Originally Posted by
franckd
As a Jean Grey Phoenix fan, I loved Morrison's run because he - imho - succeed in making both original Phoenix saga and the retcon work together, with minor changes.
- The cocoon (of the retcon) could be seen as a Phoenix egg
- Phoenix was both a part of Jean's powers and a cosmic entity
- When Xavier says to Jean that he wants to talk to the Phoenix, the Phoenix answers. Jean speaks "with the voice" (as Cable noticed during Chris Claremont's Revolution run). Yet, when the Phoenix speaks, Xavier still calls it Jean. Is it a mistake from Xavier ? Or does he consider that The Phoenix identity is Jean ?
- The Phoenix answers to Xavier and says "Jean is only the house where I live". It can be seen as "Jean is just a host". Or we can see it as The Phoenix can live outside and inside Jean. Her body is seen like a "house", like the body can be seen as a "temple" for the soul... And what soul do we have inside us ? Ourselves, and not other's. It's my interpretation, but there is more than this in Morrison's run :
- When Jean hatches from her egg in the future (Here Comes Tomorrow), she changes/saves the universe by making past Jean say "Live Scott"... Past Jean speaks with... The voice. With the Phoenix voice. In that story, the Phoenix talking through Jean is... future Jean. And so we have it all : Jean=Phoenix and Phoenix=Jean.
- Jean explains the Phoenix to Loga, and says that when she comes "too close, it replaces" her.
Maybe the Phoenix force that took Jean's place (Clasisc X-Men by Claremont) is a "transcendanted" version of Future Jean : a being of pure energy that wanted to live and feel like a human being (again)
Anyway, that's one of the reason I love Morrison's Jean. He really did his "homework" with the character's long and complexe history, and his take on the Jean/Phoenix was not "under the nose". It's quite subtle.
A note about "Phoenix Resurrection" : Rosenberg got some things right (and some things wrong). I liked that Rosenberg implied that the Phoenix was dormant/hidden in X-Factor's Jean. That leads me to... the "break-up". To me, the "break-up" scene was so wrong. Jean knew the purpose of the Phoenix, and she embraced it a long time ago. But when she said "good-bye" to it, the Phoenix didn't fly away. It became smaller and smaller, in her hand. Can such an entity just... disappear ? Or is it dormant/hidden, like it was during her X-Factor's days ?