Jean Elaine Grey

Jean Grey is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The X-Men #1 (September 1963). Jean Grey is a member of a subspecies of humans known as mutants, born with superhuman abilities. She was born with psionic powers. The character has also been known as Marvel Girl, Phoenix and Dark Phoenix at various points in her history.

Jean Grey was born the second daughter of John and Elaine Grey. She had an older sister, Sara Grey-Bailey. John Grey was a professor at Bard College in upstate New York. Depictions of Jean’s childhood and her relations with her family have shown a stable, loving family life growing up. Jean’s mutant powers of telepathy and telekinesis first manifested when her best friend, Annie Richards was hit by a car and killed. Jean mentally linked with her friend and nearly died as well. The event left her comatose, and she was brought back to consciousness when her parents sought the help of powerful mutant telepath, Charles Xavier. Xavier blocked her telepathy until she was old enough to be able to control it, leaving her with access only to her telekinetic powers. Xavier later recruited her as a teenager to be part of his X-Men team as “Marvel Girl”, the team’s sole female member. After several missions with the X-Men, Xavier removed Jean’s mental blocks and she was able to use and control her telepathic powers. She began a relationship with teammate Cyclops, which persisted as her main romantic relationship.

exposed to fatal levels of radiation. Dying, but determined to save Cyclops and her friends, Jean calls out for help and is answered by the cosmic entity the Phoenix Force. The Phoenix Force, the sum of all life in the universe, is moved by Jean’s wish to save herself and her friends. It takes the form of a duplicate body to house Jean’s psyche. The duplication is so exact that the Phoenix Force believes itself to be Jean Grey, and places Jean’s dying body in a healing cocoon. This cocoon is later described as a Phoenix Egg. The ship crashes in Jamaica Bay, with the other X-Men unharmed.

The Phoenix Force, assuming Jean’s identity, emerges wearing a new costume and adopts the codename “Phoenix”; meanwhile, the cocoon containing the real Jean Grey sinks to the bottom of the bay, unnoticed. Phoenix continues her life as Jean Grey with the other X-Men, joining them on missions and even helping to save the universe. During “The Dark Phoenix Saga”, Phoenix becomes overwhelmed and corrupted by her first taste of evil and transforms into a force of total destruction called “Dark Phoenix”, inadvertently killing the inhabitants of a planetary system after consuming its star, and jeopardizing the entire universe. However, Jean’s personality manages to take control and Phoenix commits suicide to ensure the safety of the universe.

Upon its suicide by way of a disintegration ray, the Phoenix Force disperses into its original form and a fragment locates the still-healing Jean at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. In trying to bond with her, Jean senses its memories of death and destruction as Dark Phoenix and rejects it, causing it to bond with and animate a lifeless clone of Jean Grey created by the villain Mister Sinister. Sinister created the clone to mate with Cyclops to create genetically superior mutants. Named “Madelyne Pryor”, the unaware clone meets Cyclops in a situation engineered by Sinister and the two fall in love, marry, and have a child, Nathan Christopher Summers. Meanwhile, the cocoon is discovered and retrieved by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Jean emerges with no memory of the actions of the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix. The Avengers and Fantastic Four tell her of what happened and that she was believed dead until now. She is reunited with the original X-Men and convinces them to form the new superhero team X-Factor, reusing her “Marvel Girl” codename. Madelyne is angered over Cyclops’s decision to lead X-Factor and neglect his family. Though Jean encourages Cyclops to return to Madelyne, he finds their house abandoned and assumes that Madelyne has left him and taken their infant son. Cyclops returns to X-Factor and he and Jean continue their relationship, but the Phoenix Force’s impersonation, and his marrying Madelyne, damaged their mutual trust. The team's adventures continue throughout the series, culminating in the line-wide “Inferno” crossover. Madelyne reappears, now nearly insane and with powers awakened by a demonic pact, calling herself the Goblyn Queen.

Learning of her true identity and purpose as a clone created by Mister Sinister drove her completely insane and she plans to sacrifice Nathan Christopher to achieve greater power and unleash literal Hell on Earth. While attempting to stop her, Jean is reunited with the other X-Men, who are happy to learn that she is alive. Jean and Madelyne confront each other, and Madelyne attempts to kill them both. Jean manages to survive only by absorbing the remnant of the Phoenix Force housed within Madelyne, giving her both Madelyne’s memories and the Phoenix’s memories from “The Dark Phoenix Saga”.

Spouse: Scott Summers Full name: Jean Elaine Grey-Summers Powers: Telepathy, Telekinesis, flight, empathy, psionics, Immortality, pyrokinesis, astral projection, teleportation Children: Rachel Summers, Nate Grey Parents: Elaine Grey, John Grey