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SER: Wouldn't the X-Men devote the rest of their lives to rescuing her? How could Shooter think that was a realistic option? Either she died -- in the tragic, noble sacrifice way she did -- or she was somehow rendered no longer a threat. IIRC, she would have the mind of a child and thus unable to access her powers. This removes her from the book in a humane way but also allows for her or Phoenix to return…

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My rejection of the "prison asteroid" notion was that it would completely changed the trajectory of the book. By then, we were no longer in the same kind of Marvel Stan, Jack and Steve had worked in, where cataclysmic events could occur and be essentially forgotten by the next issue or storyline. Fans were now demanding CONSEQUENCES -- which, somewhat ironically, was what Shooter was after, too. He did not think having Jean psychically lobotomized was sufficient punishment for the actions of Dark Phoenix -- even tho that was exactly what he had approved a few months earlier.

But I knew that Jean -- and at that point it was still Jean we were talking about -- being shipped off to be "horribly tortured for all eternity" would turn UNCANNY X-MEN into a space adventure book, something far from its stated mandate. Again somewhat ironically, the book did, indeed, become just that not long after I left.

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The idea began with Kurt Busiek, still a fan in those days. He suggested that it was not Jean who rose from Jamaica Bay as Phoenix, but the Phoenix Entity as a separate being. The real Jean was in a "coccoon" of some kind at the bottom of the Bay.

When X-FACTOR was in development stages, I suggested this was a way to have the entire original X-Men team reunited.