Jean Grey / Phoenix Appreciation 2021

[Grinning Soul]

I think cheating via telepathy extremely abusive.

It's selfish. It's extremely hurtful to Jean. It's not abusive, though.

He is actually being a victim of abuse himself. We just don't see it because, as a society, we don't take abuse seriously when the victim is a man.

Please, read this as if X was woman and Y was a man. Really imagine X is a woman and Y is a man, please. Let’s go.

…
X had asked Y to be his therapist. Y agreed.

Some time after this request is made, X is talking to her buddy, while flying a jet. Y gets into her mind uninvited. X's friend voice goes to the background, to show X's mind is being somewhat sequestred/distracted.

- Y: That's better... You simply have to relax. You're with me now, X. And I'm looking out through your eyes.

Y starts to create visual images in X's mind.

- X: No, it's... it's more like yellow. The light turns yellow in the Ruby Quarz shield, Y.
- Y: Oh, I knew that. I'm trying to get you in the mood, X. Stop being so literal. Fly with Y.

Y brings X to an airplane with him. Both are wearing parachutes and they're supposed to sky dive.

- Y: I summered here in those long hot days following the incident which left my ghastly finishing school in flames and my headmistress penniless. South Provence. Or at least my memory of it. And now I'm mixing your own memories of wind and air pressure to make it seem more convincing. Aren't I clever? It's just long-range super-telepathy, X. Made possible by this lovely Cerebra machine. I'm quite drunk on the sensation of ten times the prying power!

Y jumps. X, still is still on the plane.

- X: I need a little marriage guidance, Y. That's all.
- Y: And that's exactly what we're going to do, X. Trust me.
- X: I've heard that one before. Why can't you just be straight with me?

X jumps off the plane.

- X: Why can't everyone just be straight with me?
- Y: Because we live in a bendy world, dear. Let go. Tell all your troubles to Mister Y.

X tries to open her parachute, but all her previous uniforms are ejected from the backpack, insted of the parachute. Clearly distressed, X says:

- X: Y? This isn't funny. Is this supposed to be symbolic? Because really feels like... gravity. I'm falling, Y! Stop this!
- Y: Save your breath for impact. Let's aim for my cousin W... that's a memory of her wedding bellow and I've always wanted to ruin it.

They're sliding down a slide with lots of cushions, landing on a bed, with candles around it.

- Y: Good heaves! How did we end up here? How terribly meaningful.
- X: I only wanted to talk.

Back in the real world, X's budy realises X is not okay and tells X to go rest. X thanks her buddy.

- Y: Take your buddy's advice. Your left brain can handle them yapping away like a dog. Your right brain needs all the help it can get. Which is where I, as the X-Men's only qualified sex therapist, come to the rescue.

X is moving away from Y. Y is leaning on her direction.

- X: I don't feel safe here. That's all. Wherever here is... It's like everyone's watching me. Like I'm doing something wrong.

Y gets closer.

- Y: We're swapping thoughts, that's all. Telepaths do it all the time. How do you think your spouse and mentor while away the long hours abroad together?
- X: I don't need this! What do you know about me or my spouse or any of us?

Y gives her some space.

- Y: Rather a lot, as a matter of fact, Mrs. X. Your spouse is a human furnace of violent emotions... it can be quite horrific to experience.
- X: I know he has a temper...
- Y: A temper? For God's sake, X, he almost erased my brain! I was left drooling and incontinent for a month. I'd think very carefully before crossing swords with your spouse again, believe me.
- X: He's never been that way with me...
- Y: Well, we've seen his worst and survived it. But you... No one really knows what volcanic passion X struggles to repress. He's afraid of you.
- X: I'd never hurt him. No matter what. I think he knows that too.
- Y: You think he knows, but you've never really told him. Why is that, X? What's the big optic blast you're holding back from us this time? Are you afraid you'll blow your spouse to smithereens if you tell him you don't love him anymore?
- X: I'll always love him... it's just...

The lettering becomes really small to show X's voice is really quiet.

- X: We've both changed so much... everything's changed.

The letterring becomes normal sized again.

- X: I used to think I was so special. I tried to be a good wife. But underneath all the lies and the acting I'm just like everyone else.
- Y: Spare me the bloody obvious, X. So you were possessed for five minutes by an evil spirit. He showed you dark corners in your soul that you never knew you had blah, blah, blah. But when do we reach the scandal, X? The real dirt. In its more pure, concentrated and embarrassing little nuggets?
- X: Give me a break, Y. This is hard enough.

Y starts to look inside a closet, choosing a change of clothes.

- Y: The perfect marriage of the world's most beloved mutant heroes has fallen into ruin. Where? How? Why and when did it all go so wrong? I think there's only one way to find out. We'll play a game of super heroes and heroines, shall we?

Y is wearing the uniform of X's spouse that represents his most intense, corrupted self.

- Y: You be X. I'll be your spouse.

Again, X is leaning back and Y is leaning in her direction seductively.

- X: Is this still telepathy therapy, Y? Or are we having some kind of weird affair now?

There's a break in the scene. Who knows how much back and forth and taunting happens. Anyway, when we go back to it, X is standing and Y is on bed, still wearing the uniform, looking at X, lying on bed on a suggestive pose.

- Y: So anyway... I am power and song and fire incarnate but the the truth is no matter how hard I try, I can't help playing with fire. How about you, darling?

X's face is miserable, grumpy, angry, as she starts to take her jacket off in a clearly upset way.

- X: Sure, spouse. why not?
…



X is Scott. Y is Emma.

True: Emma didn't take his free will. But Scott was in no condition to be strong enough to resist the temptation of escaping his miserable reality. Yes, it is selfish. But, emotionally, the guy isn't super human. He's just human and he's at this lowest point of his emotional fortitude.

If Scott was a female character and Y was Charles Xavier, people would be calling Xavier a rapist.

And that is particularly harmful because Scott had asked Emma to be his therapist and she tells him that what they're doing is therapy. Again, she's a telepath and his mind is sequestered. This is even worse than if she was physically seducing him while she accepted him as a patient of hers: in their mind, she doesn't only have the authoritative power of a health provider, she has *all* the power.

This is how the affair starts. In all the other depictions of it, Scott tells Emma it feels like he's cheating and he's clearly not comfortable with it, but she's in his mind, telling him whatever it takes to get him to engage in the betrayal again.

That's not to say he didn't have his free will. But ask yourself:

a) How much of a chance he stood after she didn’t stop that intervention when he expressed he didn’t want that and he didn’t fell safe, at least, three times?

b) Was Emma trying at all to treat him when she’s clearly trying to seduce him (“I'm trying to get you in the mood, Scott”)? When she dismisses his trauma telling him: “So you were possessed for five minutes by an evil spirit.”. Or when categorises his marriage and feelings by saying things like: “She’s afraid of you”, “Are you afraid you'll blow Jean to smithereens if you tell her you don't love her anymore?”, “The perfect marriage of the world's most beloved mutant heroes has fallen into ruin”?

c) How fair it is to judge him when you consider that Emma had sequestered his mind without his consent, ignored when he expressed he didn’t want to be there, plucked his mind away while he was flying a jet (one of his favourite hobbies) and created an atmosphere of adventure and excitement, taunting him with the representation of Jean’s most corrupted and emotionally intense state, at the moment when he feels most desperate to connect with Jean, during a the time when he’s at his most corrupt, emotionally empty and feeble state?

Yes, it’s selfish. It’s really hard not to be selfish when you’re really depressed. It’s really hard to resist temptations when you’re feeling so miserable. That’s why so many people throw everything away when they start to use hard drugs…

Now, I’m not trying to bash Emma here. She was dealing with her own traumas and lashing out, reverting to some behaviours that were natural to her. But that’s a whole different discussion.

[Vishop]

Jean floated those plates so good. And man, when she gives up on missions because they get difficult I just get so amazed at the incredible writing and modern framing of a female character.

And it means so much that her TK powers have been downgraded/removed because her real power is her ability to comfort Cyclops!

Just. So. Good. The best the character has ever been from Day 1 of the run.

Sush sush Hickman's Jean fans will get mad to here this

[Grinning Soul]

They had a psychic link, it was a special thing.

As for the psychic link. It had been broken at that point.

Now, personally, I don't think it was actually broken. I think it was blocked on his side and Jean knew it. And that's why Jean refused to use her telepathy and look in his mind when he asked her to do so because he wasn't able to communicate with her the extent of the trauma and what was going on with him.

The reason I believe it, though, is just my conjecture based on how Jean describes the psychic bond to him during the DPS and the fact it was still there when Rachel brings their minds to the future and they land on human (flatscan) bodies. She’s not on her body, she’s not a telepath, she’s not even a mutant and, somehow, the bond is still there, so I think it's safe to assume the thing can't actually be broken.

But none of them knew that for sure. In the scene I copied on a previous post, when Jean loses her telepathy, the link is gone. I think that's her subconsciously blocking it because she doesn't fully understand the rapport herself. Then later, because of Apocalypse, Scott was the one doing it.

Does it make sense to you?

Anyway, this is just what I think. They never really defined the rapport very well and different writers wrote it differently.

He is in charge of Krakoa's security. He lead mission and command everyone on the missions even magneto

Shouldn’t he be in charge of the X-Force, then? He’s not even briefed on the intelligence they gather, is he?

The captains only do something in times of war, I believe. But, please, correct me if I’m wrong. I’m not contesting your view.

Solo doesn't mean that she is alone, just that it is her adventures.

What would qualify like that to you, then? It’s like she has a team she’s leading, then? :)

Why giving him a third chance of not being a crap husband? Jean should be free to do her own thing, time to move on

Third? When did the first two chances happened?

Their marriage was doing great.

Before Apocalypse possessed Scott, he and Jean were planing on taking a break from the X-Men so they could have kids. In fact, The Twelve story starts with Scott thinking about how much he wants that as he’s feeling he’s being dragged into the X-men craze again, divided between what he wants and his sense of duty…

No problem for me. I like to exchange different opinions, specially on these times.
I just want this era to be be over, I really lost the hope that thing gonna get better for Jean. I don't think any of the writers like her to actually give her a good development that she deserves.
I know it looks bad and that I dont like the character and that i want to see her fail. No I like the charcter that is why I want to see this era ends with a whimper.
Maybe I will be wrong...

I wish we’d be out of this Krakoan era too. But I think they’ll milk this cow until its dry. So… I’m hoping something good/fun comes while we’re at it, you know?

But I do understand you. And it just breaks my heart, self-friend. Whenever you want to vent, I’ll be willing to “listen”, okay? :)

[MechaJeanix]

Early in the Hickman era JDW discussed power creep and on another occasion Hickman stated we had too many overcooked mutants when asked about powerful mutants. I am not surprised he tends to tone down powers. Jean often feels toned down. People complain about the use of telepathy but Hickman uses it as its most basic- a form of communication.

Jean’s tk has been used but in no way resembling how Teen Jean was used.

Of course all this to say Hickman has used Magneto as a powerhouse when he was dropping satellites from space on aliens in the Empyre story. Storm had a big moment when she created wind inside The World, and she had the lightning shield in the issue where Scott got knocked out. Jean though had a nice telepathic showing in her Giant Size issue.

Things aren’t the best for Jean but still prob not the worst. I think Duggan will use her better than Hickman.

This post obvious focuses on powers but Jean is best when she has her trademark compassion, empathy, close relationships, but still has some fiery temper flare ups imo.

[Triniking1234]

Duggan gave Jean a good show in that Cable issue so I hope so.

What do you think about Percy? Wasn't a fan of her dying in Wolverine #1 but I liked how she ended the plant threat in X-Force.

[Celestialbodies]

Duggan gave Jean a good show in that Cable issue so I hope so.

What do you think about Percy? Wasn't a fan of her dying in Wolverine #1 but I liked how she ended the plant threat in X-Force.

Imo, Percy is the best writer of Jean in this era, he just doesn't seem to have long-term stories for her outside of playing a foil to Beast. That said, personally I'm willing to give Duggan a shot, though I do think his Jean will be perfectly inoffensive and ultimately mundane.

[Grinning Soul]

Duggan gave Jean a good show in that Cable issue so I hope so.

What do you think about Percy? Wasn't a fan of her dying in Wolverine #1 but I liked how she ended the plant threat in X-Force.

I know I'm going to regret saying this. I can imagine already the replies. Oh, well...

Just an example: "We were stupid and slow and careless. It's time to be smart and swift and violent".

Violent? It doesn't sound like Jean Grey to me. But I'm sure lots of fans love it, so... *shrugh*

It's not just Percy, though. I didn't particularly like her portrayal in any of those books. I prefer Jean as she was written in X-Men: Red.

[MechaJeanix]

Overall I like Percy’s Jean though she felt like a place holder. I bet from the beginning they knew some characters would be shuffled around -characters like Storm, Cyclops, Jean etc.

I disliked Jean’s death in Wolverine. It was cheap and we never saw Jean and Wolverine discuss it.

The first 6 issues of X-force I really enjoyed. I also loved issue 10 I think that is the one Jean merged minds with Sage and Black Tom and saved the day. Percy does well with Jean’s voice. She’s strong in resolve and in power. I liked her struggles with wanting to be a hero and yet she was in the X-force team. I like that she challenges Beast but to be honest I preferred it when she had a deep friendship with Beast. I’m not a fan of what Beast continues to be.

The last issue fell flat for me and I love both Jean and Quire. I did like Jean teaching new things to Quire. She could mentor him as one omega telepath to another.

[MechaJeanix]

I know I'm going to regret saying this. I can imagine already the replies. Oh, well...

Just an example: "We were stupid and slow and careless. It's time to be smart and swift and violent".

Violent? It doesn't sound like Jean Grey to me. But I'm sure lots of fans love it, so... *shrugh*

It's not just Percy, though. I didn't particularly like her portrayal in any of those books. I prefer Jean as she was written in X-Men: Red.

I agree that current Jean is def a departure from X-men Red Jean. I loved X-men Red Jean but at the same time I do want Jean to be more aggressive. X-men Red Jean prob wouldn’t have destroyed those plant men. The good news is that Duggan is doing the traditional heroic team so hopefully we have good things ahead!

[Phoenixx9]

The good news is that Duggan is doing the traditional heroic team so hopefully we have good things ahead!

Hopefully! (fingers crossed)

[rhaenylis]

I agree that current Jean is def a departure from X-men Red Jean. I loved X-men Red Jean but at the same time I do want Jean to be more aggressive. X-men Red Jean prob wouldn’t have destroyed those plant men. The good news is that Duggan is doing the traditional heroic team so hopefully we have good things ahead!

I look forward to seeing Jean interact with the other female members of the team (especially Lorna, it's been years and years since they've been on the same team)

[Rang10]

I know I'm going to regret saying this. I can imagine already the replies. Oh, well...

Just an example: "We were stupid and slow and careless. It's time to be smart and swift and violent".

Violent? It doesn't sound like Jean Grey to me. But I'm sure lots of fans love it, so... *shrugh*

It's not just Percy, though. I didn't particularly like her portrayal in any of those books. I prefer Jean as she was written in X-Men: Red.

I also thought that phrase was bad and out of chaarcter for Jean. She isn't a violent person, much less preach in favor of it.

I relaly think Percy isn't good for Jean, he just want to habe her as love interest of his pet character

[Soulsword323]

Thus far Percy is the best writer Jean's had since her return. He actually seems to understand how to portray Jean as a well rounded character, and balance Jean's more pacifist qualities against her also being a woman of action.

Thankfully it hasn't been the never ending barrage of speeches we got in Red.

[Rang10]

Thus far Percy is the best writer Jean's had since her return. He actually seems to understand how to portray Jean as a well rounded character, and balance Jean's more pacifist qualities against her also being a woman of action.

Thankfully it hasn't been the never ending barrage of speeches we got in Red.

X-men Red had action too, stop. Jean on Red was a lot better than Percy could dream of writing about her

[Soulsword323]

X-men Red had action too, stop. Jean on Red was a lot better than Percy could dream of writing about her

I'm not going to stop. Someone asked a question and I replied.