Marvel Snap: The best variants from the Rise of the Phoenix season

A bit about the Phoenix Five

The Phoenix Five was an insane storyline. In part 1,043 of “Iron Man screws up everything”, Tony Stark captured the Phoenix Force and felt it would be best if he broke it apart into five smaller, weaker, more manageable pieces.

The five Phoenix pieces then possessed five of the X-Men; Cyclops, White Queen, Magik, Colossus, and *checks notes* Namor. Corrupted by the power, they tried to reshape the world and the Avengers and some X-Men had to fight back. Eventually, Namor, Colossus, Magik, and White Queen all lost their parts of the Phoenix Force which all merged within Cyclops giving him an insane level of power which he eventually fought control from and purged from him, though, not before violently killing Charles Xavier.

As part of Marvel Snap’s “Rise of the Phoenix” event, the Phoenix Five are getting their own variants though, oddly, Emma Frost (the White Queen)’s variant is nowhere to be found. Probably a later paid bundle.

Namor
Artist: Eduardo Mello

Namor was the first to lose his powers. And honestly, “fish man gets fire powers” isn’t exactly something I expect to be long for the world in comics. And he lost his powers EARLY when the Avengers beat him into a Filet o’Fish.

But you can celebrate Phoenix Five Namor and his big ol’ dump truck thanks to this variant art by Eduardo Mello.

Colossus
Artist: Eduardo Francisco

Tied for second place with his sister who could lose their Phoenix Force early, this Colossus variant exudes immense strength. And honestly, it’s one of his coolest looks, especially with the Phoenix Force always playing fashion designer to whoever it possesses.

Magik
Artist: Ryan Benjamin

I absolutely adore Magik. I get psyched when she’s in a book I’m reading. I got psyched to get to hang out with her in Marvel’s Midnight Suns game. She’s just awesome. Though, she’s also tied with her brother for the second quickest to lose the Phoenix Force when she and her brother Colossus were literally tricked into fighting each other unconscious. Luckily the card doesn’t capture the gullibility that came with being this powerful, just the sheer terror of having a character that rules Limbo also wielding the flames of the Phoenix.

Cyclops
Artist: Ryan Benjamin

Blast some Good Girl Gone Bad cause we’re finally getting to Cyclops. Scott Summers wielded the Phoenix Force so poorly and caused so much death and damage I’m fairly certain he’ll never bring up Jean’s time as the Phoenix ever again. He was so powerful that it almost made you forget that if you look at his new beak-themed visor he’s got a Club Penguin head. I’m sorry that you’ll never be able to unsee it.

Don’t worry, we still have a few more variants to go over so hop on over to the next page where we get to show some Phoenix variants of OTHER characters that once hosted the Phoenix Force as well as characters who curiously never hosted the Force despite being drawn here as such. Let’s get into it on the next page!