A Founding X-Men Hero Now Has the Most Powerful Healing Factor in Marvel Continuity

Warning: Spoilers for Phoenix #3!The X-Men may have countless healers on their extended roster, but one original member has got a new healing upgrade that makes her more powerful than just about every other mutant. As Jean Grey ventures out to explore the galaxy on her own terms, the question is how the greater Marvel Universe will react to her new status.

In Phoenix #4 by Stephanie Phillips, Alessandro Miracolo, and David Curiel, Jean Grey showcases the Phoenix’s ability to resurrect the dead like never before, as she’s brought back to life immediately after dying.

In the issue, Jean is killed by Gorr the God Butcher, who believes she’s close enough to a god to kill. Jean is also being observed by representatives of the Galactic Council, and Gladiator and the villain Perrikus argue that her new resurrection ability is proof that she’s too dangerous to keep alive. How either of them plan to kill her for good, though, is an open question.

The Phoenix Can Now Bring Jean Grey Back to Life

Her Healing Factor Is the Strongest in Marvel History

Jean’s history with the Phoenix and resurrection is complicated. When she first became the Phoenix in X-Men #101 by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, it supposedly healed her after falling from space, and her transformation into Phoenix is treated as a symbolic rebirth. Jean then died at the conclusion of the Dark Phoenix Saga in Uncanny X-Men #137 by Claremont and John Byrne.

However, the first major Jean Grey retcon in Fantastic Four #286 by Claremont and Byrne revealed that Jean wasn’t actually Phoenix and that the Phoenix Force had impersonated her from X-Men #101 onwards while Jean healed. However, while Jean technically wasn’t the Phoenix, many stories have treated her like she was.

Jean is one of the characters who helped to popularize the idea that death doesn't matter for comic-book characters.

These stories were far from Jean’s last dance with death. In New X-Men #150 by Grant Morrison and Phil Jimenez, Jean was killed by Xorn, and she ascended to oneness with the Phoenix in the White Hot Room. She was temporarily resurrected in the miniseries X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong by Greg Pak, Greg Land, and Matt Ryan, but mostly stayed dead for a decade until 2017-18’s Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey by Matthew Rosenberg and a roster of rotating artists. With the X-Men’s Krakoan Era beginning in 2019, mutant resurrection then became commonplace, and Jean died several more times on X-Men missions. However, in the current "From the Ashes" status quo, most mutants don’t have the luxury of resurrection anymore.

Jean Grey Literally Changed the Way Superhero Comics Treat Death

How Does One Build Stakes When the Protagonist Can't Die?

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It's interesting to think about what Jean’s upgraded healing factor means on a storytelling level. One of the reasons that death is such a presence in big comic events is that it’s supposed to establish high stakes in a story. However, Jean is one of the characters who helped to popularize the idea that death doesn't matter for comic-book characters - because they’d just come back. Krakoan resurrection was a literalization of the idea that death doesn’t matter for the X-Men, and it became a storytelling exercise in finding stakes when the franchise’s characters couldn’t die.

The model of Krakoa could also inform how the Phoenix series builds its own stakes if Jean’s death is off the table. One of the constant sticking points of Krakoa was its relationship with the outside world, and Jean’s relationship with the wider cosmic Marvel landscape is just as contentious. Jean might not be able to die, but the Phoenix and her (if there’s a difference) are already hated and feared by people like Gladiator. If Gladiator and Perrikus turn the galaxy against Phoenix, then the founding X-Men member will have failed, even if she can’t die.

Phoenix #4 is available now from Marvel Comics.