Quote Originally Posted by PhoenixStudies View Post
In many ways the Pink form is a Phoenix replacement, just without the cosmic baggage or the interpretation that it is a separate force/entity/being. It allows her to power/level up to or near her foe's power-level, she draws on the psychic energy of others (similar to how the Phoenix Force has been said to draw from the psychic energy of every living being and/or future unborn), and it has allowed her to become a being of pure psionic energy and reconstitute herself (this parallels the original explanation for Phoenix given in UXM 125) when she beat the Poisons and effectively resurrected herself. She has also used it as a power/threat/dominance display similar to how she has used the phoenix raptor before. Also learning about Phoenix/Dark Phoenix and being shown footage of Dark Phoenix in Trial of Jean Grey allowed her to look in herself to discover this new application of her power to begin with.

Since she absorbed some of the Phoenix Force's energies with it in Generations, she can also create a pink phoenix raptor (of course Adult Jean could also create a pink psychic raptor). So really, with the pink form she doesn't even need the Phoenix Force anymore. She can have its best qualities without the baggage. Claremont was going to make her a Phoenix on her own without the Force in Revolution and now they could really do it with Teen Jean's development. Past-Adult Jean even called them "two Phoenixes" with her having the Phoenix Force and Teen Jean having her Pink form in Generations Phoenix. I doubt if they will continue this direction though. They never do what makes sense with what they have set up.

I agree that ground rules would be good and it should be something used from time to time and not a constant. But if Angel can power up to Archangel, I don't see why Jean can't power up to Pink mode. Maybe a limit could be that she can't sustain the pink form for very long or that it taxes or hurts her body. Both Nate Grey and Xorn-Jean grew so powerful that their powers were killing their physical bodies so maybe the threat of that could limit Jean. Her power levels could also be limited by who she is around or fighting against. Maybe if there aren't that many people around and/or the mutants around her aren't that powerful--maybe she doesn't get that much energy.

This is kinda unrelated but here is a pic of Marvel Girl-Jean from the original days levitating multiple steal beams (from [Uncanny] X-Men #36). Angel acknowledges that Jean's powers have grown. Although Jean admits some strain it does show that she wasn't as weak as some think back then. Her growing powers was always a part of her character too.

In the future Adult Teen Jean is shown down taking four Silver Surfers and then proceeds to take down Galactus himself. Her pink form became a Phoenix effect and the Surfers called her Phoenix. I think this is the direction they will ultimately go with her. It was referenced that she never used her true power because she was afraid of the Phoenix taking over.

Basically, the pink form was conceived as a way to make her Phoenix to avoid the fear that the force would take her over and make her Dark Phoenix. It's not the comics baggage Bendis and others wanted to avoided, it's the murderous baggage of D'Bari and of AvX when Phoenix was destroying planets on her way to earth.

For Age of X-Man to happen Marvel deliberately nurfed all the powerful X-Men like Jean, Storm, Magneto. Cable was killed off (Adult Cable could have stopped this) and Magik temporarily out of the picture.

The X-Men disassembled and Age of X-Man effectively reboot the X-Men comics, because by the end of this month Disney's takeover off Fox will be complete and the X-Men will be placed in MCU. That's where all the 90s nostalgia comes in.