The White Hot Room is a realm that serves both as the afterlife and a base of operations for the Phoenix and its hosts. It simultaneously exists within the M'kraan Crystal, a nexus of all realities, and also beyond the Far Shore, the outside of all realities.
History
When Jean Grey first bonded with the Phoenix and later sought to heal the M'krann Crystal she found a white city inside. She felt as though she were connected to it and was meant to heal it.
Later, when Jean Grey appeared in the afterlife and met Death and his towers. Death described the realm as "the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all-- where the physical universe merges with the domains of the spirit and imagination." When beings die they go inside Death's towers, but the Phoenix exists outside of the towers to do her work. During the second encounter with Death and the afterlife, Death explains to Jean that his towers are compartmentalized and that all beings go there to experience their own version of the afterlife.
When Quentin Quire briefly ascended to the White Hot Room as he was near death, he could hear and understand the thoughts of everyone on Earth, and he realized that he had met his parents there before he had been born.
Jean Grey would later comment that we are all in the White Hot Room waiting for ourselves to arrive. When Jean went to the White Hot Room as the White Phoenix of the Crown to disinfect Sublime, the Phoenix Consciousness explained that the White Hot Room is inside the M'krann Crystal. It is a hospital to the universe and where Phoenix Work is done. Jean met various Phoenix hosts in the White Hot Room.
The White Hot Room is also where a Phoenix-like Jean Grey may go if they do not instantaneously resurrect when killed, and do Phoenix Work while they await to incubate and be reborn anew from a Phoenix Egg.
Inside the White Hot Room is the Crown. Several times Jean spoke of being in the Crown, and the Phoenix Consciousness labeled her a White Phoenix of the Crown. However, it has yet to be explored as to what the Crown actually is.
During the House of M event, Psylocke and Rachel Summers were pulled into the White Hot Room by a holoemphatic crystal that Jean Grey had left for Rachel to temporarily protect them from the effects of Scarlet Witch's powers. Rachel referred to the White Hot Room as the Heart of the Phoenix. In the White Hot Room, Psylocke encountered alternate versions of herself, while Rachel only encountered herself in different time periods of her life.
In recent times, Jean Grey and the Phoenix were pulled from the White Hot Room and separated and shattered. Upon coming back together, Jean has faded away to the White Hot Room as White Phoenix to collect the rest of the missing pieces of the Phoenix. She made contact with Cyclops when he became the Dark Phoenix, and tried to help him to control the Phoenix Force.
Some time after Thor tossed the charred body of the Sentry into the Sun, the Void got bored of his host's body being constantly destroyed only to be regrown again and left for the White Hot Room.
After receiving a fatal blow from Thor, Exitar the Executioner died and his energy returned to the White Hot Room to await rebirth. Heimdall journeyed into the Mystery after Valkyrie had escorted his soul to the Far Shore.
With the power of the Six, S.W.O.R.D. was able to cross over the Far Shore to get to the White-Hot Room, where they harnessed mysterium for mutantkind.
Residents
- Exitar the Executioner
- First Firmament
- Heimdall (deceased)
- Phoenix Force
- Phoenix Force hosts
- Ultimate Ultimates
- Fifth Cosmos
- Infinity
- Pilgrim
- Second Cosmos
- Sixth Cosmos
- Third Cosmos
- Void (formerly)
Notes
- In all of its previous appearances, the White Hot Room has appeared as a tower or cities of towers floating in a space-like realm, or simply as bright white light.
- Jean Grey seemingly ushered her family into the White Hot Room after they were slaughtered by the Shi'ar Death Commandos.
- Wolverine had a near-death experience in which he had a vision of Jean dressed in a white gown bathed in white light. Jean comments that they are near the entrance to the afterlife, and that she had been there so many times that she has left a piece of herself at the door.
- On Earth-41001, the Stepford Cuckoos refer to Jean as Phoenix as living in the Center of Creation.
Trivia
- The White Hot Room is called the "Above-place" in S.W.O.R.D. (Vol. 2) #7, which was written by Al Ewing. This is notable because Al Ewing is the creator of the Below-Place.