phoenixstorm said:
Yes, you're right but how do you explain Jean Grey waking up in the bay? You have to draw the line somewhere. This way Jean gets to live as a character and the phoenix force is explained.
Jean Grey waking up in the bay is just as much a retcon to the character as anything that Morrison or Pak did to
that retcon. It seems to me that you'll praise retcons that suit your personal tastes, and claim that they're "disrespectful to the characters" when you
don't like what they did. Well, a retcon is a retcon. In this instance your stance is even more questionable considering that the changes you're bashing
fixes the FIRST retcon of the Phoenix, returning the character to her roots.
phoenixstorm said:
It's the same with Jean now. They had a chance to really develop the character as a person beyond phoenix. Even the whole Scott relationship was tired and stale. I'm glad she was no longer with scott. She deserved better than that.
Take away the phoenix from xmen and who is jean? What kind of character is she? Where is her backstory and strength? The phoenix has consumed Jean as a character.
The Phoenix Saga was such a pivotal storyline to both Jean Grey's character and to the X-Men as a whole, I think it's pretty patently unrealistic to just pretend like it didn't exist or something. I mean, talk about being disrespectful to a character.
In fact, they
tried to do this with the whole coccoon shenanigans, and it just started to break down...over time, elements of the Phoenix kept creeping back into Jean's character and her powers no matter how much they tried to keep them apart, to the point where they just had to give up and say, "Okay
fine, she's the Phoenix again." Yes, they did have "a chance to really develop the character as a person beyond Phoenix," and it led right back to where we started.
Look at Ultimate Jean Grey...she started off just as Marvel Girl, and
within three or four years they couldn't help but to make her the Phoenix again.
Look at movie Jean Grey...she started off without that aspect of the Phoenix anywhere around her at all, by the second movie it was a serious character trait, and by the third movie it pretty much took over 50% of the storyline.
Jean Grey as the Phoenix is literally entrenched within pop culture, as part of the character as much as Spider-Man being a photographer or Superman growing up on a farm. When something has been so important to the character, it's going to affect their lives and their progression whether we like it or not.
I like the way the artist described....jean and Scott..and this one...
