot for Saturday mornings, fine, keep the D’bari star system uninhabited, but get the Shi’ar in there—skip D’Ken and put Lilandra in charge from the start—and let Jean vaporize herself all the same. I think you’d still have to bring her back to life in the end, but do it as a separate episode rather than hastily resurrecting her a minute after she dies. With these changes, the show won’t be in a ridiculous position where the same character dies two tragic deaths in one season.

And while I’m at it, give Jubilee something to do. This is (nominally) a show for kids and she’s the only kid on it, give her a proper spotlight already. She clearly idolizes the other women on the team, especially Storm, and it’s a huge missed opportunity that the show hasn’t done anything with that, and probably never will.

Worst Episode

“Savage Land, Strange Heart”. The Savage Land is as boring as ever, and completely mishandles what could have been a great Storm story. It’s so focused on dinosaur stampedes and jungle mythos that it feels like Storm is barely there. The best thing I can say about this Savage Land story is that it’s the last one. While the season has a couple of other episodes that are arguably worse on their own merits, “Savage Land” aims highest and crashes hardest.

Dishonorable mentions go to “Longshot” and “Love in Vain”. “Longshot”’s nonsensical plot and obviously reused dialogue, along with the fact that it was written for season 3 but wouldn’t air until season 5, smack of an episode that was cobbled together to fill time and save money. “Love in Vain” is so bad that not even Lenore Zann can save it, though it does manage some unintentional comedy.

Best Episode

“Out of the Past”. It was a thrilling return to form after the lack laster end of season 2, and it’s also the best the show has ever or will ever look (until X-Men ‘97, anyway). It has the distinction of being one of season 3’s only original stories. “Out of the Past” features an unusual combination of characters—the Reavers, Lady Deathstrike, and the Spirit Drinker—that had never appeared together in the comics, making the episode a rather unique remix.

Honorable mention goes to “The Dark Phoenix”, which is narrowly behind “Out of the Past” in my book. The show commits to faithfully adapting the story from the comics, which comes through in ways large and small. Cyclops is formidable and interesting, the big fight in “The Inner Circle” is taken almost panel-for-panel from X-Men #134, and most of the Saga’s adult themes are intact, more or less.

I also have to give an honorable mention to “Obsession”, in which Apocalypse and Archangel ham it up so hard that you can’t help but have fun. Gambit also hits Apocalypse in the face with an entire fighter jet, one of the only cool things he gets to do all season.

Worst Hero

Professor Charles Xavier. It’s not that Xavier didn’t have good moments this season. In fact, he’s more active in season 3 than ever before. Temporarily restoring Jean’s sanity at great risk to himself comes to mind. And his example of grace under pressure in “Child of Light” really resonated with me.

But he screws up a lot this season. He sends his X-Men into space despite having no idea who his psychic visions are coming from or what they really mean, and when the “mission” goes awry, he has the nerve to call Cyclops a poor leader! A manifestation of his worst possible self terrorizes the team for half an episode, which begs a lot of questions about what kind of person Xavier really is. Oh, and don’t forget that he exploits his psychic connection with Lilandra to learn about the Shi’ar rite of trial by combat. Or that he tried to manipulate Lilandra with a romantic vision (how like Jason Wyngarde!) before she clocked what was happening and threw him into a chasm (metaphorically).

Lastly, a dishonorable mention for Corsair, who sucks (along with all the Starjammers). But his crimes pale in comparison to the Psychic of Westchester County.

Best Hero

Cyclops. Screw the haters, it’s Cyclops! Since “The Dark Phoenix” so closely follows the comics, the show’s version of Cyclops is suddenly as powerful as he’s supposed to be. More importantly, “The Dark Phoenix” simply can’t work without him. He’s one half of the romance, and without that, Phoenix is just another villain blasting the X-Men with energy bolts. I think Norm Spencer rose to the occasion and gave Cyclops an emotional range we’ve never seen before, which persists even into episodes like “Orphan’s End”.

Worst Villain

Garokk. Literally just a sentient clump of dirt insisting he should rule the world. Get out of here. The Colony are also pretty lame, but that’s mostly down to that episode’s generally poor writing. They could’ve been cool!

Best Villain

Dark Phoenix, obviously. No one else even comes close. She is, as we millennials used to say, epic. I’ve talked about the Phoenix a lot already, so I won’t belabor the point. I’ll also give an honorable mention to Apocalypse. The show needs more villains with the guts to say things like, “I am the rocks of the eternal shore. Crash against me and be broken!”

Most Improved

Again, I think it has to be Cyclops. Going from the show’s constant stick in the mud to Best Hero kind of says it all. Though I have to acknowledge his awful behavior in “Cold Comfort”, so who knows what he’ll be like next season.