For other uses of Phoenix, see Phoenix (disambiguation)
- "Just let it go. It's not hard to die, come to me."
- ―Jean Grey
Jean Grey was a mutant who had powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities.
Biography
20 years before X-Men: The Last Stand
As children, Jean Grey and Annie Malcolm were very close friends. One day while playing frisbee outside Annie, being too competitive and not paying attention, made the catch and was soon hit by a speeding car. After Annie's death, Jean began to dream of fire and dancing among the stars. Jean was reading in her room from Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood Ends when Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier arrived at the Greys' home. She overheard them talking to her parents, and they wanted to meet a mutant who had a great telepathic power. While Lehnsherr wants to use her power, Xavier fears that it's far too dangerous. As a result, he creates psychic barriers to restrain Jean's powers, which ultimately causes her to develop a suppressed alter ego: the Phoenix.
After years of attending Xavier's school together, she began a relationship with her classmate and teammate Scott Summers (also known as Cyclops).
X-Men
Nearly twenty years later, Dr. Jean Grey spoke before Congress, urging its members to vote against the Mutant Registration Act - which would force mutants to reveal themselves to the public. Unfortunately, she failed when Senator Kelly, a staunch proponent of the Act, outmaneuvered her in their debate.
After Wolverine and Rogue were attacked by the Brotherhood of Mutants and saved by Cyclops and Storm, Jean is the one who tends to their wounds once in the X-Mansion. When Wolverine awakes, he attacks Jean - choking her before fleeing. Jean is later showing Wolverine his room. The two have a talk, and Jean puts her telepathic power to a test by reading his mind. When Xavier is affected by Mystique's poison, Jean uses the Cerebro to track down Rogue and Magneto, but her powers aren't powerful enough to use it and, even if she manages to locate them, the machine drains her.
When the X-Men arrive on Liberty Island to fight the Brotherhood, Jean battles against Toad before being attacked by his thick phlegm-mucus-slime, struggling for oxygen before Cyclops saves her by blasting the encrusted slime away. Once on the top of the Liberty Statue, Jean and the other X-Men are captured and restrained by Magneto. After Wolverine's fight with Sabretooth, she and the others manage to break free. She then uses her telekinesis to guide Wolverine to Magneto's machine, freeing Rogue moments before Brotherhood's plan was accomplished. After experiencing the effects of Magneto's machine, Jean appears to be visably "shaken" by the energy emitted from it - possibly breaking down the psychic barriers Xavier placed years before.
After the mission, she assists Xavier until he's healed from the poisoning. With Magneto captured, the Brotherhood disbanded, and the Mutant Registration Act put on hold, Jean can refocus her efforts as a teacher.
X2: X-Men United
Following the battle on Liberty Island, something about Jean has changed: her powers has increased drastically, and Scott starts to worry about their extent: when Jean has some nightmares, infact, she's powerful enough to shake the entire room. After Nightcrawler's attempted assassination of the President, Jean and Storm are sent to track and bring him to Xavier. Testing her new abilities, Jean flies the X-Jet with her powers - causing Storm to worry about her power. The two find Nightcrawler in an abandoned church in Boston, and learn from him that he was forced to attack the White House while under some kind of mind control. Returning the X-Mansion, Jean and Storm discover that the school had been attacked by Colonel William Stryker and his HYDRA allies, and that some of the students have become prisoners. Intercepting a call from Wolverine, Jean and Storm pick up him and three students (Rogue, Iceman and Pyro). In flight, the X-Jet is attacked by two F-16s, and Jean uses her power to destroy the missiles they have launched - her eyes starting to glow with a fiery light. One of the missiles manages to hit the jet, and the X-Men are saved by Magneto, who offers an alliance against Stryker. During a briefing, the former enemies share their respective information about Stryker, and decide to attack his Alkali Lake base. At the base, Jean fights with a brainwashed Cyclops and manages to defeat him. After the battle, the X-Jet is damaged and is unable to leave before the dam bursts. Jean leaves the jet: using her powers, she stops the flood and raises the jet on the water, activating the main engines and saving her teammates just moments before releasing the flood on herself. All of her teammates believe Jean to be dead.
X-Men: The Last Stand
Depressed for months by Jean's apparent death and haunted by her psychic echo, Cyclops returns to Alkali Lake to mourn his loss. Once here, he releases a powerful optical blast towards the lake, breaking a telekinetic coccoon at the bottom of the lake. Soon afterwards, Scott discovers Jean Grey in front of him - alive and well. She manages to control Scott's power with hers, and the two share a kiss. During the kiss, Jean abandons herself to instinct and an unspeakable horror seemingly kills Scott. Worried for Cyclops, the other X-Men arrive on the shore, finding only Scott's glasses telekinetically floating in the air with stones and logs. A little distant, they find an unconscious Jean.
Back at the X-Mansion, Xavier explains to Logan how she survived (using telekenitic energy), and how she is a Class 5 mutant with potentially limitless power because her mutation is seated in the subconscious part of her mind. Because of this, Jean developted dual personality; the conscious Jean Grey and the dormant Phoenix - a pruely instinctual creature.
Later on, Logan returns to check up on Jean. Once there, she tries to seduce him, but when he refuses the Phoenix breaks through and possesses her: after attacking Logan, confused and angry, she escapes the Mansion and returns to her childhood home. There, she was approached by both the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants - who fight each other while Xavier and Magneto attempt to convince Jean to join their respective sides. When Xavier tries to block her alternate personality, the Phoenix becomes enraged and unleashes her power, destroying the home and killing Xavier. Confused and saddened by her mentor's death, Jean follows Magneto to his hideout.
Wolverine eventually follows them and tries to reason with Jean, but Magneto intervenes and defeats him. Magneto believes he can use the her powers for his aims, and brings her with him to Alcatraz Island to destroy Worthington's facility. During the battle that follows X-Men's arrival, Magneto tries to convince Phoenix participate, but she appears uninterested during its duration. Wolverine almost manages to make Jean's personality resurface, but human soldiers intensify their fire on her, unleashing her rage. The Phoenix breaks through again and takes over Jean's body. She starts a massive attack on everything and everyone within the area, destroying Worthington's facility and killing any human or mutant in her way. While everyone is forced to escape, only Wolverine manages to approach her, since his healing factor prevents her powers from disintegrating him. When Logan manages to break through to Jean, she begs him to stop her. In tears, declaring his love to her, Wolverine stabs Jean Grey, killing her and putting an end to the destruction.
Sometime after the events on Alcatraz, Jean's grave is placed near Scott's and Xavier's.
The Wolverine
Six years later, Jean's death still haunts Logan. He still mourns her loss and has frequent hallucinations and nightmares of her. Jean "visits" Logan multiple times before he moves on from her death.
Powers & Weaknesses
Powers
- Telekinesis - Jean had the ability to lift objects at will with her mind. When she was the Phoenix, she could also manipulate objects' physical properties.
- Telekinetic Flight - Jean can fly using her telekinesis.
- Disintegration - Her telekinesis is powerful enough that she can disintegrate her opponents.
- Telepathy - Jean had the ability to read minds, which was also another core power of hers. During X-Men, she states that Professor X is much superior than her but she was learning.
- Mind Link - Ability to develop a mental link with any person which remains as a connection to that individual, as witnessed with Xavier at the end of X2: X-Men United.
- Mind Possession - She can possess the mind of another, and use that being's body as her own, as witnessed with Xavier near the end of X2: X-Men United.
- Psionic Blasts - She can create telepathic blasts which can induce pain, knock out or kill a person.
Weaknesses
- Instability - If she becomes emotionally unstable, she loses control of her powers and will turn into her darker persona known as the Phoenix.
Relationships
Friends and Family
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Enemies
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Trivia
- Jean was not a doctor in the Marvel Comics versions. Originally Beast was set to appear in the first film, but the technology was not yet adequate to portray him, so his character was written out, and Jean took on the role of team scientist.
- Throughout the whole of the third movie, Jean switches from herself to her possessed variant: the Phoenix.
- Jean Grey reappears in The Wolverine, but she appears as a hallucination Logan has.
External links
Jean Grey on the Marvel Wiki
Jean Grey on Wikipedia
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