the Avengers of 1,000,000 BC - a team of incredibly powerful primordial heroes including the first Iron Fist, Black Panther, Star Brand, and Ghost Rider, as well as the original Sorcerer Supreme Agamotto, a young Odin, and the mysterious Lady Phoenix - Earth's first host of the cosmic Phoenix Force.
Most famous from the X-Men storyline "The Dark Phoenix Saga," the Phoenix Force is a fundamental power of the Marvel Universe - a mighty, fiery bird which acts as the embodiment of change, often laying waste to whole planets so that something new can grow. Thankfully, select heroes through time have been able to take control of the Phoenix, using it - however briefly - as a force for good.
In an announcement prior to December 9th's Avengers #39, Marvel Comics have released preview pages for the issue (along with the already available summary and cover) which - like those focusing on the other of the Avengers of 1,000,000 BC - looks set to explore the origin and powers of the first person on Earth to embrace the Phoenix Force:
In the harsh, primordial world of One Million B.C.E., early humans who are different are left in the Burnt Place to die. But one young girl whose only crime was being born with red hair finds something else entirely in the place of bones and ash—something that will change human history forever.
Marvel's preview pages reveal that the Phoenix's first host was abandoned in this "Burnt Place" by her tribe but ultimately saved from scavengers by a pack of wolves which - by the end of the Avengers #39 preview pages - appear to have raised her as their own in the style of The Jungle Book. Given the barren ground surrounding the baby, it's likely the Burnt Place is the site of some kind of cosmic event involving the infernal raptor, though the young woman who would later become Lady Phoenix doesn't show any sign of her incredible power during her childhood, even when threatened by predators. The fact that the child is shown charging after a boar with primitive weapons suggests she has no access to the traditional pyrokinetic powers of the Phoenix Force, which even at their weakest would be far more dangerous than any man-made weapon.
Very little is known about this Phoenix, though Aaron's work on Avengers and Thor have shown that she eventually enters into a relationship with Odin - one he isn't quite over even millenia later. Past X-Men stories have hinted that the Phoenix Force has some kind of innate attraction to red-headed women, and while this has always been suggested to relate to Jean Grey - the most famous modern-day host of the Phoenix - it seems like Marvel is now suggesting that it actually relates to the Phoenix's memory of its original host on Earth. Of course, the Phoenix existed long before the Avengers' homeworld, and has taken hosts across the galaxy (including among the Shi'ar, who have a religious dread of the Phoenix Force), but story after story has suggested that the Phoenix has a special relationship with Earth, and it's possible this is down to its bond with this original host, or else something she experienced as Lady Phoenix.
Lady Phoenix's origin story is also being used as a prologue for the "Enter the Phoenix" storyline, in which many of Marvel's heroes will compete to win the honor of becoming the Phoenix Force's new host. It's possible that Avengers #39 will offer an unprecedented look into the fire bird's deepest motivations, and almost certain it will set the stakes for the next huge event to spring out of Aaron's time with Earth's mightiest heroes.
Source: Marvel Comics
