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Marvel Rewriting Official History Of Jean Grey & Phoenix? (Spolilers)

Are Marvel Comics rewriting the official history of Jean Grey and the Phoenix? Or is this just mindless speculation? (Spoilers)

Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga #1 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Rod Reis and Lucas Werneck is published by Marvel Comics this, Wednesday, 11th of June. And it may be about to rewrite the official history of Jean Grey and Phoenix.

Back in the day, Jean Grey was possessed by the cosmic entity the Phoenix Force, as she was dying of cosmic radiation. After committing genocide and turning Dark Phoenix, she commits suicide in a moment of lucidity. But then it seems that Jean Grey never was the Phoenix, she had been originally bought into the White Hot Room, had been placed in a healing cocoon, while the Phoenix believed itself to be her, and placed on the ocean floor. She was found by the Avengers and Fantastic Four and, in secret, founded the X-Factor group with the original X-Men. Including Scott Summers, who had married a clone of Jean Grey and had a kid, who could grow up to be Cable.

Writer Kurt Busiek is credited with devising the plot to revive Jean Grey, shared it with Roger Stern who mentioned it to John Byrne, who was writing and drawing Fantastic Four at the time. Byrne and X-Factor writer Bob Layton submitted the idea to EIC Jim Shooter, who approved it. X-Men writer Chris Claremont expressed dissatisfaction, later saying"We'd just gone to all the effort of saying, 'Jean is dead, get over it,' and they said, 'Haha, we fibbed.' So why should anyone trust us again? But that's the difference between being the writer and being the boss" and even Byrne agreed that in retrospect the character should have remained dead.

In his Substack newsletter, X-Men Group Editor, Marvel Executive Editor and SVP, Tom Brevoort was asked by a reader, "Jean Grey is the Phoenix, and The Phoenix is Jean Grey. Since that is the case. During the Phoenix and the Dark Phoenix Saga, would that mean Jean Grey was in two places at once, one as the Phoenix force and one in the Cocoon?".

Tom answered "Was she in both places? Which is to say, how do you know that cocoon was even there before the Avengers discovered it? Since that Jean ended up revealed as just as much a vessel for the Phoenix as the one that died on the moon, I'd say that all of the backstory provided in that story is suspect at best."

He got a follow up. "We all know the Phoenix placed Jean Grey in the cocoon, which she stored away in Jamaica Bay, Queens." he answered "But do we know that, Patrick? Or is that just what we believe happened? How did we come by that information? The Phoenix told us that's what happened, right? So what if it wasn't being forthcoming?"

In his newsletter, Tom also says "all of it is canon. All of it still "happened" (as much as anything can happen in fiction) but the context under which some of it happened has changed as new developments have revealed new details."

But looking in back, it wasn't the Phoenix Force that had all that exposition. It was Mister Fantastic. After holding a cosmic crystal that stores Jean Grey and the Phoenix' memories…

Including the initial encounter with the Phoenix.

It is Mister Fantastic who puts it all together for us, making some entertaining jumps of logic.

Which everyone hoes along with, even as it raises some existential questions. Is Jean Grey the butterlfly dreaming she is a mutant human?

With Captain America backing up the mental support.

Ans Susan Storm backing up Captain America. And that's how things have stayed, pretty much. Oh but yes, there was the bit about how the shard of memories of the Phoenix's actions was rejected by Jean, and picking up by the Jean Grey clone Madelyne Pryor in Mister Sinister's lab, finally released to Jean Grey after the (initial) death of Pryor. But aside from that… Giant Size X-Men: Phoenix Saga published this coming week by Marvel Comics maybe changing things again as Brevoort suggested?

The Giant-Size X-Men series have seen Legion and Ms Marvel thrown back in time through the mutant timeline and in the new oneshot has Legion taking the Phoenix Force from Jean Grey.

And while the timeline will no doubt be restored by the end of the series, that Legion is able to do this, and Jean Grey's response suggests that no, she isn't currently on the bottom of the ocean in a healing cocoon in this, or in any, continuity.

And that maybe Mister Fantastic lied, or went off on a flight of fancy. How else would Jean Grey be in this state, here and now? Or rather, there and then? Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga #1 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Rod Reis and Lucas Werneck is published by Marvel Comics in Wednesday, 11th of June.

GIANT-SIZE DARK PHOENIX SAGA #1
(W) Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly (A) Rod Reis, Lucas Werneck (CA) Adam Kubert
The past isn't set in stone. Kamala Khan is locked in a battle through time against an unstable and unleashed Legion – and she's gone from the frying pan into the Phoenix fire. As the history we know is destroyed in front of her eyes, the new mutant must team up with Jean Grey in her darkest hour…and master her dangerous new mutant power! X-Hivemind LANZING and KELLY team with superstar ROD REIS for a cosmic, emotional story that turns history upside down. PLUS: A Revelations backup story that reveals the hidden secret that binds Scott Summer and Jean Grey together, as written by Steve Foxe! THE SECOND OF FIVE GIANT-SIZE ONE-SHOTS! Rated T+In Shops: Jun 11, 2025 SRP: $4.99

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