Should Jean have stayed dead after the DPS? What if she never came back?

[phoenixzero23]

Jean is a great character deepely connected with many other important characters on the X-men but she is also famous for dying.
Given her connections her death has a great impact on the X-men, probably more than any other death

So what do you think? Was a good thing that she came back after the DPS?
would the X-men as a franchice be better or worse?
How do you think everything would have played out?

I feel like Maddie, Emma and Rachel would be totally different characters.

[CRaymond]

I think Emma Frost might’ve stayed a villain.

Rachel would’ve been treated with a bit more care.

Maddie might’ve developed powers and joined X-Factor.

[phoenixzero23]

I think Emma Frost might’ve stayed a villain.

Rachel would’ve been treated with a bit more care.

Maddie might’ve developed powers and joined X-Factor.

Thank you for your answer

What about Cyclops?
Do you think that without Jean or Emma he would have stayed a good husband/dad?

[ermac]

Maddie might’ve developed powers and joined X-Factor.

Why they didn't consider just putting Polaris in X-Factor is a mystery to me

[Grey]

As a jean fan I’m always crucified for my opinion but yes, I think I would have liked her to stay dead after DPS.

Teen jean was such a brilliant loophole because I got “a jean” back to read and enjoy, yet the mythical being that was “the great saint jean grey “ still existed with adult jean being dead.

[PetPigeon]

Why they didn't consider just putting Polaris in X-Factor is a mystery to me

The original plan was for it to be Dazzler.

[Thirteen]

#JeanGreyisDEADontheMoon
Firm believer that VERY little worthwhile has been done with her since her return. However, I do factor in the element that through a modern lens Dark Phoenix Saga can be interpreted as being misogynist in the vein of "Make a woman powerful and she will become (sexually liberated and) EVIL". But beyond that, its a scale balancer: Absolute Power corrupts and in the end, Jean had the agency to defeat the threat...HERSELF.

[SiegePerilous02]

Ultimately voted no, but it's complicated.
If there is any hero who should come back from death, it's the one with "Phoenix" as her name. Putting myself in the mindset of readers back in the day, where death seemed more permanent, I can understand it being sacrilegious. But I was exposed to the X-Men for the first time after Jean had come back and this was just part of her story, so it's pretty much a given at this point she could be resurrected.

What I DON'T like is the way they brought her back. The whole "it was never really Jean at all because we must preserve her sainted purity at all costs" horribly undermines the original story, and it goes in tandem with the horribly flawed premise of X-Factor and the character assassination of Cyclops, and all the characters sort of keep paying for it to this day. It was a perfect storm of crappy ideas all hitting at once, and Jean's presence didn't really result in any good stories right away. Not like the fallout from her death.

But I've enjoyed some stuff with her since then, she's one of my favorites, so I want her back. But I wish something like the Phoenix Egg concept had been in place to resurrect her and the Maddie thing had been handled with considerably more care (though the marriage with Jean's doppelganger is creepy and weird even before Jean's return and the clone retcon).

[butterflykyss]

No she shouldn't have stayed dead. I do not like the retcon of her being in a cocoon and also believe the ties to the Phoenix after her resurrection should have been completely severed. Nevertheless, she should not have stayed dead.


If she never came back I dont think there would have been much that changed. A good portion of the last 15 or so years Jean was not present. That said, maybe AvX would have never occurred if she had been alive which would had drastically shifted the direction of the xmen after the dust settled there.

[Lapsus]

How many times had she really died?

[spirit2011]

No she shouldn't have stayed dead. I do not like the retcon of her being in a cocoon and also believe the ties to the Phoenix after her resurrection should have been completely severed. Nevertheless, she should not have stayed dead.


If she never came back I dont think there would have been much that changed. A good portion of the last 15 or so years Jean was not present. That said, maybe AvX would have never occurred if she had been alive which would had drastically shifted the direction of the xmen after the dust settled there.

I think the retcon was really bad, it messed up everything. She coming back wasn't the problem.

Jean and Cyclops wouldn't marry, maybe Maddie and Cyclops would divorce but Inferno wouldn't happen that way.Jean and Scott wouldn't raise Cable, maybe Cable would never be Scott's son.
There is a lot of possibilities

[Sutekh]

What I DON'T like is the way they brought her back. The whole "it was never really Jean at all because we must preserve her sainted purity at all costs" horribly undermines the original story, and it goes in tandem with the horribly flawed premise of X-Factor and the character assassination of Cyclops, and all the characters sort of keep paying for it to this day. It was a perfect storm of crappy ideas all hitting at once, and Jean's presence didn't really result in any good stories right away. Not like the fallout from her death .

Yes! I voted 'stay dead,' but it's not *idea* of Jean coming back, since, IMO, her story wasn't really fully explored, so much as she was 'written into a corner' by being kind of overpowered and cosmic for the title she was in, and had to get moved off (ditto Binary, later, who got super powered up, and then, bam, gone).

And then her return was all sorts of ugly. "Hey Jean, welcome back. There was a space creature that pretended to be you for a while, and super-heroically sacrificed it's life for love, and it was literally the coolest thing you ever did, and, oh wait, that wasn't you, so, uh, hi? I guess?" I guess I wouldn't mind her coming back, but in such a way that it didn't A) negate her amazing death on the moon and B) make Scott dump his wife and kid and run back to a woman who, since he was dating her space-doppleganger, doesn't even know the way he thinks he does... (Which is just extra creepy. What would you think to find some dude you dated briefly years ago ranting about his amazing forever-love with some girl who looked like you, but died, and how it makes you soul-mates? Yikes.)

If Jean had come back, only to find the X-Men had moved on, Emma was now a co-headmaster of Generation X, Scott was married with child to someone who wasn't a creepy clone of her, (or was, whatever), and decided it was all too weird and ended up hanging her hat with the Avengers or Fantastic Four for a bit, that might have been much more interesting, IMO.

Polaris as the 'chick' in X-Factor would have also been an interesting switcharoo (granted, I thought X-Factor was a pretty bad idea anyway, gotta love a book whose premise of 'let's pretend to be mutant-hunters!' turns out to be so awful that it's later claimed to be a supervillain's idea the mutant heroes got tricked into!).

[CRaymond]

One thing I like about Jean’s death and rebirth cycle is how it can be used as “chapters” of the X-Men franchise story. DPS ended chapter 1. Morrison ended chapter 3. We’re currently in chapter five.

Like Sutekh mentions, MUCH of Claremont’s post-DPS teasings of the Jean memory was gross and unfortunate. Madelyne was a huge misstep, and dealt with sloppily. I don’t think there’s room for her, honestly.