Why didn’t you like Maya as Phoenix?
My biggest issue with Maya becoming the Phoenix is, simply put, that it felt unnecessary and didn’t add anything to her story (I felt something similar with Quentin Quire).
Maya is a character who feels very out of place in that kind of storyline—there’s a reason we almost never see her in comics with cosmic plots. It’s hard to make her presence feel necessary, and not all writers can pull that off (even some of the best struggle when doing similar things).
I read her entire run as the Phoenix, and it was strange because her characterization felt out of place. Maya was created as a character meant for “street-level” adventures, so it always works to see her show up in stories like Daredevil, Kingpin, the Defenders, or Spider-Man (even just cameos, but good ones).
But my biggest struggle in accepting that this happened is that there’s always a reason why the Phoenix chooses a host (especially if it’s not Jean or Rachel). That’s something well established in the comics, but in Maya’s case, it was just “now she’s the Phoenix’s host, there’s no reason, it just happened.”
And again, that feels out of place because the Phoenix is supposed to take hosts when it has a mission (For example: Hope Summers after M-Day. The only ones who break that rule are Jean and Rachel—but Jean is the Phoenix, and Rachel is considered the Phoenix’s daughter, someone the Phoenix deeply cares for, so *shrugs*). Beyond that, I don’t have any issues with the character.
Idon’t like her or dislike her—it’s just weird that Marvel decided to give her the Phoenix. I think instead they should’ve given her something tied to her Cheyenne heritage if they wanted to explore magic or something mystical.
