SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Jean Grey #6, by Dennis Hopeless, Paul Davidson, Jay David Ramos and Travis Lanham, on sale now.


Over the past few months, the time-displaced Jean Grey has been preparing for the arrival of The Phoenix Force by contacting friends, former hosts and potential mentors in an effort to be ready for what seems to be her destiny. During her adventures, a mysterious voice has been guiding her and occasionally teasing her, thought to belong to The Phoenix Force itself.

RELATED: Exclusive: Hopeless Details Jean Grey’s Psych War Against Emma Frost

This week in Dennis Hopeless, Paul Davidson, Jay David Ramos and Travis Lanham’s Jean Grey #6, we learned that isn’t quite the case; the mysterious voice that has been hounding Jean Grey doesn’t belong to The Phoenix at all, but to the spirit of the adult -- and very much dead -- Jean Grey.

The Doctor Is In

In Jean Grey #6, the eponymous hero heads to the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Stephen Strange in an effort to get a professional opinion on the mysterious voices that have been bugging her about The Phoenix. In doing so, Jean and Strange are taken on a whirlwind ride through three of the most important eras in the adult Jean Grey’s life; her first birthday at the Xavier Institute, a fight against the Acolytes during the X-Men’s original Blue and Gold days and then an argument between Jean, Scott and Emma, not long before the elder Jean Grey’s death.

Jean-Grey-Classic-X-Men

The spirit of Jean Grey tells her younger self that she wanted to prepare her for the eventual arrival of The Phoenix and eventually makes her admit the one thing she’s been afraid of since arriving in the future: Jean Grey is Jean Grey is Jean Grey. What that means is, although their lives took a very different path early on, it’s not entirely wrong for people in the present to have ideas and expectations of the younger Jean Grey, and doing everything she can to run away from becoming that person isn’t necessarily in her best interest. As the issue wraps up, Doctor Strange is confident that the elder Jean Grey’s spirit if finally at rest, but Jean the younger notices something even Strange misses: The spirit of her adult self has followed her back to Earth and will be joining her on her quest.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='If%20the%20%27Real%27%20Jean%20Grey%20Is%20Back%2C%20What%20Does%20It%20Mean%3F']



The White Hot Room

Jean Grey has been effectively dead in the Marvel Universe for over a decade, since the end of Grant Morrison and Phil Jimenez’s “Planet X” arc of New X-Men in 2004. But more than most superheroes, there’s a lot more to her story that makes things more complicated and interesting when it comes to potential deaths and rebirths. Jean has actually come to life and died again numerous times since that arc, making her current status a bit trickier than simply “alive” or “dead”.

She was first resurrected when The Phoenix Force was reconstituted and sought out her body as a vessel, but Jean fought back against the resurrection and attempted to fight The Phoenix’s attempts to merge with her again. Ultimately, The Phoenix Force convinced her to come back to life in an effort to help Scott Summers, but Jean was soon overwhelmed as she lost control and became Dark Phoenix. While the X-Men had enough problems on their plate with a new Dark Phoenix, there was also a Shi’Ar ship looking for The Phoenix and the Stepford Cuckoos and Kid Omega were hoping to use the Phoenix Force in an effort to bring back the deceased Sophie Cuckoo.

White-Phoenix-of-the-Crown

Jean was able to convince Wolverine to kill her so she could scatter The Phoenix Force throughout the Omniverse, and as Logan repeatedly ended the life of the woman he loved, The Phoenix Force continued to resurrect her. Eventually, Emma Frost was able to bring Jean Grey back into control by connecting her to everyone on Earth that loves and cares about her, and Jean Grey ascended to become the White Phoenix of the Crown, essentially a cosmic entity in her own right. Though she’s been treated as dead in the intervening years, she actually became a higher power in the universe and occasionally assists The X-Men in subtle, godlike ways when they need it most.

Me, Myself and I

It’s interesting that Dennis Hopeless and company have brought the elder Jean back now, coming on the heels of the Generations: Phoenix and Jean Grey one-shot where the younger Jean took a trip through the Vanishing Point to interact with her older self in the days prior to "The Dark Phoenix Saga." However, that means that the Jean Grey of the past in that one-shot was not actually Jean Grey at all — it does get confusing — but The Phoenix Force itself, which was reconnected to have taken the place of Jean Grey following her original ascension to The Phoenix. As the two Jeans, both physical and spiritual, continue their journey, that prior meeting between the younger Jean and The Phoenix Force will no doubt become a pivotal moment for everyone.

Adult-Jean-Grey-Spirit

It’s currently unclear how long the spiritual Jean is going to remain a character in the book, but it’s worth noting how her presence may change upcoming issues of the series. The next issue features Jean Grey going to Scarlet Witch as part of her mentor tour through the Marvel Universe, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Wanda’s own powers allowed her to communicate with Jean’s spirit. Following that, Jean Grey begins a new arc titled “Psych War,” which sends her up against Emma Frost, someone the adult Jean has no shortage of beef with.

Jean Grey has been an exciting and surprising series since its inception, and has done a great job of fleshing out the time-displaced X-Men’s most compelling character, but this new wrinkle opens up story potential going forward in a whole new way. Although it may be temporary and kind of a ghost, the adult Jean Grey is back in the Marvel Universe and if that information gets out to the X-Men and the wider superhero community, there’s going to be a lot interest and no doubt a lot of drama.