Jean Grey - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Jean's mutant powers of telepathy and telekinesis first manifest when her best friend is hit by a car and killed. Jean mentally links with her friend and nearly dies as well. The event leaves her comatose, and she is brought back to consciousness when her parents seek the help of powerful mutant telepath, Charles Xavier. Xavier blocks her telepathy until she is old enough to be able to control it, leaving her with access only to her telekinetic powers. Xavier later recruits her as a teenager to be part of his X-Men team as "Marvel Girl", the team's sole female member. After several missions with the X-Men, Xavier removes Jean's mental blocks and she is able to use and control her telepathic powers. She begins a relationship with teammate Cyclops (Scott Summers), which persists as her main romantic relationship, though she also develops a mutual secret attraction to later addition to the team, Wolverine.

During an emergency mission in space, the X-Men find their shuttle damaged. Jean pilots the shuttle back to Earth, but is exposed to fatal levels of radiation. Dying, but determined to save Cyclops and her friends, Jean calls out for help and is answered by the cosmic entity, the Phoenix Force. The Phoenix Force, the sum of all life in the universe, is moved by Jean's dedication and love and takes the form of a duplicate body to house Jean's psyche. In that instant, the Phoenix Force is overwhelmed and believes itself to be Jean Grey and places Jean's dying body in a healing cocoon. The ship crashes in Jamaica Bay, with the other X-Men unharmed. The Phoenix Force, as Jean Grey, emerges in a new green and gold costume and adopts the new codename "Phoenix", with immense cosmic powers. Meanwhile, the cocoon containing the real Jean Grey sinks to the bottom of the bay, unnoticed. Phoenix continues her life as Jean Grey with the other X-Men, joining them on missions and saving the universe. During the "The Dark Phoenix Saga", Phoenix becomes overwhelmed and corrupted by her first taste of evil and transforms into a force of total destruction, called "Dark Phoenix", consuming a star, inadvertently killing the inhabitants of the star's solar system, and jeopardizing the entire universe. However, Jean's personality manages to take control and Phoenix commits suicide to ensure the universe's safety.

Upon its suicide by way of a disintegration ray, the Phoenix Force disperses into its original form and a fragment locates the still-healing Jean at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. In trying to bond with her, Jean senses its memories of death and destruction as Dark Phoenix and rejects it, causing it to bond with and animate a lifeless clone of Jean Grey created by the villain Mister Sinister. Sinister created the clone to mate with Cyclops to create genetically superior mutants. Named "Madelyne Pryor", the unaware clone meets Cyclops in a situation engineered by Sinister and the two fall in love, marry, and have a child, Nathan Christopher Summers. Meanwhile, the cocoon is discovered and retrieved by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Jean emerges with no memory of the actions of the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix. The Avengers and Fantastic Four tell her of what happened and that she was believed dead until now. She is reunited with the original X-Men, and convinces them to form the new superhero team X-Factor. Jean learns that Cyclops has romantically moved on with Madelyn, who is angered over his decision to lead X-Factor and neglect his family. Though Jean encourages Cyclops to return to Madelyne, he finds their house abandoned and assumes that Madelyne has left him and taken their infant son; Cyclops returns to X-Factor and he and Jean continue their relationship.

Madelyne eventually resurfaces with powers awakened by a demonic pact, calling herself the "Goblyn Queen". Learning of her true identity and purpose as a clone drove her completely insane and she plans to sacrifice Nathan Christopher to achieve greater power and unleash Hell on Earth. While attempting to stop her, Jean is reunited with the other X-Men, who are happy to learn that she is alive, particularly Wolverine, reminding Jean of her unaddressed feelings for him. Jean and Madelyne confront each other, and Madelyne attempts to kill them both. Jean manages to survive only by absorbing the remnant of the Phoenix Force housed within Madelyne, giving her both Madelyne's memories and the Phoenix's memories from "The Dark Phoenix Saga".

While continuing on X-Factor, Cyclops proposes to Jean and she meets her alternate future daughter Rachel Summers (who goes by the codename "Phoenix" as well and is also able to tap into the Phoenix Force), but she rejects them both out of the feeling that they indicate that her life is predetermined. When X-Factor unites with the X-Men, Jean joins the Gold Team, led by her best friend Storm. During this time, she no longer uses a codename, instead being referred to by her civilian name. After some time, she makes up with Rachel, welcoming her into her life, and proposes to Cyclops and the two marry. On their honeymoon, the couple is immediately psychically transported 2000 years into the future to raise Cyclops' son Nathan, who had been transported to the future as an infant in hopes of curing him of a deadly virus. Jean adopts the identity of "Redd" along with Cyclops (“Slym”) and they raise Nathan Christopher for twelve years before they are sent back into their bodies on their wedding honeymoon. Jean learns that a time-displaced Rachel had used her powers to transport them to the future to protect Nathan, and per Rachel’s request, Jean adopts the codename "Phoenix" once again to establish it as a symbol of good after all the bad it had caused. Meanwhile, her psychic and telekinetic abilities begin to grow and she begins using the iconic green and gold Phoenix costume again.

Following Cyclops' possession by the mutant villain Apocalypse and apparent death, Jean continues with the X-Men, but is distraught by the loss of her husband. She later learns that she is an "Omega-level" mutant, a term used to describe mutants with unlimited potential. Jean begins to suspect that Cyclops may still be alive and with the help of Nathan Christopher (now the aged superhero "Cable"), is able to locate and free Cyclops of his possession by Apocalypse. The couple return to the X-Men as part of the Xavier Institute's teaching staff to a new generation of mutants. While Jean finds she is slowly able to tap into the powers of the Phoenix Force once again, her marriage to Scott begins to fail. Jean and Wolverine address their long-unspoken mutual attraction, deciding it is best not to act on their feelings; Cyclops grows further alienated from Jean due to her growing powers and institute responsibilities and seeks consolation from the telepathic Emma Frost to address his disillusionment and his experiences while possessed by Apocalypse. These therapy sessions lead to a "psychic affair" between Scott and Emma. Jean's discovery of the psychic affair results in a confrontation between her and Emma, though ultimately Jean realizes that her marriage to Scott has run its course and that Emma truly loves him.

In a final confrontation with a traitor at the institute (the X-Men's teammate Xorn, posing as Magneto) Jean fully realizes and assumes complete control of the powers of the Phoenix Force, but is killed in a last-ditch lethal attack by Xorn. Jean dies, telling Scott "to live." However, after her funeral, Scott rejects Emma and her offer to run the school together. This creates a dystopian future where all life and natural evolution is under assault by the infectious, villainous, sentient bacteria "Sublime". Jean is resurrected in this future timeline and becomes the fully realized White Phoenix of the Crown, using the abilities of the Phoenix Force to defeat Sublime and eliminate the dystopic future by reaching back in time and influencing Cyclops to accept Emma's love and her offer to run the school together. Jean then reconciles with Cyclops and fully bonds with the Phoenix Force and ascends to a higher plane of existence called the "White Hot Room". Though she has yet to fully return, the Phoenix Force continues to manifest itself, particularly through the red-haired, green-eyed "mutant messiah" Hope Summers, and Jean briefly appears in a vision to Emma Frost from the White Hot Room, telling the X-Men to "prepare."