Monday, June 22, 2009

Jean Grey

Real Name
Jean Grey-Summers

Occupation

Phoenix Force host; former adventurer, teacher, headmistress, student, model

Citizenship
U.S.A.

Place of Birth
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York City, New York

Known Relatives
John Grey (father), Elaine Grey (mother), Sara Grey-Bailey (sister, deceased), Gailyn Bailey (niece, deceased), Joey Bailey (nephew, deceased), Scott Summers (Cyclops, husband), Christopher Summers (Corsair, father-in-law), Katherine Anne Summers (mother-in-law, deceased), Alexander Summers (Havok, brother-in-law), Gabriel Summers (Vulcan, brother-in-law), Philip Summers (grandfather-in-law), Deborah Summers (grandmother-in-law), Madelyne Pryor-Summers (clone, deceased), Nathan Christopher Summers (Cable, stepson), Stryfe (clone stepson, deceased), Rachel Summers (Marvel Girl, alternate timeline daughter), Nate Grey (X-Man, alternate timeline progeny, deceased), Dark Mother (alleged relative)

Group Affiliation
Formerly X-Men, Twelve, Brides of Set, X-Factor/X-Terminators

Education
College level education

Height
5'6"

Weight
115 lbs.

Eyes
Green

Hair
Red

Powers
Jean Grey possessed telepathic powers enabling her to read minds, project her thoughts into the minds of others, initiate astral travel, and mentally stun opponents with pure psionic force, among other talents. She also possessed telekinesis, allowing her to levitate and manipulate objects and others, generate force fields, fly, and stimulate heat molecules to generate concussive blasts.

Her powers were magnified to near-infinite levels while she served as an avatar for the cosmic Phoenix Force. She was able to manipulate matter and energy on a molecular scale, although this varied on the Force's status and how much power it chose to allocate to her.

Other Info
Jean is the younger daughter of history professor John Grey and his wife Elaine. When she was 10 years old, Jean experienced the emotions of a dying friend because of her her mutant abilities. Her parents took her to Professor Charles Xavier to help treat her. While Xavier treated Jean, he also used her to fine tune his Cerebro machine. Professor Xavier also used Jean's abilities to find a young mutant, Scott Summers (Cyclops). Later, Xavier put psychic shields in Jean’s mind to prevent her from using her telepathic powers until she was mature enough to control them. Jean became a founding member of Xavier’s team, the X-Men, and she went by the name, Marvel Girl. Jean soon fell in love with Scott Summers (Cyclops), but did later develop a strong attraction towards one of the team’s new recruits, Wolverine. (To learn more concerning the people and team above, just click on their highlighted names. Note: Cyclops' bio page has a picture of Emma Frost in a revealing and very tight-fitting outfit. Also, on the new Marvel.com Wolverine bio page, the main picture shows Elektra in a very tight-fitting outfit in the background.)

On a mission in outer space, Jean was noticed by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force which realized Jean's unlimited potential. Later, on another mission in space, the X-Men escaped back to Earth in a shuttle through a deadly solar radiation storm. Jean was dying from radiation poisoning and she was saved by the Phoenix Force. The Phoenix Force created a duplicate body complete with memories and personality, absorbed a portion of Jean's consciousness, and cast her into suspended animation in a strange cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. For months the Phoenix believed itself to be the real Jean. At one point, by some mental manipulation by Mastermind, the Phoenix went insane and become the Dark Phoenix. Ultimately, the portion of Jean’s consciousness within Phoenix resurfaced and caused it to commit suicide. This portion of Jean's consciousness and residual Phoenix energy was sent to Jean’s original body in the cocoon, where it was rejected, and then to her clone, Madelyne Pryor. Eventually, Jean was rescued from her stasis and, with the X-Men, formed a new team known as the X-Factor. Madelyne Pryor (Jean's clone) later died in a confrontation with the real Jean Grey in which Jean absorbed Madelyne’s and Phoenix’s personalities and memories and a spark of the Phoenix energy. Later, Jean expelled this spark of energy and the personalities she had absorbed but kept faint impressions of their memories. (I know the whole Phoenix thing is kind of confusing, I don't completely understand it myself, but if you would like to learn about it in more detail, you can go to Marvel.com's Jean Grey bio page here, http://marvel.com/universe/Phoenix_(Jean_Grey). To learn about the different people mentioned above, click on their highlighted names. Note: The Mastermind has a very revealing picture with a woman in the background in a corset on the Marvel.com bio page. And watch out for Madelyne Pryor's bio page, she too is in a very revealing and tight-fitting outfit. Along this those, watch out for the tight-fitting outfit on the Phoenix Force page.)

Jean then rejoined the X-Men and she and Scott were eventually married. They both were temporarily teleported to a possible future to help raise Nathan Summers, her stepson. Later, Scott seemingly sacrificed himself to stop Apocalypse from gaining the power of The Twelve. Apocalypse used Scott’s body as a host until his essence was removed from his body by Jean. Later, after an attack on the X-Men, Jean and Wolverine were trapped on a space station that was headed for the sun. Wolverine seeing no hope for survival and wanting to spare his teammate from further suffering, he seemingly killed Jean. This unleashed the Phoenix consciousness within Jean and she was resurrected. After returning to Earth, Jean/Phoenix was killed by a massive stroke induced by a lethal electromagnetic pulse. (To learn about the person/team/place above, just click on their names.)

After being killed, Jean was hatched from a Phoenix Egg in the future. Jean remembered her mission and destroyed the future reality. Jean ascended to the White Hot Room as a White Phoenix of the Crown and created a new future by pushing Scott to stay with Emma Frost and continue the Xavier Institute. (To learn about the above people and place, click on their highlighted names. Note: Beware of Emma Frost's page! Frost is almost always in revealing and tight-fitting outfits.)

Then later, a band of Shi'ar aliens, used their advanced technology to force the Phoenix Force out of the White Hot Room and shattered it with an 'Event Horizon'. Confused and driven insane, the Phoenix flew to Earth and forcefully resurrected Jean Grey. Jean ultimately merged with the Phoenix Force and became the White Phoenix again and returned to the White Hot Room to find its missing pieces. (To learn about the Shi'ar people, click on their name above.)

I think the X-Men movies did a pretty good job with the Jean Grey/Phoenix Force thing. Also, if you haven't noticed, Jean Grey is very intertwined with so many different Marvel characters that I had no idea about before I started researching about her (see the "Known Relatives" section above). Like I said earlier, the Phoenix Force thing is kind of confusing and by reading both the Phoenix Force bio page on Marvel.com and the Jean Grey bio on Marvel.com, it is a little easier to understand. I just tried to hit the main points. But beware of the risque pictures on both of those bio pages, if you choose to read more in detail about them.

Also, something else that I thought was interesting. Jean has gone through many different uniforms/costumes. In the beginning, as Marvel Girl, she was in the original yellow/blue/black outfits that the X-Men had (pictured as the third picture above). Then she changed some more until she became the Phoenix, usually in a green outfit (the first picture posted above). Then as the Dark Phoenix, she's usually in a red outfit (the fifth picture posted above). Then as the White Phoenix, she is usually in a white outfit. So, you can usually tell which Phoenix form Jean Grey is in depending on the color of her outfit.

Now that I have done some research, done this post, and posted about the uniform colors of the Phoenix, I have come to a conclusion concerning the Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men movies. In X-Men: The Last Stand, Jean Grey is wearing red, she's more evil, and is a little bit insane. Therefore, I believe the movie portrays Jean just as the Dark Phoenix, not any of the other forms of the Phoenix. (I just thought that was interesting that the movies focused on that story line.)

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, I'm only just a little confused. That last paragraph was helpful though. :)

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  2. I'm pretty confused too... I think I'll just stick witht he movie interpretation, because I can follow that one =)
    In the movie, Jean is the MOST powerful mutant, and it sounds like that's true in the Marvel world as well. I don't know if her "disintegrate people" trick from the movie is real or not, but I think she is a real candidate for the next Battle Royale =)

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