Thread:ZoomZolomonZoom/@comment-33690333-20181211040813

So I've been thinking about Secret Wars and how it could set things up for Phase 4, and I think I have a pretty good idea for how Secret Wars could lead into the Dark Phoenix Saga and then into World War Hulk.

These are all just loose ideas here, so they're definitely subject to change. I just want to hear your thoughts on them.

My idea was basically that some of the heroes in Secret Wars get a bit of a power boost, either from traveling to Battleworld or given to them by the Beyonder himself. Jean would be among them, her telekinetic abilities getting much stronger over the course of the film. In the end, she would seemingly die staying behind on Battleworld as she uses her enhanced powers to hold open a portal or something for the other heroes to escape, as the whole place kind of implodes on itself.

However, she wouldn't actually die here. The other X-Men would assume she does, and this could put Cyclops in a pretty dark place at the start of the Phoenix saga. What actually happens is, just as the other heroes escape Battleworld, the strain of holding open the portal causes her to pass out, but her newly increased powers make it so that she can unconsciously form a force field around herself, keeping her safe as she is shot out into open space, just as the portal closes. It sounds kind of far-fetched now but I think we'd just have to work on the wording of this. Also, its Marvel, and stranger things have happened in these kind of stories.

So the comatose Jean is able to make her way back to Earth, showing just how powerful she's become. She kind of crash lands outside Muir Island, and we can have Moira MacTaggart (and maybe even her mutant acquaintance Banshee if we'd like to pull in that character) find her, keeping her alive until she wakes up.

I just like the imagery of a near-death Jean literally falling from space and being found by two old friends, it feels like it could be a really iconic scene.

I was thinking Moira and Banshee don't tell Xavier and Scott that they found her just yet, because at this point there's still a chance she may never wake up, and the X-Men are already heartbroken enough as it is.

Anyway, throughout the first half of the first installment of the Dark Phoenix Saga, while the X-Men are off in the Savage Land in pursuit of Legion, we occasionally jump back to Muir Island, where Jean has just woken up and is maybe in physical therapy or something on the island. I imagine all the stuff that's happened to Jean at this point would take quite the toll on her.

Eventually, she decides to fly back and reunite with the X-Men, but as this happens, the Phoenix Force is released, and it immediately begins searching for powerful beings to choose as its host. At this point, Jean Grey would probably be among the Earth's strongest telepaths, so it goes into her, automatically restoring her to full health in the process.

Like the Phoenix, Jean Grey is reborn in a literal blaze of glory, and all the X-Men are amazed. Unfortunately, that amazement soon turns into horror, as the tragic saga unfolds as it was destined to.

Obviously, we would have to work on all of this a lot, but I personally think this could be a pretty cool way of going about it.

Another character who would be severely effected by the events of Secret Wars would be Hulk, who gets pulled into Battleworld after being blasted into space at the end of Intelligencia. On Battleworld, a bizarre land of unknown origin full of intergalactic refugees and outcasts, a messed up "society" quickly forms, ruled by the megalomaniacal Red King, the first outside entity pulled into Battleworld who quickly declares himself its ruler. Red King forces the other castaways to battle for his amusement, and Hulk, the strongest there is, quickly becomes a star worshipped by his new peers. He even falls in love, marrying an alien warrior Caiera.

His life is perfect, until Earth's other superheroes arrive in Battleworld, waging war on the Beyonder. Hulk and his fellow gladiators (Korg, Miek, etc.) ultimately agree to help them, but eventually, when Hulk realizes Battleworld is going to be destroyed if they succeed, he turns against the heroes. He ends up being restrained somehow (maybe Magneto traps him with a bunch of metal) and in the end, when they all escape Battleworld, he breaks free from the rest of the heroes, refusing to return to Earth, and once again flies off into space on his own.

The sad giant would eventually land on a small planetoid populated by the Pantheon, who in the comics are this race of half-Asgardian demigods living on Earth whom Hulk befriends. My idea here is to keep them as demigods, but not based on Earth. Hulk befriends them, telling them his tragic life story and earning their sympathy. He kind of hangs with these guys for a while and it's not as good as Battleworld, but still pretty nice.

Now, I don't know how far you wanted to go with the cosmic stuff in the Phoenix saga, but here's my idea for how these two storylines could intertwine:

In the second part of the saga, as Jean goes full Dark Phoenix and rampages throughout space, one of the planets she destroys is actually the home of the Pantheon. Most of them, including Hulk and the planet's ruler Agamemnon, manage to escape. Hulk, recognizing Jean, believes that once again, the people of Earth have come to ruin things for him. Fed up, he convinces the Pantheon to help him go to war with Earth, and this is where World War Hulk begins.

Now I was originally picturing WWH as an Avengers movie, but it could totally be its own event film, like Secret Wars. My idea is for World War Hulk to punctuate the first half of Phase 4, leading into the last few films that ultimately culminate in New Avengers, the majority of the team initially forming in the fight against Hulk.

New Avengers itself would still be that earlier concept I came up with combining the Sentry saga and the 2004 Secret War story. 