This is "Foundationed Deep," a feature where we look at particular odd/strange/interesting instances of retroactively connecting different comic book characters (for instance, Uncanny X-Men #268 retroactively established that Wolverine knew both Captain America and the Black Widow from World War II). Today, we look at how Professor X REALLY first met Jean Grey! Here is a rare Foundationed Deep that was also an Abandoned an' Forsaked, since was more then just a retroactive meeting, it flat out contradicts their actual first meeting.

As an aside, it is insane how hard it is to find a good featured image of Professor X and Jean Grey. Haven't they spent a ton of time together over the years? And yet all of the options for featured images were weak.

ANYhow, in the very first issue of X-Men (by Stan Lee, jack Kirby and Paul Reinman), Jean Grey is introduced to Professor Charles Xavier and his band of future X-Men. Jean becomes the final member of the original group of five...

By the way, based on the way that the original story is written, it really does offer itself up to a retcon, as a good deal of the first issue is all about how much training the X-Men have received and how Professor X would never let them go into battle with Magneto unless they were extremely prepared via all of their training. However, Jean Grey JUST GOT THERE. So the fact that he was sending her into battle with one of the most powerful mutants in the world on her first day was an awfully strange approach by Professor X.

I mean, don't get me wrong, "strange approach" and Professor X go hand in hand most of the time, as he is typically doing some sort of crazy thing that makes sense to him but not to most other people who have better ethics than he does. However, in this particular situation, this approach seems to contradict his expressed belief on the subject. "Only people with great training can fight Magneto. You just got here. Well, you should be fine."

Of course, we can't speak about Professor X and Jean Grey without noting the incredible ill-conceived (and subsequently quickly dropped) plot point where Professor X was suddenly lusting after his teenage student....

You have to love that the only thing that he sees wrong about his pursuit of Jean is that he is in a wheelchair. "I'm a lot older than you, you're only a teenager AND I'm your professor...but it's this darn wheelchair that is keeping us apart!"

Later, when Professor X faked his death because he can't trust anyone because he is a weirdo, the only member of the X-Men that he entrusted with this secret was Jean Grey...

So there has certainly always been a strong bond between Xavier and Jean Grey, but interestingly, their bond turned out to have gone back before they "met" in X-Men #1!

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After writing the X-Men for a few years, Chris Claremont came up with a whole other origin for Jean in the black and white Marvel series, Bizarre Adventures #27 (art by John Buscema and Klaus Janson). This all took place after Jean seemingly died during the Dark Phoenix Saga. In any event, this new origin shows how Jean Grey and Professor X REALLY first met...

It is a fairly dark revision on Jean's origin, but at least it does retroactively explain why Xavier was cool with Jean Grey going into battle without any training, as he had been training her for some time by himself, so he knew that she was up for it.

In X-Men Origins: Jean Grey #1, Sean McKeever and Mike Mayhew went further into depth about that first meeting between Jean and Xavier...

Okay, that's it for this installment! If you can think of a good example of two comic book characters being retroactively connected to each other, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com and I might feature it here!