After 13 years, Jean Grey is coming back in PHOENIX RESSURECTION: THE RETURN OF JEAN GREY by Matthew Rosenberg and an assortment of artists, with Lenil Yu on the first issue. Issue #1 was a fantastic opening that raised more questions than it answered. Luckily the weekly schedule means we won’t have to wait long for answers. Still let’s look at some theories about what the heck is even going on in this book.
We Were Better Off Dead
This story kicks off with weird things happening in Annadale-on-Hudson, New York, the childhood home town of Jean Grey. It is where the Phoenix copy of Jean’s gravestone was and where the Shi’ar murdered the Grey family in END OF GREYS. Children are found floating catatonic, bleeding from their heads (with no wounds at that) and speaking a single phrase, “Daed ffo retteb erew ew”. Rachel Grey, a former long time Phoenix host herself fell ill when she returned to the area and began speaking the phrase herself. Reading that backwards give an ominous message, “We were better off dead”.
After posting this a thoughtful Twitter follower pointed out that this is a pretty heavy allusion to Annie Richardson’s death. In fact ghosts of young Annie and Jean seem to appear and set this whole thing off. Thanks Nir Revel for the tip!
Everything Old Is New Again
The X-Men see the same energy signature as in Annadale-on-Hudson in three other locations, the Hellfire Club in Manhattan, the Artic Circle, and Mount Saint Francis in France. In each of these locations they encounter old ghosts, Hellfire goons in the club, classic Wolverine in the Artic, and Acolyte Seamus Mellencamp in France. These locations all have some significance in X-Men lore. The Hellfire Club was a major local in the Dark Phoenix Saga, the Artic Circle is where the Phoenix was put to rest in X-MEN: PHOENIX – ENDSONG, and the castle in France was home to the Acolytes in UNCANNY X-MEN #300 (where Jean specifically fought Mellencamp, thanks Rob Struble for pointing that out). All of the mysterious figures disappear, but the X-Men have little time to react as a Phoenix raptor appears bright as the sun across the globe.
Elsewhere
In a place only described as Elsewhere, a red headed woman named Jean sees the raptor out side of her place of business, a diner called Annie’s and named after it’s owner. Astute reader’s will remember that Annie Richardson was the name of Jean’s childhood friend whose death triggered Jean’s mutant powers. Also at the diner is Sean Cassidy, the X-Man Banshee who was killed by Vulcan and resurrect as a Horseman of Death in UNCANNY AVENGERS. Jean walks home from work, past a church sign describing the biblical horseman Death. She greets her pet, a red bird, and is met by her parents John and Elaine Grey. A picture of Jean in academic regalia sits on the end table. The Greys, who were killed in END OF GREYS, aren’t the only characters who were long thought dead to appear. The picture on the end table changes, now to Jean and a man with red glasses, the same man who appears at her door holding a bouquet of roses. Scott Summers asks Jean, and the reader’s, if we missed him.
Wild Mass Guessing
There is a lot going on in PHOENIX RESURRECTION, most of it with some connection to the X-Men’s history. I’m going to theorize that the Phoenix’s return in JEAN GREY (a series by Dennis Hopeless that you all should be reading) is causing these weird happenings. Of specific insight is the solicit for JEAN GREY #11 where the time displaced Jean Grey is said to be trapped in a prison for former hosts of the Phoenix. I’d bet Elsewhere is that prison. It’s reasonable to guess that the other figures we see in Elsewhere are memories or manifestations of the Phoenix. We know this series will end with (adult) Jean Grey coming back and leading a team of X-Men, we also know that (young) Jean Grey is in solicits into March. This series seems to be leading to Jean escaping the prison and after such a long time, rising from the ashes once again.
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
