Warning: Spoilers for Phoenix #3!The X-Men May have countless healers on their extended roster, but one original member has a new healing upgrade that makes her more powerful than almost every other mutant. As Jean Gray ventures out to explore the galaxy on her own terms, the question is how the greater Marvel Universe will react to her new status.
in Phoenix #4 by Stephanie Phillips, Alessandro Miracolo and David Curiel, Jean Gray showcases the Phoenix’s ability to resurrect the dead like never before, as She came back to life immediately after dying.
In this issue, Jean is killed by Gorr the God Butcher, who believes she is close enough to a god to kill. Jean is also observed by representatives of the Galactic Council, and Gladiator and the villain Perricus argue that Her new resurrection ability is proof that she is too dangerous to survive. How one of them plans to kill you for good, however, is an open question.
The Phoenix can now bring Jean Gray back to life
Her healing factor is the strongest in Marvel history
Jean’s history with the Phoenix and resurrection is complicated. When she first became the Phoenix in X-Men #101 By Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, it supposedly cured you after falling from space, and Her transformation into a phoenix is ​​treated as a symbolic rebirth. Jean then died at the conclusion of the Dark Phoenix Saga in Invisible X-Men #137 by Claremont and John Byrne.
However, the first major Jean Gray recon in Fantastic practice #286 by Claremont and Byrne revealed that Jean is not actually Phoenix and that the Phoenix Force has impersonated her of X-Men #101 Onward while Jean healed. However, even though Jean wasn’t technically the Phoenix, many stories treated her as if she were.
Jean is one of the characters who helped popularize the idea that death doesn’t matter to comic-book characters.
The stories were far from John’s last dance with death. in New X-Men #150 by Grant Morrison and Phil Jimenez, Jean was killed by Xorn, and she ascended to one of the Phoenixes in the White Hot Room. She was temporarily raised in the ministry X-Men: Phoenix – End Song By Greg Pak, Greg Land and Matt Ryan, but mostly stayed dead for a decade until 2017-18 Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey By Matthew Rosenberg and a list of rotating artists. With the X-Men’s Krakoan Era beginning in 2019, mutant resurrections then became commonplaceAnd Jean died several times on X-Men missions. However, in the current “From Ashes” status quo, most mutants no longer have the luxury of resurrection.
Jean Gray literally changed the way superhero comics treat death
How can you build stakes when the protagonist can’t die?
It’s interesting to think about what Jean’s upgraded healing factor means on a narrative level. One of the reasons that death is such a presence in great comic events is that it is supposed to establish high stakes in a story. However, Jean is one of the characters that helped popularize the idea that death didn’t matter to comic-book characters – because they would just come back. Krakoan Resurrection was a literalization of the idea that death doesn’t matter to the X-MenAnd it became a narrative exercise in finding stakes when the franchise’s characters couldn’t die.
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The model of Krakoa can also inform as these Phoenix Series builds its own stakes if Jean’s death is off the table. One of Krakoa’s constant sticking points has been his relationship with the outside world, and Jean’s relationship with the more cosmic Marvel landscape is just as contentious. Jean may not be able to die, but the Phoenix and her (if there is a difference) are already hated and feared by people like Gladiator. If Gladiator and Perricus turn the galaxy against Phoenix, then the former X-Men Member will have failed, even if she cannot die.
Phoenix #4 is available now from Marvel Comics.