The X-Men have become one of the most beloved properties published by Marvel Comics and are back in the spotlight with Dark Phoenix out in theaters everywhere. True to its title, original team member Jean Grey plays a central in the film, which loosely adapts one of the long-running franchise's most iconic storylines.
For fans wanting more comic book stories starring the powerful telekinetic founding member of the X-Men, here is a selection of some of the best books with Jean Grey playing a pivotal role in the proceedings.
X-Men: Season One
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With many of its flagship characters decades old, Marvel updated the origins of several fan-favorite properties with the Season One graphic novel line. One of the graphic novels included in this initiative was X-Men: Season One by Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum and Jaimie McKelvie.
True to its premise, the story features the five first class members of the X-Men, including Jean Grey, struggling to acclimate to their newfound lives as superheroes while balancing all the usual teenage drama befitting their age. And just as the freshly formed team begins to come together, they face a whole wave of extraordinary threats including the Sentinels and Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Where Jean Grey didn't play the most active role in the team's original Silver Age adventures, this volume recasts her as the focal point of the X-Men's first era. For readers looking for a fresh jumping on point, the graphic novel is a well-crafted, concise entry story into the franchise.
Jean Grey: Nightmare Fuel
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Frustrated and rapidly losing hope at the direction the X-Men had taken, Beast transported teenage versions of himself and the original X-Men to the present-day Marvel Universe in a desperate bid to change history by bringing the past face-to-face with its disillusioned and divided future. Spinning out of these events, Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum and Victor Ibanez gave the time-tossed teenage Jean Grey her first ongoing series.
Jean Grey: Nightmare Fuel collects the solo series' first story arc, as the teenage Jean attempts to reconcile with the knowledge of how her relative future self will die. Attempting to change her own destiny as the Phoenix Force targets her, Jean seeks help from other psychic mutants like Rachel Grey, Quentin Quire, and Hope Summers to evade the cosmic entity and seize control of her own fate.
X-Men: Second Genesis Marvel Epic Collection
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Over a decade after their creation, Marvel reinvigorated the X-Men by incapacitating the original team and introducing a new ensemble of superhero mutants from around the world. While the two teams would eventually merge into an expanded group, Jean Grey went through a transformation that would change her forever.
The Marvel Epic Collection, X-Men: Second Genesis, collects the beginning of the X-Men's definitive era, featuring work by comic legends like Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Sal Buscema, Tony Dezuniga and Bob Brown. These stories introduce iconic characters like Colossus, Storm and Nightcrawler and mark Wolverine's first appearance with the X-Men. More importantly, this story features the new X-Men team's first foray into space and Jean Grey's first encounter with the Phoenix Force in a story that's unofficially known as "The Phoenix Saga."
X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga
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One of the most iconic Marvel Comics stories of all time, The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont and John Byrne raised the bar of both long-form storytelling quality for superhero comics and set impossibly high stakes at a time when comics largely downplayed the risks of its major stories.
Compiling the entire nine-issue story arc, the collection seesJean Grey manipulated after bonding with the Phoenix Force and running the risk of complete corruption from her absolute powers. As the Phoenix-empowered Jean threatens the entire Marvel Universe, her old teammates debate on how best to face their former comrade and friend in an adventure that spans the cosmos.
X-Men: Red - The Hate Machine
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Spinning out of the cataclysmic events of Inhumans vs. X-Men, the X-Men franchise launched several ongoing team series with the newly resurrected Jean Grey leading her own squad in X-Men: Red. Written by Tom Taylor and illustrated by Pascal Alixe and Mahmud A. Asrar, the series followed Jean growing accustomed to a Marvel Universe that had changed drastically since her death.
X-Men: Red - The Hate Machine collects the series' first story arc as Jean recruits Gambit, Nightcrawler, X-23 and Namor to take the fight directly to anti-mutant hate groups around the world in defense of Professor X's dreams of a world where mutants and humans can coexist together peacefully. The team faces both familiar and all-new threats in one of the most critically-acclaimed X-Men stories in recent memory.