Let's Talk: Jean Grey

Welcome once more to the Guide to Geekdom. Today I wanted to talk about Jean Grey, the pinnacle in comic book death and resurrection. Seriously, is there any character in comic book lore that has died and come back more than Jean Grey? (…..besides Mr. Immortal).

 

The truth is that there is a lot more to her character than being a constant martyr for her teammates, which is why I wanted to discuss her with you.

History

 

Jean Grey was one of the original X-Men members, she has vast telekinetic mutant abilities, she has a loving relationship with Cyclops, Wolverine tries to have a relationship with her every so often, and she has a horrible knack for becoming the avatar for a benevolent god known as the Phoenix that uses her body to kill all life which is shortly followed by her sacrificing herself in order to protect all life from the Phoenix which is shortly followed by her resurrection which is shortly followed by her re-possession by the Phoenix which is shortly followed by her sacrifice which REPEATS THE PROCESS AGAIN. HERE IS A SHORT LIST DETAILING HER LIFE: POSSESSION – SACRIFICE – RESURRECTION – REPEAT.

The Character

 

You can’t really talk about Jean Grey without talking about the X-Men. The X-Men are one of the largest superhero teams in comic books, but mostly they act as one big family. Where does Jean Grey fit within this family? Jean Grey is the heart of the X-Men. She helps the various members of the team with their personal issues. It’s obvious why both Cyclops and Wolverine fell in love with Jean, it’s because they are the most troubled of all the members.

 

Cyclops has spent a good portion of his life trying to contain the massive force of nature he wields just by starring at something. Cyclops has disciplined himself to have a strict control of his every move so that he doesn’t slip up and hurt somebody (it’s why he is such a good leader), but this act of self control has stopped him from being free with himself, this is where Jean comes in. Jean forces Cyclops to come out of his shell and actually live life to the fullest. When it comes to Jean, Scott can finely enjoy life again and realize his powers don’t have to define him.

 

With Wolverine, it’s all about his humanity. Logan had been ferociously abused by Weapon X and was force to become an unemotional assassin. With his freedom, Logan is finding it hard to reconnect himself to his humanity when he can’t even remember who he is. Jean Grey helps him by trying to help him reconnect with the past and to try and build a strong friendship with him so that he has someone he can depend on. She was being one of the first people to ever be kind to him in ages; Logan instantly attaches himself to her love and care. He finds in himself compassion for another person and in turn this helps him care for others on the team and to rekindle his lost humanity.

Villains

What happens when the greatest problem you face is yourself? Now I could spend this time talking about how the Brotherhood is her greatest villain but the Brotherhood is more of the X-Men’s greatest nemesis and not hers solely (as a side note, multiple X-Men have had their own arch Nemesis over the years not dealing with the Brotherhood). Jean Grey’s greatest problem is the Phoenix. You can’t stop an all powerful god from taking over your body and forcing you to do bad things.

 As a frame of reference to how powerful Phoenix is, Phoenix managed to defeat Galactus in direct combat

(If you don’t know who Galactus is…… that’s another story for another day).

In complete honesty, you can only hope that the Phoenix simply doesn’t care. Jean Grey, at most times, can use a fraction of the Phoenix’s power for good, when she is fighting alongside the X-Men. Unfortunately, when the Phoenix has a set goal in its mind it will take control and force Jean into doing her bidding. Jean mostly resolves this problem by sacrificing herself in order to save reality; this hasn’t really worked so far.

Supporting Cast

Once again Jean is a member of the X-Men and I’ve already discussed what her key position on the team is. What I want to use this section for is to describe what is going on without her. Jean Grey has been dead for a few years now and the X-Men have basically carried on with their lives and their goals again. The position of Jean Grey has been mostly replaced by Emma Frost.

Emma Frost is now the current telepath of the team and is the love interest of Cyclops. Unfortunately, I am thoroughly against this relationship. Writers have a tendency to just kind of force Emma Frost into this position. She is not Jean Grey and she is not the heart of the team. Emma Frost is her very own character who can exist without Cyclops. She represents a masterful mutant who does have the skill to teach new mutants how to best use their abilities. She was converted to the side of good by the X-Men and for the current generation, has represented a teacher who is cold in her teaching but has a deep passion for those she cares about. The relationship between her and Cyclops should not exist for the very reason that the second Jean Grey comes back to life, Cyclops will dump Emma and go straight back to Jean. Every writer accepts this fact and shows it everywhere. WHY IS EMMA STILL WITH HIM WHEN SHE CLEARLY REALIZES SHE IS JUST A HOLDING SPOT FOR JEAN GREY?!?

During Jean Grey’s absence, the X-Men have currently split themselves up between Cyclops and Wolverine. It may seem a bit backwards how Cyclops’ group is the more gun-ho activist group who is seeking to militaristically train all new mutants to fight against mutant protestors, while Wolverine is going back to Westchester to start up a new school to act as a haven for young mutants, but really think about Jean Grey in this decision. Without Jean Cyclops has reverted back into an incredibly strict person who only sees the wrongs in the world that needs trained mutants to help fight against it. He has effectively lost his ability to enjoy life. Wolverine on the other hand wishes to continue the work Jean had done with him and the other X-Men: be the support they need. He has set up a school in her name in order to house young mutants who have nowhere else to turn to.

What Doesn’t Work

(I think I may have already started this in the previous section).

In her lifetime, Jean Grey had that one amazing storyline, where she was possessed by a god and sacrificed herself in order to save everyone. It was an incredibly successful storyline and Marvel has been trying to duplicate it ever since. This constant repetition has completely taken over her character. Jean Grey can’t exist for very long without Marvel thinking they can squeeze out more money from us if they show the Phoenix to us again and have her die again. It’s sad, but this is almost a comic book form of type casting. Marvel will constantly have her relive her one successful story arc so long as they think they can get cash for it. Honestly, there is no other excuse besides the search for more money to abuse a comic book character to this extent.

{At this point I will briefly touch upon X-Men 3. If you are trying to blot this horrible film from your memories, please skip ahead to the next section.}

The Phoenix storyline was the main focus of the third X-Men film. This was done horribly. I understand that we have to change certain aspects of comic book characters in order to make them seem more realistic for the film, but they simply changed too much. The Phoenix is a benevolent force, not some deep metal issues. The X2 perfectly set it up so that the Phoenix could represent the evolution of mutant kind, but X3 changed it to say the Professor X accidentally cause a second personally in Jean to emerge and be a vicious killer. This was a horrible mistake, but the absolute truth is: SUPERMAN RETURNS RUINED X3! SUPERMAN RETURNS STOLE BOTH THE DIRECTOR OF THE FIRST TWO FILMS AND THE ACTOR WHO PLAYED CYCLOPS! THIS FORCED THE STUDEO TO FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO DIRECT AND TO KILL OFF CYCLOPS EARLIER IN THE FILM AND FORCE WOLVERINE INTO THE LEADERSHIP POSTION WHICH IS NOT WHERE HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE! IF BRYAN SINGER HAD BEEN THERE TO DIRECT X3 IT WOULD HAVE BEEN UNGODLY AWESOME! INSTEAD WE HAD TO SIT THROUGH A BAD ENDING TO THE X-MEN TRILOGY AND A BAD SUPERMAN FILM! SUPERMAN RETURNS RUINED X3!!!

‘cough’

………that is all

What Can Be Done

Having Jean Grey remain dead is a bad idea, but continuing her on the same path doesn’t help either. She represents a key part of the X-Men that has been seriously lacking since her recent death. The X-Men have lost the ability to actually connect with us. I honestly can’t connect anymore with a group of people who now live on an island, cut off from the rest of society. Jean Grey was a character who brought the more….. let’s call it elaborate parts of the X-Men’s storylines back down to Earth. She is a very basic character who is incredibly easy to connect to due to her passion for others.

The true issue is the Phoenix. I want to see an incredibly elaborate storyline where the Phoenix God, through years of watching Jean Grey sacrifice herself in order to stop the destruction of everything, has finally come to understand why her avatar fights her so willingly. A big threat will represent itself and Jean Grey will think that she needs to sacrifice herself again in order to save everyone, but in reality the choice will fall to the Phoenix. Will it allow Jean Grey to kill herself again for the betterment of all, eventually coming back to life and doing this all over again, or will it finally sacrifice itself for the greater good, saving Jean Grey in the process and proving that it could be a force for good after all? This is the story I want Marvel to produce. We can finally see Jean Grey free of her servitude to the Phoenix and finally bring an end to this incredibly long character arc.

In Conclusion

I am quite certain that Jean Grey will be returning to comics soon enough. Personally I believe that the X-Men need her. She represents a specific part of them that is needed to keep them together. Jean Grey should be able to finally move on from her greatest story arc and go into unknown territory that will allow her character to grow, ultimately allowing for better story telling that the same story over and over again.

Thanks for reading
- The Guide

{As a side note that I wanted to mention, this character analysis was a request. I am willing to take in more requests. If you want me to do a specific review, character analysis, top 10, or examine a trend in the industry today, just let me know and I’ll see what I can do. Happy Thanksgiving.}