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Jean Grey debuted in 1963's X-Men
vol 1 #1 as the original Marvel Girl. Her continuity
becomes notoriously convoluted once Phoenix comes into things
in the 1970s. For present purposes, suffice to say that
the original idea was that Jean Grey became the
cosmically-powered superhero Phoenix. Phoenix then died.
Marvel then brought back Jean Grey, by claiming that Phoenix
had in fact been an impostor - a cosmic entity posing as Jean.
However, to keep some legitimacy to the story, they retained
the idea of Jean having links to the Phoenix force.
In the early nineties, Jean finally dumped
the name "Marvel Girl" and was just referred to as "Jean
Grey." A few years later, following a time-travel story
involving Rachel Summers (the second Phoenix), Jean adopted
the name herself and became the third Phoenix.
(If you want to be really nitpicky, there's
also a fourth Phoenix - an earlier identity used by the second
Baron Zemo, who went on to lead the original incarnation of
the Thunderbolts. But he was The Phoenix rather than
just Phoenix, so I don't count him.)
Anyhow. Jean turns up at the Mansion
in X-Men vol 1 #1, joins the X-Men and becomes Marvel
Girl. That's presumably why Marvel never got around to
including her in the "Origins of the X-Men" back-up strip from
the late sixties. She was finally given an origin story
by Chris Claremont in a Phoenix story in the anthology title
Bizarre Adventures #27. This story has the effect
of retroactively establishing Jean Grey as the first X-Man to
work with Charles Xavier, something that she and Xavier
concealed from the rest of the team. Their motivations
for doing so are thoroughly obscure, and it's difficult to
avoid the feeling that the story is just attempting to
bulldoze Silver Age continuity aside and hope nobody notices.
Nonetheless, it's solidly established as part of her history
now.
BIZARRE ADVENTURES #27, 1st story, pages
4-5 (flashback)
Young Jean Grey is playing with her friend Annie
Richardson when Annie is hit by a car and sustains fatal
injuries. Jean's telepathic powers emerge, and she is in
mental contact with Annie as she dies. Jean finds the
experience traumatic and retreats into a catatonic state of
shock. [This flashback is actually recounted by the
original Phoenix, subsequently revealed as an impostor;
however, the flashback has been confirmed by Jean on
subsequent occasions.]
X-MEN: THE WEDDING ALBUM, diary entires
1-2 (flashback)
Having been called in by her parents, Charles Xavier
visits Jean in hospital and wakes her from her catatonic
state. Jean moves into the Mansion with Xavier and
begins training with him.
BIZARRE ADVENTURES #27, 1st story, p6pn1
(flashback)
Xavier has sealed off Jean's telepathic powers, and begun
to train her in the use of telekinesis.
UNCANNY X-MEN #273 (flashback)
Xavier shows a prototype Cerebro to Jean Grey and Moira
MacTaggert.
CLASSIC X-MEN #42, second story
While testing Cerebro, Jean and Xavier make brief mental
contact with Scott Summers, who is still in his Nebraska
orphanage.
X-MEN: THE WEDDING ALBUM, diary entry 3
(flashback)
Jean writes in her diary about her mental contact with
Scott.
UNCANNY
X-MEN #-1
Jean, aged 11, has moved back into the family home.
She is due back at school the next day. Jean and her
father John Grey watch a shooting star (actually a
time-travelling Mother Askani).
X-MEN FOREVER #3
The day of Jean's freshman dance. Her body is
briefly taken over by her time-travelling future self.
X-MEN FOREVER #4
Still possessed by her future self, Jean meets up with
Bobby Drake. They achieve nothing of significance before
moving on to another timezone. (This is the first time
Jean and Bobby meet, but apparently they don't remember it for
years to come.)
UNCANNY
X-MEN #322 (flashback)
Jean says goodbye to her sister Sara before leaving to
join the X-Men. This flashback appears to introduce a
continuity error, since it establishes that Sara knew that
Jean was joining the X-Men, not merely going to a private
school. Their father, John, also seems to have known
about the conversation (which he talks about in the
present-day sequences, triggering the flashback).
However, when John and Elaine Grey visited the school in
X-Men vol 1 #5, they seemed completely unaware of its true
purpose.
X-MEN vol 1
#1
Jean moves into the Mansion, and joins the X-Men as the
original Marvel Girl. The X-Men fight Magneto.
First published appearance of Marvel Girl.
Last revised: 16 August 2004
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