Character Spotlight: Jean Grey, Part One

 Jean used tackle! It's super effective!

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1.HISTORY

I enjoyed the original 1990s animated show, but I didn't really take stock of the characters, let alone Jean, until much later. In 2009, I went through a terrible time in my life, and needless to say, it left me scarred and miserable. Sometime after it happened, I was catching television channel waves and came across the animated series again. After not having watched it for years, I put it on for escapism. 

But it was not one episode I watched - it was a whole arc, namely the Phoenix Force saga. I can remember exactly when I officially became a fan of Jean's. It was the moment when Jean harnessed the power of the Phoenix Force for the first time, appearing so strong and powerful, like she could take on anything and win. There was something about her strength and passion that touched me and helped heal my scars. 

From there, I began looking up everything I could about Jean - her media appearances, her powers, character analyses, I even started collecting Jean-focused comics. I considered her a role model: kind and empathetic, feminine yet unafraid to get down and dirty, a desire to achieve excellence in all she does, unafraid of the unknown and unafraid to sacrifice herself, and passionate about helping those who can't help themselves. A fictional character she may be, but she helped me get through my pain and I'm grateful to the original creators for bringing her to life. 

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2. THE MARVEL GIRL OF THE HOUR

I feel like there's nothing really new for me to say that already hasn't been said about Jean. She's been around for over sixty years and over those years, numerous analyses and studies of her character have been made. But I will share observations that I share with other Jean fans. 

It is a general consensus that Jean is a fierce force for good with or without the Phoenix Force. Her powers enable her to help others in ways her peers can't, often reaching them on mental and psychological levels. Sometimes even on microscopic or cosmic levels. Her deep empathy, combined with her telepathic/telekinetic abilities and well-rounded personality, do make her a compelling character to write. 
Barring the whole love triangle between her and choosing either Scott or Logan, her on-and-off connection to the Phoenix Force, and her sometimes headstrong ways, she’s one of the most grounded individuals of the X-Men. 

It does make me wonder then, why middle ground is hard to come by for some writers attempting to write for Jean. There is one quotation I have seen across cyberspace that I will paraphrase here: Jean is known for her compassion and willingness to help anyone yet can also be headstrong and fiery, but where's the in-between? Writers seem to gravitate to different points of the spectrum: she's either a goody-two-shoes who can do wrong, an emotional wreck caught in love shapes, or she's a loose cannon possessed by a mystical bird of eternal flame. I can see why writers would depict her as one of these things, but to pigeonhole her as one or the other doesn't do her character justice. I'm not going to blame writers for how Jean is/was written in the world of comics, but I do need to point out along with other fans that there usually isn't a lot of focus on her rougher sides, other parts of her personality and struggles she faces when the Phoenix isn't involved in the comics. 

Let's go to when her powers first manifested - she saw her best friend Annie get hit and killed by a car, and mentally linked with her, almost dying due to her empathy and mind powers manifesting. She would have been completely comatose had it not been for Charles Xavier. Then she enrolled into his school to learn how to control her powers. 

I don't recall how old she was in-canon when all of this occurred, but that's a lot for her to take in. For an emotionally connected character like Jean, seeing her seemingly brush it off after Professor X came to her aid and blocked off her telepathy until she was old enough to use her telepathy like it didn't matter almost feels off-putting. How would she have dealt with it? We don't really know, even though this was a pivotal point in her life.
Shoot, I have many more questions to provide exploratory material for writers to explore: How did Annie's parents react to their daughter's demise and Jean's powers? Does any of it still impact Jean as an adult, and if so, how so? None of this might be an official priority in Jean's storyline, compared to that of say Batman's backstory with his parents or Wolverine's extensive lifespan and mental turmoil, but a small story dedicated to this point in time would go a long way towards developing her own thoughts and letting the audience know more about her inner life than what she shows on the outside. 

The shipping aspect... I'm not going to do a deep dive into that. I do have my own preferences, but I'm reserving that for below. I will say that in this love triangle where Jean's the Archie to Scott's and Logan's Betty and Veronica, seeing her go back and forth in the comics - and also have a short-lived relationship with Beast (that one was just random, and I'm guessing that with Cyke and Wolvy temporarily out of the picture, the writers wanted to try pairing off Beast with Jean to see how it clicked)- can be a drag. 

If it's part of her story to end up in a relationship with someone, fine, but there does need to be a consideration for how the personalities bounce off each other, what challenges the couple has to face and how they help each other to grow. But some stories can't seem to make up their minds on whom she's supposed to be with for all time and there's only so much pull and tug in relationships one can put up with before deciding enough is enough, and the audience just wants the lead to pick his or her love interest already. 

I'm glad that they do show Jean having her frustrations with these guys sometimes, but I do wonder how she feels about her role in the middle of their rivalry. As far as I know, they  usually present her emotions like typical melodrama material that could make for a new soap opera series. Would she really like that? This is a woman who can get irritated quick if you rub her the wrong way. I don't think she would appreciate feeling like she was some prize to be won.

I don't think she would like it if someone called her weak either. In the 1990s animated show, they dimmed her down slightly to be a damsel in distress for Cyke or Wolvy to save. She had her moments of heroism, but constantly giving her headaches or severely limiting her powers weakens her likability and relatability to the audience. If there's a limit to be made on her powers, so be it, but you can still write her as interesting without compromising her powers when she's written to have talents in those fields in which she excels at. Her personality is great, but I'd like to see less headaches, please. 

Besides, who is she when she's not surrounded by the X-Men, especially Scott or Logan?  
How does she deal with the many responsibilities and burdens she has to take on? Not just the typical superhero assignments or looking after younger students at the school, but what about behind the scenes, like checking in with her family or Misty, or what she does on her own?  

The comics did briefly answer this question from time to time. One example that comes to mind is in the 1960/1970s when the original team first split. Before Jean returned to the X-Men, she worked briefly as a fashion model. It would be nice to see a callback to that in a mini-comic of sorts, but with a twist because when she worked as a model, she thought about the X-Men and how much she missed them. There's nothing wrong with her missing her old friends and home, but it doesn't really tell us anything about how she's doing or any new challenges she has faced since leaving the team outside of meeting Misty Knight. That's great she found a friend outside of her X-Men circle. So what have their adventures been like together? Between Misty working as a private eye, and Jean's experience in handling crooks, there are possibilities for stories to be written handling their exciting days of catching crooks and righting wrongs.  

Exploring these things would help stretch the comic's lifespan and world. X-Men comics are generally based on action, yes, but continually running on action can leave the audience ragged with no energy to learn more about these characters or just to chill from running around all the time. 

It also would be nice if the comics could stop going back and forth about the Phoenix.

Guess it's time to talk about the White Phoenix in the room. The comics, and some media, seem to have a hard time concluding if Jean is A) a host of the Phoenix, B) showing her powers at their highest potential through a phoenix bird image, C) the human manifestation of it and its mother or D) an evil world destroyer. 

Um.

I don't want to overstate what a logical mess the comics have made. I acknowledge figuring out how a spacey entity can work has its field of challenges, but none of these options can firmly stick for the Phoenix's identity if it keeps changing on a dime. Anyone can take any of these four and leave the rest, but personally, I especially don't really want to choose C even if it's often the answer on a test. It makes it sound as if Jean isn't her own person devoid of the Phoenix, like she was never fully Jean to begin with and it just fell into her lap. Seeing Jean work hard to control her powers before becoming a host of the Phoenix is more gratifying and makes her story, her journey, believable. The Phoenix is a part of her, but it's not all she is, and it's unfair to keep her stuck in that role. We have evidence she is not just the Phoenix. 

She has faced character conflicts that help iron out parts of her, such as her former fear of death and her surprisingly hostile streak when she's in the kitchen (see below, it makes sense in context) and/or in the case of X-Men Evolution, her competitive streak, pursuit of excellence in her powers and her sometimes testy response to Scott's standoffish and tense attitude before they admitted they like each other. She's a valued member of the X-Men, and a role model for her friends and younger students to look up to because of her kindness, selflessness, determination, bravery, stubbornness, and hot temper. 

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3. DEPICTIONS/QUESTIONS

*"She's such a weakling in the cartoon": Blame the 1990s cartoon's writing staff for giving her constant headaches and not allowing her to do anything particularly powerful with her powers (besides the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix arc). I think the writers of the show realized that she could do just about anything due to her heightened senses and abilities. If they went with her original comic incarnation where she did toughen up post-Phoenix, they would have breezed through the episodes without giving anyone else a chance to do anything. And then they would need something else to fill out the remaining, what, twenty minutes of screen time? I say this as someone who enjoyed the show - I'm not fond of how they handled Jean. I understand why they did it, but it dealt a huge blow to who she is. 

Although it's been a long time since I've read the comics and I don't know what they're doing now with her character, they did their job of keeping Jean a strong fighter but not overpowered even before and after she became one with the Phoenix again. Although the Phoenix is a tricky element to work with, as I'll explain below.

*"Phoenix is overrated!": Forgive my bias, but no, she isn't. I have noticed many powerful beings, like Superman or Thor, can be looked at this way. True, the ways people try to interpret the Phoenix are contradictory but this is a cosmic force that's powerful enough to wipe out an entire solar system or bring people back to life. Jean shouldn't be tied down to the Phoenix, yes, but it's still an important part of Jean's life, and has helped build more of the X-Men world beyond Earth. We can see that there are mystical beings in charge of keeping Earth 616 in order (even if the writers don't always succeed at writing them as such, but this is a matter of opinion.) It's a matter of decrying what the Phoenix can or can't do, and if the Force should make regular appearances in the medium. That's why I think writing the Force can be difficult - what are you willing to have it do or not do? What restrictions and weaknesses are you willing to give it and are you willing to make it all consistent without a good reason to change anything and not just of throwing something in to see if it sticks?
The 1990s show handled the Phoenix arcs and character well: she wanted to become one with Jean to save the M'kraan Crystal, became addicted to human emotions, did bad stuff, Jean sacrifices herself to kill the Force and herself, and then became itself again before bringing Jean back and exiting the stage. It's simple and straight to the point... even if the show went back to giving Jean Psyduck-themed headaches again. Yeesh. 

*"Team Scott vs. Team Wolverine!": Whatever floats your shipping boat. I think Logan is a better fit with Storm, due to their chemistry feeling more dynamic (and I do have a soft spot for their interactions in X-Men: Evolution: they bounce off each others' personalities quite well in Evolution, and surprisingly well in TAS too in the scenes they share together). Getting back to Jean, thanks to her influence, Scott has gradually come out of his shell; he smiles freely and he can be snarky in a fun way. Which is kind of how he's portrayed in X-Men Evolution, now that I think about it.

When paired with Logan, while she does manage to bring out Logan's gentler side, thinking about pairing them out makes me frown a bit. Jean does show more spark in some ways, but it almost comes off as unsettling. The spark can lead her to be depicted in... less-than-admirable lights, and in some comics that did happen. In one instance, before Scott and Jean marry, she cheated on Scott with Logan. Not a good look when she was supposed to be with Cyke.

And besides I'm not really a fan of the love triangle because it creates another layer of melodrama on top of the whole 'humans vs. mutants' thing. Before I sound like I'm contradicting myself in regards to earlier, I do believe melodrama can work if woven in the right way, but when squared up against bigger conflicts like an overpowered ancient mutant like Apocalypse who wants to purge the Earth of humanity? That has to take a backseat if it can't be written properly.  

*"She loves to cook, that's a stereotype": Why is that bad? A woman enjoying cooking is a crime? I was unaware cooking was suddenly only a thing enjoyed by one elite section of the caste system.

Cooking can be enjoyed by anyone, end of story. Case in point, go watch Julia Child's shows, they're amazing.

 
I think Jean likes cooking because it's fun, yes, but due to her older sister persona, she probably does it to serve those whom she considers a family. She's kind of one of the heads of the X-Men household so she's taken on a responsibility of feeding a lot of mouths. There are so many to feed at the mansion and it's a role I think she takes really seriously. But if she's in the kitchen with someone else.... well, uh....

Lesson noted: never get in Jean's way when you're in the kitchen; it will not end well. Poor Gambit though. 😅

But as silly as this scene is, her irritation is irrational yet understandable. Have you ever been in a kitchen with someone else while they're cooking and you wanted to make something for yourself? And this same person was judging  how you're preparing your food? Speaking from my own experiences, it is not always fun to be in the same kitchen - people will give unwanted advice on how you cook something even when you're doing it right. Of course she'll feel threatened if there are too many cooks in the kitchen, quite literally. I don't think she hates accepting help or having another cook to be around (and one she can work with) as it is her wanting to stick to a consistent menu - in this case a Christmas-themed one - vs. having someone interject their own ideas that may garner mixed results from other people who might not dig a certain type of cuisine. I personally would love to taste both her cooking and Gambit's food, but that's just me. 

Speaking of cooking, I'm cooking up the second part to this Character Spotlight with the usual, so until then - 

Wanderer out!