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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 1:57pm | IP Logged | 1
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One of the lesser battles of my career has been a struggle to convince people my first novel was titled FEARBOOK, not THE FEARBOOK. Now, the same infection seems to have found its way into another aspect of my miserable existence. I keep seeing references to The Phoenix. Okay, the Phoenix Saga. The Phoenix force. But unless something happened while I wasn’t looking the character name has no definite article.
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | 2
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I think this happened when it was established that Jean and the Phoenix force were not one and the same. When Phoenix was seen as a cosmic entity rather than an overpowered Jean Grey, that's when I noticed the character being referred to as "The Phoenix."
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Brandon Carter
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2338
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | 3
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From Late Night with David Letterman, Batman's #1 pet peeve: When people call him "The Batman." It's just "Batman", damn it!
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Matthew Wilkie
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 09 March 2011
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 3:09pm | IP Logged | 4
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I've just been listening to the first episode of the Flight Stuff podcast and continually irritated by the reference to The Alpha Flight.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | 5
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...that's when I noticed the character being referred to as "The Phoenix."••• The Phoenix or the Phoenix Force?
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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | 6
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I think it's neat that Batman is occasionally referred to as "the Batman," but it
only works when he isn't being addressed.
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Paul Wills
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 18 August 2018
Location: United States
Posts: 842
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | 7
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'Fearbook' is a more menacing title than 'The Fearbook'
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | 8
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JB wrote:
| ...The Phoenix or the Phoenix Force... |
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The Phoenix in the form of Jean Grey, or even Jean Grey when she possessed the power of the Phoenix force after it was established in continuity that there was a such a thing.
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Daniel Burke
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 November 2016
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| Posted: 11 June 2019 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | 9
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I think “the Phoenix” was pretty commonly used, including on her first appearance cover, and many covers thereafter!
Edit. Faulty memory... just 101 and 136. Maybe people anchored “the“ as part of her name since it was there at first?
Edited by Daniel Burke on 11 June 2019 at 8:21pm
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Jason G. Michalski
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 June 2019
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| Posted: 12 June 2019 at 6:34am | IP Logged | 10
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I can see how those covers (101 & 136) could lead to the confusion. Is it editorial's job to place the copy or marketing, a combination of both?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 12 June 2019 at 6:38am | IP Logged | 11
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Cover copy rarely has much to do with the interiors. Often as not, it wasn't even written by someone who actually worked on the book!Consider: Chris and I spent quite some time developing a romance between Danny Rand and Misty Knight (had to be cautious in those days!), then a cover of him fighting Colleen Wing declared her to be "the Woman He Loves!"* That 101 cover may have used the article, but that's not how Phoenix identified herself in the book. Not then, and not when Chris used the same dialog for the Dark Phoenix debut. We seem to be seeing an all too common example of the exception becoming the rule. ------------------- * That cover messed us up considerably. After we finally did the Danny/Misty reveal, we got a whole bunch of letters asking "What about Colleen?" All based on that cover!!
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Jason G. Michalski
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Joined: 03 June 2019
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| Posted: 12 June 2019 at 7:11am | IP Logged | 12
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Thanks, JB. It must have been pretty frustrating to have to explain that to everyone who wrote in!
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