Phoenix: Warsong

X-Men: Phoenix – Warsong is a five-issue limited series published by Marvel Comics from September 2006 to March 2007, written by Greg Pak with Tyler Kirkham as lead artist. It is the sequel to X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong. In interviews, the author has stated clearly that this is not a story about resurrecting Jean Grey. The story centers on the three Stepford Cuckoos and intersects with the team threads of the Astonishing X-Men era. A fragment of the Phoenix Force attaches itself to the three surviving Cuckoos, amplifying their telekinetic and telepathic abilities; with it, they break free of the White Queen Emma Frost's confinement and bring their dead sisters Esme and Sophie back into the world. As their investigation deepens, the three sisters uncover a startling truth about their own origins and stumble upon a cloning project hidden in an underground laboratory, far larger than they had imagined; spherical containment pods and a global-scale "psychic antenna" drag the entire X-Men team into a struggle over origins, maternity, and the authority to destroy. When the Phoenix Force chooses a new host, the situation spirals rapidly out of control, and Emma is forced to intervene in the role of a mother. The overall tone is dark and burning, visually defined by high-contrast light and flame, shadowy laboratories, and the sense of "overwhelming numbers" created by mass cloning. It is a key connecting work in the mid-2000s Phoenix storyline at Marvel. The series was collected in a hardcover edition by Marvel in 2007.