- Name: Jean Grey
- Code Names: Phoenix, Marvel Girl
- First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Sept ’63)
- Powers: Telepathy, Telekinesis
- Teams Affiliation: X-Men, X-Factor
About
Fans mock the idea of death in comics. To many, it feels irrelevant, temporary, a stopgap and not a real change. For media properties that have lasted decades and decades, there is a real undertone that everything will revert to form. That doesn’t mean death can’t be impactful, far from it, just that you have to go the extra mile to make death matter in a universe where everyone has visited the afterlife. And in the signature moment of the X-Men franchise, Chris Claremont and John Byrne did just that.
Jean Grey was born in upstate New York into a loving, nuclear family. She was young, almost too young when her mutant powers emerged. She was playing frisbee with her friend, Annie Richardson. Annie ran into the road to grab the disk, she didn’t see the car. Jean’s young mind reached out to her friend, she felt every moment of Annie’s death and it utterly crushed her. Jean withdrew into her own mind, she was nearly catatonic until someone reached into her mind. His name was Charles Xavier, he was a telepath and he wanted to help. He sealed off Jean’s own psychic abilities, thinking it was best for her, and helped mentor her for the next few years. When he decided to assemble a team of mutants to battle evil in the world, Jean was on its first team.
Jean was on the X-Men, sure, but she didn’t do much in those early years. She nursed a crush on the strong, silent, Scott Summers, and was herself the object of affection for Angel, but she often felt underappreciated on the team. Xavier knew of a planned invasion by an alien race called the Z’Nox and he wanted to counter it. Knowing that it would require his full focus he unlocked Jean’s telepathic abilities, faked his death, and swore Jean to secrecy. The X-Men struck out on their own for a short while, Jean becoming a fashion model, but they eventually came together and continued as a group.
Eventually, Xavier brought in a new team of X-Men, and Jean took her leave. Though not before confessing her feelings to Scott. She moved to the city and became roommates with Misty Knight, trying to live a normal life. On a date with Scott, Jean and the X-Men were captured and sent into space by Stephen Lang and his Sentinels. They escaped like they always do, but there was a problem with their return. The shielding in the ship’s cockpit was damaged, the solar radiation would likely kill whoever piloted the craft. Jean stepped up, she wasn’t afraid to be the hero. She didn’t want to die, she wanted to live a long, full life with Scott. She wanted all of her dreams to come true. It wasn’t what she wanted, but this was a good death.
The remaining X-Men landed in Jamaica Bay, no sign of Jean. Suddenly the water began to boil, the Earth shook, and a voice like God echoed across the sea. “Hear me, X-Men! No longer and I the woman you knew! I am fire! And life incarnate! Now and forever – I am Phoenix!” She exploded from the bay. Her red hair ablaze and garbed in a striking uniform. Jean Grey rose from the ashes, but as suddenly as she appeared, crumpled over weak. The X-Men rushed her to the hospital where Jean recovered from her ordeal. She was emblazed with a power she never dreamed of, but she needed time to understand what this meant.
Jean’s power grew and grew, she was even able to stop the universe from being destroyed, but she craved more. After one battle Jean believed the X-Men, including her beloved Scott, dead. She grieved in her own way, taking an extended trip to Europe to reenter (and also fight Galactus). Her immense power did not go unnoticed, and the mutant Mastermind unveiled his wicked plot. He planted seeds of doubt in Jean’s mind about this reality, he encouraged her to unleash her more vicious side. Jean was soon reunited with the X-Men, but dark days were ahead.
Her reunion with Scott was beautiful. The two proclaimed their love, even talked about marriage, but Mastermind’s manipulation would unlock something he never dreamed. He convinced Jean to join him in the Hellfire Club, a group of well-off mutants vying for world domination. She thought she was in a different world, thought she was someone else. She helped the Hellfire Club capture the X-Men and hope seemed lost until Scott reached out using their psychic rapport. He made Jean remember their love, remember who she truly was, right as Mastermind mentally struck Cyclops down. Jean sent into a rage, she was no longer the Phoenix but something darker. She struck down the Hellfire Club and flew off to the stars drunk on power.
No longer the woman they once knew, the Dark Phoenix wanted one thing, power. She found a star, raw, unimaginable power, and she consumed it without a second thought. The D’Bari people in its’ orbit had little time to comprehend the destruction of everything they knew and loved. She returned to Earth, filled with rage and ecstasy and faced the X-Men. They tried to calm their once friend, they feared it was too late, but Xavier’s mental might pulled through. He installed mental blocks, the same ones he put in place years ago. Jean’s mind was at rest, the fire inside her quelled, but nothing comes without a cost.
The Shi’ar, a galactic empire saw the destruction Phoenix caused and could not abide by it. They put Jean on trial and the X-Men opted for trial by combat. The young mutants were brave, valiant, and horrible outmatched. Jean saw her friends losing and chose not to have their deaths added to the five billion already on her conscience. She told Scott she loved him, that she would always be with him, that it was better this way. And there, in the Blue Area of the Moon, the Phoenix killed herself.
The Phoenix of legend was constantly reborn out of its’ ashes, so to would Jean Grey. The Avengers found a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay and brought it to the Fantastic Four for investigation. From it emerged Jean Grey with no recollection of even being Phoenix. It seemed that when she was dying upon reentry, Jean met with a cosmic force known as the Phoenix. To save her life, the Phoenix put Jean in suspended animation and continued in her place. It had all of Jean’s memories, all her emotions, for all intents it was Jean and it died on the moon, not Jean. News of her resurrection reached her original teammates and they soon reformed under the name X-Factor.
John Byrne, Terry Austin, and Glynis Oliver
Jean’s biggest struggle was with Cyclops. In the years since her apparent death, Cyclops mourned, married and had a child. He had grown, Jean hadn’t. It took a while for the two to reconcile and resume their relationship, and Jean vowed to help Scott find his lost son. The search led to his vengeful ex, Maddie, who Jean discovered was a clone of herself. In the conflux of events, Jean absorbed the memories of both the Phoenix and Maddie. She felt even more lost, trying to raise a son that wasn’t hers, with a lover who she never fully understood, and a mind filled with lives she never lived.
Walter Simonson, Bob Wiacek, and Petra Scotese
Cyclops thought the time was right. They had been in love for years; didn’t marriage make sense? Jean wasn’t ready for it, she needed to understand herself before committing to another person for life. She took some time, joined an X-Men team without Scott, and tried to live. She realized that life was fragile, that she only had so much to live, that the world could end tomorrow, and if she was only going to have a limited number of days on this Earth, she wanted to spend them with one she loved. Jean Grey proposed to Scott Summers. The ceremony was beautiful. She felt complete.
John Romita Jr, Dan Green, and Steve Buccellato
Unlike what most stories tell you, marriage isn’t the end of the story, and it isn’t always a happy one. Jean spent a few years in marital bliss with Cyclops, but something wasn’t right. Maybe the fire was out, maybe they rushed into this, maybe they stopped trying after the vows, or maybe it wasn’t anyone’s fault. The two grew apart. Jean was tempted by her long smoldering infatuation with Wolverine, but Scott gave into his with Emma Frost. The emotional betrayal sent Jean into a rage. Sure, they had changed, but they made a commitment to one another. Through pain and passion, through sorrow and hope, through death and through life, they promised to face it together. She took this rage out on Scott’s mistress, but in the end, Jean just felt hurt and alone.
The pain didn’t last long. The X-Men were soon embroiled in a fight against Xorn (well Xorn dressed as Magneto who had been pretending to be Xorn but I digress) and he shot her with an electromagnetic pulse, giving her a planetary scale stroke. As she died in the arms of her estranged husband, Jean felt the Phoenix. She had felt it recently, embraced it even, and now fire and life incarnate embraced her. She ascended to the White Hot Room, the pure home of the Phoenix. In death, Jean and the Phoenix had become one.
Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, and Chris Chuckry
It took years but the Phoenix wanted a host, it had had others but none compared to Jean. It wanted her to be its physical avatar in the world and created a perfect reality to manipulate her. Jean screamed out into the world, and the X-Men answered. They found Jean and helped her realize she wanted to be alive more than she wanted the power of the Phoenix. Now back in the world of the living, Jean dedicated her time to Xavier’s dream. She didn’t want anyone to be hated or feared because of their power. She wanted them to live.
Must Read
I don’t need to tell you to read Dark Phoenix Saga.
Ranking
Jean is one of the most inconsistently written characters in comics. It is easy to write her as the girlfriend but it is hard to get to her center. She truly is fire and life incarnate, even without the Phoenix. As much bad Jean there is in the 60’s and 90’s gets outweighed by the fact that a well written Jean is among the best characters in comics history. Jean is a deeper, more interesting character than Kitty Pryde, but she is just a tiny bit lesser than Emma Frost, who has some of the best character development in comics history. That makes Jean the new number 6 in the Xavier Files.
Phoenix was requested by Patreon supporter Chris Eddleman. Thank you for your support! If you have a request for how about you send it below? If you want to cut to the front of the two-year long line, we have a Patreon you can support Xavier Files for just $1 to get a line cutting reward.
Make sure you check out my podcast BATTLE OF THE ATOM. It’s where Bish & Jubez creator Adam Reck and I talk about every single X-Men story that ever existed and rank them from best to worst. Episode 33 is up and we talk to Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler about Cable. Make sure you subscribe to any of the following platforms (or others, I’m not picky) Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS.
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Next week things get chaotic with Scarlet Witch! See you then!
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Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
