THE RISE & FALL OF THE SHI'AR EMPIRE was an X-Men event like no other. Fresh off X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS, Ed Brubaker took Marvel's mighty mutants off Earth and on an intergalactic journey to stop VULCAN, the third Summers brother, from exacting revenge on the Shi'Ar Empire! But in that final battle in front of the M'Kraan Crystal, what if Vulcan absorbed the very energies that contained it many years ago? In other words, what if Vulcan became PHOENIX? When his unlimited rage is fueled with unlimited power...who will be able to stop him now?