Jean Grey / Phoenix Appreciation 2022

[The Regent]

Honestly Jean has never looked better... beautiful costume!

Jean1.jpg Jean2.jpg

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Honestly Jean has never looked better... beautiful costume!

Jean1.jpg Jean2.jpg

She should keep wearing the cape!

[Tank]

She should keep wearing the cape!

Yep keep the train. Get rid of that damn belly button x and the way the shit just cuts off at a line. It was ugly way to cut her costume in xmen red and it’s ugly here. It’s so awkward looking.

[The Regent]

She should keep wearing the cape!

Yes it makes the look pop...

[The Regent]

Yep keep the train. Get rid of that damn belly button x and the way the shit just cuts off at a line. It was ugly way to cut her costume in xmen red and it’s ugly here. It’s so awkward looking.

The only thing I'd change is those yellow x's on the boots.

[Mercury]

Beefcake Boss tweeted a great team portrait, and I had to quickly play around with it...





Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/beefcakeb...13949412655104

[Phoenixx9]

Beefcake Boss tweeted a great team portrait, and I had to quickly play around with it...





Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/beefcakeb...13949412655104

Yes! I like your tweaking.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Place your bets!

Over/under on the number of pages of this comic featuring Scott and/or Emma.

One and counting!!!




We didn't get our bets in though

[Mercury]

Yes! I like your tweaking.

It's very rough. I'd refine it, but I'm too lazy and only working with one finger. 😂❤️

[Lukmendes]

If Jean reunites as Phoenix, would the QC want her back in a seat?

Right now all seats are filled, and I don't see why having the Phoenix back would suddenly make 'em want to have a seat that much, pretty sure they'd choose Jean whether or not she has the Phoenix.

If anything, given the way Phoenix is characterized the last years, having Phoenix could make 'em have doubts about Jean getting a seat again.

Hickman, who has since deleted his Twitter account, tweeted the following meme, which contains a caption in Krakoan that translates to: "Free thighs for a free people.:

That's somehow even sillier than what I said, and that's impressive, 'cause what I said was so silly I did wonder if Hickman really did say it lol.

Admittedly, I wasn't following or actively involved in the X-fandom during this period—I was still on my long break from X-books—but from what I've been told and later found out, this wasn't the first time Hickman tweeted something inflammatory regarding Jean. For example, during the Marvel-conducted "Battle Royale Championship" Twitter poll that pitted Jean against Thor, Jean was winning, and Hickman proceeded to encourage his followers to vote for Thor because, and I paraphrase, "he has better hair and didn't commit genocide." I've seen and posted screenshots of this tweet in the 2021 Jean thread.

Okay, I was thinking this was fine, prefering a specific character to win a poll is kinda whatever, but come on, had to pull that card? Specially considering Hickman himself may have an annoying habit of making characters do bad shit just because lol.

A̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶b̶j̶e̶c̶t̶i̶v̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶a̶i̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶J̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶i̶r̶.̶

Prior to that, he also started a Twitter poll asking followers to decide who between Jean, Emma, and Kitty was "the most Karen X-Men character." Either Kitty or Emma was winning the poll, and he soon deleted it. Frankly, I find the aforementioned tweets somewhat tasteless and immature, and rather unprofessional coming from the franchise's head writer about a character said writer has been charged with handling. That being said, I've given Hickman the benefit of the doubt because I don't know the type or level of backlash he received regarding his decision to regress Jean by having her reclaim the Marvel Girl garb and moniker. And I know how spiteful some Jean fans can be. So, in other words, the aforementioned instances could have been retaliatory.

That is very shitpost-y of Hickman, didn't expect that lol.

Then again, he proved himself to be a big Emma Frost fan. And as much as I hate making generalizations such as these, I've noticed that more than a few Emma fans feel the need to compare Emma to Jean while dragging, deriding, and degrading Jean in the process. That's one of the lesser reasons I can't connect with that character, though I've already shared the primary reasons why I'm averse to her. In either case, I've, at times, caught myself wondering if Hickman's regression of Jean was in no small part due to his love for Emma and efforts to rehabilitate her... Maybe he wanted to ensure she had less competition? Ultimately, it's all conjecture.

An unfortunate problem with fans is trying to say the stuff they like is better by undermining another one, it's a part of human nature of wanting to have chosen the "right" side, even more unfortunately it's not exclusive to fictional stories and is part of real life shit, but that's another story.

While generalization can be problem, they can have some truth to 'em, stories and characters of specific styles have higher chances of attracting specific kinds of people, not always of course, there are always exceptions, but patterns may still be there, on the brighter side, that can be why specific tv shows, cartoons, comics, movies, games or whatever are more or less popular in other regions, giving them a chance to shine somewhere else.

I will say this, which helps me give Hickman the benefit of the doubt: He handled Jean very well the last time he plotted for and penned her. I really do love that he made her the first to give a respectful middle finger to the Quiet Council and be the one to get Scott off his ass so they could go save Nate and lead the charge in X of Swords. And the last scene he wrote for her before she founded and became co-leader of the X-Men was just sublimely graceful, dignified, and dare I say powerful.

Hm, possible that at that point something about Jean clicked in him, cool if so.

[Mercury]

This is correct. Marvel is entirely in control of whether I expect something negative or positive from them.

Then simply stop. Stop letting Marvel be “entirely in control.”

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Then simply stop. Stop letting Marvel be “entirely in control.”

I mean, it would be dope af to see maybe Image or somebody do an X-Men comic but Marvel owns the exclusive property rights lolol

[Mercury]

I mean, it would be dope af to see maybe Image or somebody do an X-Men comic but Marvel owns the exclusive property rights lolol

Stop letting Marvel be in control of your expectations. How do you do that? Change your expectations. Go with the flow. Find something you like about the current X-Books and Jean specifically, something positive and uplifting on which you can develop new expectations. Unless you're reading X-Books and following Jean begrudgingly, which would be a total waste of your time and energy and maybe even hazardous to your well-being, I assume you're already doing this.

Try this: Assume that some aspects of Jean's current characterization that you don't like may, in fact, have in-story reasons for being, instead of assuming there's a nefarious conspiracy against her. Let your imagination run wild instead of your cynicism and pessimism. This—comic books—is fantasy, which is fueled by possibility, which is generated by imagination, which springs from a mind that is neither restricted nor limits itself. Breathe. Have fun. Enjoy the ride.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Stop letting Marvel be in control of your expectations. How do you do that? Change your expectations. Go with the flow. Find something you like about the current X-Books and Jean specifically, something positive and uplifting on which you can develop new expectations. Unless you're reading X-Books and following Jean begrudgingly, which would be a total waste of your time and energy and maybe even hazardous to your well-being, I assume you're already doing this.

Try this: Assume that some aspects of Jean's current characterization that you don't like may, in fact, have in-story reasons for being, instead of assuming there's a nefarious conspiracy against her. Let your imagination run wild instead of your cynicism and pessimism. This—comic books—is fantasy, which is fueled by possibility, which is generated by imagination, which springs from a mind that is neither restricted nor limits itself. Breathe. Have fun. Enjoy the ride.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

Marvel's job is to set the expectations. And boy, do they set them: I just react. Clowning on them for being literally afraid of a powerful. modern Jean, likely for shipping reasons, is the next best thing to actually getting to read about a modern Jean. So when the main thrust of Jean as a character, from Marvel, is about limiting her powers and exposure to complex stories, when they mention the character of course my general expectation is "oh, how will they further depower her?". That's the precedent that has been set and emphasized. Anytime someone wants to know what to expect next, they look at past behavior.

As for non-Jean stuff that is actually good, there are the last couple of issues of Red and Immortal, but the line as a whole was floundering for a bit. I guess the Wolverine event was alright on the whole (though it it petered out on the Jean end of things, per par)


On another note, you gotta admit that it's at least a little bit humorous that I made a post about wagering on how much of Jean's focus issue for AXE will belong to Emma and Cyclops and the 2nd bit we see of it is, of course, Emma. Cmon, that's at least a little bit funny.

[Daedra]

On another note, you gotta admit that it's at least a little bit humorous that I made a post about wagering on how much of Jean's focus issue for AXE will belong to Emma and Cyclops and the 2nd bit we see of it is, of course, Emma. Cmon, that's at least a little bit funny.

Funny, yes, but tragically so