Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #15 (Jean Grey & Red Wolf stories only)
Cover Date: Mar 89

Jean Grey
Title: "The maiden Phoenix"
Credits:
Bobbie Chase - Writer
Dwayne Turner - Penciler
Michael Gustovich - Inker

Red Wolf
Title:
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Javier Saltares - Penciler
Mark McKenna - Inker

Mike Rockwitz - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
Jean Grey is contacted by what appears to be the Phoenix Force or Professor X.

But it's really a mutant that was killed during the Mutant Massacre. She's living on in astral form and hoping to take Jean's body.

Jean disrupts the mutant's "power source", a pile of ashes, and that banishes the fake Phoenix.

In the end we see the mutant's remains, and that she called herself Lightning Bug.

Next, Fabian Nicieza returns to the Bengal character that he introduced in Daredevil #258.

Red Wolf is brought to the hospital after losing a fight to Bengal.

While Red Wolf is being operated on, the wolf-god Owayodata brings him into a dream world and asks him why he's giving up so easily.

The answer is that Red Wolf committed atrocities in Vietnam that he still feels guilty about. Specifically, there was that time one of his squadmates massacred a Vietnamese village and then pushed the sole surviving boy off a helicopter. As we know, that boy grew up to be Bengal.

And, well, this is how it ends.

These two barely count as stories.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Following the MCP, i've placed this just a little after Inferno for Jean. We'll learn in Marvel Comics Presents #72 that Red Wolf's Lobo died during the fight with Bengal in this story. So there shouldn't be any appearances of Lobo after this. Red Wolf gets a new Lobo in issue #72, but it's a puppy.

References:

• The young mutant in this story was killed during the Mutant Massacre, for which a footnote pointing to X-Factor #10 is given.
  
• I suspect that a flashback in the Red Wolf story covers the group from Red Wolf #7.
  
• We definitely saw in Daredevil #258 that Red Wolf was involved in Bengal's origin story.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I don't think the Red Wolf story was that bad- Fabian did a good job conveying Red Wolf's guilt. (But then again, I hadn't yet read Daredevil 258, so the boy being the Bengal was a surprise to me.)

In terms of cultural context for the Red Wolf stuff (which I recognize was an extension of an earlier plot point), I think it's worth mentioning that the film adaptation of 'Born on the Fourth of July' came out in 1989 : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096969/

Jean's story fits well shortly after Inferno because she just absorbed that bit of the Phoenix Force from Madelyne there which manifests itself in this story.

Well, she seems shocked and unsure to see her Phoenix manifestation, and we've seen similar questionable manifestations earlier in the X-Factor series, so i wouldn't say that's a definitive clue, but i'm fine with that placement.

It's possible this could take place shortly after they free Ship's consciousness from Apocalypse's control but the other placement clue is Jean's re-awakening telepathy post-Inferno. We saw a hint of that in X-Factor Annual #3 but combined with the Phoenix manifestation, points more to this placement. I always thought of this story as her first night after Inferno.

At least the red wolf story gives him a little backstory and guilt to deal with, at least distinguishing him slightly from other generic Amerindian heroes.

I think Nicieza did a pretty good job here; the Red Wolf has some angst to his super-heroics that stands out from your usual "an-innocent-died-when-I-prevented-the-Mandarin-from-using-the-Ultimate-Nullifier-to-destroy-Symkaria". Kveto is right, the Red Wolf has originality to him, and that much the story is worth. It's better than seeing Jean Grey suffering mind games and a dead Morlock getting screwed yet again.