The X-Men have been a superhero soap opera since the very beginning, with romantic triangles at the heart of the franchise's dramas ever since the original Stan Lee and Jack Kirby days on the title. But that earliest romance might have been far more crucial to the future of the Marvel Universe than anyone realized.

What If...? #60 by Kurt Busiek and Ron Randall introduced three different realities where Cyclops and Jean Grey's romance played out differently or was prevented all together -- and in each one, the X-Men were more or less doomed by the ensuing strife.

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WHAT IF JEAN GREY CHOSE ANGEL OVER CYCLOPS?

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Early on in the original run of X-Men stories, all four founding male members of the team expressed an interest in Jean Grey. While this would eventually lay the seeds for the time-displaced Jean Grey and Beast to briefly try a romance, in the original stories it was truly Angel who came closest to stealing Jean's attention. On Earth-94041, that became the case, with Jean forging a romance with Angel. But without Jean, Cyclops threw himself into his role as the X-Men's leader especially after a battle with the Brotherhood seriously injured Xavier. This increasingly aggressive nature in Cyclops concerned Xavier, who entrusted the leadership of the team to Beast instead.

Far less stable than in the core-Marvel Universe and enraged at his mentor's decisions, Cyclops left the team and was instead recruited by the Brotherhood (similar to the Ultimate Cyclops, who also briefly sided with Magneto). With Cyclops' knowledge of the X-Men, it's possible that this resulted in a world where the X-Men were defeated by Magneto's Brotherhood before they could grow into the world's most hated and feared heroes. This also likely led to a world where Cyclops abandoned the ideals taught to him by Xavier potentially setting him up to instead truly become Magneto's heir and lead the war against humanity.

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WHAT IF JEAN GREY CHOSE WOLVERINE OVER CYCLOPS?

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While that world might have been more complicated due to Cyclops' betrayal, at least there's still a world in that reality. During Earth-94042's version of the "Phoenix Saga," Jean Grey (secretly the Phoenix Force) embraced her attraction to Wolverine and left Scott Summers for Logan. This meant Cyclops was less willing to confront the Phoenix as she became increasingly unstable, unsure if he had genuine concerns for her. Unfortunately, the relatively short romance between Logan and Jean meant that Wolverine could never be the grounding element for her that Scott was.

Instead, as the events of the "Dark Phoenix Saga" played out on this world and the X-Men did their best to defend Jean from the Shi'Ar Imperial Guard, Jean found herself losing control once again. While she loved Logan, it lacked the time and depth to give her enough to hold on, resulting in the Dark Phoenix losing control of her powers. This destroyed their battlefield on the Moon (and instantly kills the X-Men, Imperial Guard, and Shi'Ar high command). Eventually this resulted in the Phoenix Force wiping out everything in this universe in a flaming wave of death and potential rebirth.

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WHAT IF JEAN GREY CHOSE CYCLOPS... TOO EARLY?

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Even in worlds where Cyclops and Jean Grey did get together, it's important that they took a break when Jean went to university and Scott remained with the all-new X-Men following Giant-Size X-Men #1. Otherwise, the team might have been doomed from the start. On Earth-94040, Scott and Jean elected to leave the X-Men as Beast left the team for college. The pair quickly adjusted to civilian life, getting married, having a son named Charles, and becoming media figures who helped improve mutant/human relations. With Cyclops, Jean, and Beast gone, the other early members of the team also retired from the team.

This left Xavier to recruit an entirely new roster of students, including this world's Storm, Colossus, Northstar, Aurora, and Catseye. With less experience under their belt, Xavier accompanied the team on their mission to investigate Krakoa. This left them all captured and drained of their life force, killing all of them. Krakoa went on a rampage with no X-Men to stop them, and it fell to the Avengers to destroy the creature. This left the founding X-Men to mourn the death of the mentor and their replacements.