After an encounter with the Hellfire Club and manipulation by Mastermind and the White Queen, the Phoenix was transformed into their Black Queen. She broke free of Mastermind's control, but had been transformed into Dark Phoenix. She battled the X-Men and fled to the stars, devoured the energies of the D'Bari star system to satisfy her "hunger" as Dark Phoenix, annihilating the five billion inhabitants of its fourth planet, and destroyed a nearby Shi'ar observatory vessel that opened fire on her before she returned to Earth. There, Dark Phoenix was defeated in psionic combat by Professor X, and Phoenix/"Jean Grey" regained control. The X-Men, along with Phoenix, were then teleported to space by the Shi'ar and given a trial by combat. Just as victory seemed certain for the Imperial Guard, "Jean" once again became Dark Phoenix, but in a moment of sanity and to save her teammates, ultimately committed apparent suicide on Earth's moon before the eyes of a horrified Cyclops.