YMMV / The Phoenix Saga

• Harsher in Hindsight: The Whole Episode Flashback in #106 of the X-Men going up against the dark side of Xavier's persona ends with no real consequences other than Xavier having the (entirely false) worry that he's going mad as a result of his dreams. The next time it happens will have far more devastating consequences, not just for the X-Men, but for the greater Marvel Universe in general.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Issue #98 features a Creator Cameo by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby over two decades before it would be common to see Lee doing that in the various Marvel movies.
  • That it's Erik the Red who ends up restoring Magneto to adulthood is this given Magneto's red costume and the eventual reveal of his real name to be ERIK Magnus Lensherr. Perhaps fittingly, the Master of Magnetism would later take on Erik's identity in the comics.
  • Fang, one of the members of the Imperial Guard has a costume very similar-looking to the X-Men's future foe, Sabretooth. Even more hilarious, Wolverine, the X-Man with the most personal history with Sabretooth, ends up "borrowing" Fang's costume when his gets destroyed by another Guard member, Starbolt.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The whole subplot of Havok and Polaris being brainwashed by Erik the Red doesn't get much development after the initial issue other than a few scenes of them helping out Erik's bidding with them showing no signs of the Fighting from the Inside Havok at least was displaying during the initial fight. Even the undoing of their brainwashing ends up happening completely offscreen.