Posts Tagged ‘Jean Grey’

The Wolverine: New Posters

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on June 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Okay, only one of these is brand new, I somehow missed the other two. Anyway, Collider got the exclusive release of a new Jean Gray poster ala sumi-e ink art. While the others have been fairly original, even Wolverine was done up in Japanese clothing, Jean’s poster is just a copy of her X3 promo images.

The Wolverine - Jean Grey poster

X-Men 3 - Jean Gray promo

I wouldn’t read into Jean getting her own poster. She’s the second most recognizable character from the franchise, so they want to splash her around for that recognition. This happens all the time (Vin Diesel in Tokyo Drift anyone…). Still, would have liked to see something a bit more original than a direct copy cause this is a really pretty style of artwork.

There are two other posters I missed which are on Collider, one for Viper and Yukio. I’m not too impressed with them either. I don’t like the tongue thing on Viper and I’m not sure what’s going on with Yukio’s mouth, though, if I ignore that part, Yukio’s is actually pretty bad ass.

The Wolverine - Viper poster

The Wolverine - Yukio poster

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Review: All-New X-Men #12

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , , , on June 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

All-New X-Men #12 cover artworkOnce again, never trust the cover of a comic book, they lie to you… blatantly.

Havok and young-Scott do meet up and it’s actually kind of touching. Scott doesn’t realize his brother is alive (though why no one told him in all this time or he didn’t hear his brother’s M-speech I have no idea), so it’s a really great reunion where, as Cap puts it, Havok gets to see Scott ‘at his best’. Unfortunately we don’t get a lot of character time here as we should, and that’s because Jean attacks Wanda.

Jean, who promised she wouldn’t go poking into other’s minds, gets a look into Wanda’s mind and sees House of M and the most crippling words ever uttered in an X-Men comic: ‘No More Mutants’. Again, why have these kids not heard of this yet? You think they would grab a history book or go on this new fangled thing called Wikipedia?

Anyway, the old team already see Wanda as a bad guy cause last they saw of her she was in the Brotherhood (they must not met Rogue yet), so it’s natural they would be a bit wary of her. For Jean to see the House of M events from Wanda’s own mind because she was apparently ‘screaming it’, you can kinda understand Jean’s reactions, even if it was played up a bit much. But what we really need to take from this issue is two things:

  • Wanda was forgiven for ‘going insane’ and nearly destroying mutant kind. How does this parallel with Cyclops? People would argue that while Wanda was literally ‘insane’ over the loss of her child, Cyclops had a lot more control over his facilities, esp in how he treated things afterwards by going on his little Revolution kick. What I want is an issue that is nothing but Wanda and old Scott having a little chat…
  • Wanda was ‘screaming’ the event in her mind. Obviously she is very much haunted by what she did. Her children died (and though they ‘came back’ she didn’t get to raise them). Her husband left her after she used him, killed him and brought him back (while insane). She has to believe that almost no one trusts her any more, even if they say they do. And this trust issue is dealt with organically.

The sad part is that this is all great stuff… but in the wrong comic. Remender will ignore all of this for his tripe in Uncanny Avengers.

Other high points: Mystique is up to something, as always. Lady Mastermind isn’t stupid. Creed kinda is but we knew that already.

And as was pointed out by greatrhodeybutt on tumblr:      

and it’s real funny how the idea of the uncanny avengers is mutant/humans together. uniting mutants and humans.  uniting avengers and x-men.

and cap is throwing lines around like “you’re an avenger. i trust you.  but these x-men”

THANKS CAP

Yeah… pretty much that.

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Jackman confirms XMen Cameo

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on December 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Hugh Jackman gave an interview to Parade magazine and, well, here you go:

Give us a little scoop on the film.
You want to get me into trouble, don’t you? [laughs] Okay, the movie takes place after X-Men: The Last Stand. My character is at his lowest. He is supposed to be able to heal himself, but he may encounter someone who has worked out a way to really hurt him. And there is a cameo from one of the past X-Men in it.

There is already a rumor running around that Famke Jansson who played Jean Grey flew to Australia to film a cameo, a rumor which hasn’t been debunked yet by any parties. Could this be misdirection? Could, but not sure how as Jean’s character would make the most sense in regards to how much of an impact it would make on both Wolvie and the storyline of the franchise.

Should be interesting…

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Rumor Mill: Jean Grey in The Wolverine?

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , , , , on October 21, 2012| 1 Comment »

Famke Janssen as Jean Grey

Famke Janssen as Jean Grey

ComicBookMovie recently posted a rumor that Famke Janssen is going to reprise her role as Jean Grey in a cameo appearance in The Wolverine. This could possibly tie The Wolverine in with Days of Future Past and how they are going to change things up.While I can see where this might be coming from, and how it could might work, depending on when and how her cameo takes place (flash forward maybe?), it’s one of those things that could make or wreck the film in regards to the overall X-Men Cinemagraphic Universe.

Jean Grey is dead via the end of X3 (not that death has ever stopped her) and she turned into Phoenix at the end of X2… so if this is a flash forward then it would have to take place sometime before X2. If it’s about time travel, or Kitty DOFP style mental Time Travel, in X2 Kitty was called “a little girl who could walk through walls” meaning she had to be even younger in X1. (I still don’t know how Kitty will work in DOFP since she won’t even been born yet unless they skip WAY into the future). But then flashing forward to X1-ish means we’re that much closer to a full reboot of the X movies.

If Jean Grey is time traveling, that, again, opens a big can of worms of rebooting which could hopefully only be a good thing.

If The Wolverine actually takes place post X-3, well then, that’s a boat load of confusion as most of thought that this would be a prequel to the X-movies (like Origins but takes place after Origins ala the Easter Egg at the end of that movie). So not only is the movie moved, but Jean Grey is apparently back from the dead (again, not a big stretch). Though now we have total fail on the reboot option.

The biggest problem with all this is that Famke is older now, it’s just fact. X-Men came out in 2000, over a decade ago, and she looks older and more mature from her X1 self. This can be worked around, with makeup and stuff, but they need to be very clear on when and how all of this is happening, esp since the rumor is that only Jean Grey might be in the Wolverine (unless the whole Patrick Stewart thing being in DOFP is actually a cameo in Wolverine, but that only helps a little). Of course, if it’s option three and post X3 then this isn’t an issue.

Really, what Fox needs to do is sit back and say “we made some X-Men movies and while some were good, some weren’t, now we’re going to start all over again with First Class, literally”. It’s not like people are going to look on them any less, just look at Batman, he’s had several films totally unrelated to each other and it’s been pure win. Fox doesn’t have to attempt to save face or anything like that here, it’s been a decade since X1, you have new actors who literally owned their roles in First Class… go from here and leave the first X movies as Alt Uni’s… the comics have tons of them!

So, personally, I hope this is just a rumor… but if it isn’t, then maybe this is part of the Easter Egg and totally brilliant! We’ll have to see in July…

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Character Spotlight: Jean Grey

Posted in Characters, tagged , , , on September 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Character Spotlight: Jean Grey

Concept:
Jean Grey is one of those characters that you love or you love to hate. Whether it’s wishing that she stepped up and was as awesome as she could be, or maybe you just want her to stop dying, everyone has a pretty opinionated opinion of her.

She is a strong character, being a telepath and a telekinetic means she can pretty much do whatever the heck she wants. In my realistic-ish universe, most powers, such as cryokinesis, terrakinesis, basically anything with kinesis at the end, is just a type of locked telekinesis. Meaning that anything Magneto, Iceman, Pyro, etc, can do, she can do, if she puts her mind to it.

That is dangerous ‘over power’ territory which is arguably why in the comics the Phoenix turned into the Dark Phoenix and it all went downhill from there. They had to reign her in somehow? Well, that’s a theory anyway.

In the movies, they decided that instead of Phoenix being an alien-like entity, they simply gave Jean a split personality ala Jeanne-Marie aka Aurora from the comics. I think this was a good move to replace the Phoenix’s cosmic origins with something more realistic. Whether or not they meant to rip off Jeanne-Marie, I don’t know, but I like the concept.

This is why in my universe there is MIDID, Mutation Induced Dissociative Identity Disorder. It’s a very real disorder to worry about as we will see from Aurora in the first season and something which holds Jean back. It’s not that she has MIDID, but she knows she could easily suffer from it, if she pushes herself too fast and too hard. So Jean is only limited by herself. This keeps her within a reasonable power threshold while adding some character traits and development tools for me to use.

As for Jean Grey not having a nickname, I couldn’t exactly use Marvel Girl in a realistic universe especially as Marvel still exists in this world. I can’t use Phoenix because she’s not Phoenix. I decided to simply not give her a mutant name because not everyone out there has a nickname nor wants one. It also allows for a mixture of character styles which keeps things interesting.

Series Biography:
Jean Grey grew up in upstate New York the daughter of a wealthy and influential lawyer who has served on several State and Congressional Councils as well as on the boards of Fortune 500 companies. She was Xavier’s first student when the first part of her mutation, telepathy, manifested at a rather young age. A few years later, her telekinesis manifests during an attack on herself, the Professor, and Scott.

Even though she is teaching and helping at Xavier’s, she’s studying to get her PhD in Genetics to better understand how mutations work and how to help her fellow mutants.

Jean has two potential suitors, Scott Summers and Warren Worthington III. Her best friend is Betsy Braddock, also a telepath, and she thinks of Kitty and Jubilee as younger sisters.

Currently Jean is the biology, natural sciences, and social science teacher at Xavier’s School for Higher Learning.

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Resurrection: et tu Phoenix?

Posted in Characters, tagged , , , on September 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

If there is one thing that everyone knows about Jean Grey, whether they are fans of the X-Men or only know it in passing, is that she dies… a lot… and comes back… a lot…

Would you expect anything less from a character named Phoenix?

However, a recent discussion on another forum ended up in complaints that comparatively, Jean hasn’t really died and came back a whole hell of a lot. It’s usually argued that she’s only really come back from the dead three times after only having died twice:

  1. Dies when after the Dark Phoenix Saga she commits suicide.
  2. Dies when Xorneto forces a stroke in Jean/Phoenix

Of course, she’s back for her third time in All-New X-Men as a time-traveler (which would mean she’ll eventually die a third time).

These are the two times where the character is ‘removed’. It’s not a trick, not a ‘psych’, they simply got rid of her until they decided they wanted to bring her back again.

So the question is, how many other characters can you name were ‘removed’ and brought back at a later date? Okay, now how many of them had that happen twice? Personally, all the ones who were killed off as a permanent (or as permanent as the comics can get) situation, it only happened to them once. (And really, does Kurt count since it’s his Alt who is back?)

And then you add all the times where she has died, though in full knowing that she’ll be back shortly, the ‘psych’ moment if you will.

  1. Dies on the space ship saving everyone, comes back as Phoenix.
  2. Killed by Sentinels, survived by putting her mind in Emma Frost.
  3. Mercy killed by Logan when Asteroid M is hurled at the sun but Phoenix brings her back.
  4. During that same comic there is a flash 150 years in the future where she is brought back through a Phoenix egg, time travels to after Xorneto incident and dies again…
  5. Comes back and also dies in Endsong comics

I suppose that’s not a lot either, I mean, all the X-Men were thought to be dead in Texas that one time… Kitty was thought to be dead but she was actually kidnapped by the Morlocks… and I’m sure there are a ton that I’m forgetting for the rest of the cast…

So again, why is Jean special? Why does she even say to Scott, “all I ever did was die on you”.

I think the crux of it is that Jean not only dies, but she dies with flare. I mean, she goes totally dark side in the Dark Phoenix Saga, destroys a solar system! Then has to take herself out… that’s pretty epic. Then the second time she dies it’s in the middle of a love triangle with Scott, who is kinda a douche at the time.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most memorable moments in X-Men history. Everyone, pretty much, has heard of it, and that pretty much is the answer, as simple as it is.

Jean is forever haunted by the ‘dies and comes back’ groan because she died first in the biggest, most epic, way possible. All deaths afterwards pale in comparison.

Oh, and she has the name Phoenix… that helps too.

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