These days, people don’t take comic book deaths seriously – and there’s a reason for that. Basically, pretty much any hero or villain to have bitten to the dust returns at some point, usually within a few years when it comes to deaths that have occurred in this decade. Still, there are a few to never have been undone or have stuck for quite some time.
One such example is that of Jean Grey, whom the House of Ideas will be bringing back later this year in the five-issue limited series, Phoenix Resurrection. But before you commence any eye rolling, take a moment to think about how an event such as this will impact the X-Men specifically and what kind of stories can be told.
Sure, we’ve gotten healthy doses of Jean in the time since, thanks to the now defunct Ultimate line of books and the appearance of a younger version of her in All-New X-Men. And we did see her team up with adult Jean in a Generations one-shot, but we just assumed that to be a cool isolated incident.
Well, expect things to get shaken up quite a bit when the creative team of writer Matthew Rosenberg (Secret Warriors, Punisher) and superstar artist Leinil Yu (Secret Empire) come together for what’s being described as “a true celebration of the character’s power and iconic status.” In fact, Rosenberg had this to say about stepping up to the plate for such a daunting task:
“It’s such a mind-blowing honor to bring back the original Jean Grey. I’ve been an X-Men fan my whole life and Jean is, in my mind, the true soul of the X-Men. So we aren’t taking this lightly. We’re going for that perfect balance of universe shaking epic and intimate personal drama that only the X-Men ever truly achieve. This is all hands on deck for the X-Men as every available member heads into battle for the soul of their team and maybe even the fate of the Marvel Universe.”
All in all, this isn’t an unwise move for Marvel to make, as many readers have clamored for such a thing for what seems like an eternity. Not only that, but we also have X-Men: Dark Phoenix hitting theaters next year, so now is not a bad time to have some new folks board the bandwagon.
Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey arrives in comic shops on December 27.