What they should have done...

The best run of the Dark Phoenix saga was in the original Uncanny X-Men comic spanning issues 129-137 in the early 1980s (reprinted many times). In this run you have the very interesting villains of the Hellfire Club, and Wolverine plays a prominent role. The Hellfire Club were a particularly annoying bunch of villainous personalities, and at one point they seem to have defeated all the X-Men and left Wolverine for dead down in the New York City sewers. The end of issue 132 shows an extremely pissed off Wolverine emerging from the filth, unsheathing his claws and announcing it was his turn next. What a great lead in to the Wolverine revenge issue that followed. And for all the pain Wolverine ultimately dished out to the Hellfire Club, that was nothing compared to Phoenix's revenge on Mastermind for having invaded her memories and deepest desires. Poor Mastermind was left a brainless, quivering blob of Jello.

So why didn't they follow this arc instead of the mediocre trash they ultimately spat out?