Origin
The Phoenix Force is an immortal entity and is the prime universal force of life. It was born of the void, between states of being. It is the origin of all psionic energy and will exist forever in all realities of the omniverse. In some iterations, it is also the Guardian of Creation and of the M’Kraan Crystal in the Shi’Ar Empire. The Phoenix Force has the power to cut and regrow any part of the universe or destroy it entirely, burning away what it deems “obsolete”. When the Phoenix was in Rachel, Galactus tried to take the Phoenix apart. When he put Rachel in the machine, stars started to fade away. Roma told Galactus that she is the embodiment of life. A Watcher tells him that if he kills the Phoenix all life in the Universe will cease to exist and no life will ever come about it.
List of known Hosts
The first known hosts were various demons.
Firehair of Avengers 1,000,000 BC
Rook’shir (Ancestor of Korvus the wielder of the Phoenix Blade)
Fongji (An Iron Fist from hundreds of years ago who was able to tame The Phoenix using the power of the Dragon that gave her the power of the Iron Fist)
Necrom
Rachel Grey (Jean Grey’s daughter from the “Days of Future Past” timeline, Earth-811)
Korvus (Shi’ar citizen centuries ago – Controlled the Force through his sword: The Phoenix Blade)
Emma Frost (has been host twice, first time unsuccessful)
Stepford Cuckoos ( Phoebe, Irma, and Celeste)
Professor X (during his time with the Starjammers)
Diamanda Nero (after fighting Rachel Summers)
Madelyne Pryor (Inferno also a “What if?” story and X-Men The End arc)
Mar-Vell (The Phoenix Force reanimated Captain Marvel’s body starting in Secret Avengers #26)
Cyclops (in both a What If? and during Avengers vs. X-Men)
Namor (Avengers vs. X-Men)
Colossus (Avengers vs. X-Men and in Nocturnes reality)
Magik (Avengers vs. X-Men)
Hope Summers (Avengers vs. X-Men)
Phoenix IX (Earth-961; Giraud of the Guardians Of The Galaxy)
Amber Hunt (in the Phoenix Resurrection Malibu crossover)
Prime (in the Phoenix Resurrection Malibu crossover)
Storm (in a “What if?” story, she was called Stormphoenix)
Vulcan (in a “What if?” story)
Spider-Man (Spider-Man #25)
Set (The Serpentine Elder God devoured the Phoenix Force in What If? v.2 #25; He and a Uni-PoweredQuasar are now trapped in the Eye of Agamotto, fighting an endless battle)
Wolverine (In Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine, but Spider-Man saved him by just talking)
Early Years
During its early time as a formless mass of energy The Force encountered the notorious Le Bete Noir, another cosmic entity on par, or possibly more powerful than itself.The two began warring even before the beginning of the current universe. Eventually the Phoenix was able to trap Bete Noir inside of Earth, while the planet was still in the cooling process.
Rook’shir
One of the first, if not the first, recorded hosts of the Phoenix Force was Rook’shir of the Shi’Ar Empire. Despite only having the power for a few days, he razed an entire planet and had to be taken down by the first Imperial Guard (gathered solely to oppose him). After his death, a small fraction of the Phoenix Echo remained in his blade, dubbed the Phoenix Blade, and his ancestors were hunted down and killed since they were the only ones able to use the blade. Currently, Rook’shir’s descendant Korvus wields the blade.
Feron
About 1,000 years ago the wizard Necrom, the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth-148, and his two students Merlyn and Feroncame came to Earth-616 while on Necrom’s journey for power. While deep in meditation, Feron came into contact with the Phoenix Force in visions of a fiery bird; these prompted the Phoenix to adopt the firebird form it has today. When the Phoenix came to Earth, Feron became its host and, using the Phoenix’s power, aligned the mystical energy matrix of the multiverse and created a tower on each Earth (like Excalibur’s former base). Necrom tried to seize the Force for himself but was only able to steal a small piece of it which he placed inside a corpse to incubate into the Anti-Phoenix. Feron dedicated the lineage of his family to waiting for the Anti-Phoenix to rise and inheriting the Phoenix Force when it did. The Phoenix disappeared into space for many years.
Jean Grey
The Force returned to Earth when it became aware of the young mutant Jean Grey. Jean was ten years old when her mutant power of telepathy first developed. Jean was out playing when her friend was struck by a car. Jean linked to her friend as she was dying and this early burst of power caught the Phoenix’s attention.
Professor X, perhaps the world’s most powerful telepath, put in place psychic shields that prevented Jean from using her abilities until she could handle them. Jean also developed the power of telekinesis and became a student at Xavier Institute for Higher Learning for mutants and a founding member of his mutant team, the X-Men.
Jean developed a relationship with teammate, Scott Summers, the mutant known as Cyclops. Returning from a mission on a space station, the X-Men had to return in a space shuttle through a solar radiation storm. Jean was the only that could fly the ship back home by reading the pilot’s mind and encasing herself in a telekinetic shield. Her shield wasn’t enough and Jean was dying of intense radiation poisoning.
Phoenix I
At this time, a cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force offered to save Jean. It took a small fragment of Jean’s essence and created for itself a duplicate body with all of Jean’s personality, assumed her place, and placed Jean in a recuperative cocoon at the bottom of the Jamaica Bay.
This new being actually believed itself to be Jean, and she rose from the bay as Jean Grey reborn with her powers increased and calling herself Phoenix. She rejoined the X-men and joined them on many adventures including a trip to the Shi’ar space where she used the power of the Phoenix to repair the energy lattice inside the M’Kraan Crystal.
Dark Phoenix
When the villain Mastermind, along with the Hellfire Club, psychically seduced Phoenix, the power became too much for the human portion it
assumed and she became Dark Phoenix. Dark Phoenix flew into space and destroyed a solar system and a Shi’ar cruiser before returning to Earth to confront the X-men. After a psychic battle with Professor X, she was defeated and her power cut back to Marvel Girl levels by a new set of psychic circuit breakers placed by Xavier. She and the X-men are then transported to a nearby Shi’ar ship and she is about to be put to death by the Shi’ar council led by Xavier’s lover Lilandra of the alien Shi’ar Empire. When Professor X called for a duel in all their names, the X-Men fought for “Jean’s” life. The human portion of Jean resurfaced in the Phoenix and committed suicide to prevent any injury to the X-Men as they fought for her.
Following this “death”, the Phoenix regained its celestial form and memory. Horrified by what it had done, it attempted to atone by returning the stolen piece of lifeforce to Jean Grey in her cocoon. When Jean, in her stasis, realized what was done in her name, she rejected her tainted lifeforce, and this small fragment of Jean’s essence and the Phoenix force found a home in the comatose body of Madelyne Pryor. So in the moments after the Phoenix’s “death” on the moon, Madelyne sprang to life in Mr Sinister’s Nebraska laboratory.
Some time later, the real Jean was discovered in her cocoon and Jean returned to the X-Men. Scott and Jean were married. There was some strain placed on their marriage through their lives as X-Men.
Rachel Summers
While a small piece of the Force was taking up residence in Madelyne, the rest of the Force shortly after encountered Rachel Summers. Rachel was the daughter of Jean and Scott Summers from an alternate future where Jean Grey never died (implying that Phoenix not Jean was her mother). Rachel sent her consciousness into our past to see why a recent mission had failed and when the Force found her, it attached itself to her and hid inside Rachel when she returned to her future.
Back in the future, Rachel passed out from the strain and the Phoenix Force revealed itself to Kate Pryde (future version of Kitty Pryde). The two concocted a plan to send Rachel physically into the past where she could attempt to lead a normal life. So during a mission to a Sentinel factory, Kate used the code word Dark Phoenix, and the Force sent itself and Rachel hurtling into the past, shattering large chunks of Rachel’s memory in the process.
Phoenix II
Now in the present day, Rachel remembered who she was but not how or why she came to the past. She joined the X-men without revealing that
she was Scott’s daughter to anyone but Kitty. After being with the X-men for a short time, she found the holoempathic crystal from the Shi’ar imprinted with her mothers essence. While touching the crystal she tapped directly into the Phoenix Force and all its powers, claiming the name and costume of Phoenix for herself. After a somewhat unsuccessful run with the X-men, including botched encounters with the Beyonder, the Hellfire Club and Nimrod, Rachel was mortally injured by Wolverine and then spirited away to the Body Shoppe by Spiral. Her experiences while enslaved by Spiral are still unknown.
Excalibur
Months later, she resurfaced, first in the dreams of her former teammates and then in London, England pursuing Gatecrasher and her Technet as well as the Otherworldly Warwolves. These events led to the formation of the British super group Excalibur.
Shortly after the group’s inception, Madelyne Pryor died in her own demonic Inferno and the fragment of the Phoenix Force, complete with the original Phoenix’s memories and Madelyne’s as well, transferred to Jean Grey.
During her many months with Excalibur, Rachel continued to use the Phoenix Force to help her teammates while searching for a way to repair her damaged memory. Eventually she discovered that by willing the Force dormant, her memory would gradually return. She let her memory heal for months until Necrom returned to claim the Anti-Phoenix and Rachel was forced to use the Phoenix’s power to destroy him. This left her mind completely destroyed and the Phoenix took control of her body while she healed and flew off into space.
While in space, the Phoenix encountered Galactus while he was attempting to eat a planet. Trying to save a planet rather then destroy it as she had in the past, she tried to stop the World Eater. Eventually she noticed that as she used more and more of her powers she was affecting the very reality around her and nearly destroyed the planet she was so desperate to save. Once Rachel’s mind had sufficiently healed, the Phoenix returned her to Earth but left her body, returning to its natural state once again, leaving Rachel’s powers lessened (although still greatly enhanced from their natural state).
Phoenix Resurrection
Months later, while the Force was traveling through space, it was ripped from our universe into the Ultraverse by the sentient ship responsible for superhuman abilities in that world. It briefly inhabited the superhero Prime before moving to the pyrokinetic Amber Hunt. The sentient ship then took control of the Phoenix, using its power to replenish its own power cells. With the combined effort from the X-men and most of the heroes from the Ultraverse, the Phoenix was freed and sent back into space.
Jean Again
Phoenix III
Years later, Jean slowly began to take on the persona of Phoenix herself. First, by taking the name at Rachel’s request before her death and then by wearing the green Phoenix costume and manifesting a firebird while using her own telekinetic powers. But it was while she was the headmistress of the Xavier Institute that it became clear she was directly tapping into the Force itself. In the meantime her husband, Scott, was having a telepathic affair with teammate and former villain Emma Frost (The White Queen). Upon discovering their infidelity, Jean nearly destroyed Emma’s mind through telepathic torture and Scott ran off after a fight with Jean. When Emma Frost’s diamond form was shattered, Jean used the Phoenix power to reassemble her at a molecular level.
Planet X
On a later mission, Jean and Wolverine were trapped on a space station that was sent hurtling towards the sun. Barely able to stay conscious, Wolverine took it upon himself to ease her suffering by “killing” Jean. Jean’s “death” unleashed the Phoenix Consciousness that was inside her, which then resurrected her. Soon after, Jean was again killed by Xorn, who had been impersonating Magneto. Through a electromagnetic pulse, Jean experienced the equivalence of 200 strokes at the same time. She told Scott to “live” and died soon after. The Phoenix Force then returned to Earth and found Jean dead. It resurrected her (once again). Jean merged with the Phoenix Force and left Earth for the White Hot Room (the center of creation) in an attempt to fully heal itself.
Phoenix: Endsong
The Phoenix came back in Jean’s body and the X-Men again had to face her. They immediately began preparations to capture her in an egg. Wolverine attempted to kill her but only weakened her. After a final battle, Jean was shown via telepathy, from Emma Frost and the Stepford Cuckoos, all the people that love and care for her. She tearfully realized that through this powerful emotion, she could overcome the Phoenix’s urges of destruction and she left.
Phoenix: Warsong
Jean has not been heard from since. However a small part the phoenix force did return and took the Stepford Cuckoos as its host. The force then
revealed that there were thousands of Stepford Cuckoos at a lab called the World. It then destroyed the extra Cuckoos because they where created to kill all mutants. Then it revealed that the original Cuckoos and the extras were the children of Emma frost, the White Queen. This part of the force became trapped in the Cuckoos’ new organic diamond hearts so that it would cause no more harm.
During her most recent stint with the X-men, it is revealed that while no longer the host of the Force, Rachel still possesses the “Phoenix” echo, a remnant of the Phoenix power left within its hosts, which boosts her powers. Her fellow Starjammer is Korvus, Rook’shir’s descendant, the wielder of the Phoenix Blade.
The Sisterhood
Madelyne Pryor attempted to gain access to the Phoenix Force by possessing the body of Jean Grey. She rendered the X-men useless by knocking them out or having her Sisterhood of Mutants fight them. She personally trapped Emma in psychic static which caused her thoughts to form uncontrollably. Emma was release from the mental hold by a woman
that greatly resembled Jean. Her plan failed when it was revealed that Cyclops had moved the body. Madelyne is currently presumed deceased or trapped.
The Phoenix fragments that were housed inside the Cuckoos left them during the X-Men’s battle against Predator X. It has also been revealed that Rachel Summers and Korvus have lost their connection to the force. It is presumed that Jean is calling back all the pieces of the Phoenix as Rachel mumbled in shock ” No…Mom..Not now”.
Hope Summers
Prior to Hope’s possession of the force, the Phoenix firebird had manifested in her eyes more than once, including once right before the 5 Lights manifested. Also, while fighting Kenji in Tokyo, the Phoenix Force contacted Hope and called her “my child”. She was also able to manifest the Phoenix Force during Second Coming, while fighting Bastion.
In Avengers vs. X-Men Round, Cyclops became the Dark Phoenix. The way to stop him from destroying the world was for Hope and the Scarlet Witch to work together (as they were the only two powerful enough to beat him). After his defeat, the Phoenix Force left him and took on Hope as its host. Somehow, Hope was able to keep from giving into the corruption of the Phoenix. Instead, she used the force to fix all of the destruction that the Phoenix Five had left in their wake. After the world had been restored to normal, Hope (with the help of Wanda) was able to release the Phoenix instead of becoming greedy of its power. The force ascended back in to space.
The Nightmare Begins Again
Recently, a new and enigmatic Nova arrived on the planet Birj, where Terrax the Tamer had wrested control of the planet from the now-deceased members of The Science Council and tried to convince him to evacuate the planet before “it” arrived.
Unfortunately, Terrax’s unwillingness to listen to Nova and the literally non-existent amount of time they had left before “it” arrived made this an impossibility.
Realizing it was hopeless, Nova ran from Birj crying as a massive blue Phoenix-shaped flare devoured the planet and everyone, including the Tamer, on it. Nova later crash-landed on Earth where he delivered a cryptic message to The Avengers and then went into a coma.
The Phoenix Force, from its position in the heavens, heard a conversation between America’s leaders and Iron Man and Captain America and teleported closer to Earth. Cyclops, having heard of the Phoenix’s return, planned to try and imprison the Phoenix Force within the body of Hope Summers and use her to undo the damage caused to Mutantkind by The Scarlet Witch’s spell.
As it drew nearer, its power and influence over Hope’s mind began to grow, until finally she up and abandoned the X-Men altogether and left Utopia, presumably in search of the city of K’un-Lun where a mysterious connection between the mighty dragon Chiangtang and the Phoenix Force seems to exist. Around the same time, in space, the Secret Avengers have engaged the Phoenix Force itself in battle to keep it from reaching Earth.
Powers and Abilities
The Phoenix Force is described as one of the most powerful forces in the universe.
It can wield its energy in a variety of different ways including:
- Fire it into an immensely powerful concussive force.
- It can travel in time and space by collapsing its powers from the inside, much like a black hole, and reforms itself in its destination.
- It can absorb many kinds of energy, from the life-force of an individual to the entire energy of a sun.
- The Phoenix Force has the power over life and death itself and can use it to resurrect itself or others.
- Since it is the source of all psionic energy, it has vast telepathic and telekinetic powers and is always searching for a host that is strong enough to bear its power.
- When the Phoenix Force does enter a host, it amplifies the basic abilities that the host innately has, allowing them to manipulate matter on sub-atomic levels, and can teleport others from various corners of the universe via wormholes.
- When the Phoenix Force leaves its host, it leaves behind a small fraction of its power within the host.
Should the Phoenix Force be harmed, or possibly killed, it becomes an egg of cosmic power and incubates in the White Hot Room until it hatches out completely healed.
Alternate Realities
Age of Apocalypse (Earth-295)
When Havok killed Jean, a bird-like creature made of fiery psionic energy destroyed nuclear warheads bent on destroying the United States. The creature was Jean, awakened by the Phoenix, also the fabled “Mutant Alpha” the ultimate mutant. Mr. Sinister captured and brainwashed her to become one of the Sinister Six. She fought the X-Men and displayed the Dark Phoenix personality. Psylocke used her psychic knife to bring Jean back to her senses. She then used her Phoenix powers to incinerate Sinister and become the leader of the X-Men in Magneto’s absence.
Earth-915
When Doctor Doom was killed by the Elder God Set, Rachel Summers flew into a rage and unleashed the full power of The Phoenix Force upon Set.
However, Set had become already too powerful for even The Phoenix Force to contend with and began to devour it, despite a minor setback involving the loss of one of his heads, Set eventually tore the God-like being from Rachel’s body and took all of its power for himself.
With the Phoenix’s power at his command, he annihilated Thor but was unable to do the same to The Silver Surfer, who blew off one of Set’s remaining six heads.
Only moments after tossing the Surfer aside, Set found himself in conflict with Quasar, who had fused with The Enigma Force to become the ultimate Captain Universe.
Using The Eye of Agamotto, Quasar sealed both himself and Set inside of a pocket dimension and engaged each other in eternal combat. Later, while on a journey through the Multiverse, Quasar of Earth-616 saw his counterpart facing off against the Phoenix Force-empowered Elder God.
Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610)
The Phoenix in this reality is said to have been the creator of the universe. However the lifeforms that it created becomes aware of the Phoenix’s
immense raw power and wanted it for themselves. The Phoenix fought to defend itself for thousands of years until its creation found a way to imprison her since they can’t get its power. The phoenix imprisoned itself by piling up asteroids around it, realizing that it’s creation has become power hungry. The Phoenix’s prison eventually became the planet Earth.
Jean Grey was put into a mental institute because she believed that she was hearing voices and seeing visions of the Phoenix. After her released, she thought that it was a god-like entity that will destroy the world. The Hellfire Club decided to merge the Phoenix and Jean together as she can be used for the interest. They successfully merge them together, but the Phoenix destroyed the club.
Recently, Charles Xavier was contacted by Lilandra Neramani, the leader of the Church of Shi’ar Enlightenment. she believed that Jean is the reincarnation of the Phoenix and wanted permission to prove that she is. In the process of testing, Jean exhibit a different personality similar to the Dark Phoenix, but Charles managed to suppress it back in Jean’s mind. After the testing, Charles and Lilandra were informed by her assistant, Gerald, that she is not the avatar. But it is later proven that she is the avatar but he chose to keep it under orders by his true superiors, the Hellfire Club.
Marvel Mangaverse (Earth-2301)
The Phoenix is not a cosmic entity in this universe, but a sword of power guarded by the sorceress Madelyne Pryor. When her duty to guard the sword is almost up, She trained her sister, Jena (this universe’s version of Jean Grey) to be the next guardian of the Sword of Phoenix. When the Lizard stole the sword, Jena fought to take it back but Shadow King used the sword to stab her. But he inadvertently channel the sword’s power to Jena and used her newfound power to kill the Shadow King and became the guardian of the universe.
Earth-2182 (Nocturne’s reality)
In Nocturne‘s reality the Phoenix Force is inhabiting Colossus‘ dead body, and is a member of the X-Men.
Earth-9997 (Earth X)
On Earth-9997, The Phoenix Force (which has fused with Jean Grey’s soul in the afterlife) serves the will of Marvel Universe as a member of his realm’s angelic defenders: The Avenging Host.
What If? AvX
In this reality, the Phoenix Force’s rampage across the universe occurred just as it had on Earth-616 but did not have to hound Nova (Sam Alexander) all across the quadrant.
Earth was alerted to its approach after Iron Man received a distress signal sent to every inhabited world across the quadrant from the Guardians of the Galaxy, who were all killed only moments later by the cosmic force of death and rebirth.
The Phoenix Force eventually made it to Earth’s solar system where the Black Panther, Thor, Nova, The Vision and Ms. Marvel were awaiting its arrival.
Other Media
Television
- The entire saga of the Phoenix is retold and adapted in the third season of the X-Men animated series, subdivided into the five-part “Phoenix Saga”, in which Jean acquires the power of the Phoenix and the battle for the M’Kraan Crystal occurs, and the “Dark Phoenix Saga”, showcasing the battle with the Hellfire Club, the Phoenix Force’s transformation into Dark Phoenix, and the battle to decide her fate. These particular episodes are as close as the cartoon came to directly duplicating the comic book storylines — the “Dark Phoenix Saga” is so accurate to the original stories that the episodes have the additional credit, “Based on stories by Chris Claremont.”. Notably, however, as the Phoenix Force retcon had occurred before the creation of the series, the episodes were made with this change in mind — rather than having Jean develop her powers independently (as was the original intent of the comics), or be replaced by the cosmic Phoenix Force entity (as events were later retconned), the two concepts were merged, into Jean’s actual body being possessed by the Phoenix Force, leading to a true struggle between two independent entities. Jean is shown piloting a shuttle, and when her telekenetic shield fails Phoenix enters her body. Rather than destroying an inhabited system — which was the cause for the decision to kill off the character in the comics — the animated story had her destroy a deserted system and only disable the attacking Shi’Ar cruiser. These changes made it possible for aspects of the original ending of Uncanny X-Men #137, in which Jean survives, to be used. Jean does still commit suicide (taking control of the Shi’Ar’s laser beam to fire on herself, rather than finding an ancient weapon), but with her death, the Phoenix Force is purified, and then uses its powers to resurrect Jean, drawing on the combined life-force of the assembled X-Men to bring her back to life. Jean retained her original basic powers, whereas in the aborted comic book ending, she would have been lobotomized by the Shi’Ar and lost them entirely. She was voiced by Catherine Disher.
- The Phoenix Force makes a cameo in the last episode of X-Men: Evolution. During a confrontation with Professor X, now a Horsemen of Apocalypse, the Phoenix briefly forms from the shield Jean made during their psychic battle. Following Apocalypse’s defeat, her other cameo is part of Professor Xavier’s glimpse of the future, and shows Jean Grey screaming out as she becomes the Phoenix.
- The Phoenix makes an appearance in Wolverine and the X-Men. In this series, the Phoenix Force is an entity that has afflicted psychic mutants since the Homo Superior race first appeared. It enters the host at birth, growing with it. Once it reaches maturity, the Phoenix Force takes over its host, going on to cause mass destruction.It is revealed that it is Jean who causes the explosion as she transforms into The Phoenix and that the Hellfire Club is intent on taking the power from her for themselves. With the help of the Stepford Cuckoos, Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club take Jean away and makes the Stepford Cuckoos the host. Emma, Jean and Cyclops fight the Phoenix and Emma seemingly sacrifices herself to stop it. In this version, Jean Grey never wears the costume of the Phoenix Force. However, when the Stepford Cuckoos are in possessions of the force, they are revealed to wearing matching Dark Phoenix costumes. Whether the Phoenix created these outfits or the girls were already wearing them under their robes, is never explained.
Films
- Famke Janssen plays Jean Grey in three movies, beginning with X-Men. During the film, Jean uses Cerebro for the first time, which causes strain on her mind and abilities. Later, she is affected by Magneto’s machine which enhances the mutant gene in humans.
- In the second film, X2: X-Men United, Jean Grey’s powers have been evolving since the Liberty Island incident in the first movie. As Jean Grey uses her powers, a fiery aura appears in her eyes. In the climax of the movie, she is engulfed in a fiery aura as she holds back a tsunami of water from a burst dam to save the other X-Men. In the final scene, a giant flying fiery bird can be seen reflected in the water.
- In the third X-Men movie, X-Men: The Last Stand, Jean “becomes” Phoenix. Jean is the only known class five mutant. At a young age, Xavier locked some of Jean’s powers away as she could not control her near-infinite abilities. This causes a split in Jean’s psyche—between Jean Grey and the Phoenix (what her split-personality calls itself)—and drives her to insanity. During the movie, Jean and the Phoenix battle for dominance. Jean tells Wolverine she thinks she killed Scott, although this is never confirmed. Phoenix destroys Xavier and joins Magneto. Jean/Phoenix abstains from a battle on Alcatraz until the military reinforcements show up and try to shoot her; Phoenix then gains full control and in her fury demolishes the island, ripping it and everything on it apart on the molecular level. Wolverine climbs his way to Jean’s side while his flesh is peeled from his Adamantium covered bones, his healing factor being the only thing keeping him alive. He calls to Jean, but there is only the Phoenix and it shows contempt for his actions. Logan tells Jean that he would only die for her and that he loves her. His heartfelt words pull Jean to the fore; she asks him to save her. He stabs her with his claws, killing her and ending the destruction. Jean’s tombstone lies on the X-Mansion ground, beside the markers of Scott and Xavier.
Video Games
- Jean Grey appears as “Phoenix” in the X-Men: Mutant Academy games for the Sony PlayStation under the codename Phoenix and also as “Dark Phoenix” in X-Men: Next Dimension.
- Jean Grey also appears as a playable character in X-Men Legends, and even wears the green and yellow/gold phoenix costume in one or more of the levels.
- In X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Jean Grey, who is a playable character, has some attacks related to the Phoenix Force, such as the ability to resurrect another character during game play, and the player can also select for her both the original and Dark Phoenix costumes. In addition to Jean Grey, the PlayStation Portable version of this game also includes the Dark Phoenix separately as an unlockable bonus character. Her attacks are mainly related to the Phoenix Force itself, and is arguably the most powerful playable character in the game.
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, the Dark Phoenix made an appearance in the ending of the game if the player chooses to save Nightcrawler instead of saving Jean in Mephisto’s realm. Since Jean Grey doesn’t die in the Infinity Vortex, she will return to Earth in the form of the Dark Phoenix to take vengeance upon those who didn’t save her.
- In Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, a costume called Spider-Phoenix represents Spider-Man as host of the Phoenix Force, though Spider-Man can’t use Phoenix’s powers in game.
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Jean Grey is playable, and has her Phoenix costume as her primary outfit. Two of her 4 power attacks take base from the Phoenix, resulting in fire mixing with telekinesis, and a massive fire blast.
- Jean Grey appears as “Phoenix” as a playable character in the crossover fighting game Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. She has the ability to resurrect herself as the Dark Phoenix.