The 10 Most Powerful Phoenix Hosts, Ranked

The Phoenix Force has had several hosts on Earth that go back over a million years into the past. In the actual timeline of the release of Marvel Comics, Jean Grey was the first host shown, and she remains the one most connected to the Phoenix Force. It was soon learned that the Phoenix Force is a cosmic entity and is the prime universal force of light. Similar to how Galactus eats worlds, Phoenix destroys them so they can be reborn afresh. However, as the comics have shown, this has remained controversial because many societies see the Phoenix as a force of destruction and corruption.

From Jean Grey to other heroes and villains, here are the most powerful Phoenix Force hosts, ranked.

10) Hope Summers

Hope Summers was the first mutant who was born after M-Day, and in one timeline, she was known as the Mutant Messiah. However, in another timeline, she was responsible for humanity hunting down and slaughtering mutants when she was accused of the deaths of countless humans. Hope was born with the Phoenix Force in her as her mother, Louise Spalding, was impregnated through the phoenix. She then used her powers as the White Phoenix to reverse the effects of M-Day. At the end of the Krakoa era, Hope gave up her life to aid in the rebirth of the Phoenix when it was dying in the White Hot Room.

9) Magik

Magik was one of the mutants who gained the Phoenix Force powers as part of the Phoenix Five in Avengers vs. X-Men. It was Magik, Colossus, Emma Frost, and Namor, and Magik was the third most powerful person to hold this power. That is mainly because she not only has her mutant powers, but she is also a highly powered magician, the Sorcerer Supreme of the Limbo dimension. She was extremely powerful and dangerous, but her anger also held her back as she lost the Phoenix Force when Spider-Man’s taunts caused her to lose control.

8) Thane

Thane is the Inhuman son of Thanos. That already made him powerful, and he gained even more power when he gave himself over to the Black Vortex, which unlocked his full potential. However, after losing the power from the Black Vortex, he got another power-up, this time with the Phoenix Force. He sought a Phoenix Egg, and when Nebula killed him to stop him from getting it, the egg hatched and resurrected Thane, making him its new host. After this, Death used Thane to inflict death across the universe with an almost godlike power before his eventual fall in the God Quarry.

7) Wolverine

In the 2010 Marvel Comics series Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine, the two heroes ended up on a time-traveling adventure. While they were gone, Wolverine ended up becoming the new Dark Phoenix. This happened when the two went into the future and had to fight Doom the Living Planet. There was only one thing that could beat him, and it was the Phoenix Gun. Wolverine used it and died, only for Spider-Man to resurrect him with a Cosmic Cube. When Wolverine came back, he had the Phoenix Force inside of him, and Spider-Man had to fight him and calm him down to get him to relinquish the powers.

6) Echo

In the Enter the Phoenix storyline, the Phoenix Force returned to Earth looking for a new host. It forced Earth’s greatest heroes to fight to determine who was worthy. With names like Captain America, Black Panther, Wolverine, Namor, Shang-Chi, and more, the winner was a shock. Namor defeated Echo in their fight and left her for dead, but the Phoenix Force was drawn to Echo’s suffering and chose her as the next host. Echo ended up using the powers for good as a member of the Avengers until she finally used up all the powers defending the God Quarry.

5) Namor

Namor was one of the Phoenix Five, and if you get past Cyclops’ murder of Professor X, no one did more damage with the powers than he did. That is because Namor took his hatred of the Black Panther to extremes. While empowered by the Phoenix Force, Namor flew to Wakanda and devastated the country, as no one had ever done before in the history of Marvel Comics. It was such a brutal beatdown of the country that Black Panther immediately annulled his marriage to Storm since she was on the mutants’ side in this war. Namor finally fell by the combined force of the Avengers in Wakanda.

4) Firehair

Firehair was the Phoenix host from Avengers 1MM BC. She was introduced in that comic book line as one of the original Avengers, and what is most interesting about her role as Phoenix was that she and Odin became lovers. It was later revealed that she was the real mother of Thor, making him the son of the Phoenix, explaining why his powers are greater than those of other Asgardians. As far as it is known, she was the first host of the Phoenix Force on Earth. She has similar powers to Jean Grey, a mutant with telekinesis and telepathy.

3) Cyclops

Cyclops ended up as the most powerful member of the Phoenix Five because each time one of the members fell in defeat, the Phoenix Force went to the other members. Cyclops was the last one standing and had the whole Phoenix Force inside of him. He then did the impossible when Professor X came to try to talk him down, and Cyclops murdered his father figure on the spot with the Phoenix Force. It took the combined efforts of Hope Summers and Scarlet Witch to exorcise the Phoenix Force from Scott and dissipate it to re-spark mutants on Earth.

2) Rachel Summers

Rachel Summers is another hero who was born with a piece of the Phoenix inside her. This is because she is the daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey from Earth-811. She inherited her mother’s psychic abilities and also had the Phoenix Force inside of her when it helped bring her to the past to fight on Earth-616 beside the X-Men. She has, at one time, been the sole host of the Phoenix Force, and Rachel was powerful enough to take the fight to the Beyonder. She was so powerful that she almost destroyed the entire universe to recreate it without the Beyonder in it, but Storm talked her down. Despite this, it showed the level of her powers as the Phoenix.

1) Jean Grey

The most powerful character to ever host the Phoenix Force is the one person to whom it is most connected in Marvel Comics. Jean Grey was the first character ever to possess the Phoenix Force in comics, although there turned out to be many more in history. She has been the Phoenix more than once, and she has died several times, often brought back thanks to the Phoenix Force as well. She is an Omega-level mutant and arguably the most powerful telepath in the entire Marvel Universe. With the Phoenix Force, Jean has the power of interstellar travel, cosmic pyrokinesis, resurrection, and more. In a What If…? issue, she destroyed Earth, and she is powerful enough to be a universal threat if she ever loses control.

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