Jean Grey / Phoenix Appreciation 2021

[PyroFN]

Don't make me defend Maddy of almost all characters. She is a separate person.

That said, I wish Maddy would get a life.

I agree with the first part and simultaneously disagree. It’s weird. The disagreement is in that most of what Maddie did in Inferno are things Jean herself would not have done if she went through what Maddie went through. It’s the nature and nurture type thing. By nature, Maddie was like any normal woman with dreams of a family with her true love, like Jean was. She had a fiery temper and was a fighter through an through even with stacked odds. She was nurtured to insanity after realizing her life was not real. We know exactly how much Jean Grey values her agency over her life. Wanting things as perfect as she can manage in her power. I am positive if Jean had suddenly found out that someone had been running her life the way Sinister did to Maddie, she would spiral into destructive territory where she would do everything she can to get to a place where in her mind she has reasserted control, even to the point of breaking off connections she had once had,



I also agree that Maddie is a different person in the respects that she had a different life from Jean. She had no powers of her own, her pessimistic viewpoint was shaped through different experiences, and she has even said that she is the dark side Jean would never dare to wander. That in turn makes a very, very fine line between her and Jean being the same person, but it’s a line nonetheless that exists to separate them.



As for the second part of about Maddie getting a life, that will have to come way, way later. You can’t establish a motivation for someone and suddenly abandon it. Maddie has a grudge towards people on Krakoa and it shouldn’t suddenly go away because they welcome her in. Madelyne isn’t a healthy person. She is driven by her hatred and desire for the agency in her life that Jean has, and thus has a jealousy towards what Jean has. It’s why Maddie has on multiple occasions attempted to replace Jean. In her mind, if Jean was out of the picture, the one person who she is modeled after wouldn’t exist anymore to color people’s perspective of her.

[Micabe]

I wonder why Jean Grey hasn't requested that her niece Gailyn and nephew Joey be resurrected?


X-Factor #40 (1986)




X-Man #30 (1997)

[Mercury]

[CENTER]I wonder why Jean Grey hasn't requested that her niece Gailyn and nephew Joey be resurrected?

Because the writers haven't bothered delving deeply enough into Jean's history to discover or remember that she has a wealth of pathos outside of her relationship with the Phoenix Force just waiting to be tapped into. I dream of just one issue in which they focus on her feelings regarding the demise of her family. For someone like her, who had a relatively healthy and happy childhood, discovering that her family was murdered must have hit her like a sledgehammer over and over.

The moment from Phoenix Resurrection shared pages back, while important, is not truly indicative of what she went through to mourn her family. It was a heightened scene and she was not only railing against a cosmic entity, but also realizing she had been resurrected and living in an illusion. She simply didn't have the time, space, or wherewithal to properly mourn her family in that instance.

In either case, I have made it my goal this year to ensure that the powers that be are made aware of her history and to subtly coax them to begin addressing it. I have established several psi-links to aid me in this...

[Mercury]

In other news:

Chiiiile... Lukas Werneck just retweeted my tweet about Alex Ross's never-used Jean costume. I begged him to draw it! (On a side note: Getting to actually speak positively with creatives who have some measure of influence over how Jean is portrayed is a special kind of thrill.)

https://twitter.com/Jean_RED_Grey/st...97384892932097

[Mercury]

He has drawn it before!

[Rev9]

I want Marvel to cast a real redhead this time, if they are dumping Sophie.

If they recast her , I don't think natural redhead should be main criterion, definitely good acting skills trump all.I'd pick Saoirse Ronan

[PyroFN]

I wonder why Jean Grey hasn't requested that her niece Gailyn and nephew Joey be resurrected?


X-Factor #40 (1986)




X-Man #30 (1997)

Mercury gave the explanation out of universe explanation, so I won’t go on that. As far as in-universe, who knows? It could be something as simple as she has no clue what happened to them and doesn’t want to broach the subject until expressly confirmed (true, the Shi’ar states Jean’s family is dead, but that could range from immediate to distant and Jean was not around to know the extent of the carnage brought on her family) and it could be as complicated as Jean not wanting her niece and nephew to live a life without their parents. She may know they are mutants, but she’s no clue about Sara. And taking on children is a huge responsibility. Theoretically, Jean could make taking care of her niece and nephew work, but it’s gonna take more than just loving them to take care of them. She needs a plan to do so and the right state of mind.

[Daedra]

Mercury gave the explanation out of universe explanation, so I won’t go on that. As far as in-universe, who knows? It could be something as simple as she has no clue what happened to them and doesn’t want to broach the subject until expressly confirmed (true, the Shi’ar states Jean’s family is dead, but that could range from immediate to distant and Jean was not around to know the extent of the carnage brought on her family) and it could be as complicated as Jean not wanting her niece and nephew to live a life without their parents. She may know they are mutants, but she’s no clue about Sara. And taking on children is a huge responsibility. Theoretically, Jean could make taking care of her niece and nephew work, but it’s gonna take more than just loving them to take care of them. She needs a plan to do so and the right state of mind.

Can’t she just dump them on Rachel’s door ? Jean could be there for the fun part and just claim to be busy when she gets bored!

[Mercury]

...it could be as complicated as Jean not wanting her niece and nephew to live a life without their parents...

If forced to quickly explain away why she hasn't broached the subject of resurrecting Sara's children, I would say this would be the most realistic and acceptable reason.

[PyroFN]

Can’t she just dump them on Rachel’s door ? Jean could be there for the fun part and just claim to be busy when she gets bored!

Lol! Rachel barely can get her dog to poop.

[PyroFN]

If forced to quickly explain away why she hasn't broached the subject of resurrecting Sara's children, I would say this would be the most realistic and acceptable reason.

Imagine trying to explain to two children who know they are capable of coming back why the mutant society won’t do the same for their mother. That would be just heartbreaking.

[Mercury]

Imagine trying to explain to two children who know they are capable of coming back why the mutant society won’t do the same for their mother. That would be just heartbreaking.

Then again, this is assuming that editorial would stick to Sara not being a mutant. However, I would love it if they adopted Claremont's idea for Sara, which was to reveal that she was, indeed, a mutant and her power was to activate the powers of other mutants.

Claremont then proposed to Jim Shooter that when Jean Grey had returned Sara to normal, that she had also switched on Sara’s latent mutant genes. Sara’s power would be that when she came into close proximity with a latent mutant, that person’s mutant abilities would manifest, allowing X-Factor to locate mutants more easily. [Although he did not mention it, this would also have been a narrative link to Rachel Summers’ history as a “hound” in the dystopian future of “Days of Future Past” (1981).]

source: https://www.comicsbeat.com/alternati...ght-have-been/

However, I would adjust Sara's power, adding an ability to also temporarily deactivate a mutant's powers, which would make her a formidable asset. Nevertheless, they could work out a way to bring her and her children back.

[Daedra]

Imagine trying to explain to two children who know they are capable of coming back why the mutant society won’t do the same for their mother. That would be just heartbreaking.

She’s an omega telepath what’s the point of having this much power if you can’t use it to keep your family in line? Hey I have an idea, they could also resurrect Maddie and have her act as a nanny/mother figure to the twins, considering what she’s capable of they wouldn’t dare misbehave or create any trouble. Think about all the wonderful esoteric knowledge she could teach them.

[Starchilde]

It would be good for her character to have those kind of dialogues. Talking about the possibility of resurrecting the kids, but at the same time wondering if is not the right choice. Even if the final decision is to not resurrect them, I just want to see Jean talking about them and her parents. Let Jean have just one moment to remember her family.

[PyroFN]

She’s an omega telepath what’s the point of having this much power if you can’t use it to keep your family in line? Hey I have an idea, they could also resurrect Maddie and have her act as a nanny/mother figure to the twins, considering what she’s capable of they wouldn’t dare misbehave or create any trouble. Think about all the wonderful esoteric knowledge she could teach them.

Because it’s morally wrong in Jean’s eyes to do that? Not to mention how much Jean values her own autonomy. She would be incredibly hypocritical to violate another person’s right to feel however they wish, unless the circumstances were extreme.

There is no way in hell Jean would ever trust Madelyne of all people to do anything. This is Jean’s reaction the last time she heard that Madelyne was alive.



The next time after this, Jean was building power for an all-out psychic attack no-holding back. Jean was ready to kill Madelyne the first chance she got.