In 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby released the first issue of X-Men. Readers delved into the world of mutants, magnetism, and Marvel Girl, who was one of five of the original X-Men members. From the start, Jean Grey showed vast telekinetic potential and, in later issues, telepathic potential as well. However, her character wasn’t taken seriously by writers or readers until Uncanny X-Men #101. In this pivotal issue, the cosmic Phoenix Force radically changes Jean’s life forever after choosing her to be its host. From then on, the Phoenix and Jean Grey have constantly played a dangerous game of dominance, with neither ever truly winning. Sometimes, the Phoenix is in control of Jean, as in the famous "Dark Phoenix Saga". At other times, Jean revels in the Phoenix’s power and even uses the name “Phoenix” as her codename. In most issues, Jean’s hold on the fiery Phoenix is tenuous but better than most other Phoenix hosts.
This strange play has also bred times where Jean is without the Phoenix altogether. For numerous series, Jean has relied on her Omega-level telepathy and telekinesis to aid the X-Men in battle. While her powers are significantly upgraded when combined with the Phoenix force, Jean has numerous formidable abilities that are solely her own. Aside from Charles Xavier, Jean is considered the most powerful telepath on Earth. With the Phoenix, she’s undeniably one of the most powerful entities in the universe. CBR is counting down both Jean Grey’s mutant powers and the powers the Phoenix Force gives her.
20 MIND LINK
Jean Grey is, most likely, the most powerful telepath in the world. Her psychic prowess enables her to do incredible things like read thoughts, alter memories and, in unique situations, create mind links. Gifted telepaths like Jean can create a telepathic link between themselves and another person.
Typically, this person is someone they have a very close bond to, like a best friend or a SO. For Jean, that person was Scott Summers, aka Cyclops. Jean created a telepathic bond between them that shared their thoughts. This bond also allowed Jean and Cyclops to fight exceptionally well together since they could predict each other's moves before doing them.
19 FLIGHT
Jean’s other most well known mutant ability is her telekinesis. Using her mind, she can move just about anything -- including herself. In the first dozen or so issues of Uncanny X-Men, Jean struggled to telekinetically lift things that were more than a few pounds, but as her powers naturally progressed, her telekinesis grew stronger. Before long, she was able to levitate herself and, eventually, others as well.
In the comics, Jean’s ability to fly is an intrinsic part of her character and an important ability when in battle. Although flying does require a modicum of Jean’s concentration, recent comics like X-Men Red prove that flight has become second nature for Jean.
18 STRENGTH
Jean Grey herself isn’t especially strong. With her self-declared “unnaturally thin wrists and ankles” she probably isn’t winning any weightlifting competitions anytime soon. The reason we’re putting strength down on Jean’s list of powers is because of (you guessed it) the Phoenix. When in Dark Phoenix mode, Jean lifted over a hundred tons easily. The Phoenix is the most powerful entity in the universe, so Jean’s huge muscle up-grade while acting as its host is to be expected.
What might not be expected is how strong Jean’s telekinesis can be. Jean has a seriously buff mind sans Phoenix that can lift tons of rubble and stop plans in mid-air. Telekinesis might not be the typical use of the word “strength” but the mind is (sort of) a muscle, right?
17 ASTRAL PROJECTION
The Astral Plane is an alternate dimension that exists parallel to our own, in the same time and space. The only difference is that the Astral Plane is made entirely of ectoplasm and can only be accessed by powerful telepaths or sorcerers. If you’ve seen the 2017 film Dr. Strange, the Astral Plane is sort of like the Mirror Dimension. It’s the same as our world but, at the same time, inherently different.
As a gifted telepath, Jean can access the Astral Plane. When there, she can manipulate every facet of her surroundings, transforming the ectoplasm into any shape she wishes (i.e. sword hands). The Astral Plane grants its users an impressive amount of power, but unfortunately those powers only last while in the Astral Plane.
16 EMPATHIC POWERS
As a talented telepath, Jean also has some impressive empathic powers that give her the ability to control the feelings and emotions of others. Jean rarely uses this power, perhaps because of how dishonest she thinks it can be. Although she sometimes breaks her own rule, Jean tries to give people their privacy by keeping out of their minds. Changing their emotions to fit her will definitely crosses the line.
The only times Jean willingly uses her empathic powers is when she feels she can help someone. Calming someone down after a traumatic experience or changing someone’s aggressive emotions to happier ones are among Jean’s typical empathic uses.
15 MIND CONTROL
The best part about being a telepath? Without a doubt, mind control. The mutant power of telepathy is all about delving into another person’s brain and sifting through their thoughts. Nothing gets better, or more morally ambiguous, than controlling another person by planting thoughts in their brain.
Jean regularly uses mind control when on missions, since it’s probably one of her most useful talents. Does it border of morally unethical? Of course, but so do the majority of the X-Men’s gifts. After all, using telepathy to make an out-of-control maniac think he willingly wants to check himself into rehab is a lot better than shooting him with optic blasts.
14 SUPERPOWERED SPEED
The primary reason Jean Grey (as Dark Phoenix) was able to do so much damage in a short amount of time during the famed Dark Phoenix Saga comic event was because of her speed. When possessed by the Phoenix, Jean can travel faster than the speed of light, thus reaching different universes within seconds -- so much for needing the X-Jet. If you have a Phoenix on hand, flying to Mars and back is easy.
Jean’s speed is frequently overlooked because writers rarely utilize this aspect of her power set fully. We’re pretty sure they do this because they don’t want to overpower Jean too much. Jean already has a ton of powers with (and without) the Phoenix.
13 PERSONALITY MANIPUlATION
Telepaths naturally have a sort of creepy power. Tinkering with someone’s mind without them knowing is wrong on so many levels. Out of everything a telepath can do with their invasive powers, personality manipulation may just be the worst. Unlike controlling minds or reading thoughts, personality manipulation involves a permanent change in a person’s personality. Jean can go into the mind of someone who is ordinarily very shy and make them super extroverted just by flipping a few switches.
Like a lot of Jean’s powers, she rarely resorts to using personality manipulation against her enemies. However, there have been a handful of cases where truly hateful and offensive instances force her to change a person’s personality for the better.
12 PYROKINESIS
The Phoenix Force is made of fire, so naturally, when Jean is acting as its host she has some pyrokinetic abilities. Jean has shown the ability to create spontaneous flames in numerous comics, including Uncanny X-Men and New X-Men. As strange as it may sound, Jean rarely uses fire against her opponents, choosing instead to focus on using her telepathic and telekinetic gifts. The fiery bird she regularly conjured acted more as a reminder of her powers. Nothing says “don’t mess with me” like a giant flaming bird.
Still, we think that if Jean wanted to, she could have easily used her pyrokinesis more often in battles. But, as devastating as a Phoenix host shooting flames would be, Jean’s telepathy and telekinesis are both a lot more terrifying.
11 X-GENE BOOST
If Jean ever finds herself knocked out in the middle of a battle (which happened a fair amount in the ‘90s for whatever reason) she can still help her team by giving them a good old neural jumpstart. Using her telepathy, Jean can increase the speed of neural signals in the brain. This then heightens a mutant’s abilities tenfold -- though the effect is only temporary.
This is an intensive form of Jean’s telepathy that she doesn’t use often. Like some of her other powers, Jean’s ability to boost the X-Gene in other mutants puts writers in a difficult spot. With a character so powerful, how do the X-Men ever not win? This is why Jean is frequently too “tired” to push herself to her breaking point in battle.
10 MIND TRANSFER
This one is a sort of “break in case of emergency” power. For strong telepaths, transferring your mind into a different body can happen by reflex or on purpose. In Uncanny X-Men #281 and 282, Sentinels nearly terminate Jean’s body. In order to preserve herself, Jean transfers her mind, and her telekinesis, to Emma Frost’s comatose body. After everything gets sorted out, she admits to Professor Xavier that she didn’t actively try to transfer her mind -- it merely happened in response to her fear.
As morbid as it may sound, this ability grants Jean a sort of immortality. Even without the Phoenix, Jean can always transfer her mind (or someone else’s mind) into a different body. It’s weird and strange and kind of creepy, but it’s true.
9 PSYCHIC INHIBITORS
Just as Jean can boost a mutant’s powers using telepathy, she can also dampen their powers using telepathy. By placing psychic inhibitors on a mutant’s mind, Jean can restrict the amount of power a mutant can access. In X-Men Unlimited #27, Jean completely shuts off Thunderbird’s solar energy conversion power after he proves he can’t control it. Jean has used this ability on a few occasions, mostly as a way to keep new mutants, like Thunderbird, from hurting themselves.
Jean’s power could be very useful both on and off the battlefield. Honestly, we’re all kind of wondering why Jean didn’t slap some psychic inhibitors on Rogue a long time ago.
8 TELEPATHIC ILLUSIONS
A lot of the powers we’ve gone over so far don’t appear in the comics all that often. Ordinarily, Jean isn’t a mean-spirited person so she prefers to use abilities that aren’t as invasive and morally ambiguous as personality manipulation or memory suppression.
Instead, she prefers to use something like telepathic illusions to make a mission a success. Using telepathy, Jean can make people think they are seeing something that they actually aren’t. She can make uniforms look like civvies or make the police believe a battle with Magneto was a mere skirmish. This power might not be as outwardly cool as some of her other ones, but Jean’s telepathic illusions have gotten the X-Men out of some sticky situations.
7 COSMIC TRAVEL
As the Phoenix host, Jean has the ability of cosmic travel, which shouldn’t be confused with our previous entry of super speed. Being able to fly at the speed of light is handy on earth, of course, but it makes a lot more sense in space. And you can’t fly through space unless you have a body that can handle the lack of oxygen and extreme temperatures, which is where the Phoenix comes in.
During the "Dark Phoenix Saga" Jean flies all over the universe, eating planets and generally having a great time. The only reason she’s able to do this is because of the Phoenix, which can change her physiology, making her much more durable and capable of withstanding the vacuum of space.
6 PSYCHIC WEAPONS
Both the “old” Jean Grey and her time-displaced younger self have proved to be formidable telekinetics, with the ability to create psychic weapons similar to Psylocke’s famous knife. Honestly, we aren’t completely sure how these psychic weapons work. From what we’ve read, neither do most X-Men writers. However, we’re pretty sure they have something to do with using psychic energy to create a telekinetic weapon that can do both physical and mental damage.
When she was the Phoenix host, Jean could manifest a psychic bird using a combination of her TK and telepathy. Similarly, after training under Psylocke, the teenage Jean could create a variety of psychic weapons, including swords and hammers.
5 ENERGY ABSORPTION
This particular power comes from deep Phoenix territory, which means things are about to get a little crazy from here on out -- giant, fiery cosmic bird crazy. When the Phoenix chose Jean to be its host, it gave her a multitude of insanely impressive powers that helped to make her the most powerful X-Men member in existence. Those powers require sustenance, and for the Phoenix, Chinese takeout isn’t going to cut it. It needs pure energy.
In Phoenix Endsong, Cyclops tries to stop Dark Phoenix by shooting her with his optic blasts. Little does he know, Dark Phoenix can feed off of that energy, making her even stronger. This is partially what makes the Dark Phoenix so dangerous. The X-Men’s heaviest hitters only add to her infinite arsenal instead of weakening it.
4 RESURRECTION
Any casual X-Men fan has heard the joke about Jean Grey’s many, many resurrections. After coming back from the grave more than five times, Jean has truly become a walking stereotype for comic book characters. Still, we shouldn’t overlook what Jean’s abilities are telling us.
As silly as it is to see a character pass away and resurrect herself numerous times, it does speak to her insane powers. In Phoenix Endsong, Wolverine took out a Phoenix-possessed Jean at least ten times. Each time, the Phoenix brought her back to life. As much as people may mock her for it, Jean’s practical immortality is kind of an incredible power.
3 TEMPORAL POWERS
In the 2001 series New X-Men, writer Grant Morrison reveals Jean’s true destiny: to become the White Phoenix of the Crown. As the White Phoenix, Jean is understood to be the one true Phoenix, who has capabilities beyond all past and future Phoenix hosts.
She can pretty much do whatever she wants, as long as she’s on the same wavelength as the Phoenix Force. This entails “fixing” hurt universes or, in some cases, destroying them all together. Near the end of New X-Men, the White Phoenix version of Jean goes back in time to fix some minor issues in order to create a better future for Earth-616. In doing this, she showed proficient temporal powers, meaning she can look, and mold, different timelines.
2 MATTER MANIPULATION
Jean Grey’s telekinetic abilities extend beyond grasping objects. After gaining the Phoenix Force, Jean was able to telekinetically control subatomic particles. This allowed her to do seemingly impossible things, like transform her clothes on a whim or make wood into gold. Using this power, Jean can make any physical thing disintegrate by pulling apart all of its atoms.
It’s an exhausting task, which is most likely why she rarely uses it. The most common use of Jean’s subatomic telekinetic abilities is, as we already mentioned, changing clothes. She does this is in Generations: Phoenix & Jean Grey to change her bathing suit to a dress but she doesn’t utilize this vast power any further in the issue. We think that, like a lot of Jean’s powers, this one qualifies as slightly OP.
1 WARP REALITY
Marvel’s most powerful heroes and villains usually have a common power: reality manipulation. Legion, Franklin Richards, and Beyonder can all warp reality to whatever form they choose, which is why their powers are considered infinite. Pretty much nothing can stop them since they’re making the rules.
Jean Grey doesn’t ordinarily have these kinds of powers, but as the White Phoenix of the Crown she definitely does. In New X-Men, Jean held an entire universe in her hands and changed it entirely by just saying a few words. The Phoenix’s job is to keep reality in a constant cycle of life and the end, so Jean wielding such a vast power makes sense. As the White Phoenix, she has to be able to warp reality in order to maintain stability.