―Jean Grey
History[]
Traumatic Origins[]
Jean Grey is the youngest daughter of Elaine Grey and Professor John Grey. She and her older sister, Sara, were raised in a farmhouse near Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where her father taught History. When Jean was ten years old, she was playing with her best friend, Annie Richardson, who was accidentally hit by a car. The stress awakened Grey's mutant telepathic powers which empathically linked her to her dying friend. The traumatic experience of Annie's death left Grey in a withdrawn and deeply depressed state. Moreover, not able to control her newly awakened telepathic abilities forced her to isolate herself from other people to hold onto her sanity.
Months later, a psychiatrist recommended to her parents that they consult Professor Charles Xavier, who was secretly a mutant with telepathic abilities as well. Xavier revealed to Jean Grey, but not to her parents, her status as a mutant. To protect Grey, Xavier decided to block her intense telepathic abilities erecting psychic shields until she had developed the maturity necessary to handle them. Additionally, he assisted her in unlocking her potential as a telekinetic abilities instead, teaching her how to levitate and manipulate objects through psionic force.
Under Xavier's tutelage, Jean Grey helped him to calibrate his Cerebro machine, a mutant locator device and experienced a psychic contact with young orphan Scott Summers' mind. After years of treatment, Jean Grey was successfully recovered. Eventually, Xavier recommended to John and Elaine Grey that they should enroll their daughter in his newly established Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
X-Men[]
This school served as a cover for the X-Men, a team of young mutants being trained by Professor Xavier in order to fight for a dream of peaceful racial coexistence. The team acted in the shadows combating threats posed by evil mutants who used their powers against humanity. Jean Grey completed the group with four more students, Cyclops – Scott Summers' mutant alias –, Iceman, Angel, and Beast. Grey took on the codename Marvel Girl.
As a member of the X-Men, Marvel Girl confronted terrorist and harmful mutants, such as Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Vanisher, and the Blob. Although Jean Grey was initially harassed by her flirtatious male teammates, the group soon formed a sound friendship bond as a result of their constant adventures and intense training at the X-Mansion Danger Room.
Time Displacement[]
Unexpectedly, the first class of the X-Men was approached by a future version Beast who had traveled to their time in order to inform the mutant race faced an imminent doomed and only the original X-Men could help fix it. The X-Men accompanied Beast to an unrecognizable future where Jean Grey herself was dead and had the school named after her, Cyclops was responsible for the death of Charles Xavier and running his own faction of X-Men as an ally of Magneto, and Beast was a victim of the deadly evolution of his powers. Since Xavier was not present, the mental blocks he had placed on Grey's mind were deactivated, allowing her to access her telepathic powers way before she was originally intended to.
Intrigued by the information they received and uncomfortable with the aggressiveness of the Jean Grey School's headmaster, Wolverine, the young X-Men decided to meet future Cyclops by themselves. As an untrained psychic, Grey accessed the mind of future Cyclops, who escaped with the help of Magneto following a brief confront with the original X-Men. After recomposing herself, Grey returned to the X-Mansion with her teammates. There, she used her telepathy to assist younger Beast save future Beast from dying. During this experience, Beast shared his memories about the uncanny life Jean Grey had enjoyed to the immature Jean Grey.
With Beast safe, Jean Grey decided to stay in the unnerving future they had just met and requested the other X-Men to vote, with only Angel objecting. Under Kitty Pryde's supervision, the team decided to stay and resolve the problems of this time before returning to their own. Young Cyclops' leadership was put into question as a result of the actions of his future self, the tenacious Jean Grey was appointed to lead the time-displaced original X-Men.
The group kept facing adversities in adapting themselves to their new reality. When Angel attempted to return to the past by himself, Grey telepathically forced him to abandon his intentions. Her reckless use of her psychic powers caused distress among past and present X-Men. When adult Cyclops invited the students of the Jean Grey School to join his revolutionary team at the New Charles Xavier School, Angel decided to join him. Jean Grey once again attempted to control him but was fended off by Cyclops' psychic allies: Emma Frost and the Three-in-One.
Meanwhile, Jean Grey's irresponsible use of her powers was further aggravated when she captured Cyclops thinking about an enemy of the X-Men named Mystique, who he had secretly met days before. Under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director Maria Hill's recommendation, the original team was tasked to intercept Mystique, who had been involved in illegal terrorist activities. When fighting Mystique and her allies, Grey was targetted by the illusionist Lady Mastermind. However, as a strong developing psychic, she easily countered the attack, learning how to cast powerful illusions as well in the process. Mystique was defeated and captured crucially due to Jean Grey's actions, as she managed to telepathically and telekinetically contain the X-Men's enemies.
Emotionally, Jean Grey had to cope with her degrading relationship with her teammate Cyclops. Stressed by the apparently inevitable nature of their future romantic relationship and by how she could not recognize Cyclops in his older self, she turned her interest to Beast after accidentally learning from his future self about his hidden love for her.
Following the battle with the distant future X-Men and distant future Brotherhood, which included a distant future version of young Jean (who had not returned to the past) who had defected to the Brotherhood, the displaced X-Men and Kitty relocated to join the future Cyclops due to Kitty's feelings that Logan's team had betrayed their founders.
The Trial of Jean Grey[]
Soon after their relocation, Jean Grey was abducted by the Shi'ar Empire to be put on trial for crimes perpetrated by the Phoenix. After her teammates and the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Starjammers team up on a rescue mission, they got into a battle with the Shi'ar Imperial Guard and Jean developed new powers combining her telepathy and telekinesis fighting face to face with Gladiator and coming out on top. Afterwards, Jean pointed out that none of what had happened to her had happened before, so she should not be held responsible for a future she may no longer be a part of.
M-Pox Crisis[]
The time-displaced X-Men disbanded and went their separate ways in the wake of the M-Pox crisis, caused by the Terrigen Clouds roaming the Earth's atmosphere. The present-time X-Men suffered a similar fate, though Storm eventually banded them together in order to face this new threat to her people. Jean was personally asked by Storm to join her team, and she accepted, even though she had spent the previous months building a normal life and going to college.
Once the M-Pox crisis was neutralized and the Terrigen Cloud destroyed, Jean reunited with her time-displaced friends at Beast's request. Hank had found a way to go to the past, but he wanted to show them an unfortunate discovery. He had only managed to travel to the past within the timeline they were currently inhabiting and not their own, which led to them finding this timeline's young X-Men in the past they initially believed would be available for them to return. Now certain of their inability to return to their time, the young X-Men looked forward to the new future they could build, which was no longer tied to that of their present selves.
Phoenix Resurrection[]
Warned that the Phoenix Force was coming to claim her as its host by the ghost of her older self, Jean refused to share her older self's fate and took steps to prepare for its arrival by consulting its prior hosts -- Rachel Summers, Hope Summers, Magik, the Stepford Cockoos and Emma Frost -- as well as deific beings like Odinson, powerful psychics like Psylocke, and mages like Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch. The Cosmic Cube, Kobik, sent her back in time to meet with the older Jean Grey - or rather, the Phoenix Force's manifestation as Jean Grey - just prior to her abduction by Mastermind, and Phoenix displayed the overwhelming power of the cosmic firebird by flying them into space - casually disregarding the laws of physics in the process - and picking a fight with Galactus and his herald Terrax the Tamer. Phoenix easily defeated Terrax, but was overwhelmed by the Power Cosmic and almost consumed by Galactus. The younger Jean saved her by unleashing her full psionic powers and attacking Galactus with a purple, Phoenix-like aura, impressing the Devourer of Worlds into leaving. Jean considered changing the future by telling Phoenix that the X-Men were still alive and warning her of Mastermind's plans, but Uatu the Watcher intervened and she ultimately decided against it, returning to the present.
After the Phoenix Force manifested, Jean engaged the cosmic entity in battle and managed to wound it. Despite all of her preparations and Ghost Jean's assurance that the Phoenix Force wanted her alive, the cosmic entity instead immolated the younger Jean Grey, reducing her to a charred skeleton in order to resurrect the older Jean Grey as its one true host. Despite not having been a Phoenix host, Jean found herself in the White Hot Room, where the Phoenix attempted to destroy her using manifestations of its past hosts. Jean realized she was somehow in control of the White Hot Room and commanded the Phoenix Force to resurrect her, which it did so as to get rid of her. She then returned to Madripoor, where she was approached by her resurrected older counterpart.
In the process of investigating the abduction of the Starjammers alongside the other Young X-Men and Venom, Marvel Girl bonded to a symbiote and was subsequently consumed by a Poison, giving rise to Poison Marvel Girl. However, Jean was able to use her psychic powers to resist being fully consumed, analyzing the Poison Queen's weaknesses and trying to reach out to Scott. Jean eventually rebelled and killed the Poison Queen, reconstituting her body out of psionic energy. While she expressed concern that she was no longer human, she was nevertheless happy to be reunited with Scott and her other friends.
The time-displaced X-Men's assumption that they could stay in the present was challenged when the collapse of the timestream forced them into a time-hopping adventure that resulted in the young heroes discovering that the divergent versions of themselves in the past were in reality the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from an alternate future impersonating them to take advantage of the void they left. The young X-Men returned to the future, but with the knowledge that they would ultimately have to return to the exact moment they had left to prevent the Brotherhood from carrying out their plan.
When the time-traveler mutant-hunter Ahab targeted the younger displaced X-Men, threatening to bring forth a dystopian future if he killed one of the five original X-Men, a younger version of the time-travelling warrior Cable set out to send the young mutants to the past on his own. After defeating Ahab, the young X-Men agreed to return to their original time. Before doing so, Jean Grey sealed off the memories of her and her friends' time-displacement, causing them only to resurface on their older selves as soon as their younger selves returned to the past.
Graduation[]
After Jean officially graduated at Xavier's school, her parents transferred her to Metro College. Scott and the other X-Men were heartbroken. Jean remained a part-time X-Man when time allowed for it but missed being a super hero full time. Jean was eventually able to return to the team. Jean and Scott revealed their passion for each other and began to date.
Satisfied with Jean's added maturity and her years of practice, Xavier released the psychic barriers preventing Jean from using her telepathic abilities. When Prof. Xavier discovered that in order to thwart an invasion of Earth by the alien Z'Nox he had to seclude himself for an extended period of time in order to make preparations, he had the mutant shapeshifter called the Changeling take his place leading the X-Men, and only Jean was allowed to know the truth. Xavier ordered Jean to keep his secret safe, even after the Changeling was killed in battle, leading the other X-Men to believe their mentor had died.
Without Xavier, the X-Men were ordered to disband by Fred Duncan of the FBI. While Jean started a new modeling job, Jean and Scott battled Quasimodo, under the guise of Computo. The team reunited against Mesmero and an android Magneto. When the Z'Nox fleet finally reached Earth, Professor Xavier and Jean revealed their deception and were able to repel the invasion.
Phoenix Force[]
While on a mission in space with the Fantastic Four to defeat the Z'Nox once and for all, Jean was scanned by the Phoenix Force, one of the oldest known cosmic entities, that would come to play an essential role in Jean's fate. It sensed Jean's unlimited potential while touching her subconscious.
Along with her teammates, Jean was captured by the mutant island Krakoa which led Xavier to recruit a new team of X-Men. Jean and the other original X-Men left the team, with only Cyclops staying on as deputy leader. Jean and Cyclops continued dating, and their relationship kept her connected with the team. The new team was made up of individuals and loners such as Wolverine, who quickly developed feelings for Jean. Jean formed a close friendship with Storm and began living in an apartment with the private investigator Misty Knight.
While enjoying Christmas with Scott and the X-Men, Jean was was kidnapped along with Xavier, Wolverine, and Banshee by Steven Lang's Sentinels and taken aboard Lang's space station. After defeating Lang, the X-Men had to escape back to Earth aboard a space shuttle during a solar flare that produced deadly cosmic rays. The cockpit lacked the shielding needed to protect the pilot from the lethal radiation. Jean absorbed Dr. Peter Corbeau's flight knowledge and volunteered to pilot. While she hoped to protect herself with her telekinetic ability, Jean and the others knew that she would likely die. While guiding the shuttle to Earth with the other X-Men protected by the shielded part of the shuttle, the solar radiation proved to be too great and she began to succumb to the radiation's lethal effects.
However, Jean did not die. The Phoenix Force responded to Jean's anguish and telepathic calls for help. The Phoenix Force informed Jean that she was dying, but that by taking the Phoenix Force's hand, Jean would gain her "heart's desire". What Jean most wanted was to save the lives of the X-Men and herself. Jean held onto the Phoenix Force's arm and fell into a coma. It took on the form, memories, and personality of Jean by absorbing a portion of her consciousness. It placed Jean within a cocoon while her injuries healed. Phoenix made sure the X-Men survived their return to earth, fulfilling its pledge to Jean. The shuttle crashed into Jamaica Bay and the X-Men were shocked when "Jean" came out of the wreckage unharmed, calling herself Phoenix.
Scott had no idea the woman he loved had been replaced by a cosmic being while the real Jean rested in a cocoon at the bottom of the bay. The Phoenix took Jean's place as a member of the X-Men, and continued Jean's romance with Scott.
The Phoenix revealed herself as a mutant in front of Jean's parents. Phoenix healed the M'kraan Crystal, the nexus of all realities, saving the universe. Later, Phoenix blocked Scott's optic blast, giving him the chance to see her clearly. Scott and Phoenix shared an intimate night together.
The Phoenix was corrupted into Dark Phoenix by the influence of Mastermind and the Hellfire Club. She was transformed into the Black Queen of their inner circle. After shaking Mastermind's control, Phoenix underwent another transformation into the Dark Phoenix. She soared through the universe, where she devoured an entire star and the five-billion inhabitants of one of its planets. She returned to Earth and threatened to kill everyone, but Professor Xavier was able to keep Phoenix under control and helped her will herself back to normal. Scott finally proposed to the Phoenix before they were teleported away by the Shi'ar.
The Shi'ar Empire had witnessed Dark Phoenix consuming the star and the X-Men were forced to battle with the Imperial Guard over Phoenix's fate on the Blue Area of the Moon. The battle triggered Phoenix's transformation into Dark Phoenix once more. Phoenix understood that she would never be able to fully control the dark hunger inside and sacrificed herself, bidding Scott an emotional farewell. When the Phoenix committed suicide, Scott believed the love of his life had died and he left the X-Men.
The White Hot Room[]
The portion of Jean's consciousness that had bonded with the Phoenix Force awoke in a realm called The White Hot Room. There Jean found herself on top of a floating tower in an outer space dressed in a White Phoenix outfit and wondering why she wasn't dead. Jean wondered if there were three phases of the Phoenix: Green the Good, Red the Bad, and White to which she had not discovered the meaning to.
Jean was approached by Death itself, who manifested as a male cosmic construction worker. Death had Jean build towers in the afterlife to house the souls of Dark Phoenix's victims. Jean also relived the experience of the destruction of the D'bari system from the point of view of the victims. Death explained to Jean that she was an avatar of the Phoenix because her "spirit" was "most closely carved" from the Phoenix. If she and the Phoenix were not meant for each other, then they would not have reached out to each other. She was destined to become the Phoenix and to heal the M'kraan Crystal. Her perceptions and imagination had influenced the Phoenix and that it belonged to her by right and would one day come to her children. Death instructed Jean to return to life, to live and learn.
The Phoenix tried to return the borrowed fragments of Jean's life-force. Encased in a small portion of itself, the Phoenix Force keyed these aspects to Jean's genetic structure and sent them to back her body, still in the cocoon at the bottom of the bay. Jean instinctively rejected the Phoenix, unable to deal with the horrible images of the pain Dark Phoenix had wrought. It wandered the globe, lost.
Madelyne Pryor[]
At the moment Dark Phoenix died on the moon, a spark of the Phoenix Force was accidentally bestowed on a genetic clone of Jean, Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne had been a failed experiment of Mister Sinister. Sinister had wanted Jean for her genetic potential but did not abduct her when she was a child knowing that he could be exposed by Xavier. He believed that a union between Cyclops and Jean Grey would produce a powerful mutant he could use to defeat his enemy, Apocalypse, so he cloned Jean instead. Sinister abandoned the clone when she did not manifest any mutant abilities. The lost aspect of the Phoenix that had been rejected by Jean became attracted to Madelyne Pryor, the next best thing. It gave a spark of itself to Madelyne, granting her a life force and some of Jean's memories. Madelyne came alive surrounded by a bird of fire and Sinister immediately put his scheme back in motion.
Scott was shocked to meet Madelyne Pryor. Unaware that Madelyne was a clone of Jean now programmed by Sinister to fall in love with him, Scott became obsessed with Madelyne's similarity to his lost love. He learned that she was the sole survivor of a plane crash that happened on the exact same day that Phoenix had died, a fabrication created by Sinister. At first, Scott suspected that Madelyne was a reincarnation of Phoenix. Afterward Scott accepted Madelyne for who she was and they were married. Madelyne bore Scott a son named Nathan Christopher Charles Summers.
Rachel Summers[]
Soon, Scott met Rachel Summers, his daughter with Jean from an alternate future. Rachel called herself Phoenix and wore a similar outfit as the original, a fact that Scott protested. Rachel was shocked to discover that, unlike her own timeline, Jean Grey had died and Scott Summers was married to another woman instead. Not wanting to disturb Cyclops' marriage to Madelyne, Rachel kept her true relation to him secret. When she discovered that Scott would soon be the father of a child other than her, Rachel began to tap into the Phoenix Force and vowed to restore honor to her mother's name. Rachel established a psi-bond with Nathan, swearing to protect her little brother as long as she lived.
X-Factor[]
Many months after Phoenix's death, the Avengers found Jean's cocoon beneath Jamaica Bay and brought it to the Fantastic Four for study. Jean released herself from the cocoon. At first, she was unable to remember her encounter with the Phoenix Force, but with the help of the Avengers and Fantastic Four, she remembered what happened. As a result of her harrowing experiences, Jean had lost her telepathic powers, but the strength of her telekinetic powers had greatly increased. Jean held off informing her family of her return because she was unsure how to break the news.
Meanwhile, Scott and Madelyne's marriage had become strained. Madelyne resented the fact that Scott was rarely home and that he continued to miss Jean. Finally, Scott learned that Jean had returned and her real body had been in a telekinetic cocoon the entire time. Scott was hit hard by this news but hid it from Madelyne and began packing. He left Madelyne and his son despite Madelyne's warning that if he left her again, he would not be welcomed back.
Jean was greatly disturbed to learn of the current wave of anti-mutant sentiment that had risen in her absence. She was also stunned that the X-Men were working alongside Magneto, the original X-Men's greatest foe. Jean decided that the original X-Men should do something as she believed the X-Men had strayed from Professor Xavier's dream. The five original friends founded a new organization to help other superhuman mutants. X-Factor intended to seek out and aid other mutants under the pretense of hunting them down as menaces to society. The public assumed they were humans hunting mutants, when in fact, they were training young mutants in the use of their powers at the X-Factor Complex. They also worked as mutants in a team the media referred to as X-Terminators.
Unsure what to do about Maddie and the baby and Jean, Scott only felt useful when commanding his team. Scott attempted to contact Maddie, but the number was disconnected. At first, Scott tried to keep his marriage and son from Jean. Meanwhile, Jean was plagued with dreams of herself becoming the Phoenix. She also sensed that Scott was being distant about something. She assumed he had fallen for Phoenix while she was asleep in the cocoon. Finally, the truth came out. Jean noticed that Madelyne looked exactly liked her.
The team battled Apocalypse and his Alliance of Evil. Apocalypse would become one of Jean and the X-Factor's most persistent foes. One of his first actions was turning their teammate and friend, Angel, against them as his Horseman of Death.
Jean learned that her older sister Sara Bailey had begun speaking on behalf of mutants in her absence. Jean and Scott went to check on her, fearing for her safety. Upon arriving, the house exploded. It was later learned that Sara had been murdered by mutant-hating fanatics, likely acting on orders from Cameron Hodge, X-Factor's public relations manager.
Feeling bad about abandoning his family, Jean suggested that Scott goes home to check on them. Scott went back to Alaska to look for them. Scott and Jean were both still unaware of Sinister's influence on their lives. Sinister sent the Marauders to kill Madelyne Pryor and collect Nathan Christopher for him. She was shot multiple times and fell into a coma. She was taken to the hospital as a Jane Doe. Sinister erased every record of Madelyne and the baby. After finding the corpse of a young redhead in a river, Scott believed his wife was dead and buried her by himself.
Scott began to hallucinate and believe Jean, Madelyne, and the Phoenix had been the same woman all along. Scott's visions nearly led him to kill Jean before it was discovered they were actually holograms created by Cameron Hodge, trying to destroy them.
Jean and Scott began to grow close again. Scott and Jean returned to the site on the Moon where Phoenix had committed suicide and Jean acknowledged that Scott loved Phoenix and she had loved him. Meanwhile, Madelyne Pryor awoke from her coma and contacted the X-Men who agreed to protect her.
X-Factor brought Angel out of his brainwashing. After defeating Apocalypse, his sentient ship Prosh crash landed on their Complex and X-Factor began living in it. X-Factor finally revealed the truth of their mutant origins and shed their disguise of mutant hunters. After saving the city from a series of fires that began as a result of their battle with Apocalypse, X-Factor was given a ticker-tape parade.
Inferno[]
Scott saw Madelyne and the X-Men sacrificing themselves in Dallas on TV. Her last words were asking him to find their son. Using cryptic clues provided by Destiny, Scott and Jean returned to the orphanage Scott grew up in and found an entire laboratory in the basement with many children, including baby Christopher, in incubation pods. Jean and Scott battled Nanny and Orphan-Maker for Scott's son. Jean somehow opened a telepathic link with Nathan Christopher, only to fail to prevent demons from snatching him. Jean recognized her niece and nephew in Nanny's brainwashed army of children, but could not rescue them, either.
After returning to New York, Jean and Scott were reunited with X-Factor and fought countless demons. X-Factor's search for Christopher led them to the demon responsible, N'Astirh, and Madelyne appeared with him calling herself the Goblin Queen. Scott was shocked to find out that his wife was alive. Madelyne started a fight, blaming Scott and Jean for the misery in her life. After N'astirh attacked, X-Factor and the X-Men combined efforts to defeat him. When Wolverine saw that Jean was alive, he kissed her.
The Goblin Queen attempted to sacrifice baby Nathan atop the Empire State Building to permanently open a gateway between Earth and Limbo to spite Scott. The Goblin Queen locked herself, Nathan, and Jean inside a psionic barrier. The invasion was thwarted after Madelyne committed suicide in combat with Jean. Jean then learned Madelyne's true origin. She was forced to reintegrate the portion of herself that Phoenix had given to Madelyne. In the process, Jean also received Madelyne's and Phoenix's memories and personalities too. Scott appeared to kill Sinister with an optic blast.
Multiple Personalities[]
Following Madelyne's funeral, X-Factor was attacked by Nanny and Orphan-Maker, but X-Factor rescued Jean's niece and nephew. The children, however, could not remember her. She left them in the care of her parents as her sister was still missing. Switching back and forth between her multiple personalities took a heavy toll on Jean. In a battle with the Celestials, the personalities of Madelyne and Phoenix were purged from her system. Only their memories remained and Jean was free.
Scott and Jean started taking Nathan Christopher with them on missions. Nathan Christopher's mutant powers began to manifest as a protective force bubble whenever he was in danger. Later, Scott proposed to Jean only to be turned down. Jean now carried the memories of Scott's earlier proposals to both Phoenix and Madelyne and needed time to be sure their relationship was their own decision, not preordained. Scott and Jean finally learned that Rachel was actually their adult daughter from an alternate timeline.
Endgame[]
The Riders of the Storm kidnapped Nathan and took him to Apocalypse's base on the Blue Area of the Moon. Apocalypse infected the child with the Techno-Organic Virus, that was rapidly spreading through his body and, if not stopped, would kill him. A woman from the late 37th-early 39th century appeared calling herself Sister Askani. She claimed to be a member of the Clan Askani that had technology in her future that might be able to save Nathan. However, she could only risk one-time jump without destroying herself. Distraught, Cyclops chose to send his son into the future rather than watch him die in the present. For some time, Scott had no way of knowing if Askani's cure had been successful. Jean's telepathy returned while battling the villainous Dark Rider Psynapse.
X-Men Gold Team[]
The Shadow King returned and together the X-Men and X-Factor defeated him. X-Factor disbanded and all five original X-Men rejoined Prof. X and returned to his school. Jean served on the "Gold Team" under Storm's leadership while Scott became leader of "Blue Team". Jean stopped going by her codename Marvel Girl, preferring her real name, Jean Grey. Fellow Blue Team member and telepath, Psylocke, tried to lure Cyclops into infidelity, influencing his mind behind Jean's back. Meanwhile, a mysterious soldier called Cable had reorganized the New Mutants, Xavier's junior mutant team, into an outlaw team called X-Force.
The Gold team was invited to a Hellfire Club event in an attempt to bury the hatchet between the two groups. It ended badly when Trevor Fitzroy's Sentinels crashed the party, resulting in the deaths of the Hellions. Both Jean and Emma Frost, the White Queen, fell into comas. Jean somehow transferred her psyche into the body of Emma. After waking in Emma's body, Jean battled Trevor Fitzroy. The X-Men rescued her and she was returned to her body.
The X-Men returned to the Morlock Tunnels to stop a young mutant, Brain Cell, from mentally influencing the Morlocks to incite chaos. Attempting to save human lives, Jean was forced to kill the Morlock MeMe by switching his mind off.
Mister Sinister returned, this time posing as Apocalypse and commanding his Horsemen. Sinister sent the Horsemen of Apocalypse to capture Jean and Cyclops and then turned the couple over to Stryfe in exchange for a canister containing a genetic matrix he was led to believe contained Summers' family genetic material. Stryfe was a madman and rival of Cable. Torturing Jean and Scott, Stryfe claimed that he was Scott's son Nathan returned from the future and seeking revenge for being abandoned. Stryfe claimed that Cable, who shared the same face as Stryfe, was a clone of Nathan. On the lunar surface of the Moon, Cable and Stryfe both vanished into the timestream after a temporal device exploded. Jean and Scott thought they had lost Nathan a second time.
Jean finally confronted Psylocke on her constant flirtation with Scott, demanding to know if Scott was cheating on her. Psylocke used her psi-knife on Jean, rendering her unconscious. Their confrontation was interrupted by the arrival of Kwannon, who informed everyone that Psylocke had been influenced by her darker persona. After this incident, Scott took a leave from the X-Men to meet with his grandparents in Alaska. There, Sinister informed Scott that instead of the genetic matrix he had desired, Stryfe had betrayed him and given him the deadly mutant killing Legacy Virus which Sinister had accidently released. By the time Scott returned home to the X-Men, Colossus' little sister Illyana had already succumbed to the Legacy Virus, and more deaths were to come. Scott and Jean reconciled.
Cable found his way back to the present. Mr. Sinister appeared and informed Cable that Stryfe had been wrong about their origins. Stryfe was the clone. Cable was Nathan Summers. Sinister also informed Cable that Tolliver, an arms dealer who Cable and X-Force had had run-ins with, was none other than Cable's adopted son Tyler Dayspring. Cable believed Stryfe had been killed, however, Stryfe had actually survived as a consciousness in the back of Cable's mind. Sinister allowed Stryfe to gain control of Cable's body. Tyler and Stryfe both learned their true origins, but the knowledge was too much for Stryfe to handle and he refused to believe it. Cyclops, Jean, Xavier, and Domino convinced Stryfe to expel himself from Cable's mind. Tyler escaped in the confusion. When Cable was himself again he asked Scott about his mother before leaving. Scott finally had most of his answers at last, and father and son began repair their relationship at last.
On Thanksgiving, Jean finally proposed to Scott. Jean and her long-time love were finally married. Jean told Rachel Summers that she hoped she would be born soon in this timeline. Afterwards, on the other side of the world and away from Jean's notice, Rachel Summers sacrificed herself to exile in the timestream to save her Excalibur teammate Captain Britain. Rachel surfaced two thousand years in the future where Apocalypse ruled by his survival of the fittest world view.
Redd Dayspring[]
While on their honeymoon on the beaches of Saint Bart's, the consciousnesses of Jean and Scott were taken 2000 years into the future by an elderly Rachel, who had become the Clan Askani's matriarch Mother Askani after the Phoenix Force had abandoned her years earlier. As their own bodies could not have survived time travel, Jean and Scott inhabited new bodies cloned from their descendants.
Rachel had taken them to the moment right after Scott's young son Nathan, the boy who would one day become Cable, had first arrived in the future infected with a techno-organic virus after Scott had sent him there to find a possible cure. The techno-organic virus was spreading and could only be held in check with telekinesis.
Under the aliases of Redd and Slym Dayspring, Jean and Scott raised the boy together while Rachel was lying in a coma, held alive by machines. Slym and Redd never told Nathan of their true origins or his, instead leading him to believe he'd been born in the future and that they were his "foster parents". They joined the Askani-inspired Clan Rebellion to undermine Apocalypse's empire. Meanwhile, a virus-free clone Rachel had grown from Nathan's healthy cells in case the virus killed him had been captured by Apocalypse who named him Stryfe and raised him to be his new host vessel for the next time Apocalypse needed to switch bodies.
After twelve years, Nate, Slym, and Redd stopped Apocalypse from killing Stryfe and destroyed him once and for all. On that day Rachel finally died of old age. Jean and Scott were sent back to their rightful bodies in the present, leaving Nate alone and Stryfe under the care of Apocalypse's former servant Ch'Vayre, who promised to try to raise Stryfe properly.
Back in the present, Jean and Scott revealed to Cable that they had raised him in the future as Redd and Slym Dayspring. Cable had known for some time and was waiting for them to be ready to tell him. They were pleased to be reunited as a family. Back at the school, Jean and Scott moved into the former boathouse. Scott offered Cable and X-Force a home at the mansion. Jean began calling herself Phoenix to honor Rachel's final request. Jean coached Psylocke in the use of her telepathic powers.
Adam-X[]
Accompanying Scott to Alaska to check on his grandfather in the hospital, Jean happened upon Adam-X and sensed that there was a connection between Adam and the Summers family. Adam allowed Jean to transfer memories of his days as a Shi'ar combat pilot to Phillip. Afterward, Adam disappeared and Jean decided not to reveal her encounter to Scott.
Onslaught[]
Jean was confronted by Onslaught on the Astral Plane, who claimed he could give her the power of the Phoenix Force once again if she joined him. After she initially refused, Onslaught showed her Prof. Xavier's hidden memories, where Jean was shocked to learn her father figure and mentor had once believed he was in love with her. However, Jean still refused Onslaught. He left Jean with an image of his name upon her brow.
A frightened Juggernaut came to Jean for help. Jean attempted to remove the mental blocks Onslaught had instilled in him to prevent him from revealing Onslaught's true identity. When Jean learned Onslaught was Xavier himself, Onslaught psionically muzzled him. After Onslaught defeated the X-Men, she sent out an SOS message to the other X-teams warning them that the X-Men had been betrayed by one of their own. Fragments of this message survived to Bishop's future.
It was determined Xavier had been transformed into Onslaught as a result of his attempt to mind-wipe Magneto. Although the X-Men defeated the evil entity and freed Prof. Xavier, most of Earth's heroes were lost for a time. Prof. Xavier was left powerless after Onslaught's defeat and was arrested for his role in the events. Jean and Scott were left as leaders of the X-Men and co-headmasters of the school.
Nate Grey[]
Jean discovered the powerful time-tossed mutant teenager known as Nate Grey. Nate was Jean and Scott's genetically-engineered son from an alternate reality. Essentially, Nate was a younger version of Cable. Nate possessed vast telepathic and telekinetic power. Nate had unwittingly resurrected Madelyne Pryor in a subconscious attempt to reach out to his "mother". Nate tried to re-absorb Madelyne, only to find that he couldn't, as she had become independent. Despite bringing her rival back into her life, Jean parted with Nate on good terms.
London 1759[]
Jean and Cyclops were sent back in time to London in the year 1759 by Madame Sanctity. They believed that they were there to prevent Nathaniel Essex from becoming Mr. Sinister. However, Sinister was necessary for the birth of Nathan Dayspring, the Askani'son, who Madame Sanctity worshiped. She had sent them to the past to stop Apocalypse from conquering England.
Operation: Zero Tolerance[]
The government-sponsored mutant-hunting operation known as "Operation: Zero Tolerance" took effect and the villainous Bastion captured the X-Men, Jean, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, and Cannonball. S.H.I.E.L.D. shut the operation down, but not before Bastion could place a nanotech bomb inside Scott's chest. The X-Men's newest member, a mutant doctor named Cecilia Reyes, saved Scott's life.
Semi-Retirement[]
Afterwards, Jean and Scott took a leave of absence from the X-Men for him to recuperate. On the plane ride to Alaska, they briefly battled a battalion of A.I.M. soldiers. While on leave, Scott called the original X-Men together to reassess Professor Xavier's dream of a peaceful co-existence between mutants and humans. Scott grew weary as Jean began to wear the green-gold Phoenix costume. She now also manifested the Phoenix firebird while training. Scott began to worry that the Phoenix had returned until Jean lost her psi-powers as a result of the Psi-War. With neither of them at their strongest, the couple stayed in retirement together and the matter of the Phoenix Force's return was dropped for a time. Professor X returned to the X-Men in their absence. Nate Grey visited them during that time as well. With the bonds between Nate and his "parents" strengthened, Scott presented Nate with one of his old X-Factor uniforms.
The Twelve[]
Scott and Jean returned to the X-Men some time after at the request of Storm. Storm was concerned about the mental well-being of Professor X. Xavier had been pretending to lose control in order to uncover a traitor he had sensed in the ranks of the X-Men. The traitor turned out to be a Skrull who had replaced Wolverine. A plot hatched by Apocalypse and the Skrulls was uncovered.
Apocalypse made a bid for cosmic power by assembling The Twelve - a group of mutants who would determine the fate of their kind that included Scott, Phoenix, Iceman, Professor X, Storm, Magneto, Nate Grey, Cable, Bishop, Living Monolith, Polaris, Sunfire, and Mikhail Rasputin. To secure a new host body, Apocalypse sought to collect the mutants he required to carry out his plan and siphon the awesome energies of "The Twelve". They were wired to a machine that would channel the Twelve's awesome energies into Apocalypse, allowing him to absorb the body of Nate Grey. As his teammates fell around him, a powerless Scott saved Nate and merged with the would-be conqueror to create a new evil entity. Jean detected Scott's psyche inside Apocalypse and prevented the X-Men from destroying him, however, he was presumed dead by most of his teammates. Only Jean and Cable refused to believe Scott had perished, at which time Cable joined the X-Men to honor his father.
Power Switch[]
Jean, now returned to the X-Men, and in order to help Psylocke after the Psi-War, switched powers with Psylocke. Jean lost her telekinesis but her telepathy increased greatly. Jean began to manifest "Phoenix raptors" that represented her telepathic powers "honed to their sharpest edge". As a result of the power switch, Jean temporarily displayed a shadow astral form with a Phoenix symbol over her right eye.
In Scott's absence, Cable found Rachel alive and young at the end of time. The Phoenix Force had abandoned her. Cable brought Rachel back to the present with him. Rachel asked Cable to keep her return secret from Jean and the other X-Men while she tried to get her life back together.
X-Men Forever[]
Jean and four other mutants were recruited by Prosh for a special mission to fight the Stranger. A part of the mission included sending their minds back through time revisiting key moments in their past to learn new insights. Jean was forced to relive various moments from her past such as piloting the shuttle, being in the cocoon, the moment Phoenix died, and meeting Death in the afterlife. Death reiterated that Jean and the Phoenix chose each other and told Jean that she hungered for power when she touched the Phoenix. Death explained that her hunger scared the fundamental forces of the universe, because she was a human mutant with unlimited potential for growth. One day those like her could grow to replace the fundamental forces of the universe. Jean and the other recruits stopped the Stranger's plan to make himself the sole survivor of a new universe from the ashes of the old universe.
Scott's Return[]
Investigating rumors he was alive, Jean and Cable found Scott in the birthplace of Apocalypse in Akkaba, Egypt, struggling to reassert his mind over the villain's psyche. Jean exorcised the warlord from Cyclops, and Cable shattered his essence. Thanks to the support of his wife and adopted family, Scott was able to shake off the devastating effects of his merger with Apocalypse and rejoined the X-Men.
After undergoing a Secondary Mutation, Jean's telekinesis returned.
New X-Men[]
Following the outing of Professor X as a mutant to the world, while secretly under the influence of Cassandra Nova, his school opened its doors to the mutant population at large. Xavier/Nova left Earth and Jean was left as headmistress of the school.
Scott returned to the X-Men, but his association with Apocalypse had given him a grimmer, more serious personality than ever before. As a result, many of his relationships became strained, including his marriage to Jean. Apocalypse made him question not only their relationship but his life as a whole. Jean, confused by the change in their relationship, confided in Logan and the two kissed in the woods outside the school, but Logan walked away, telling Jean it would never work between them. Jean's new responsibilities, along with her growing powers, forced her to put her attention elsewhere, leaving Scott feeling ignored and his trauma from being possessed trivialized.
When the U-Men attacked the school, students aided Jean in repelling their attack while she once again manifested the Phoenix raptor. During Cassandra Nova's daring attack on the Shi'ar Empire and subsequent assault on the Xavier Institute, Jean used Cerebra to splinter Prof. Charles Xavier's mind into every mutant on Earth. The trap worked, as when Cassandra activated Cerebra, Prof. Xavier reclaimed his body. The Phoenix Force started to appear as another personality within Jean, even having a conversation with Prof. Xavier on its role in events to come.
The rift between Jean and Scott began to be filled by Emma Frost. Their relationship ostensibly began as a series of psychic therapy sessions, but Emma took advantage of this situation to get close to Scott and, under the guise of counseling him, she was able to instigate a telepathic affair. When Jean discovered the affair, she forced Emma to admit her true feelings. Furious at both himself and Jean, Scott confronted Jean and demanded she read his mind and she finally complied. Jean discovered that Scott and Emma never engaged in any physical contact, even though Emma had offered it. Scott, who felt he couldn't get through to his angry and hurt wife, subsequently left the X-Men to mull over what was happening in his life.
Immediately after, Emma was shot while in her organic diamond form by the Cuckoo Esme, and shattered all over the mansion's kitchen. Jean, who was initially a suspect, repaired Emma at the molecular level, displaying incredible telekinetic power, after absorbing Beast's medical knowledge.
The X-Man Xorn revealed himself to be a traitor who claimed to be Magneto. It was later implied he killed her under "orders" from the sentient RNA Sublime. Tricked by the Magneto impostor, Jean and Wolverine ended up trapped on Asteroid M, drifting closer to the Sun. Rather than watch Jean die a slow painful death, Wolverine tried to kill Jean, but he awoke the Phoenix Force within her. Using her incredible powers, Phoenix/Jean returned with Logan to New York City to face "Magneto". Xorn's last act was to kill Jean with an electromagnetic pulse. As she was dying, Scott apologized for hurting her, but Jean instead told him that she understood and had never seen him more alive and urged him to live on.
Scott was devastated by Jean's death. He considered leaving the X-Men once more, but the Jean of an alternate future telepathically intervened in an attempt to prevent her dark future from coming to pass. She urged Scott to live.
Cyclops and Emma formalized their relationship and together, the pair rebuilt the Xavier Institute as co-headmasters. Initially, several of their teammates were none too happy with their relationship because they felt that Cyclops and Emma were insulting the memory of Jean and the marriage she and Scott once shared. As a result, Wolverine flatly insulted and fought Scott, Beast stated that he no longer liked him, and Rachel Summers, in particular, felt hurt and angry by her father's lack of remorse for the psychic affair that Jean discovered before her death, and Emma's part in it. Rachel then changed her last name to Grey in honor of her mother. The other X-Men, eventually, came to accept the relationship and both Scott and Emma managed to reconcile with Rachel in their own ways, such as introducing Rachel to Jean's other family members, family that she did not get a chance to meet in her own timeline.
Phoenix Endsong[]
The Phoenix Force was reconstituted before its time and was assaulted by a Shi'ar warship, splintering a great deal of its power across the galaxy. The Force arrived on Earth, discovered that Jean's body was dead and went to her grave. Jean refused to be resurrected, though, as she had just reformed outside the White Hot Room and was not complete and fought the Phoenix, dying again. But the Phoenix reminded her that years ago, Jean had asked for her help when wanting to save Scott and that this time, the Phoenix needed Scott and asked her to "take my hand", resurrecting a yielding Jean. But Jean however, had sensed the dark hunger of the Phoenix appeared to Wolverine and changed her attire to match that of Dark Phoenix's as a way to alert him of the Phoenix's dark intentions, but the Phoenix took hold of Jean and truly became the Dark Phoenix once more, easily overpowering Logan, who alerted the X-Men of Jean's resurrection after she escaped.
Wolverine found a Dark Phoenix-possessed Jean in the woods and they fought with the Phoenix winning but not killing him as she was using him as bait for Scott and the other X-Men, but the Shi'ar were still in search of her and tried to obliterate her with an event horizon power-blast that destroyed that part of the forest, but the Phoenix saved herself and Wolverine by way of teleportation and they found themselves in a polar region.
Jean's attempts to regain control of the Phoenix Force were complicated by the interventions of the X-Men who wanted to contain the Phoenix Force and Quentin Quire who wanted to make use of the Phoenix Force to resurrect Sophie of the Stepford Cuckoos. The Shi'ar just wanted her dead. The Phoenix, as Jean, kept the power of Cerebra from locating her, but the Cuckoos were able to find her direction in the least, where her power upset the balance of Nature, allowing Storm to locate them through her natural abilities.
Wolverine woke to a reawakened Jean as her "green-gold" Phoenix self, who told him that although the Phoenix has different plans, she is "always Jean. And I'm always the Phoenix." She further revealed that when she died, she scattered into a trillion pieces as the Phoenix which begun to reform outside the White Hot Room, but some parts of her were still lost in the Omniverse and she needed to "try again" in way of another death as she was "out of balance". So Logan killed her, but the Phoenix awoke and healed Jean, becoming Dark Phoenix again in full control. Logan killed her several times, but the Phoenix seemed to make Jean's body truly immortal, asking him how long he can kill her, but she eventually died and woke as a sane Jean once more, applauding Logan for weakening the Phoenix, her consciousness regained control. Jean then, wielding a form of cryokinesis, froze her own body under thick ice to prevent the Phoenix from using her body further.
The X-Men found Wolverine and Emma Frost determined that there was no brain activity to be read under the ice and Jean was dead. Unfortunately, the Phoenix left Jean's body to die and begun to absorb Scott's optic blasts, managing to form its body into Jean. Now, its power was enough to sustain Jean's form without her actual body. Eventually, the Phoenix told Scott she loved him in Jean's form, saying that she was the one he'd dreamed about as an orphaned child and will reach out to her the day he dies, but she realizes that he does not love Jean as much as he does Emma Frost and takes her as her host. Quentin Quire found the Phoenix, but it rejected him and this leads to the Phoenix coming to the conclusion that the entire world is "sick" and plans on burning the sick world to destruction as it "would not work".
Scott burned the ice in which Jean was frozen dead and Jean seemingly resurrected herself, declaring "ENOUGH!" and knocked the Phoenix to the ground. The Phoenix asked Jean how she was capable of this without its power and Jean said, "I am you, don't you remember? Now get out of that stupid body." But the Phoenix refused, saying that it was the only body Scott loved, so Jean forcibly expelled it from Emma's body.
Jean talked to the Phoenix, calming it and telling it that the reason it was confused was because it was incomplete and she would understand once they'd completed themselves in the White Hot Room with the revelation that the "hunger" that Phoenix was feeling was due to Jean's longing to be with Scott and to feel loved again, and as the Phoenix was Jean's spirit virtually manifested, it sought to quench that longing. Sadly, the Phoenix came to the conclusion that it needed Jean again and the two merged once more, its hunger turning them into Dark Phoenix once more, Jean cried, "Here I Come Tomorrow" prophesying of an endless future where she would burn the world over and over again killing billions as she did D'bari because their purpose was not fulfilled.
Thinking quick, Scott drew her attention and told Emma his plan: Emma, through the Stepford Cuckoos, linked to all the X-Men and linked anyone who'd ever loved Jean telepathically transferring their emotions to her and she and the Phoenix were finally satisfied by it, restoring them to sanity via the emotional support of friends and family, telepathically conveyed to Jean. In its bid to eliminate the Phoenix, however, the Shi'ar warship generated a singularity above the North Pole whose event horizon (a miniature worm hole) annihilated everyone there just as she became the White Phoenix of the Crown, Jean reversed the damage and saved the X-Men through her reality warping powers. Finding herself alone with Cyclops in a psychic state of limbo, Scott gave her advice, telling her that she was and always will be, Jean Grey, "no matter what the cosmos tell you".
Jean returned to the White Hot Room to begin the task of finding the missing fragments of the Phoenix Force that still remained scattered through the omniverse and has not returned since either than two accounts. When she was collecting the missing fragments of the Phoenix Force, she later forcibly took some of them from Rachel Summers and the Stepford Cuckoos after the events in Phoenix Warsong when they wield the powers. Beast said that they were trapped in the singularity and it was inescapable and that they should have died.
Sisterhood of Mutants[]
Madelyne Pryor returned and formed a team of evil mutant women. She took a piece of Jean's hair that Wolverine had held onto and used it to look for Jean's body so that she could inhabit it as her host. During that time, Madelyne trapped Emma Frost in a psychic static which caused her thoughts to form uncontrollably. Emma was then released from the mental hold by a nude woman in a white room (possibly the White Hot Room) that greatly resembled Jean Grey who used what seemed to be a Phoenix to free Emma declaring "prepare." Madelyne's plan failed when it was revealed that Cyclops - with the help of Domino - had arranged for Jean Grey's grave to be substituted with someone else's body, and it somehow caused Madelyne to either disperse or become absorbed into the fake, which caused Madelyne's death once again.
Phoenix Resurrection[]
Desperately seeking to merge with Jean again, the Phoenix Force resurrected her and placed her inside a pocket reality inhabited by her colleagues and her loved ones, so to slowly prepare her for their reunion. Jean subconsciously saw through the Phoenix's farce, and caused psychic incidents back in the real world as cries for help. The X-Men investigated this phenomena and eventually located a gateway into this pocket universe in New Mexico. When the mutants arrived, the elderly Logan confronted Jean and managed to snap her out of the Phoenix's illusion and regain her true memories. Fully returned, Jean renounced the Phoenix once and for all, deciding to live life with the pain and loss that naturally comes with it instead of giving in to the Phoenix's temptations of a perfect life.
Age of X-Man[]
In the reality created by Nate Grey and a Life Seed, a world where everyone on Earth was a mutant and relationships were strongly discouraged or illegal, Jean was a member of that reality's X-Men team. After a successful mission to help a young mutant, Jean and teammate, Bishop, relaxed together on a couch at Jean's house before becoming more intimate and spending the night together. Their forbidden love was soon discovered by Department X, with Jean having her memory wiped again and all trace of Bishop erased from the X-Men and society. Even with the memory wipe, Jean confided in Storm that she had a lingering sense of "something wrong" and "felt off". Jean and the rest of the X-Men had no idea that Bishop had once been a part of their team, his position and house filled by X-23. The next morning Nate presented the team with a flyer distributed by Murshid En Sabah Nur, a revolutionary preaching the virtues of love. Jean expressed her concern, but insisted they shouldn't jump to conclusions.
She lived alone, but in the same housing development as the rest of the team. Jean and the rest of the X-Men were the primary response team to all matter of worldwide threats and danger. During a mission to save a mutant hatchery from destruction by a wildfire, Jean received a brief telepathic broadcast from Murshid, distracting her momentarily from rescuing a group of young mutants. While unwinding post-mission, Nature Girl asked Jean about procreation and to describe romance. Jean replied that the latter was "simply a dead idea. Similar to family." and something they'd "outgrown as a species". The next day Jean was knocked down by a stronger broadcast from Murshid, naming a meeting place and time in Central Park to hear about his resistance to the individualism of society.
Jean and the X-Men were later seen at Murshid's rally, listening to his call to "embrace the connections that make life worth living" and keeping a watchful eye on the gathered crowd. Tensions escalated after Murshid kissed his son Evan's head; members of the crowd began to rip the claws off a Wolverine statue, with X-23 and Colossus attempting to intervene. Nate erected a forcefield to protect and separate the feuding factions, threatening to suppress the protesters emotions, but Jean dissuaded him from this course of action. She believed it was "not their place to suppress emotions". Murshid and his X-Tracts left soon after, expressing his love of the X-Men, and the crowd dispersed.
Later at a team meeting, the X-Men were conflicted over how to respond to the revolutionaries; Jean understood the more radical and less pacifistic view, but thought they were blowing things out of proportion. In the end the group decided that they needed to keep an eye on the X-Tracts and loop in Department X. Jean, Nate, and X-23 soon sat down with Department X member's Moneta and Psylocke to discuss the issue. Jean assured the officers that none of the crowd had been psychically manipulated, although the revolutionaries translation of thought into action (i.e. public affection) concerned her as a "leap backward."
After another successful relief mission in the Bahamas, the team watched a news report broadcast of a speech by the X-Tracts, which in part announced the group's upcoming presence in London on Xavier Day. Realizing that Department X was not enough to combat the revolutionaries, Jean called for the X-Men to make a stand for "evolutionary rights" and meet the rebels head on at the holiday gathering.
Colossus, Jean, Magneto, and Nature Girl volunteered to attend Xavier Day, keeping an eye out for the X-Tracts and managing the crowd of celebrants. As promised, Murshid and his X-Tracts arrived to preach their message to the gathered crowd, inciting blatant acts of passion and eroticism. The gathered X-Men and Department X squad proved unable to successfully combatant the riled crowd using traditional tactics. In a desperate move, Jean used her telepathy to violate the minds of the gathered crowd and ordered them to disperse, an action she felt remorseful over. Assembling for a debrief soon after, the X-Men witnessed more gigantic fissure opening up across the world, resembling rifts created by reality-bending Omega mutants. Jean and Nate volunteered to "sift through the psychic energy" of the rifts and report back to wider group. While flying from rift to rift, Nate revealed to Jean the true nature of the rifts and the painful memories of the past they contained. After observing and closing multiple rifts, Jean came to distrust the rifts' images and believed them to be a "propaganda tool" of the X-Tracts.
In a flashback to the past, Jean was seen with Professor Xavier and the original five X-Men, only with Nate filling the spot originally filled by Beast. Back in the present, the X-Men (minus Nate, Jean, and Colossus) and Psylocke investigated the mysterious death of Moneta at a beatnik club. Utilizing Nature Girl's ability to communicate with bacterial "witnesses" to the murder, they discovered Nate and Apocalypse's involvement in the formation and continuation of the false reality. The group opted to keep their discovery on a need to know basis, although they soon included Jean on their findings via telepathic scan. X-23 at this time revealed her discovery of secret items in her house (belonging to previous occupant Bishop) that she had never seen before. Touching one of Bishop's uniforms triggered Jean's memory of him and the erased memories of his involvement with the X-Men. Further probing allowed Jean to recall details of fighting Nate and the creation of the current timeline. Unable to fully discern which timeline was the correct one, but realizing that Nate was the only one with enough power to create timelines, the assembled X-Men began to plan how to confront their teammate. Although they developed a more peaceful approach to confronting Nate, tensions spilled over at their meeting and the X-Men attacked Nate head on.
Nate soon revealed his involvement in the creation and maintenance of the reality and the physical and mental toll it was taking upon his body. While revealing himself to the X-Men, members of the X-Tracts and Danger Room prison attacked the gathered group, forcing the X-Men to protect Nate until matters could be sorted. After a brief skirmish, Nate revealed to Jean and the others images of Cyclops and the other remaining mutants from the mainstream reality, using the images to highlight the pain and suffering caused by their relationships with one another and humanity. Simultaneously Nate transformed the mutants back into their mainstream counterparts and costumes. Jean insisted that their bonds with others were what made them who they were and that they needed to be able to make mistakes together. After some back and forth between the group over what they were returning to and the ramifications upon its inhabitants of dismantling the utopian reality, the X-Men eventually all decided to leave the manufactured reality and returned home.
House of X[]
Jean, as Marvel Girl, was next seen living on the sovereign nation-state of Krakoa for mutants, created by Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Moira X. When she arrived on Krakoa, Xavier looked at her, and said "welcome home". Xavier and Magneto then tasked the X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Archangel, M, Husk, Mystique, and Nightcrawler) with destroying the Mother Mold and preventing the creation of Nimrod.
With the help of Jean Grey and M, Trinary coordinated the communication between team members and the X-Men base in Krakoa. When the ship was invaded by Orchis, Monet got Jean into an escape pod to preserve communications between the two teams. The X-Men accomplished their goal, but the entire team was killed in the attack. Cyclops and Jean, the two remaining X-Men, tried to mount an escape, but they tragically failed when Dr. Gregor killed Scott in revenge for her husband. Jean's escape pod was later intercepted by Sentinels, and ripped apart with Jean inside of it.
The team was later resurrected by a group of mutants known as "The Five" (Hope Summers, Eva Bell, Proteus, Elixir, and Goldballs). Merging their powers, The Five were able transfer the deceased X-Men's minds into new bodies grown by Krakoa. They were later proclaimed as the heroes of Krakoa.
Jean was later asked to join the Summer section of the Quiet Council. Summer consisted of Marvel Girl, Storm, and Nightcrawler, representing the more empathetic, level-headed, and just members of the X-Men and other factions. Jean helped draft the basic tenets of the new mutant nation and was part of the unanimous vote to exile Sabretooth into the depths of Krakoa.
Following their deliberation, Jean and the rest of the Council joined in the festivities taking place on the island, celebrating the recognition of Krakoa as a sovereign nation by the United Nations. Emma and Jean appeared to bury the animosity between the two of them, in particular over Scott, over a couple of beers.
She was later required to use her powers in the resurrection of Charles Xavier after he was killed by mercenaries who infiltrated the island. Upon resurrection he made her a member of Krakoa's new black-ops security agency, X-Force.
She eventually abdicated her role in the Quiet Council, so she and Scott could form a team to rescue their son from Otherworld. A place Krakoans had been forbidden from entering due to an ongoing conflict. After it was over she was offered her position in the council back but she declined in order to reform the X-Men with Scott. At the Hellfire Gala an election was held to decide the new team who subsequently moved to a Treehouse in Central Park.
Attributes[]
Powers[]
Jean Grey is an Omega Level mutant and an Omega-Level Telepath, as well as an immensely powerful empath and telekinetic. By birth, Jean is among the most powerful telepaths, telekinetics, and psions who has been described as likely having limitless potential. She is also one with the Phoenix Force, and while acting as its avatar she is the second most powerful Abstract Entities in the Earth-616 universe, only behind that of the One-Above-All. She also was considered to be a "Mutant Alpha-Psi", an Alpha Level Telepath, an Alpha-Level Mutant, and Psionic of Highest Order. As the Dark Phoenix, she has been stated to be a global and universal-level threat and to manifest cosmic-level powers. According to Prosh, her Comparative Mutagenic Power Register was of 8.9.
Initially, Jean's powers were simply restricted to telekinesis and even lifting her own weight quickly tired her. With training, her telekinesis improved, but it wasn't until after she was released from the stasis chamber she was placed in by the Phoenix Force that her telekinesis really started to become powerful.
Jean's telepathy was suppressed at a young age by Charles Xavier after she connected with her dying friend, Annie Richardson. Jean's telepathy was activated when she was transported into the future where Xavier was dead. When she returned to the past, her powers went back to their original state. Later, Xavier released these mental blocks for a more mature Jean. She lost telepathy following her release from the Phoenix egg, only to regain it after battling Psynapse with X-Factor.
While accessing the Phoenix Force, Jean's empathy, telepathy, and telekinesis are greatly magnified and heightened to an incredible degree. The Phoenix Force also allows her to travel unaided through the vacuum of space, cross interstellar distances faster than the speed of light, and to manifest flames while using her powers, often in the shape of a fiery raptor. Although the full scale of Jean's powers currently are unclear, she stated that the Phoenix Force had been holding her back while she was its host.
Empathy: On many occasions, Jean has shown to have incredibly strong empathic powers that enable her to control, manipulate and alter the feelings, sensations, and emotions of others. It is because of her empathic abilities that the almighty Phoenix Force had chosen her as its rightful human host. In other versions, she had not been shown possessing any types of empathic abilities except for telekinesis and telepathy.
Telepathy: Jean is the most notable, powerful and skilled telepath in the entire Marvel Universe. She is an Omega Level Telepath, who is able to read thoughts, project and broadcast her own thoughts, as well as interact with, affect and even manipulate the minds of humans and animals with higher order intelligence (such as dolphins, ravens or dogs). The range at which she can perform these feats is greatly increased while she is accessing the Phoenix Force. Since her resurrection , her range has naturally increased, having demonstrated the ability to link with every mutant mind on Krakoa and reach out to all active members of the X-Men around the world . While in his mind, she was even able to force Nate Grey to experience all the suffering she caused while 'one with the Phoenix' . During her time in the future she displayed advanced telepathic skills after being tutored by Kitty Pryde, such as cloaking herself and Scott Summers from even the most powerful of the future X-Mens' telepaths. She was also able to overpower Xorn (her future self), although the latter claimed that she was holding back during the altercation. However, the magnitude of this achievement is shown by the fact that even the combined might of the Stepford Cuckoos and Emma Frost was insufficient to defeat Xorn.. She was also able to invade the mind of the primordial symbiote god Knull and has bypassed the telepathic shielding of Juggernaut's helmet. Her telepathy is of such magnitude that she was also able to easily overpower Nightmare, a powerful psychic demon in his own right . After her absorption of Psylocke's specialized telepathy, Jean's own telepathic skill and power was increased to a level at which she could create psionic firebirds capable of inflicting mental and physical damage. However this enhanced telepathy came at the temporary cost of her telekinesis. She has demonstrated the following specialized uses:
- Telepathic Defense: She can manifest her telepathy in a number of defensive ways.
- Telepathic Cloak: She can mask her presence and the use of her abilities from being detected by other psions and Cerebro-type devises. She can extend these defenses to others around her as well. Cloaking via telepathy is not perfect and powerful psis may notice and 'see' through this ability.
- Cloak Mind: Ability to rearrange the "mental engrams" of mutants so their distinctive mutant thought patterns cannot be detected by Cerebro-type devises or by other telepaths.
- Psychic Shield: Ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of herself and the minds of others.
- Telepathic Illusions: She can create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring. Her illusions can also inflect pain on others, making them near flawless. This was later proven when Karnak took 3 days to find a flaw in one of her mindscapes.
- Telepathic Camouflage: She can alter the apparent physical appearance of herself and other people by altering the perceptions of those around her. This can go so far as to make other people believe that the camouflaged people are not there (invisible). A limit, if one exists, is only imposed by the number of people she is trying to fool, not the number of people she is camouflaging.
- Telepathic Manipulation: She can manipulate other people's minds easily, achieving a variety of effects.
- Memory Alteration: She can erase, implant, restore or alter the memory of others.
- Mind Control: She can control the thoughts and actions of others.
- Mind Possession: She can possess the mind of another, and use that being's body as her own.
- Personality Alteration: She can alter the minds of others by force of will, thus permanently changing their personality partially or entirely.
- Mental Paralysis: She can induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.
- Mental Amnesia: She can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia.
- Mind Transferal: She can transfer both her mind and powers into other host bodies if her own physical body was somehow killed.
- Heal Trauma: She has the ability to erase a person's memories and to heal mental trauma through "psychic surgery", as well as the power to stimulate or deaden the pain and pleasure centers in a person's brain.
- Mental Sedating: Can telepathically "sedate" her victims so that, if already rendered unconscious, they remain so for as long as she continues to "sedate" them.
- Neural Jumpstart: She can increase the speed of neural signals in the brain, which could increase another mutant's powers to incredible levels, but the effect was only temporary.
- Dilate Power: Ability to place "psychic inhibitors" in the minds of mutant adversaries to prevent them from using their powers.
- Mind Link: She can bond others minds allowing them to communicate telepathically between them.
- Inter-Dimensional Telepathy: Jean was able to communicate with Cable while he was in the dimension of Otherworld, something Xavier thought was impossible to do.
- Psychic Blast: She can project psychic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind, causing them pain, knocking them unconsciousness or turning the victim "brain-dead".
- Astral Projection: She can project her astral form from her body onto the Astral Plane or the physical plane. In the physical plane she can travel in astral form over vast distances. In the astral plane, she can mentally create psionic objects and manipulate the aspects of her environment. She can communicate with others astrally through her own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others through time.
- Temporal Telepathy: Jean has been shown to be able to read, control and track minds through time, allowing her to affect events in the past, as well as sending her consciousness as well as Wolverine's through time.
- Mental Detection: She can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within a small but as yet undefined radius of herself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being.
Telekinesis: Projection of psychokinetic energy enables her to levitate objects, propel or manipulate them however she wishes, lift herself and move through the air to simulate flight, stimulate individual molecules to create heat, generate concussive force as blasts or bursts, and create protective shields. While she has access to the Phoenix Force, she is able to manipulate matter and energy on a sub-atomic scale using her telekinesis. She can even change her Phoenix clothes into a set of street clothes, and lift multiple heavy objects at once without having any difficulties.
- Psychic Firebird: She can manifest her telekinesis as a psychic firebird, whose claws could inflict both physical and mental damage.
- Force Field: She can create a telekinetic field to either shield her and her teammates or use it to lift multiple heavy objects at her enemy.
- Tactile Telekinesis: She has the power to utilize a personal force field of telekinetic energy.
- Matter Transmutation: She can manipulate and transmute matter on a sub-atomic level (e.g., turning wood into gold, plant into crystal, and cause physical bodies to disintegrate by altering their molecular structure, etc).
- Telekinetic Weapons: She can create psionic weapons and constructs out of psychic energy that damage a target either physically, mentally or both in some point. The versatility of this ability was greatly enhanced after training with Psylocke.
Temporal Telekinesis: Jean has been able to use her telekinetic abilities through time by projecting her astral form in different points in the timestream.
Psychic Siphoning: Jean is able to drain others' psychic energy to enhance her psionic powers. The boost she can provide to herself depends of the psychic energy within her enemies, explaining the fact that she is rarely seen using this power. The greatest feat she has performed after using this ability was when she knocked Galactus out with a blast of psychic energy stolen from him, the Phoenix, Terrax, and an unknown alien species. She also used this ability to reconstruct her body after being consumed by a Poison, and to kill the Poison Queen.
- Telekinetic Aura: She can surround her body with psychic energy to protect herself from harm. She survived a high-speed collision from Gladiator, which would have normally resulted with her death.
- Psychic Resistance: She can protect herself from others telepaths by draining the psychic energy that they normally use. This also prevents her psyche from complete erasure after the Poisons took her over.
- Psychic Entity Physiology: Jean manages to ascend her physical body to become a being of pure psionic force, similar to Nate Grey from the age of Apocalypse. In this form she is a material energy being who could regain her physical form even after having been consumed by a Poison, using this feature to break free of her corporeal prison and reconstruct her physical body from scratch.
- Cosmic-Level Telekinetic Blast: She can create a blast of psychic energy powerful enough to affect Cosmic Beings as Galactus.
- Psionic Bolt Generation: She can transform psychic energy into bolts of energy.
- Psychic Firebird: She can manifest her telekinesis as a firebird made of psychic energy.
Self Resurrection: Jean has been able to resurrect herself by either using her psychic powers or through her sheer force of will. Jean has been able to resurrect herself by reconstructing her body out of psionic energy after it was vaporized . Jean was even able to fully resurrect herself after being clinically dead and independent of the Phoenix Force after encasing herself in a glacier of ice .
Abilities[]
Jean excels at astral combat. She maintained a psychic link to Cyclops for a number of years. She possessed the memories of the Phoenix duplicate of her as well as those of Madelyne Pryor-Summers, her clone, and is thus an expert pilot. Jean has shown some proficiency in hand-to-hand and armed, non-psionic combat; the extent of this is unknown as she prefers to utilize her telekinesis and telepathy during battle. She was able to defeat a group of ninjas with the only use of telekinetic weapons. She has a college education from Metro College.
Paraphernalia[]
Transportation[]
Formerly X-Men Blackbird, X-Men Stratojet, X-Copter, Professor Xavier's Rolls Royce, Sentinel Air Transport, X-Factor Plane, and various aircrafts constructed by Ship. She is also capable of telekinetic flight.
Notes[]
- Following M-Day, when most mutants were left depowered and no mutant births seemed possible, a mutant baby was born in Cooperstown, Alaska, temporarily damaging Cerebra when it detected the child. She bore a resemblance to Jean and when Cyclops held her before giving her to Cable, the baby grasped a locket Cyclops wore that contained a picture of him and Jean, hinting at a relation between the two.
- In Secret Invasion #4 Phoenix appeared in her Green Phoenix costume, among several heroes rescued from a downed Skrull ship. It seemed that they came from the glory of the 1970's era. Phoenix and Beast from the Skrull ship were killed, and reverted to their Skrull forms upon their death.
- Due to her past self having been brought to the current timeline, Jean's telepathy powers became evident to her a year before they were supposed to surface. It had no effect on the current timeline because Young Cable helped the five young mutants get returned to their own time, and Jean blocked all of their memories of future events until after they experience the return home of their younger selves.
- Jean has been stated to be more powerful without the Phoenix and was even told by Cassandra Nova that she was more powerful than their last encounter, which was Jean tapping into the Phoenix Force.
Trivia[]
- Storm is Jean's best friend.
- Multiple people have been stated to be afraid of Jean, such as notable telepaths Emma Frost and Cassandra Nova.
- Jean's resemblance to Rose may have affected Wolverine's attraction to her.
- Against the X-Men's ideals, Phoenix has killed enemies before: Prism and MeMe, although Prism's destruction was accidental.
- In her early missions with the X-Men, Jean was surrounded by men romantically interested in her. Among them were Professor X, Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and (briefly) Blob.
- Jean Grey was depicted as Professor X's laboratory assistant early in her career with the X-Men.
- Jean Grey cooked for the other X-Men when the team's unseen cook had days off.