Jean Grey (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

Contents 1 History 1.1 Original X-Men 1.2 Phoenix (Phoenix Force) 1.3 Jean Grey's Return 1.4 Marriage 1.5 Onslaught 1.6 Zero Tolerance 1.7 Apocalypse 1.8 Power Switch 1.9 New X-Men 1.10 Here Comes Tomorrow 1.11 Phoenix Endsong 1.12 White Phoenix 2 Powers and Abilities 2.1 Powers 2.2 Abilities 2.3 Strength level 3 Paraphernalia 3.1 Equipment 3.2 Transportation 4 Notes 5 Trivia 6 Appearances in Other Media 7 Related Articles 8 Links 8.1 Discover and Discuss

History

I am always Jean Grey and always the Phoenix.

-- Phoenix

Jean Grey was the younger daughter of Professor John Grey of the History Department of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and his wife Elaine. When Jean was ten years old, she was playing with her best friend Annie Richardson when Annie was hit by an automobile.^[1] The emotion that Jean felt as she held her dying friend awakened her own latent telepathic powers, and she experienced Annie's own emotions as she died. This traumatic event left Jean in a withdrawn and deeply depressed state. Moreover, Jean discovered that she could not control her newly awakened telepathic abilities, and had to isolate herself from other people to keep hold of her sanity.

Finally, when Jean was eleven, a psychiatrist recommended to her parents that they consult a colleague of his, Professor Charles Xavier, who was secretly a mutant with telepathic abilities. Xavier explained to Jean, but not to her parents, that she was a mutant, and he treated her for several years. Xavier used young Jean to calibrate his Cerebro machine.^[2] During one particular session an aspect of young Jean's mind reached out in the form of the Phoenix to touch young Scott Summer's mind in the orphanage as he slept. ^[3] During this time Xavier erected psychic shields in Jean's mind so that she would not be able to use her telepathic abilities until she had achieved the maturity necessary for dealing with them.^[4] Simultaneously, he taught her how to levitate and manipulate objects through psionic force when she developed telekinesis at the age of 13. ^[5]

Original X-Men

When Xavier judged that Jean had reached a certain level of mastery of her telekinetic power, he recommended to her parents that they enroll her in his newly established School for Gifted Youngsters. Unknown to Mr. and Mrs. Grey, this school served as a cover for the X-Men, a team of young superhuman mutants being trained by Xavier to combat the threats posed by other mutants who used their powers against humanity.

Jean Grey was the first female to join the X-Men. On entering the school, Jean Grey became the fifth member to join the original X-Men and took the code name of Marvel Girl ^[6] The original five X-Men consisted of Jean, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, and Angel. They remained together for several years.

Shortly after she joined the team, Jean Grey and Scott Summers, the X-Man known as Cyclops, fell in love with each other. Although neither told the other his or her true feelings for quite some time, they finally openly admitted their love for each other.^[7]

When Xavier realized that he had to remain in isolation for an extended period of time in order to make preparations to thwart an attempted invasion of Earth by the alien Z'Nox, he released the psychic barriers preventing Jean Grey from using her telepathic abilities.^[8] Jean's added maturity and her years of practice in using her telepathic powers enabled her to use her telepathic abilities from that point onwards. Hence, with Xavier otherwise occupied (and believed dead!^[9]), she could use her own telepathic powers to aid the X-Men. While on a mission in space, Jean Grey was scanned by the Phoenix Force as it sensed her unlimited potential and touched her subconscious. ^[10]

Sometime later, after Xavier had recruited several new members for the X-Men, Marvel Girl and some of the other X-Men decided to leave the group in order to lead their own lives.^[11] Scott Summers chose to remain in the X-Men, however, he and Jean continued their romantic relationship.

Shortly after Jean Grey left the team, she and the newest members of the X-Men were kidnapped by Steven Lang's Sentinels and taken aboard Lang's space station.^[12] After defeating Lang the X-Men had to escape back to Earth aboard a space shuttle during a solar radiation storm. The craft's pilot had to sit in an area without enough shielding to protect him or her from the lethal radiation. Marvel Girl volunteered to pilot, but while guiding the shuttle to Earth, the solar radiation finally proved to be too great for her to hold back any longer with her powers,^[13] and she began to succumb to the radiation's lethal effects.

Phoenix (Phoenix Force)

Jean did not die. The Phoenix Force responded to Jean's anguish and telepathic calls for help as she was dying aboard the space shuttle. It appeared before her, shaping its form and consciousness after Jean's own.^[14] The Phoenix Force told her that she was dying, but that by taking the Phoenix Force's hand, she would gain her "heart's desire." What Jean most wanted was to save the lives of the X-Men and herself. She held onto the Phoenix Force's arm and fell into a coma-like state. Simultaneously, the Phoenix Force fully took on the form, memories, and personality of Jean Grey by absorbing a portion of her consciousness. The Phoenix Force used its powers to ensure the survival of the X-Men in their return to Earth and crash landing in Jamaica Bay off New York City. It was also responsible for casting Jean into a coma-like state and placing her within a cocoon-like construction, which rested for years at the bottom of Jamaica Bay while her injuries healed completely. Thus the Phoenix Force fulfilled its pledge to Jean. ^[15]

Following the crash landing in Jamaica Bay, the Phoenix Force took Jean's place as a member of the X-Men.^[16] The Phoenix Force continued Jean's romance with Scott, healed the M'Kraan Crystal and was ultimately corrupted into Dark Phoenix by Mastermind and the Hellfire Club and commited suicide on the moon.^[17]

After committing suicide on the moon as Dark Phoenix, the portion of Jean Grey-Summers' consciousness that had bonded with the Phoenix force awoke in the afterlife (a realm later called the White Hot Room). Jean found herself on top of a floating tower in an outer space like realm wondering why she wasn't dead. Dressed in a White Phoenix outfit Jean wondered if there are three phases of the Phoenix: Green the Good, Red the Bad, and White to which she had not discovered the meaning to. Later Jean was approached by Death itself who manifested as a male cosmic construction worker. Death had Jean build towers in the afterlife to house the souls of Dark Phoenix's victims. Jean also relived the experience of the destruction of the D'Bari system from the point of view of the victims. Death told Jean Grey that she was destined to become the Phoenix to heal the M'Kraan Crystal and that if she and the Phoenix were not meant for each other then they would not have reached out for each other. Death told Jean that she was an avatar of the Phoenix because her "spirit" was "most closely carved" from the Phoenix. Death told her that her perceptions and imagination had influenced the Phoenix and that it belonged to her by right and would one day come to her children. Death instructed Jean to return to life to live and learn. Jean and her Phoenix energies went to Jean's original body in the cocoon and to Madelyne Pryor, her clone in Mister Sinister's lab. ^[18]

Jean Grey's Return

Many months after Phoenix's death, the Avengers found Jean's pod beneath Jamaica Bay^[19] and brought it to the Fantastic Four for study. Jean released herself from the pod, at first unable to remember her encounter with the Phoenix Force, but with the help of the Avengers and Fantastic Four she remembered what happened.^[20] As a result of her harrowing experiences, Jean had lost her telepathic powers, but the strength of her telekinetic powers had greatly increased.

Jean was reunited with her fellow founding X-Men members, Angel, Beast, Cyclops, and Iceman.^[21] She was greatly disturbed to learn of the current wave of anti-mutant sentiment in the country, Xavier's recent disappearance, and the fact that the then current X-Men were now working alongside Magneto, the original X-Men's greatest foe.^[22] Because the others agreed with Jean that they should do something about the current situation of mutants, the five friends founded a new organization to help other superhuman mutants, X-Factor.

While Jean had been in suspended animation Scott had married Madelyne Pryor^[23], a clone of Jean Grey created by Mister Sinister^[24]. Madelyne had been a failed experiment until she was brought to life by the portion of Jean's consciousness that had been borrowed by the Phoenix Force and a spark of the Phoenix Force which had been rejected by Jean's body while in the cocoon. Eventually Madelyne Pryor went mad, developed vast powers, and became known as the Goblin Queen.^[25] The Goblin Queen died in combat with Marvel Girl. As a result of a psychic link, Jean acquired the memories of both Madelyne Pryor and the Phoenix's duplicate of her. Jean also acquired a spark of the Phoenix Force but managed to keep it mostly suppressed until she was able to expel it while helping an alien race fight off a Celestial. ^[26]

Jean's telepathy eventually returned while battling the villainous Psynapse.^[27] Later, after Professor Xavier returned from a long sojourn in space with the Shi'ar and Lilandra^[28], Marvel Girl and the other members of X-Factor rejoined the X-Men.^[29]

Marriage

Some years later, Scott and Jean married.^[30] During their honeymoon, however, their spirits were transported two millennia into an alternate future and were placed in new bodies by the Askani cult.^[31] Their leader, Rachel Summers was the daughter of the Scott and Jean Summers of an alternate reality. As Slym and Redd, Scott and Jean spent years in that future time, raising Nathan Dayspring, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor, who had earlier been brought to the future.^[32] Eventually, Scott and Jean returned to their own time and bodies, leaving Nathan in the future to become the heroic warrior Cable. Since then she has had a stronger relationship with Cable, and he secretly learned that she was Redd when they fought the Phalanx on the astral plane. In Rachel's honor Jean adopted the name Phoenix when she returned to the X-Men.

Onslaught

Jean was confronted by Onslaught, who claimed he could give her the power of the Phoenix Force once again and showed her Xavier's hidden memories, including an attraction for her. ^[33] Juggernaut then confronted her, and the two went to the Z'Nox chamber to try and unlock Onslaught's identity with the chamber shielding them from detection. Her attempts to warn the other X-Men caused Onslaught to 'muzzle' her, and she returned to the Z'Nox chamber to deliver the infamous warning that Bishop (Lucas Bishop) saw in his future.^[34]

Zero Tolerance

During Operation: Zero Tolerance, Cyclops was implanted with a 'nano-bomb.' Phoenix strained herself considerably using her telekinesis to protect her husband long enough until surgery could be done to remove it. Needing time to recover, Scott and Jean temporarily retired to Alaska. While training, Jean began wearing a costume similar to the one the Phoenix Force incarnation of her wore and seemed to be manifesting the fire bird effect with her telekinesis. While this worried Scott, Jean reassured him that she was well and simply training herself.

Apocalypse

At the dawn of the new millennium, the mutant warlord Apocalypse captured the Twelve: powerful mutants who would determine the fate of their kind, including Cyclops and Phoenix. They were wired to a machine that would channel their awesome energies into Apocalypse, allowing him to absorb the body of X-Man, a time-tossed teenager possessed of vast telepathic and telekinetic power, and ascend to a state of cosmic awareness. As his teammates fell around him, a powerless Scott shoved X-Man out of Apocalypse's draining circuit, merging with the would-be conqueror to create a new evil entity. Phoenix detected Scott's psyche inside Apocalypse and prevented the X-Men from destroying him. However, he was presumed dead by most of his teammates. Only Jean and Cable refused to believe Scott had perished. Investigating rumors that he was alive, Phoenix and Cable found Cyclops struggling to reassert his mind over Apocalypse's psyche. Phoenix exorcised the warlord from Cyclops and Cable shattered his essence. Thanks to the support of his wife and adopted family, Scott was able to shake off the devastating effects of his merger with Apocalypse and rejoin the X-Men.

Power Switch

Jean Grey-Summers revisited her experience as White Phoenix interacting with Death when the machine Prosh recruited her and some others for a special mission to fight The Stranger. A part of the mission included revisiting key moments in their past to learn new insights. As Jean Grey-Summers awoke in the afterlife in the White and Gold Phoenix costume, Death greeted her.

In order to help her after the Psi-War, Phoenix and Psylocke switched powers. Phoenix lost her telekinesis but her telepathy increased greatly. Phoenix began to manifest "Phoenix raptors" that represented her telepathic powers "honed to their sharpest edge". As a result of the power switch, Phoenix temporarily displayed a shadow astral form with a Phoenix symbol over her right eye.^[35] Phoenix would later be recruited by Prosh for a special mission where she would use the Phoenix Force to touch and talk to the cosmic being known as Eternity. During this mission to stop The Stranger from manipulating human evolution Phoenix also discovered that she was an Omega mutant. Jean was also forced to relive various moments from her past such as piloting the shuttle, being in the cocoon, the moment Phoenix died, and meeting Death in the afterlife. He explained that she was one of the few people he had done this twice for except with her the first time and second time had been the same time, even though the first time was technically with the Phoenix. He reiterates that she and the Phoenix chose each other. He told Jean that she hungered for power when she touched the Phoenix. Death explained that her hunger scared the fundamental forces of the universe because she was a human mutant with unlimited potential for growth. One day those like her could grow to replace the fundamental forces of the universe.^[36] After undergoing a Secondary Mutation, her telekinesis returned as well.

New X-Men

The Xavier Institute opened its doors to students once more, with Jean Grey-Summers becoming Headmistress of the school for a short time. When the U-Men attacked the school, students aided Phoenix in repelling their attack while she once again manifested the Phoenix raptor. During Cassandra Nova's daring attack on the Shi'ar Empire and subsequent assault on the Xavier Institute, Phoenix used Cerebra to splinter Charles Xavier's mind into every mutant on Earth. The trap worked as when Cassandra (in Xavier's body) activated Cerebro, Xavier reclaimed his body. The Phoenix Force started to appear as another personality within Jean, even having a conversation with Xavier on it's role in events to come.

The rift formed between Jean and her husband after his possession by Apocalypse got worse, and it began to be filled by Emma; what started as therapy became a telepathic affair with Cyclops. Tipped off by the Stepford Cuckoos, Phoenix rampaged through Emma's mind. Immediately after, Emma was shot while in her organic diamond form by the Cuckoo Esme and shattered all over the mansion's kitchen. Phoenix saw through the Cuckoos lies, and repaired Emma at the molecular level displaying incredible telekinetic power.

The X-Man Xorn was revealed to be a traitor who claimed to be Magneto. Tricked by the Magneto impostor, Phoenix and Wolverine ended up trapped on Asteroid M drifting closer to the Sun. Dying, Wolverine killed Jean and awoke the Phoenix Force within her. Using her incredible powers, Phoenix returned with Logan to New York City to face "Magneto". Defeated, his last act was to give Phoenix a stroke on the planetary level. Dying in Scott's arms, she urged him to live on.

Here Comes Tomorrow

150 years in the future, a Phoenix egg hatched and Phoenix was reborn once more. It was revealed that instead of rejoining the X-Men after Phoenix's death, a mourning Cyclops quit the team leaving a desperate Beast to pick up the pieces. Using the drug Kick, actually an aerosol form of Sublime, Beast was corrupted and set a chain of events that left the world in ruin. Phoenix removed the Sublime entity from Beast and absorbed the future reality into the White Hot Room. In the White Hot Room, Jean appeared in her White and Gold Phoenix costume and was referred to by the Phoenix Consciousness as a White Phoenix of the Crown. Jean had felt like she was "supposed to fix something that was dying" but the Phoenix Consciousness said that she had "lost concentration in there". Met by other Phoenix avatars, Jean was urged to let her universe die but she decided to heal it. With some guidance from the Phoenix Consciousness, Jean took her universe in the palm of her hands and decided to create a new future by nudging Scott to continue Xavier's school and his relationship with Emma Frost.^[37]

Phoenix Endsong

The Phoenix Force was reconstituted before its time and was assaulted by a Shi'ar warship and as a result, a great deal of its power was splintered across the galaxy. The Shi'ar had also hoped to kill Jean Grey-Summers who they referred at times as the Phoenix's "host, heart, and self". The Force arrived on Earth, discovered that Phoenix was dead, and proceeded to forcibly resurrect her. However, it went terribly wrong, as neither Jean nor the Phoenix were fully prepared for the rebirth, and as a result, the Phoenix Force went insane, once again becoming the Dark Phoenix. Jean realized that things were wrong and that they should be in the White Hot Room and that the Force is "sick, blind, and has forgotten"

The X-Men formulated a plan to contain the Phoenix, but the matter became complicated with the arrival of Quentin Quire, aka Kid Omega, who wanted to use the Phoenix Force to resurrect Sophie, one of the Stepford Cuckoos, who had died trying to stop him from from taking over the Xavier Institute. Further inflaming the situation were the crew of the Shi'ar warship who attacked the Phoenix while it was en route to Earth. Their plan was to destroy the Force while it was still weak and incomplete.

Eventually the X-Men pursued Jean and the Phoenix Force to the North Pole where Wolverine attempted to kill her several times to no avail. Wolverine asked her if she was Jean or the Phoenix and she replied "I am always Jean Grey and always the Phoenix". After Phoenix managed to regain control and sealed herself in ice, The Phoenix Force took Cyclops captive and used his optic blasts as a means of powering herself. Emma Frost, in an attempt to subdue the Force, told her Cyclops no longer loved Jean, therefore he no longer loved The Phoenix, either. But she offered herself as a host for the Phoenix Force, who accepted and Cyclops quickly trapped them both in a Phoenix Egg containment unit created by the Beast.

But then Quentin Quire arrived on the scene, intending to breach the unit and take the Phoenix for himself to bring Sophie back. Meanwhile within the Phoenix Egg, the White Queen was being consumed from within by the Phoenix's tremendous power. As she was not an 'Omega Level' mutant like Jean Grey-Summers was, she was incapable of serving as its host for long. As Quentin breached the Egg, he claimed the Phoenix and used its power to return Sophie to life, only to have her reject him and revert back to a lifeless corpse. This proved to be the final straw for the Force, who intended to destroy the planet, but then Jean emerged from the ice and battled her. The Phoenix was shocked that Jean was capable of such a feat without her power, to which Jean replied I am you. Don’t you remember? Now get out of that stupid body!

Jean forcibly separated the Phoenix Force and Emma Frost from each other, telling her she knew that the Force was confused, but that in the White Hot Room, when all their pieces are back together, she would understand. The two merged together, but the Phoenix's mental stability continued to deteriorate. Cyclops instructed the White Queen and the Stepford Cuckoos to telepathically link all the X-Men across the Earth together and connect them all to Jean and the Phoenix. The emotional support and love they felt from Jean's friends and family was more than enough to restore the Phoenix's sanity and this was further signified when Phoenix created a new costume for herself--one of white and gold--and became the White Phoenix.

However, as this happened, the Shi'ar warship created an Event Horizon above the North Pole, which annihilated everyone there. But then Cyclops found himself elsewhere with Phoenix before him as the White Phoenix. He told her to find herself -her pieces, and that once she did so, she will know what to do. Phoenix asked to see his eyes before she leaves and he complied, bathing them both in his optic power. Phoenix bid him farewell and he found himself and the other X-Men, alive and well on the ice. Phoenix had saved them all. But not before they had saved her.

White Phoenix

Now alive once again as the White Phoenix, Phoenix returned to the White Hot Room to begin the task of finding the missing fragments of the Phoenix Force that still remained scattered through space.^[38]

The Phoenix Force merged fully with Jean, because it realized that Jean was one of its missing piece. Jean was the Phoenix Force itself, its "heart, host, and self", so the Phoenix Force merged with her again fully, under the control by Jean, finding its missing pieces, which shattered into billions of pieces.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Phoenix is an Omega-level mutant. Jean Grey-Summers is one of the most powerful mutants who ever lived. She has great control over her incredibly powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities. After the Phoenix Force became one with its true heart and soul in the human form of Jean Grey, whose mind serves as a nexus point for all realities, Phoenix was able to tap into the vast powers from the sum of all life (the Phoenix Force); hence, her own powers were augmented to an unimaginable level and she became capable of controlling and wielding the incredible powers of the Phoenix Force. She can create and control flames at will (Cosmic Pyrokinesis), as well as control matter, energy, and thoughts completely. She also can resurrect herself after death. Please note that Phoenix is able to generate cosmic flames which are not dependent on oxygen. Her fire and flames are created either through cosmic energy or by her ability to stimulate molecules which generates heat. Therefore, Phoenix can manifest fire independent of her environment even under seemingly impossible conditions such as underwater or in the vacuum of space.

Telepathy^[39]: She can manipulate the minds of others and even higher order animals within a vast, potentially limitless radius. Her notable powers include:

• Telepathic Defense: She can manifest her telepathy in a number of defensive ways.
  • Telepathic Cloak: She can mask her presence and the use of her abilities from being detected by other psions and psychic entities. She can extend these defenses to others around her as well. Cloaking via telepathy is not perfect and powerful psis may notice and 'see' through this ability.
  • Cloak Mind: Ability to rearrange the “mental engrams” of mutants so their distinctive mutant thought patterns cannot be detected by Cerebro-type devises or by other telepaths.
  • Psionic Shield: Ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of herself and of others minds.
• Telepathic Illusions: She can create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring. ^[40]
  • Telepathic Camouflage: She can alter the apparent physical appearance of herself and other people by altering the perceptions of those around her. This can go so far as to make other people believe that the camouflaged people are not there (invisible). A limit, if one exists, is only imposed by the number of people she is trying to fool, not the number of people she is camouflaging.^[41]
• Telepathic Manipulation: She can manipulate other people's minds easily, achieving a variety of effects.
  • Mind Control: She can control the thoughts and actions of others. ^[42]
  • Mind Possession: She can possess the mind of another, and use that being's body as her own. ^[43]
  • Personality Alteration: She can alter the minds of others by force of will, permanently changing their personality partially or entirely. ^[44]
  • Mental Paralysis: She can induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.^[45]
  • Mental Amnesia: She can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. ^[46]
  • Mind Transferal: She can transfer both her mind and powers into other host bodies if her own physical body could be somehow killed. ^[47]
  • Induce Pain: Can also induce mental pain merely by touching the brow of her victim. ^[48]
  • Heal Trauma: The ability to erase a person’s memories and to heal mental trauma through “psychic surgery,” the power to stimulate or deaden the pain and pleasure centers in a persons brain. ^[49]
  • Mental Sedating: Can telepathically "sedate" her victims so that, if already rendered unconscious, they remain so for as long as she continues to "sedate" them.
  • Neural Jumpstart: She can increase the speed of neural signals in the brain, she could increase another mutants powers to incredible levels, but the effect was only temporary. ^[50]
  • Dilate Power: Ability to place “psychic inhibitors” in the minds of mutant adversaries to prevent them from using their powers. ^[51]
• Mind Link: Ability to develop a mental link with any person which remains as a connection to that individual.
• Psionic Blasts: She can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and turning someone brain-dead.
• Astral Projection: She can project her astral form from her body onto astral planes or the physical planes. In the physical plane she can travel in astral form over vast distances. In the astral plane, she can mentally create psionic objects and manipulate the aspects of her environment. She can communicate with others astrally through her own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.^[52]
• Mental Detection: She can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within a small but as yet undefined radius of himself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being. ^[53]
• Psionic Firebird: She can manifest her telepathy as a psionic firebird; whose claws could inflict both physical and mental damage.^[54]

Telekinesis: telekinetic abilities enable her to levitate herself or other objects, propel or manipulate them however she wishes, stimulate individual molecules to create heat, and generate concussive force or protective shields.

It was later revealed that Phoenix had a secondary mutation. This mutation makes her the physical embodiment of the Phoenix Force; she and the Phoenix itself has stated that they are in fact one and the same being. The Phoenix powers are infinite. She is able to manipulate matter and energy on a sub-atomic scale, although there is substantial variation in the amount of power she has access to at any point based on her current health, mental blocks (natural or constructed - by herself or others), and sometimes for other more esoteric reasons.

Phoenix Force Avatar: A cosmic entity which embodies chaos, especially the the act of creation (and necessarily destruction - that creation may begin again), and derives its power from those yet unborn.^[55] Phoenix's body is permanently tied to the Phoenix Force as a nexus. Phoenix Force thinks that Phoenix is its "host, body, and self." The Phoenix Force gives her vast psionic ability to manipulate time, space, matter, and energy for virtually any purpose. Phoenix can also revive, absorb, re-channel and preserve any kind of life-form, since the Phoenix is the sum of all life-force. The Phoenix Force can significantly boost her mental abilities allowing her to rearrange matter at a molecular level, to fly unaided through space, create intense heat and thermal energy by stimulating molecular activity to create fire, flames, and concussive blasts. She can create fire under any condition, including while submerged, and she can manipulate thermal energy in her vicinity. She can also manipulate the voluntary and involuntary responses in the human body.

• Cosmic Pyrokinesis: After merging completely with the Phoenix Force, Phoenix is now able to create cosmic fire and flames at will, an ability known as Cosmic Pyrokinesis. Cosmic Pyrokinesis is the ability to create, control, and manipulate cosmic flames, flames which are not dependent on oxygen. The source of Phoenix's cosmic flames derives from her ability to manipulate matter at the atomic level, which allows her to generate intense heat, combustion and concussive blasts by stimulating heat molecules, or simply from her access to cosmic energy, or by combining both powers at once to create more powerful cosmic fire. When using these flames offensively, she burns her victims at the molecular and sub-molecular levels; thus no ashes or other combustive by-products are produced. Her cosmic flames are different from flames that are usually created by common pyrokinetics (like Sunfire or the Human Torch). Because her flames are not dependent on oxygen, she can create cosmic flames under seemingly impossible conditions like underwater or even in the vacuum of space. When using her Cosmic Pyrokinesis, the flames usually manifest in the shape of a large fiery bird, a Phoenix. Phoenix, however, has complete control over her cosmic flames and can shape them however she wishes; as a fireball, fiery claws, or even the appearance of an ordinary fire. The pain caused by these flames can be either mental, physical or both simultaneously. Although her cosmic flames (particularly when augmented by the Phoenix Force) are powerful enough to destroy entire galaxies, Phoenix's control over them is so complete that they only harm what she chooses harm, which she calls it "burn away what doesn't work"; thus, her cosmic fire will burn her enemies until they die or she extinguishes it by her own will, and it has no effect on her clothing or anything around her vicinity.

• Telekinetic Sensitivity: That lets her feel the texture of objects she has a telekinetic hold on, feel when other objects come into contact with them, and probe them at a molecular level to identify if they contain alien materials or feel when two things which she has a telekinetic “hold” upon are similarly composed. ^[56]

• Resurrection: Any time Phoenix dies, the Phoenix Force will ultimately resurrect her. Sometimes this resurrection is instantaneous, at other times she spends time in the White Hot Room doing "Phoenix Work". If she dies, the Phoenix Force will automatically create a telekinetic cocoon, known as a "Phoenix Egg". If she's in the Phoenix Egg, the "Egg" is very hot to the touch. She also can resurrect others from death, not just herself. This was shown in New X-Men when she resurrected Emma Frost from death, by reconstructing and repairing Emma's body on a molecular level. Furthermore, Emma's body had been obliterated while in diamond form, so Jean telekinetically merged her diamond body back together on a molecular level and then downloaded Beast's knowledge of human physiology in order to ensure that Emma's internal and external organs were placed in the correct place physiologically. It is still unknown how she resurrects somebody who has been dead for a while. Maybe she calls for the departed soul mentally while in the psionic firebird form, and takes them back from the realm of the dead after the departed soul realizes that she is calling out to them. Perhaps she captures the departed soul with the claws of the firebird and thus brings it back to the real world. In Phoenix Endsong, the Phoenix Force simply goes to the grave and enters Jean's rotting body. Afterwards, Jean's body is instantaneously healed and Jean simply is revived. Also, in Warsong, the Phoenix Force brings back the deceased Esme in a similar way. Bonding with the partly rotten body and simply healing it. Once healed, it is like Esme simply woke up from a dream state.^[57]

  Abilities

Phoenix excels in astral combat. She maintained a psychic link to Cyclops for a number of years. She possessed the memories of the Phoenix duplicate of her as well as those of Madelyne Pryor-Summers, her clone, and is thus an expert pilot. Jean has shown some proficiency in hand-to-hand, non-psionic combat; the extent of this is unknown as she prefers to utilize her telekinesis and telepathy during battle. She has a college education from Metro College.

Strength level

Phoenix possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Phoenix demonstrated the upper-limit of her kinetic strength by grasping multiple components (the strewn rubble of a Genoshan school), which, according to Hank McCoy, weighed anywhere up to 50 tons. ^[58] From this display it can be theorized that Phoenix's maximum telekinetic load without the use of the phoenix force is 50 tons.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Mini-Cerebro.

Transportation

X-Men Blackbird, formerly X-Men Stratojet, Sentinel Air Transport, X-Factor Plane.

Notes

• Following M-Day, when most mutants were left depowered and no mutant births seemed possible, a mutant baby was born in Cooperstown, Alaska, temporarily damaging Cerebra when it detected the child. She bore a resemblance to Jean and when Cyclops held her before giving her to Cable, the baby grasped a locket Cyclops wore that contained a picture of him and Jean, hitning at a relation between the two.
• Recently, Rachel and Korvus' Phoenix powers disappeared. Also, while trapped in a mental illusion of Lady Mastermind, Emma met Jean in her mindscape, who freed her, enabling her to fight back. During the Sisterhood attack Madelyne Pryor took a small lock of Jean's hair that Logan had been keeping.
• In Secret Invasion #4 Phoenix appeared in her Green Phoenix costume, among several heroes rescued from a downed Skrull ship. It seemed that they came from the glory of the 1970's era. Phoenix and Beast from the Skrull ship were killed, and reverted to their Skrull forms upon their death.
  

Trivia

• Jean's resemblance to Rose may have affected Wolverine's attraction to her.

• Although against the X-Men's ideals, Phoenix has killed enemies before: Prism and MeMe, although Prism's destruction was accidental.
  

Appearances in Other Media

• Jean Grey of the Films, X-Men: The Official Game
• Jean Grey of X-Men: The Animated Series
• Jean Grey of X-Men: Evolution
• Jean Grey of X-Men: Next Dimension, X-Men: Mutant Academy
• Jean Grey of X-Men Legends
• Jean Grey of X-Men II: The Fall of the Mutants
• Jean Grey of the X-Men: Gamemaster's Legacy
• Jean Grey of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
• Beatriz Grey of the Amalgaverse
• Phoenix is a supporting character in X-Men (Sega video game).
  

Related Articles

• X-Men
• X-Factor
• Cyclops (Scott Summers)
• Phoenix Force
• Madelyne Pryor

Links

• Appearances of Jean Grey (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Jean Grey (Earth-616)
• Images that feature Jean Grey (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Jean Grey (Earth-616)
• Quotations by Jean Grey (Earth-616) 
• Jean Grey-Summers at Wikipedia
• Jean Grey article at Memory Beta, the licensed Star Trek Wikia.

Discover and Discuss

• Search News for: Phoenix · Jean Grey-Summers · Jean Grey (Earth-616)
• Search Forums for: Phoenix · Jean Grey-Summers · Jean Grey (Earth-616)
• Discuss this and other characters on the forums