Nine Reasons it sucks to be Jean Grey!
I’ve recently begun watching the X-Men cartoon from the early 90’s – I think it’s a given that every kid who had access to Fox Kids at the time was doing the same. It was my first brush with Marvel and with comics, I didn’t even know what a Batman was and if I’d heard of him chances are I would have thought he was a villain the mutant universe! I fell in love with it all, the powers, the costumes, the goodies and the baddies but out of every thing and every one I fell in love with Jean Grey. From her telekinetic and telepathic powers to her compassion and sensitive nature so let me make something clear right now – I am not bashing Jean but I’ve learned from my return to the cartoons and dipping my toe in the Marvel Universe that it really does suck to be Jean Grey!
And here’s why…
The Phoenix Force
Jean Greys got ninety nine problems and the Phoenix Force is all of them! Okay it’s ninety one of them!
For anyone who might not be familiar with the Phoenix Force (…seriously?!) is an immortal and mutable manifestation of the prime universal force of life and passion. Born of the void between states of being, the Phoenix Force is a child of the universe.
It is the nexus of all psionic energy which does, has, and ever will exist in all realities of the omniverse, the Guardian of Creation and of the dangerously powerful M’Kraan Crystal. The Phoenix Force bonds with individuals throughout all corners of space and time and it just so happens to pick Jean Grey and the entity becomes a dark, terrifying and nearly unstoppable (it keeps coming back) force known as Dark Phoenix.
The Phoenix is also a manifestation of Jean’s power as seen in the films and in the original Jean story where she mastered her psionic powers, transforming into pure energy only to reform herself as the Phoenix before her battles with other psychics (see Emma Frost below!) drove her mad.
Dead jokes
The Love Triangle
These next two are kind of connected but Emma deserves to be on a problem all of her own!
If there is one thing our Jean is good at it’s getting herself caught up in some serious emotional turmoil and it doesn’t get more complicated than Scott, Logan and herself. The three are deeply connected, bucking males, a torn Jean, a brooding Wolverine and angry Cyclops!
Their triangle of love is brought up time and time again, in the comics, cartoons (okay maybe not X-Men Evolution because that would be illegal) and movies. Jean is a loveable all powerful nearly always dead scamp and her scars run deep, hell Wolverine is still crying about her in his latest movie!
Throw in some kids, some good… and some not even hers and then you’ve really got a messed up love life!
Emma Frost!
The White Queen is everything Jean Grey isn’t! She uses her powers for her own gain! She puts herself first, she’s rude, spiteful and she’s totally cool with that!
Oh and she stole Jean’s man! She had an affair with Scott and the pair end up together…but it’s ok because it was Jean’s choice… right…
Four down…five to go! Click here for page 2 and more reasons it sucks to be Jean Grey!
That hair
Although I wouldn’t dare to make a gingers have no souls remark…
Everyone outside of the X-Men kinda hates you!
You can check this thread if you don’t believe me! Oh and this thread! There’s also this one!
She is not a very interesting character besides her bond with the phoenix. Her fans are INCREDIBLY rabid and annoying. She is the worst thing to happen to Cyclops.
That third X-Men movie
If the above threads weren’t bad enough, many fans of the X-Men and in particular fans of the movies hold Jean and the ‘Phoenix’ responsible for the fiasco that was the third movie! For the record I don’t! After sacrificing herself to save her friends, Jean mysteriously returns, Scott is drawn to the place he lost his partner and is surprised to find she’s alive and oh yeah she feels like some murder. Then she doesn’t feel like murder any more and leaves with Storm and Wolverine before she decides she hates the X-Men and Xavier (she kills him because she felt like murder again). Then she decides war would be fun so she sides with Magneto and then kills more people and tries to kill Wolverine then she dies.
Power fluctuations
From reaching her potential and reforming her corporeal body to passing out from halting the Juggernaut in her tracks, Jean has some serious power issues! Couple that with constant backlash from using her telepathic abilities and a moral compass that would make a nun look like a rebel, if others didn’t drive her mad then surely her own powers would have done it sooner or later.
For whatever reason most of Jean’s power problems are in the animated versions of her character and in the movies (Cerebro crushes her mind).
That awful 90’s cartoon costume
Enough said…
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
