Other aliases: Marvel Girl, Phoenix

Place of birth: Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

Marital status: Widowed???

Known relatives: John Grey (father), Elaine Grey (mother), Sara (sister, deceased), Gailyn (niece), Joey (nephew), Scott Summers (Cyclops, husband, deceased, for now anyway), Christopher Summers (Corsair, father-in-law), Alexander Summers (Havok, brother-in-law), Philip and Deborah Summers (grandparents-in-law).

Base of operations: Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State, (former) X-Factor I headquarters, New York City; "Ship"

Group affiliation: (current) X-Men

First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #1

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 110 lbs.

Eyes: Green

Hair: Red

Fighting skills: Fair hand-to-hand combatant, coached by Wolverine; relies on psionic powers in combat

Known superhuman powers: Telepathy

History: When Jean was ten years old her best friend Annie Richardson was killed by an automobile. Jean's outpouring of emotion as she held her dying friend activated her latent telepathic powers, causing her to experience Annie's own emotions as she died.

Traumatized by this experience and unable to control her newly awakened powers, the young Jean became severely withdrawn and depressed. When she was eleven, Jean's parents took her to meet Professor Charles Xavier, who realized she was a mutant and treated her for several years. Xavier erected psychic shields in Jean's mind to prevent her from using her telepathic powers until she had become sufficiently mature to control them, and he taught her how to use her emerging telekinetic abilities.

Finally, when Jean was in her middle teens, she joined the X-Men, a group of other young mutants whom Xavier was training in the use of their powers. She assumed the code name Marvel Girl. Jean soon fell in love with her fellow student, Scott Summers, alias Cyclops, but for years they were each too shy to express their feelings for each other. Xavier finally removed the psychic shields from Jean's mind when he was faced with the threat of the alien Z'nox. Since then, she has proved highly adept at using her telepathic powers.

Jean left the X-Men shortly after Xavier recruited a second team of students, but continued her romantic relationship with Scott. Shortly afterwards Jean and other X-Men were abducted by Steven Lang's Sentinels to Lang's orbiting space. After defeating Lang the X-Men had to escape back to Earth in a space shuttle through a lethal solar radiation storm. The pilot's cabin lacked sufficient shielding against radiation, but Jean insisted on piloting the craft herself, Jean convinced Scott she could telekinetically protect all of them through the strom, knowing full well she herself would not be protected.

While she was dying from radiation poisoning, the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force appeared to Jean. The Phoenix Force created a body for itself that was identical to Jean's, duplicated her memories and personality, and absorbed a portion of her consciousness. It then guided the X-Men's shuttle to a crash landing in Jamaica Bay off New York City. The Phoenix Force also cast the real Jean into suspended animation within a strange pod that rested on the bottom of Jamaica Bay while slowly healing her. Under the name Phoenix the cosmic being joined the X-Men, who believed it was the real Jean. Months later the X-Men's foe Mastermind began mentally manipulating Phoenix's mind, ultimately brainwashing her into becoming the Black Queen of the sinister Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. In the process he inadvertently caused Phoenix to turn insane, becoming Dark Phoenix, a danger to the entire cosmos. Ultimately, the portion of Jean's consciousness within Phoenix resurfaced and caused Phoenix to commit suicide rather than wreak further destruction.

Upon the death of the Phoenix Force's physical body, the portion of Jean's consciousness it had absorbed returned to Earth and ultimately was reabsorbed by Jean. Eventually the Avengers found the pod in Jamaica Bay and turned it over to the Fantastic Four (FF #286) for study. The real Jean Grey then released herself from the pod, fully healed. She was reunited with Scott and the other original members of the X-Men, and together they founded a new team, the original X-Factor. Later, after Professor Xavier returned from a long sojourn in space with the Starjammers, Jean and the other members of X-Factor rejoined the X-Men.

While Jean had been in suspended animation Scott had married Madelyne Pryor, a clone of Jean created by Mister Sinister. Eventually Pryor went mad, developed vast powers, and died in combat with Jean. Some years later, Scott finally married the real Jean Grey. During their honeymoon, however, their spirits were transported two millennia into an alternate future and were placed in new bodies by the Askani cult. Their leader, Rachel Summers, the daughter of the Scott and Jean of an alternate reality, had also served in the X-Men under the name Phoenix.

As Slym and Redd, Scott and Jean spent years in that future time, raising Nathan, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor , who had earlier been brought to the future. Eventually Scott and Jean returned to their own time and bodies, leaving Nathan in the future to become the heroic warrior Cable. In Rachel's honor Jean adopted the name Phoenix when she returned to the X-Men, and she and Scott remain members of the X-Men to this day.

Recently Jean began wearing her old Phoenix costume, much to the dismay of her team members. Jean's powers had been shut down due to a battle between the X-Man Psylocke and the Shadow King.

After some time, Jean got her powers back. She is currently back working with the X-Men. She and her husband Scott formed a new team (Phoenix, Cyclops, Cable, Wolverine, X-Man, and Archangel) since Xavier disbanded the team (Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Colossus, Marrow).

Jean and Scott were called back into duty after the "Astonishing X-Men" LS, to battle Apocalypse and his team of Skrulls. They discovered they and Magneto, Xavier, Storm, Polaris, Sunfire, Mikhail Rasputin, The Living Monolith, Iceman, Bishop, and Cable were the fabled "12" who would bring about the survival of humanity against Apocalypse. Of course, all failed and Scott ended up merging with Apocalypse. All the team, with the exception of Jean, believe Scott to be dead. But she knows better. At the moment Jean has departed (once again!) from the team. But with the return of Chris Claremont in March of 2000 (YIPPEE!!!, Jean will once again be back with a new costume and HOPEFULLY a new attitude.

OK, she's back with a new costume. I like it, except for the fact that I am not sure if she is wearing a halter top (if she is then it is time for Storm to break out the tube top and coolots!!) or whether her shoulders are covered by a different color in her costume. Anyway, she has no TK only TP, this has yet to be explained. Claremont is finally removing her from her "den mother" role (which I hated) and making her a force to reckon with. I am interested to see what happened during the six month gap. Only time will tell.

*Jean Grey and X-Men are trademarks of the MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.