How would you go about adapting Dark Phoenix Saga for the movies? Because the story has a number of problems chief among them that the ending (Jean killing herself) was not what Claremont/Byrne wanted and was put forth by Jim Shooter? And the story was retconned back and forth, and the fact that the Phoenix story is not really connected to the X-Men mutant metaphor. XMen 3 for all its flaws hit upon that problem and came up with a bad solution? But those problems still exist.

Good question!

I’m on record as really liking the Phoenix Saga. As for the critiques of it: honestly, I think that was a rare stopped-clock moment where Jim Shooter was right about the necessary consequences of Jean’s death; while I like Kurt Busiek a lot, I think the way that Jean being a clone was handled was very awkward and I would have gone with her just literally being reborn following the mythology of the phoenix, but I still think it led to some good material (the Wyngarde/Madelyne fake Phoenix stuff); and finally, I don’t think the lack of an mutant metaphor is a problem but rather a strength, that the X-Men aren’t limited to the allegorical.

As to the movies…well, I think my critique can be reverse-engineered: for Phoenix to land, you need to devote a substantial amount of time to Jean Grey and Scott Summers before the Saga starts, so that the audience is invested enough in the characters and their relationship to land. Likewise, for that to work, you have to make the ensemble nature of the X-Men work, so that Scott and Jean don’t get overshadowed by Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, etc. And that requires a good writer and director, and I don’t know that we have those.