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When you think of Jean Grey the first thing you think of is, how many times has she come back from the dead? Well, this was the first (and best) time that she was resurrected. Kurt Busiek actually had the idea and when he worked for Marvel he pitched it to Roger Stern who brought it to then Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter who okayed it. Thus a story was born. It started in Stern’s Avengers, went to Byrne’s Fantastic Four, before spinning off in the debut of X-Factor. Busiek himself wrote the introduction and basically recounts what I just wrote. He also mentioned that Byrne’s story was changed before it hit the stands and that was the rift that caused Byrne to eventually leave the FF and Marvel.
-Avengers #263- The Avengers (with new member Sub-Mariner) investigate an explosion at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. They at first believe it is due to the Enclave and their plane but when that isn’t the cause, well; we have a mystery, don’t we? They discover the power is coming from a cocoon and that there is someone in there. They take the cocoon and bring it back to the mansion but don’t see the red-head inside of it. The comic does mention it is Jean Grey. This was a cool way to bring Jean back into the Marvel Universe. One thing I always wondered was why they didn’t do it in the X-Books. I suppose that since it was Busiek who pitched the idea to Stern that Stern wanted to showcase it in his book. I quite enjoyed the interplay between the Avengers as well, from their hesitance at Namor being on the team to Black Knights feelings for Wasp. I wouldn’t mind having some of these Avengers stories collected one of these days. I guess we’re about 2 decades away from that on the Masterworks list, though.
-Fantastic Four #286- The FF returns to their temporary home, the Avengers Mansion, and finds some sort of cocoon there. Well, you know Reed was gonna be all over this. Soon they discover there is a woman inside the cocoon and she is freed. She immediately suspects chicanery (especially since the last thing she remembers is fighting the X-Sentinels before flying the plane) but she realizes the truth that these are the FF and the Avengers. She looks for her parents (with the FF tagging along) and when she touches the orb that was given to her with her image on it, she gets a glimpse of Phoenix’ memory. She’s a bit overwhelmed. She doesn’t want to go back to the X-Men (since they’re led by Magneto) but Reed knows someone he can call.
-X-Factor #1- The Defenders, featuring Iceman, Beast and Angel had just broken up due to poor leadership when they get a call that shocks them. Jean Grey is still alive. They head to New York and Cyclops is called. He leaves his wife Madelyne Pryor (thus destroying their marriage). Meanwhile, a mutant is captured for accidentally burning a woman and is on the run from the police and his boss who wants to kill him for burning that woman. So we have our pieces on the table and the idea is set. Jean, Scott, Hank, Bobby and Warren will pose as mutant hunters called X-Factor and will find mutants but will aide them without people knowing. It was a great idea but I don’t remember how long they kept it up. The real great catch with this title is having the original X-Men back together and Cyclops’ rocky relationship with Jean. He is married now and is definitely conflicted and that always made for a sympathetic character.
-X-Men Classic #8- This showed (graphically) Jean slowly dying thanks to the radiation she suffered while trying to land the plane. She is calling out for help and the Phoenix force answers. They are bonded while Jean’s body is put in a cocoon to heal.
-X-Men Classic #43- After Jean died she meets Death in some sort of limbo. This was a bit weird since we know that Jean did come back to life or wasn’t really dead to begin with. Was this just her subconscious or what? Anyway, she experiences the deaths that she forced upon the people she killed and that had an emotional effect on her.
-Marvel Age #33- This is the Marvel Age issue that hyped X-Factor. Of course, to keep Jean’s resurrection a secret they blacked out certain words/sentences. This is an interview with a bunch of people involved in the creation of X-Factor and includes Mike Carlin, Bob Layton, Jackson Guice, Roger Stern, John Byrne and Jim Shooter. These were fun to read.
-The Bottom Line- I mentioned the pages that were changed in Byrne’s FF. Well, those pages are included here and it was really fun to re-read FF with those original Byrne pages and compares them to what was really released. I think I like the story that was actually released as Byrne’s didn’t really make the distinction that Jean and the Phoenix were two different beings. What was presented really showed that Jean wasn’t responsible for those billions of lives she took as the Phoenix. I am happy this is collected into one hardcover. This is really the first big resurrection story in Marvel comics (though certainly not the last) and it was done really well. It helps that you have some of the best writers on the planet working on this (Layton, Stern and Byrne). The art and the story still stands up well to this day and with the extras added in of Byrne’s pencils and the Classic X-Men/Marvel Age stuff added in makes this a really good collection to pick up. Recommended.
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