Evil Mutant Bondage Goddess

The Scott/Jean/Logan triangle would become a recurring motif for years, apparently resolved by the strong implication that, on Jonathan Hickman's utopian Krakoa, they had become a throuple. But it is a triangle that barely existed during the Claremont/Byrne run. Instead, Cyclops's competition is Jason Wyndgarde. Wyndgarde (the previously-undisclosed real name of the long-time X-Men illusion-casting villain Mastermind) has been stalking Jean ever since Scott and most of the X-Men were thought dead at the end of X-Men 113. Whenever they bump into each other, Jean suddenly finds herself dressed in late-18th century garb, in a relationship with Jason. She assumes these are Phoenix-inspired "timeslips" to the life of an unknown ancestress, rather than illusions, and with each encounter, she sinks deeper into this fantasy scenario. Manipulated by Mastermind, Jean discovers depths of passion she had not known, along with a previously undiscovered streak of cruelty; in one scene, she and Jason are on horseback for a hunt. Jason hands her the knife to "administer the coup de grace," while complementing her on the clever twist she brought to the sport:

"It was a masterstroke of yours....
"suggesting we hunt a man, playing the role of stag, rather than the animal itself."

Where Wolverine wants to release Jean from her inhibitions so that she can follow her passionate nature, Wyndgarde is using sex and violence to seduce Jean into pure evil. And not just any evil: he is molding her into his "Black Queen" (in the Hellfire Club, which Wyndgarde is working for, the leaders are all Black or White Kings and Queens). The Black Queen embodies Jean's dark, passionate side as pure transgressive sexuality (her black leather corset, boots, and whip are among the many cues that are hard to miss). Again, the "timeslip" scenario, like the Dark Phoenix story that follows it, allows Jean both to experience her actions and watch them from a remove, with the moral distance from what seems like a dream.

Even though the Scott-Jean-Logan triangle was barely developed at the time, it still thematically reinforces Jean's path towards darkness. From the time Jean assumes the Black Queen persona (Uncanny X-Men 132) through the first appearance of Dark Phoenix (the last page of Uncanny X-Men 134), Scott's main role is to be a punching bag, while Wolverine cuts loose as never before. The first thing Jean does as the Black Queen is knock him out with a powerful telekinetic blast ("Had the Black Queen struck to kill, there would be nothing of the lad but ashes."). The same issue ends with one of the most iconic panels in the history of the X-Men. Wolverine rises out of the sewer, releases the claws on his right arm, and turns toward the reader: "Okay, suckers--you've taken yer best shot! Now it's my turn!" Wolverine will spend the next issue cutting his way through the bad guys more savagely than he ever had to date, while Cyclops, realizing his primary metaphor, is restrained and blind, with his face covered to keep his eye beams in check. As Wolverine continues to hack up his enemies, he pauses so as not to kill adversaries who might be "legit club employees," while Scott faces Wyndgarde in the psychic plane, only to be run through by Mastermind's sword. Scott succeeds in shocking Jean out of Mastermind's control, but only by "dying," while Wolverine deals death left and right. Scott's success, however, only advances Jean down the road to Dark Phoenix. In other words, letting Jean embrace the side of herself that is much more like Wolverine.

Yeah, but you’re still covered in sewer sludge

The entire fight with the Hellfire Club, that is, the sequence that leads to the rise of Dark Phoenix, is an indirect comment on the dilemma of passion and restraint that Jean cannot initially resolve. True to his supervillian name, Wyndgarde has masterminded the whole process through a scenario that only involves the simulation of action: using illusions to convince Jean that she is already about to commit violence and embrace evil. The leader of the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw, turns out to have a power that is initially unstoppable, as he absorbs the kinetic energy of any physical attack against him, thereby growing in strength. Only during their rematch to the X-Men realize that he can only be defeated by attacks that avoid physical confrontation (Storm uses her powers to slowly freeze him). Shaw's comrade Harry Leland has the power to increase the mass of other objects, but his use of it on Wolverine as the X-Man leaps towards him only means that he is hit with even greater force. The X-Men win through the careful deployment of restraint, but it is too late for Jean: she has cast off all moral qualms and become Dark Phoenix.

Next: Jean Grey, Bad Girl

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