SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Jean Grey #9 by Dennis Hopeless, Victor Ibáñez, Jay David Ramos and Travis Lanham, on sale now.


Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of (Adult) Jean Grey is just around the corner, and people are excited for the original X-Men founder to return and lead a new team of X-Men in the new year. However, the return of Jean Grey and the Phoenix’s role in that return has been playing out slowly in the pages of the younger incarnation’s ongoing series for a number of months now and at the end of this week’s issue things seemed to reach a head.

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The Phoenix Force has returned to Earth for the first time since Avengers vs X-Men to claim the young Jean Grey as its host. Fortunately, Jean has some friends, enemies and frenemies on her side who know a thing or two about the Phoenix who are ready to step up and make sure that doesn’t happen.

Old Ghosts

The most recent arc of Jean Grey — titled "Psych War" — has seen the young time displaced Jean Grey working with the psychic spirit of the deceased present day adult Jean Grey (comics!) in order to steal a sliver of the Phoenix Force from Emma Frost’s mind to better understand it and prepare for The Phoenix’s eventual arrival. Unfortunately, that sliver triggered a psychic feedback in young Jean which left her catatonic, literally on fire and speeding to the hospital in this issue as the old rivals Emma and adult Jean bickered about their long history. Eventually, Emma decides the best thing to do is call in help and get Jean far away from where she's a danger to others, which gives her and adult Jean the chance to see each other's side for once.

Jean-Grey-Emma-Frost

Adult Jean and Emma were once teammates and members of the X-Men together, but it all fell apart when Jean caught her husband Scott Summers psychically cheating on her in Emma’s head. Jean died not long after but in death convinced Scott to be with Emma — partly to avoid the dystopian “Here Comes Tomorrow” future but partly so he could be happy again. Now, Scott Summers is dead, and with the young Jean Grey unconscious, it gives them time to deal with their issues for the first time in years.

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The Phoenix Eight

With the Phoenix Force on its way to Earth, it’s raised the attention of other psychics who have possessed its power before, bringing them all together to help the young Jean defend herself against it. First, Emma rendezvous with the Stepford Cuckoos — who bonded with the Phoenix Force way back in Phoenix: Warsong — to help wake the young Jean up out of her catatonia. When that doesn’t work, Quentin Quire — who was resurrected by the Phoenix Force, has wielded it briefly on multiple occasions and is destined to possess it in the future — shoots young Jean in the head with his psychic revolver. The group is then joined by Hope Summers — who was once used the power of the Phoenix Force in conjunction with the Scarlet Witch’s hex magic to restart the mutant race — who warns them that she’s been keeping an eye on things and the Phoenix Force is on its way back to Earth.

Jean-Grey-Quentin-Quire

However, Hope is slightly off on her timescale as the young Jean Grey wakes up and proclaims that the Phoenix Force is already here, as the firery raptor of energy appears in the sky above them. Since the beginning of this series, Jean Grey has wrestled with the destiny that she is one day going to play host to the Phoenix Force and now it’s here on Earth and the only people around to stop it are people that have felt the pull of its power before. Will they help her, or will they be suckered in by the draw of the Phoenix’s power and try to claim it for themselves. Emma Frost says in this very issue that she enjoyed the power of the Phoenix Force and it would not be surprising if she stole its energies in an effort to bring her dead lover back to life, because she hasn’t been in the healthiest of places since Scott’s death.

The Long Road Home

While the Phoenix Force is now on Earth, if you’ve been reading certain other Marvel titles over the past few months you’ll have seen its journey to get there. Firstly, in the pages of Jeff Lemire, Mike Deodato and German Peralta’s Thanos, a Phoenix Egg was used by Thanos’ son Thane to empower himself to a point he could defeat his father and take his place as the most feared being in the universe. However, Thane was later stripped of his portion of the Phoenix Force, which went onto rejoin the rest of it on its journey back to Earth. The majority of the Phoenix Force was last seen in The Mighty Thor, where it was called upon by the Shi’Ar gods Sharra & K'ythri after their loss in a contest to Thor. Quentin Quire briefly bonded with the Phoenix to turn it against the gods but later resurfaced on Earth without its power as it made its way to find its new host, Jean Grey.

Jean-Grey-9-Cover

We know that the Phoenix has something to do with the return of the adult Jean Grey but we also know that she isn’t going to be the Phoenix going forward; the cover to X-Men Red shows her in a costume that seems like a modern take on her '90s Jim Lee gear rather than the classic John Byrne green and black costume of the Phoenix. The Phoenix Force is one of the most powerful beings in the entire Marvel Universe and it wants a host; if either of the Jean Greys won’t be that host will it choose someone else or will the ragtag group of mutant psychics be able to stop the threat of the Phoenix Force once and for all and mark a new chapter in the lives of both Jeans Grey, young and old.