Hero Profile: Jean Grey/Phoenix

Jean in her Phoenix gear, it looks
awesome.

Today is my niece’s birthday, and as such I thought I should do a special hero profile in her honor. The question was, which one? Well, my niece is one of a handful of people that affectionately call a Spitfire, that plus her bright red hair made the choice clear. So today I’ll cover one of the first X-men and first X-women, Jean Grey.

Jean was recruited by Charles when she was only eleven years old. She was an immensely powerful mutant even at a young age. She was so powerful that she was a danger to herself and others. Charles placed powerful psychic blocks to keep her powers in check until she was ready to handle her immense powers. She was a principle member of the X-men for many years and through many incarnations. While teammate, boyfriend, and later husband, Scott Summers was the official team leader Jean has shown to be a capable leader in her own right. Her most important story arc came in the form of the Phoenix Force. The cosmic entity bonded with Jean, transforming her into the Phoenix. Jean’s powers were forced to near Godlike power and also ultimately led to her death, and later resurrection.

Original costume. Never got the blue patch.

Jean is a unique mutant with two powers, telekinesis and telepathy. Other mutants have multiple powers as well, but Jean is the one that started the trend. Her telepathy was blocked off for a time by the blocks Xavier put in her mind. Jean is what is known as an Omega level mutant. Omega mutant’s powers vary, usually the Mutant has either an immense control of energy, matter, or the universe, and/or the ability to survive the destruction of their body. Jean is in this category because of her immense power over matter and energy, and to a lesser extent her ability to resurrect herself. These abilities were thrown into overdrive when she was bonded to the Phoenix. The Phoenix’s powers allowed Jean to tap into the sum of all life. In simpler terms, Jean draws power from all life that Could Be. With this near god-like power she was also given pyrokinetic abilities, and more importantly an ability to resurrect herself.

Jean has been a major character in most X-men related television and movies. I’d say that her best work is with the X-men show of the 90s. The Phoenix Saga is portrayed so well that the opening credits said it was inspired by the source material. The five part story arc covers every important aspect of the Phoenix storyline, but gives it a happier ending. I always appreciate happy endings. She’s also very important in X-men: Evolution, where she’s reimagined as a teenager at the Xavier Institute and Co-captain of the team alongside Scott. She is a bit quicker to anger than in other versions, but she’s a bit more fun too. The series ended before the Phoenix arc, but had it continued I’m sure it’d have been awesome. Finally, while she wasn’t a major character in the Wolverine and the X-men series, but she was the lynchpin of the entire first, and only, season. Her Phoenix power is what leads to the Days of Future Past style future where Sentinels rule most of North America. Stuff like that happens when people mess with power they don’t understand. Thanks Inner Circle of the “Heck” fire club. Jerks. I’ll get more into that when I cover the Dark Phoenix in a future Villain Profile.

Don't mind her, but the character
was such a let down.

The first two X-men movies did an excellent job portraying Jean and her growth from competent X-man to the immensely powerful Phoenix. Then the third movie flubbed it up. Downgrading the Phoenix Force from a cosmic entity to just a split personality? What the heck? That was just one of the problems with X-men: The Last Stand, but it was a sore spot for me. I hope Jean’s presents in the rebooted X-men timeline is better than her last major appearance. She was a minor character in The Wolverine, and while she was only a hallucination in Logan’s mind, it did do a good job showing the complex relationship between her, Wolverine, and Cyclops.
She's in just about every X-men game, as well as the larger Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Her telekinetic powers are what are highlighted, and her Phoenix power. Not too surprising, really, it'd be hard to show her shattering people's psyches. Fireballs and throwing things at peole is just so much easier to animated. She causes a lot of damage, shocking, right?

I like Jean because she’s one of the first great female heroes. She started out as the token female in an otherwise all male group, but she’s grown to be a great character in her own right. I’ve read some of the All New X-men, a new X-men title where the original team is brought forward in time by Beast in an attempt to bring Scott back from the brink of insanity. It didn’t go well, but afterwards, fearing that young Scott may go the same way that his present self, Jean assumed leadership over the team. She doesn’t take lip from anybody either. I hope future shows and movies will keep showing Jean, and the Phoenix, in all her glory. Happy Birthday Audrey!

Bet the power feels good.

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/wonder-woman-vs-emma-frost-vs-power-girl-vs-jean-g-1454787/
 http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/jean-grey-vs-storm-vsiceman-vs-msmarvel-vs-human-t-564916/
 http://xmenmovies.wikia.com/wiki/Jean_Grey/Gallery
http://marvel.com/universe/Phoenix_%28Jean_Grey%29