What can I say.... I am really enjoying this arc. Maybe thats because its basically about Jean. The future or the destruction of the world depends on whether she chooses to serve good or evil.

I also love the evolution themes. It harkens back to E is for Extinction with Cassandra and Trask watching homo sapiens kill off the neanderthals and the business with the extinction gene. And it is also tying in sublots like Sublimes's U-Men movement and this interspecies theme introduced in Planet X.

I also like the apocalyptic feel. Cassandra and The Three in One are very cool. I love their prophetic tone. I am enjoying this future story more than I thought I would.

Was Cassandra addressing the audience when she looks torwards us and says "I have had dreams you know. Dreams with you in them" And then says this was never meant to be.

While EVA and Tom are cool and mildly interesting- its Beast and Jean who really makes this issue shine.

The Beast character is deliciously sinister. His calling himself Sublime will surely bring about some interesting revelations. I love his diabolical dialogue and his evil scheme.

Beast says "Welcome back from the ashes..weapon of cosmic war in human form" when Jean hatches. Is he implying that Jean is the phoenix force in human form. Maybe- afterall Death has implied the same thing before. In this story when they say Phoenix- they seem to be indicating Jean explicitly.

Again- his waiting for three billion years is intriquing. I can see Perceval's theory working- that this Beast is an evolutionary opposite to Phoenix. He definitely wants to control evolution.

I wonder what Jean means by was she was suppose to fix something that was dying or about being in a crown or in a white hot room.

Jean seems to be coming to her senses at the end. When she asks how long has it been since.... You pretty much think she is wondering how long has it been since she died at the end of Planet X. And then she recognizes him as Henry.

Jean is the last hope but her judgement also seems at hand. Will her consuming fire engulf the world? And how will she get back. I can't wait to find out.

Wonderful quotes from the issue..

cuckoos: "If the Phoenix chooses to serve the Beast...if he chooses to attack us with her power at his dispossal..there can be no tomorrow."

cuckoos: "The Phoenix Egg is there at the end of all things. So it is written. So it has come to pass."

Cassandra: "Woo. Spooky. I'm afraid its much worse than that girls. Consider this- what happens when Beast codes Phoenix traits into his armies? Or into himself."

After being asked what they see in the future

cuckoos: "a fire from beyond" "Consuming fire. The judgement of the Phoenix."

Later Apollyon says "All my life I've dreamed of Phoenix grafts"

Like I mentioned earlier after Jean hatches- Beast calls her a weapon of cosmic war in human form. He welcomes her to his world and says he has been waiting 3 billion years for her.

He later calls her "my ultimate soldier. My destroyer of worlds".