The Dark Phoenix Saga/YMMV

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  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: The story itself is arguably one for Chris Claremont, as it's the story that cemented him as the greatest X-Men writer of all time.
    • John Byrne's artistic contributions can't be discounted either. His art was at turns incredibly complex and deeply evocative; the book is still held up as a standard for superhero comics today thanks to their collaboration.
  • Evil Is Sexy: The White Queen. The Black Queen. Dark Phoenix herself, for some. And for Jean in-story, Jason Wyngarde.
  • It Was His Sled: Jean Grey's death in this is infamous, though even the creators themselves didn't know how it would turn out until they wrote it.
  • Moral Event Horizon: To the editorial staff, Dark Phoenix destroying an inhabited star system counts as this.
  • Never Live It Down: Jean's death in this (and resurrection in a later tale) made her the Trope Namer for "Jean Grey Escalation" before people started proving the point (by completely missing it), confusing the trope with either Death Is Cheap or With Great Power Comes Great Insanity.
    • This story became the standard against which all X-Men arcs are judged, and has been retold and revisited in almost every media. Sometimes, it's the only reason a creative team will even put Jean Grey in an X-Men story to begin with. It's been a good decade since the last screen adaptation to not treat it like the only story she was ever in.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Dazzler's introduction during the first third of the arc feels jarringly out-of-place. She made up for it in later appearances, but in the context of this story she's very much this.
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