With Dark Phoenix on the horizon, it’s time to admit that Jean Grey is the most underrated X-Men character. Learn why in this week’s Deeper Cut.
This post contains spoilers for the Dark Phoenix saga from the comic books.
Dark Phoenix opens this week, giving the spotlight to Sophie Turner as a young Jean Grey. And it’s about time, as Jean has always been the most underrated character in the X-Men universe.
Other than The Avengers, there’s no bigger Marvel team than the X-Men. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby caught lightning in a bottle when they debuted the mutant superheroes in the fall of 1963. These characters captured themes of identity, prejudice and ideology that have only become more and more relevant in the almost 56 years since.
And it’s near impossible to discuss the X-Men, and in some ways female comic book characters, without mentioning Jean Grey.
Jean is not only an original member of the X-Men but an important one. It’s established fairly early on how powerful she is — she’s classified as an Omega-level mutant, and often considered one of the most powerful mutants, with ScreenRant ranking her the most powerful back in 2015.
Beyond that, though, she has an incredible emotional value to the team. Jean plays a significant role in the lives of many of her fellow characters. She’s the true love (and eventual wife) of Cyclops, the unrequited love of Wolverine, and has a close mentor-student bond with Professor X.
Later on she develops a strong friendship with Storm, and becomes a key teacher and mentor to the young mutants at Xavier’s school. So many X-Men, and would-be future X-Men, are influenced by Jean in some way.
That’s not really a surprise, because Jean Grey is a remarkable character — and most of that has little to do with the Phoenix Force or the Dark Phoenix story that fans are about to see unfold on screen again. She’s a strong woman, who is not only physically powerful but powerful in how she is able to connect with and be a positive influence on so many people.
She’s a role model, genuinely believing in Charles Xavier’s mission of a peaceful coexistence for both humans and mutants, and wanting to do the right things to make that possible. The way that Jean conducts herself is almost always the right way — which was what made the Dark Phoenix Saga so shocking in 1980. Marvel took its most upstanding female character, and corrupted her on a cosmic level.
That’s where the underrated part comes in. When many comic fans think of Jean Grey, they end up primarily thinking of the Phoenix storyline. And if it’s not that, chances are it’s her as the romantic interest of both Cyclops and Wolverine. To remember just one plot line, even if it is considered one of the classics, or to think of her as a love interest is giving her incredibly short shrift.
Jean may not have been the most popular member of the X-Men, or the one who had the coolest powers — once Wolverine was introduced, he ran away with both those titles. But Jean never quite got her due. And there’s also something cool about simply being a good person, who just happens to be a superhero. Part of being a hero, after all, is making a positive difference in the world—or you’re not really a hero at all.
And while many early stories in the 1960s did focus on her as a love interest, the character was able to grow into one of Marvel’s first prominent female heroes. Invisible Woman from Fantastic Four predates her by only two years, and it was three years later that Peggy Carter made her first appearance. Chances are, if asked to name a female Marvel hero, you’ll say Jean Grey.
But on the popularity list, she’s fallen behind newer and cooler X-Men characters like Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue and Emma Frost.
That probably has something to do with the Dark Phoenix Saga, which has the ironic distinction of being one of the most awesome comic storylines and one of the most divisive.
Jean Grey died—for the first of what’s now multiple times—and was reborn as Phoenix in the 1970s during The Phoenix Saga. Claremont hoped to create “the first female cosmic hero” by having her inhabited by a powerful entity known as the Phoenix Force.
However, the Phoenix Force wound up corrupted and evil in the Dark Phoenix Saga, leading to Jean’s second death when her personality was able to reassert control over Dark Phoenix and she committed suicide to protect the universe.
There was (and still is) intense debate about how much responsibility Jean bears for Dark Phoenix’s actions, since she was integrated with the corrupt entity. During a 1984 roundtable on the subject, then-Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter compared the character to Hitler.
The Phoenix and Dark Phoenix Sagas are one of the most layered, intense and thought-provoking storylines ever written in comics, regardless of universe or gender. There are questions of identity, responsibility, and intent, and Jean’s sacrifice is the most poignant example of who she is and her moral code.
As the last line spoken at the end of the storyline goes, “Jean Grey could have lived to become a god. But it was more important to her that she die a human.”
It’s a beautiful, painful story but it also became almost everything that Jean is known for. It’s been almost all that she’s been depicted with in the movies. X-Men: The Last Stand also used Phoenix, though with very little success. And Famke Janssen, who was excellent at playing Jean before the casting of Sophie Turner, was a wonderful choice who didn’t get nearly as much to do in the films as she should have.
Jean hasn’t been fully explored in film. Most of her big-screen canon is either this story or about her relationship to Logan. And her comic canon after Dark Phoenix became a mess; if she wasn’t dead or dying again, she was getting pushed aside for clones (Madelyne Pryor) or other people (Emma Frost). Jean has hardly been able to just be Jean Grey and just have a life, with the exception of the X-Men: Red comic that lasted only 11 issues in 2018.
It’s hard to figure out why, after creating and shaping such a great character, neither film nor page have taken full advantage of what Jean Grey has to offer. Is it because her being simply good and idealistic was seen as boring? Is it because we’re still arguing over the whole Phoenix thing? Or is it because people often can’t write her completely realized?
The answer is a little of all of the above—so hopefully Dark Phoenix, and Sophie Turner’s portrayal of such an important part of the character’s history, will add more dimension to the way audiences view Jean Grey. She’s a phenomenal character, and not just because she’s been possessed by a phenomenal entity.
Dark Phoenix is in theaters this Friday, June 7. Find the latest Deeper Cut every Wednesday in the Entertainment category at FanSided.