Two famous tales,both considered the high points of their respective titles.
Both also remade in other media--movie,cartoons,etc.

or

I chose Judas Contract because I was reading Teen Titans when it first came out. That made it more impactful to me than reading the Dark Phoenix Saga collected years after it was published.

Plus I like the characters a lot more in Judas Contract. The art is close, but I give that to Perez, too.

Dark Phoenix. The saga actually started when Jean became Phoenix.

Marcus is correct.

There was that "underage" business in the Judas Contract that bothered me, which, you know, since Deathstroke
was a Super Villain and a murderer and all, I should probably expect. Still…

I was more invested in Jean Grey, having followed her adventures since the late 1960s. Had far more impact on me
than the Titans at DC—but, it should be noted, far less impact than had Crisis on Infinite Earths issue 7 and 8. And
I wasn't even much a DC guy then. Still, I had been in my younger days.

The Judas Contract is getting a DC’s Finest edition.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/179950025X/?tag=imwan-20

560 pages, $40, probably cheaper from on-line retailers.

Did you ever actually read that JUDAS CONTRACT TPB I sent you?

At the time, I preferred the Dark Phoenix Saga. Epic Grandeur, long family secrets coming to light, tragic love story, fractured relationships and heroic sacrifice. Not to mention the highest body count of any hero in MCU history when she wiped out the planet.

OTOH, while the Judas Contract was a high point creatively, it was a set story from the beginning, It seemed to me like Terra existed for the story. And while I like the coming of age it caused in the Titans, it kind of didn't have much of a lasting impact on the DCU as Phoenix did on the X-men - for better and for worse.

Now, while I think that the Dark Phoenix Saga was still the better done, I think the ultimate outcome was a bad idea - they didn't put the toys back in the box, and didn't really leave a good way for someone else to do it either

Still, both of these are way up there on the list of most well executed mainstream superhero comic stories of all time.

To be clear, my "Marcus is correct" comment was more in regards to his note that the Phoenix saga really begins when Jean becomes Phoenix.

As for whether I read the Judas Contract TPB ... Hanzo, I'm glad you asked!

Because NO

I think the Phoenix saga was a bad idea generally. Having Jean Grey become a big bad was not a good thing for comics. It was a "fans turned pro" problem.

Or was it?

Or ... was it?!?!

Or ...

... now just hear me out on this ...

... OR WAS IT

The best mainstream comics saga of that era for me is this one:

Good stuff, good stuff.

You know, I'm something of a Daredevil fan myself.

I voted Terra because it shook me up in real time. And George drew her as shockingly innocent and beautiful in the beginning and then she degraded over the series, almost like the living embodiment of the Picture of Dorian Gray. The betrayal just rocked my 16 year old me. Still shakes me up when I read it again. Phoenix was so much earlier it might as well have been The Flash of Two Worlds.

Same (except I was 13). I didn't get an issue of X-Men until Paul Smith art and the Brood.

This is how I experience the two stories. Phoenix was lore by the time I was a regular buyer. The Judas contract was a shocker in real time.

I second that emotion.

I was 11 when I started reading comics, spring of 1983. The first comics I bought off the drugstore spinner rack was Marvel Universe Handbook #3 and 4. I remember my friends Chris and Jamie looking through the first two issues at school and I was sucked in. I also remember Jamie showing me X-Men 166. My first X-Men comic was 169.

I don't know if I found the place listed in a comic shops ad, or if my father found it, but he drove me routinely to Philadelphia from South Jersey to this shop on Snyder Avenue just off Broad Street by the Melrose Diner. Sometimes my friends would go with us.

Behind the counter mounted on the wall amongst other books was the entire run of X-Men books 129-138. I guess from reading those first X-Men books I had an awareness of Jean and the Phoenix saga, so I recognized their significance. After returning home from a visit to the shop, my father presented me with 131-137.

I read it straight through and cried at the end, it was so sad.

hah! baby