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Characters / Marvel Comics: Jean Grey
aka: Jean Grey

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Jean Elaine Grey / Marvel Girl / Phoenix

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jeangreycover.jpg
"Everybody thinks the Phoenix Force is turning me into some kind of cosmic destroyer, but it's not like that. I have trouble with the rushes, but I'm okay, really. I think I can make things right here." Art by Russell Dauterman.

Notable Aliases: Jean Grey-Summers, Dark Phoenix, White Phoenix of the Crown, Redd Dayspring

Nationality: American, Krakoan

Species: Human mutant

First Apperance: X-Men #1 (September, 1963)

"I don't want you to get hurt, but you have to understand... The more you annoy me the more I can't help thinking about deconstructing you, molecule by molecule, memory by memory... until there's nothing left but screaming, traumatized atoms."
— Jean Grey, New X-Men #120

Jean Grey, also known with the aliases Marvel Girl, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, and the White Phoenix of the Crown, is a Marvel Comics character and one of five original members of the X-Men in Marvel Universe. As such, she is first introduced in the very first X-Men comics, that is Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #1 in 1963. She's created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Her power set is simple: telekinesis and telepathy. Her look is simple, but dynamic—her hair is red and voluminous, her suit is emerald. She has a place as Professor X's particular protegee, and (prior to the appearance of her time-travelling/reality jumping children) the only telepath whose potential surpasses his. And when that potential is tapped, you have one of the most powerful X-Men of all.

She was the center of attention throughout many of the X-Men's early adventures, being the only woman on the team at the time, and also one of the most potentially powerful. Eventually she settled into a relationship with Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops; however, her burgeoning psychic potential along with some brain-washing caused her to develop an incredibly malevolent Split Personality with the power to destroy planets. She made a Heroic Sacrifice during a moment of being in control of herself so that she wouldn't cause any more destruction at the climax of The Dark Phoenix Saga. However, the Phoenix Force disperses into its original form and a fragment locates the still-healing Jean at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. But Jean senses its memories of death and destruction as Dark Phoenix and rejects it, causing it to bond with her still-lifeless clone, Madelyne Pryor, instead. The phoenix cocoon, containing Jean’s psyche, is discovered and retrieved by The Avengers and Fantastic Four. Jean emerges with no memory of the actions of the Phoenix or Dark Phoenix. She is reunited with the original X-Men, and convinces them to form the new superhero team X-Factor.

She also initially accepted that Scott has moved on, married to another woman named Madelyne Pryor. However, things got complicated when Madelyne returns during Inferno (1988)— her powers are awakened by demonic pact and she introduces herself as Goblyn Queen. The revelation that Madelyne is actually Jean's clone drove her completely insane and she plans to sacrifice the infant Nathan to achieve greater power and unleash Hell on Earth. Jean and Madelyne confront each other, and Madelyne attempts to kill them both. Jean manages to survive only by absorbing the remnant of the Phoenix Force housed within Madelyne, giving her both Madelyne's memories and the Phoenix's memories from the Dark Phoenix Saga.

After Madelyne's death, Jean helps Scott care for Nathan, since he's genetically her son as well. When X-Factor rejoins the X-Men, Jean no longer uses her codename. She initially doesn't accept the arrival of Rachel Summers (who goes by the codename "Phoenix" as well and is also able to tap into the Phoenix Force). Some time later, Nathan is kidnapped and infected with the Techno-Organic Virus by Apocalypse. The virus was rapidly spreading through his body and, if not stopped, would kill him. To help him, Jean and Scott are forced to let him being taken by a woman named Sister Askani from a distant future who claimed her clan had technology in that might be able to save Nathan. However, Askani could only risk one time jump without destroying herself. So, Nathan could not return to the present timeline very soon.

Unbeknownst to them, though, a mysterious cyborg-mutant soldier called Cable who appeared to lead the New Mutants and later found the X-Force, was actually their son Nathan, who has grown up into an adult man, much older than his own parents, and has returned from the future.

Jean eventually accepts Rachel as her daughter, who also requests Jean to take the codename Phoenix. After some time, she also accepts Scott's marriage proposal (which she previously rejected) and during their honeymoon, they had Mental Time Travel to the distant future, which allowed them to raise young Nathan. During this time, Scott and Jean used fake names, Slym and Redd Dayspring, respectively, to hide their identity. It's revealed that Rachel was responsible for the time travel by using her powers because she wants them to protect and raise Nathan. Back in the present, Jean and Scott revealed to Cable that they had raised him in the future as Redd and Slym Dayspring. Cable had known for some time and was waiting for them to be ready to tell him. They were pleased to be reunited as a family again. During Onslaught, Jean also met her other alternate reality child, Nate Grey a.k.a. Marvel Comics: X-Man (and is essentially younger Cable), who accidentally resurrects Madelyne in a subconscious attempt to reach out to his "mother", Jean. Despite being responsible for bringing her rival back into her life, Jean parted with her son on good terms.

Scott is later possessed by Apocalypse while trying to protect Nate and apparently killed. But Jean believes he may be still alive. She's helped by Cable in rescuing and freeing Scott from the possession. But, during the events in New X-Men, Scott isn't feeling very well due to Apocalypse's possession and this is when their marriage begin to fall apart, especially after the "psychic affair" between him and Emma Frost, fellow member and reformed supervillainess. Ultimately, though, Jean realizes that Emma truly loves him. And when Emma was shot and literally shattered in her organic diamond form by Esme Cuckoo, Jean helped repairing Emma at the molecular level, displaying incredible telekinetic power. Later, she's tricked by Magneto impostor, Kuan-Yin Xorn, along with Wolverine, who has long-time one-sided crush on her. They ended up trapped on Asteroid M, drifting closer to the Sun. The Phoenix Force within Jean is reawakened when Wolverine tried to Mercy Kill her. Jean and Wolverine returned to Earth to face Xorn. But Xorn managed to (physically) kill her with an electromagnetic pulse which causes her to have a planetary-scale stroke. An enraged Wolverine soon avenges her by decapitating Xorn.

Upon the death of her physical form, Jean spends time in the The White Hot Room doing 'Phoenix work'. The Phoenix Force can also restore Jean's body to life, although there appears to be some unknown limitation to how quickly it can successfully accomplish this following her death. Around this time, she's also somehow seen aiding the X-Men, such as collecting the missing fragments of the Phoenix Force; she took some of them from Rachel Summers and the Stepford Cuckoos after the events in Phoenix Warsong when they wield the powers. She even helps Emma (again), when the latter is mind raped by the resurrected Madelyne Pryor into psychic static. She also helps Scott, who became Dark Phoenix of Phoenix Five, to let go of the Phoenix Force during Avengers vs. X-Men.

After a period of haunting her younger self, she was brought back to life once again (and told the Phoenix very politely, but very firmly, to leave her alone), and led her own team of X-Men. After confronting her son, Nate Grey, after he'd apparently pulled a complete Face–Heel Turn and come to see himself as a god (the truth was a little more complicated) in Uncanny X-Men (2018), she tried to talk him down and he revealed that he was dying and desperately trying to do something good before he died (like save the world, whether it wanted it or not).

After that, like all the other X-Men she was pulled into his new reality - the Age of X-Man. After identifying the inconsistencies and confronting him, Nate accepted his mistakes and released her and the other X-Men (some of whom felt he had a point), she became a key part of the X-Men's new status quo - a member of Krakoa's Quiet Council. However, after a short time of this, Jean and Scott stood down from the council, feeling their could do better as X-Men once more.

Jean Grey has appearaed in:

    open/close all folders 

    Notable Comics 

    Other Comics 

    Major Storylines 

    Anime 

    Live-Action Films 

    Western Animation 

    Video Games 

Jean Grey provides examples of:

    A-H 
  • Action Mom: Oddly enough Jean fits this despite never having actually carried a child. All her offspring, Rachel, Cable, and X-Man; are from alternate universes or timelines (although Cable was actually born in the present, but he had to be sent to the future as mentioned above. Oh, and his mom is Jean's clone). That said, she considers all of them to be her children, despite having got off to a rocky start with Rachel.
  • All-Loving Heroine: Most of the time, and particularly since her return in Phoenix Resurrection, with the emphasis of X-Men: Red (where she leads the titular team against Cassandra Nova) being on the power of compassion. Indeed, she's at least a rival for Superman or Wonder Woman in this department. However, like them, as she also reminds people, 'compassionate' most definitely does not mean either 'weak' or 'stupid'.
  • Almighty Mom: She's just about the only one with any control over Nate Grey - or at least, the only one he's really willing to listen to for more than 10 seconds when he's in a real mood. While this has its limits, it's been exploited in the past by Mystique (granted, he was disoriented at the time and found out in short order - he was not pleased).
  • Anti-Hero: She's this in the new X-Force run, though she eventually leaves the team after Beast crosses a line.
  • invokedAngst? What Angst?: Jean Grey seems totally fine about her mother, father, niece, nephew, aunts, uncles, and cousins all being mass murdered while she was gone - though considering that as the White Phoenix of the Crown, she was seen ushering them into the White Hot Room, and that she has a very unique perspective on death, perhaps this isn't so surprising.
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: The Phoenix, as avatar of Phoenix Force. Her costume as Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, and White Phoenix also has the golden firebird emblem on her chest.
  • Apocalypse Maiden: Jean Grey as Dark Phoenix.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the White Hot Room after her physical death by Xorn in New X-Men, to gather fragments of the Phoenix Force.
  • Back from the Dead: Once... for one quite permanent example.
    • For not-so-permanent examples, she has undergone this repeatedly in Phoenix Endsong (See Death Is Cheap below for details). But each time she's resurrected, it's always Came Back Wrong, so she finally decides that she’s not yet ready to come back to life, instead returning to the White Hot Room to continue gathering the fragments of Phoenix Force.
    • Finally, she returns for good in Phoenix Resurrection.
  • Battle Couple: With Cyclops, combining his optic blasts with her potent psychic abilities. Many stories featured them charging into battle together, hand-in-hand, and blasting their way through opponents.
  • Been There, Shaped History: X-Men: First Class has a story claiming it's Jean who inspired Black Widow's famous Spy Catsuit look.
  • Betty and Veronica:
    • In early days she had to choose between Angel and Cyclops, and later Cyclops and Wolverine.
    • She was briefly the Betty to Psylocke's Veronica for Cyclops' Archie.
    • She's become the Betty for Cyclops while Emma Frost is the Veronica.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: She's sweet, motherly and level-headed, practically overflowing with compassion. Unless you wrong her or her loved ones seriously. Then, you're in for a world of psychic pain.
  • Big Good: Like her husband, she is The Paragon of mutantkind to whom everybody looks up, also post-mortem. Her teenaged self finds it alternately intimidating and irritating, on the grounds that people tend to see either The Paragon or the Apocalypse Maiden and don't bother to look further - this irritation extends to when adult Jean's ghost (understandably annoyed at being stuck as a ghost) starts haunting her, though the two come to an accommodation and get on just fine once adult Jean has her own body again (and teen Jean bullied the Phoenix into resurrecting her).
  • Blessed with Suck: She used to have great difficulty controlling her powers. Her telekinesis wasn't so bad, but her telepathy was a huge hassle because she couldn't shut it off. It went From Bad to Worse when she became the host of the Phoenix — she had even more power, but less control since the Phoenix isn't always content to stay in the passenger's seat.
  • Brainwashed: Has been a victim of mind control several times.
  • Civvie Spandex: In New X-Men.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Jean is capable of getting very jealous, especially where Scott is concerned.
  • Combat Tentacles: Late in the Claremont days, Masque temporarily turned her arms into tentacles (because he's a dick). This being Claremont (who kind of likes tentacles), Jean got used to it pretty quick.
  • Continuity Snarl: The Phoenix Force with all the RetCons (or in some instances, continuity gaffs) surrounding it.
  • Costume Evolution: Her first two changes, along with the rest of the teams, were all designed by her.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Jean as Phoenix can be quite witty and sarcastic when she wants to be. This character trait lingers.
  • Death-Activated Superpower: Something the Phoenix Force seems to do. However, how this works is very much Depending on the Writer.
  • Death Is Cheap: Though wrongly assumed to be her main trait, or wrongly singled out for it, she is still a comic book superhero.
    • Presumed dead piloting a space shuttle through a solar radiation storm, re-emerges as the Phoenix.
    • After becoming corrupted and turning into Dark Phoenix, she committed suicide on the Moon. It's later explained that it was actually a Phoenix-created duplicate of Jean who died. Jean’s psychic link with the Phoenix was what caused her to sacrifice herself. Real Jean's physical body, on the other hand, was actually in a stasis cocoon underwater. The portion of Jean's consciousness that had bonded with the Phoenix force awoke in a realm called The White Hot Room. The cocoon is later discovered by Avengers and Fantastic Four, then she re-emerges back to life, initially with no memory of Phoenix or Dark Phoenix.
    • She's one of many people who is temporarily erased from existence by Thanos in The Infinity Gauntlet. Along with everyone else, she gets restored later on.
    • Presumed killed by Trevor Fitzroy's Sentinels along with the Hellions, and Emma Frost who fell into coma. Jean instead transferred her psyche into Emma's comatose body. She was eventually transferred back into her own body, which was only brain-dead at the time, by Xavier.
    • Seemingly mercy-killed by Wolverine in the remains of Asteroid M. Her Phoenix Force powers are reawakened and she was able to fly them both back to Earth. Unfortunately, she's shortly after physically killed by Xorn with an electromagnetic pulse that gives her planetary-scale stroke.
    • In Phoenix Endsong #3, a wounded part of the Phoenix Force makes it way to Earth and brings Jean back to life to help heal itself. Feeling the Phoenix power taking control, she asks Wolverine to repeatedly kill her to weaken the Phoenix. Each time, the Phoenix is able to help resurrect Jean almost immediately. Later, she submerges herself in a glacier, even this fails to hold her, though, and she comes back once again. In Phoenix Endsong #5, Jean decides that she’s not yet ready to come back to life, instead returning to the White Hot Room to continue gathering the fragments of Phoenix Force.
    • And then she returns in Phoenix Resurrection, where she apparently puts a stop to this for good by firmly telling the Phoenix to bugger off and leave her alone. However...
    • She's killed by Sentinels in House of X / Powers of X, only to be revived as a demonstration of Krakoa's Resurrective Immortality.
  • Depending on the Writer: The nature of her relationship with the Phoenix. Is it a separate entity? Are they one and the same with the Phoenix being a part of her? Is she a part of the Phoenix? Don’t expect the answer with one writer to be same as it was with the writer that preceded them, EVER.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Her: Her Quesada-mandated death at the end of Planet X had "Magneto" kill her out of spite when he realized he was losing.
  • Dude Magnet: Jean is the object of affection for many male X-Men members, including Professor X himself for a brief period in the old days.
  • Evil Costume Switch: When she becomes Dark Phoenix, the outfit turns red. In a more subtle version, as the normal Phoenix, the size of the phoenix logo slowly grew as time went on and she became more Anti Heroish.
  • Evil Redhead: When she was Dark Phoenix.
  • Expy: Jean Grey has generated some few expies, such as Supergirl's best friend Thara Ak-Var, a. k. a. Flamebird, a female hero who is avatar of a firebird-shaped cosmic force.
  • Fairytale Wedding Dress: When marrying Scott, she wore a mermaid dress with a hooded white cape and High-Class Gloves.
  • Fan Disservice: She is stabbed in the gut by Logan after she stripped down to her bra and pants while on Asteroid M as it's hurtling into the sun in New X-Men.
  • Fashion Designer: One of her skills is designing clothes. The first two redesigns for the team were by her.
  • Fiery Redhead: Classic Marvel example. And as the Phoenix, quite literally too.
  • Fiery Sensuality: Jean Grey's phoenix powers are often viewed as a for female desire and sexuality, and how it can cause harm if corrupted.
  • Fire/Ice Duo: Used to contrast her with Emma when she becomes her romantic rival. Jean is constantly associated with fire and heat because of her red hair and her connection to the fiery Phoenix Force, and her personality is known to vacillate between warm compassion and unpredictable fiery temper; Emma is associated with ice and the cold because of her surname "Frost", her all-white attire and her cool temperament, and she resembles an ice sculpture when in her organic diamond form.
  • Flaming Hair: She sometimes has flaming hair when she's all Phoenix-y.
  • Flight: Using psychokinesis.
  • Flying Firepower: As the avatar of Phoenix Force.
  • Foot Popping: When she married Scott, the cover shows Jean doing this as they kiss◊.
  • Forced Transformation: Once got turned into a water-breather along with her sister by Attuma, who wanted them to be his concubines. Jean very emphatically refused.
  • Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Her Phoenix costume, X-Factor costumes, and 90s costume, all accentuate her voluptuous yet muscular body and Most Common Superpower. Even her wedding dress fit her curves.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: When she is possessed by the Phoenix Force.
  • Happily Married: With Cyclops... for a while.
  • The Heart: Of the X-Men. Having been the only one who could call both Wolverine and Cyclops into line and mediate all their issues, she was the one who kept the team honest, which might explain why they became so much Darker and Edgier after her death.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: Many of the X-Men have been attracted to the red-headed Jean, most notably Cyclops and Wolverine.
  • Heroic Build: Depending on the Artist, she has a fairly muscular build.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Knew piloting that space shuttle would kill her, and she still went through with it.
  • High-Class Gloves:
    • Her first appearance in the comic is her in a fancy blue outfit with white gloves (like a debutante about to go on a trip), to show her upper middle class status.
    • Her wedding dress includes long white gloves.
  • High-School Sweethearts: With Cyclops.

    I-Z 
  • I Hate Past Me: Zig-Zagged. In the latter's book, adult Jean - who, in fairness, might have been grumpy thanks to being a ghost visible solely to her younger self - appears to regard Teen Jean as an immature, whiny brat who can't deal with the fact her life wasn't a painless fairy tale. Teen Jean reciprocates. However, they ultimately get used to each other, with adult Jean becoming something of a mentor to her teenage self, and the two get on much better once adult Jean has her own body again.
    Teen Jean: Stop acting like it's so embarrassing you used to be me.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: At the end of New X-Men, a temporarily dead Jean used her powers to convince Scott to start a relationship with Emma (also to prevent a Bad Future she'd just annihilated).
  • The Lancer: In New X-Men.
  • Levitating Lotus Position: As seen here◊.
  • Light Is Good: Her outfit as the White Phoenix of the Crown, the Phoenix Force at its highest state, is white with gold. However...
  • Light Is Not Good: It's still the Phoenix, capable of burning entire universes to the ground.
  • Lingerie Scene: In Uncanny X-Men #144.
  • Little Black Dress: Has worn such dresses, to show her sense of style is sophisticated, not gaudy.
  • Love Triangle: Scott-Jean-Logan, Madelyne-Scott-Jean and Jean-Scott-Emma.
  • Mama Bear:
    • Usually averted with Rachel, who is a psi of talent close to or exceeding her mother's own. Baby can take care of herself and Mama knows it too well. Plus, Mama's dead a lot. However, it's Played Straight in X-Men: Red when Rachel is controlled by Cassandra Nova and Jean steps in. And on. Hard.
    • Played straight in regard to her students. When the U-Men turn up, looking to harvest the organs of the students, Jean proceeds to humiliate and terrify them without moving, or, indeed, even raising her voice.
    • Played straight in regards to her time travelling son Cable, having raised him as a baby with Scott in the future, protected him as he grew up and taught him how to use the vast telekinetic powers he inherited from her to hold the techno organic virus at bay.
    • Also played straight towards Nate Grey. While he's probably the strongest mutant in the Marvel Universe (possibly excepting Franklin Richards), and a fighter from the start, his powers were unstable and slowly killing him. He was also extremely emotionally vulnerable and a definite Momma's Boy - when he resurrected himself, the first bone he had to pick with Mystique was her making him believe that his then-dead mother was alive.
  • Messianic Archetype: What she has become with time, especially in and after Grant Morrison's run.
  • Mind over Matter: She provides the page image and is one of the most powerful examples in fiction. Her telekinetic strength and skill are both of a supremely high power-level, capable of grasping objects in Earth orbit and manipulating hundreds of components in mid-air in complex patterns. She often uses her telekinesis to lift herself and others, giving her the ability of levitation and flight, create durable shields and energy blasts, sometimes even extending to full on molecular manipulation.
  • Mind Rape: When Jean catches Emma Frost and Cyclops in bed (inside of Cyclops' mind), Emma's cavalier response provokes her to psychically tear Emma to shreds, making her relive her worst memories.
  • Mindlink Mates: with Scott.
  • Mini Dress Of Power: Her second (and following Hickman's takeover, recent) outfit is a green dress with a miniskirt. It didn't age well, so it's now the colour scheme of the Marvel Girl outfit mixed with the style of her X-Men: Red uniform.
  • Modeling Poses: In the very first X-Men issue Jean does a fashion pose when she puts on the uniform.
  • Morality Chain: Conventional wisdom is that she serves as this for Cyclops, with her compassionate and empathetic nature balancing out his jerkish/Well-Intentioned Extremist tendencies. Plenty of Alternate Universe stories (and the mainstream universe once, but we don't talk about that anymore) have shown him going full Magneto without her to reign him in. However, there is some evidence that she needs him as much as he needs her, as he appears to be the only one who can talk down the Dark Phoenix.
  • Morality Pet: She and Scott served as each other's Morality Pets before their relationship went south. She helps him to live life and not brood so much, he helps her to calm down and balance the Phoenix's power with her humanity. Once she dies, the gap between Scott and his teammates widens, as she's isn't there to mediate between them any more.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Jean is a very beautiful redhead who tends to wear very form-fitting costumes that highlight her very buxom breasts, long muscular yet shapely legs, ripped broad shoulders, and muscular yet voluptuous body.
  • Most Common Superpower: She has very buxom breasts that are d-cup sizes.
  • Nice Girl: Alongside Night Crawler, she is often seen to be the kindest, most nurturing and most compassionate of all the X-Men, and a paragon and symbol of the good that Mutants can do for humanity, not a pushover by any means, though.
  • No One Should Survive That!: The end of Uncanny X-Men issue #100. Through the last few issues, it's been noted a really nasty solar flare is headed for Earth, just as the X-Men wind up in a villain's orbital base, with the only shuttle back to Earth damaged to just the extent someone needs to fly it manually, but due to the radiation this will be certain death. Jean volunteers anyway, and the issue ends with the cockpit being bombarded with radiation. Issue #101 begins with the space shuttle face-planting into the Hudson, but just as the X-Men despair, the water boils and out bursts Jean, very much alive and well.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: The Shi'ar won't forgive Jean for having been possessed/replaced by a cosmic entity and later corrupted by two psychic villains; every so often, Inspector Javerts from the Shi'ar Empire come to try to kill Jean (and did kill her entire family) because apparently merely being capable of hosting the Phoenix equals "may wake up one morning and decide to end the universe any day now."
  • The Phoenix: Depending on the continuity, or even the writer at the moment in the main continuity, she was either the Phoenix itself (later Dark Phoenix), possessed by it, or replaced and impersonated by it at some point. She keeps an equally variable connection to it from her return onwards. The Phoenix wasn't even originally intended to give her an ability to come Back from the Dead. Becoming the Phoenix in the first place was considered her "death and rebirth". None of this helped her overall reputation much, and by now she has become the poster child for Death Is Cheap even by comic book standards.
    • Finally, at the end of Phoenix Resurrection, she kindly but extremely firmly tells the Phoenix to go away and leave her alone, as it's not good for either of them.
  • Playing with Fire: Her Phoenix powers give her cosmic pyrokinesis, essentially magic fire.
  • Power Incontinence: When she was a child, she couldn't control her telepathic ability and ended up in a catatonic state. Later on she had a similar problem with the Phoenix Force.
  • Polyamory: In recent times, it has been hinted and speculated by fans/readers that she, her husband Scott Summers, and teammate Wolverine may be in a polyamorous relationship. Evidence to support this is that their rooms◊ on Krakoa are next to each other◊, as well as separated from the rest of the Summers family. Her bedroom is in the middle of her husbands and James's, and the map layout shows that their rooms are connected by hidden doors◊.
  • Primary-Color Champion: Jean has red hair and in the 90s wore a yellow and blue costume. Usually her outfits contain some gold-yellow in there somewhere, and often red.
  • Pretty in Mink:
    • In the 70s, she has a blue winter coat trimmed with gray fur.
    • In the early 90s, she buys a white fur coat after she lost her coat coat the previous issue, and she's so excited that she didn't even want the salesman to wrap it up. She just wore it out of the store, gushing about how soft it felt.
    • The first time we see her mother, Elaine, she's wearing a brown mink coat. Even a 90s retelling of the X-Men's early years still showed her wearing the coat.
  • Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: X-Men: First Class gives her and Wanda Maximoff one, spending lots of time just hanging out doing stuff (Wanda being the only other known girl Mutant at the time).
  • Psychic Powers: Her main powers aside from Phoenix Force, which mainly include Telepathy and Telekinesis.
  • Punny Name: Perhaps merely by coincidence, Jean has mutant powers because she possesses the X-gene.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: In an issue of Bizarre Adventures, Jean and her older sister Sara are kidnapped from a boat by Namor villain Attuma. He intends to use them for breeding purposes. They escape using Jean’s powers, but it’s implied this isn’t the first time Attuma has done this. Nor the last.
    • Then there are the separate times where Mastermind or Mesmero had Jean completely under their control before other X-Men intervened.
  • Redhead In Green: Some of her costumes have been green. She even designed her first two costume changes, the second being a green Mini Dress Of Power (with gold-colored accessories).
  • Restraining Bolt: As a young girl, Xavier placed mental blocks in Jean's mind to keep her telepathy from growing out of control. Xavier would later remove these so her telepathy could grow naturally.
  • Rogues Gallery: Mesmero, the Morlocks Masque and Bliss, Madelyne Pryor, the Mastermind family and sometimes the Shi’ar Imperial guard.
  • Secret Public Identity: The name "Marvel Girl" didn't age well and was dropped decades ago (then brought back, to mixed reactions), and (usually; Depending on the Writer) she only uses the name Phoenix when actually supercharged by the cosmic critter. This leaves her as just plain "Jean Grey" the majority of the time, even during action. It's been Lampshaded more than once; Jubilee once even referred to her as "Miss I'm Too Sexy For A Codename, Too Sexy For A Codename," and in the X-Men: Evolution tie in comic, when Nightcrawler asked why Rogue was just Rogue, Cyclops said "The same reason Jean's just Jean," and they were interrupted before Nightcrawler could get finished asking about that.
  • Sensual Spandex: Her Phoenix costumes (green, red, or white) are the least modest compared to her other costumes.
  • Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Has red hair and green eyes.
    • Her mother was retconned into one (She was a brunette at first).
  • Simple, yet Opulent: Her dress when she arrives at the mansion, in the first issue, wouldn't look too out of place at a high class party.
    • She has several evening dresses when she attends high class events (although usually undercover).
    • Her wedding dress was also grand and simple.
  • Supernaturally Young Parent: All of her children are from the future. Though, only Cable she actually helped raise, thanks to Rachel's Mental Time Travel related assistance.
  • Superpower Lottery: She gets this, but she went mad with power. Now Jean didn't actually have that much power after she fused with the Phoenix Force, but then she suddenly is more powerful than ever before, and more dangerous: Jean Grey alone can lift upwards of twenty tons with her brain. With limited Phoenix power, she can use external objects as a sense of touch and recompose matter at a molecular level. Unhinged, she can teleport anywhere in the universe at will and devour stars. Then it turns out she has one more level beyond that where she can exist outside of reality proper and has total control over space and time itself. On top of all that, if you kill her she comes back whenever she feels like it. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
  • Talking to Themself: In Jean Grey #7, Ghost Jean holds a conversation with her younger self. Ghost Jean notes with irony her younger self doesn't want to appear she's talking to herself as she's actually literally talking to herself.
  • Team Mom: The oldest example in X-Men. Even when they were still teens, Jean would do things like enforce proper table manners among her teammates.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Jean was the only girl of the original X-Men team.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Unleashed one on Wolverine in Uncanny X-Men issue #100, after reaching the end of her tether with him. Worth bearing in mind this was pre-Character Development Wolverine, and that it's only after this he starts having a crush on her.
    • She gives a scathing one to her time displaced younger self in Issue 6 of her solo.
    Jean Grey: You have convinced yourself that I'm the nightmare. That my life - a life you've only glimpsed in other people's heads - was some kind of dark tragedy. Because there was pain. Because it ended in Death. Because that's not the life you envisioned for yourself. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, princess, but that's just life. Grow up.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the early days of the X-Men, Jean was explicitly labelled the weakest member of the team. One little shuttle accident later, and Jean became capable of punching former Heralds of Galactus across Manhattan, grabbing passing asteroids, and restructuring clothing out of nothing. Even once that turned out to be a Phoenix duplicate, most of the levels in badass still remained when the real Jean came back - she was capable of flying through hyperspace, for one thing, and on a smaller scale she can crush bones telekinetically. Teen Jean, meanwhile, has proved capable of going toe to toe with Gladiator and creatures that give Namor trouble.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Jean's telepathy first came in when her best friend was struck and killed by a car right in front of her, with Jean feeling every second of it.
  • True Blue Femininity: Some of her outfits are blue, including the civilian dress she wears in her very first appearance.
  • Uniqueness Decay: She was the first and only human that bonded with the Phoenix. Then it turned out Feron did centuries before, then Avengers vs X-Men introduced Fongji Wu, then a Phoenix host in 1,000,000 BC. However, with the possible exception of Rachel, it is made quite clear that she is its favourite.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Cyclops when they're not together; sometimes with Wolverine.
  • Unstable Powered Woman: She was a heroic member of the X-Men up until the events of The Dark Phoenix Saga, where she is possessed by the Phoenix Force, one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. While she initially handles this new power well, Jean is targeted by the supervillain Mastermind, who shatters her control over them in a mental battle. This causes her to lose it and become Dark Phoenix, an intergalactic menace who casually indirectly kills billions of people by devouring a star, and by doing so paints a big target on her back. This storyline was extremely influential, and many comics storylines parallel or homage this directly.
  • Unwanted Harem: She was the only girl in the group for years. She's also been the target of villain's affections, as well. Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind) wasn't above committing Mind Rape to get her to fall in love with him.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Since 1963, Jean and Scott live in a constant cycle where they're unsure whether a relationship is a good idea or they should stay just friends, they get together, live happy for a while until one of them dies temporarily or something makes them break up, and the cycle begins anew.
  • Winter Royal Lady: Conversed a bit. After she bought her fur, she and Scott had a Snowball Fight with their powers, and Jean jokingly called herself "the Queen of the Icy North!".
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity:
    • Played straight initially as host of Phoenix Force, until it's inverted in New X-Men. It's implied that Jean only lost control because she was afraid of her power before, and repressed it. Now, she's out and proud, and completely in control of herself. Sadly, she's killed there.
    • Also, it's frequently ignored by fans and writers that the though she had to fight her anti-heroic urges she was actually in control for a very long time, only becoming Dark Phoenix after Mastermind and Emma Frost put a lot of time and effort into their More than Mind Control of her to get her to join the Hellfire Club. It worked too well and we all know what happened next.

Alternative Title(s): Jean Grey

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