Marvel Comics has kept their shared universe going since 1961 without any kind of reboot (their Golden Age comics aren’t actually in continuity unless explicitly stated to be; it’s kind of complicated and weird), which is honestly pretty impressive. However, they have used retcons numerous times. Retcons are one of the most useful tools in a writer or editor’s repertoire. It allows them to change the past to make the present stories work better. Some retcons have been beloved, and others have been poo-poo’ed for decades. Not all Marvel retcons make sense, and some of them have led to some places that readers never thought they’d go.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Recently, the House of Ideas unleashed their biggest retcon ever, one that changes the tenor of decades of X-Men comics: Jean Grey has always been the Phoenix, something that fans and creators have debated for decades. Back in the day, Marvel retconned the X-Men’s greatest story “The Dark Phoenix Saga”, making it so that Jean was never the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix was just a Jean shaped simulacrum. Now, not only was Jean Phoenix and Dark Phoenix, but she’s also always going to be Phoenix. This retcon has made things way more confusing, and it’s also opened the door for Marvel’s most hated ship to be endgame: Wolverine and Jean Grey.
Marvel Accidentally Made Wolverine and Jean Grey Eternal Partners
The Phoenix Force has become a staple of Marvel, with numerous characters beyond Jean Grey getting their hands on it. The Phoenix is one of the primordial forces of the universe, the personification of death and rebirth, and it gives it bearer godlike power over the universe. Numerous heroes have wielded its power over the years, usually telepathic ones, but a surprising one was introduced in Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine. Wolverine used the Phoenix Gun, built by Beast, to destroy Doom the Living Planet in an alternate future and later manifested the Phoenix Force for a short time. This was only the beginning.
He was part of the Phoenix contest that took place in Jason Aaron’s Avengers in the early 2020s (Aaron having written ASMaW), but it was an idea that Aaron apparently liked, because he had also used it in his Thor run before he took over Avengers. Towards the end of the run, King Thor, a future version of the lord of Asgard, met with one of this last friends at the end of the universe: Old Man Phoenix, an eternal Logan with the power of death and rebirth, and one of the last beings in the universe.
One of the weird, confusing things about the current Phoenix retcon is that it establishes that Jean was always a part of the Phoenix, even though she has existed for a minuscule period. Basically, back and forth through time, Jean has always been the Phoenix. The entire retcon is honestly a useless change, and this is the strangest portion of it. However, the fact that Jean is always a part of the Phoenix means that Logan and Jean spend eternity together.
Wolverine and Jean Grey have been shipped for years, even by X-Men wunderkind Chris Claremont, and a lot of fans have rebelled against it. Part of it, of course, is that X-Men fans don’t like change (which could explain my disdain for the retcon) and to many, Cyclops and Jean belong together. Marvel itself has teased fans with this ship numerous times, because a decent amount of Wolverine fans like it, but it’s always shown to be something that could never work. However, the Phoenix retcon means that their ship is endgame, since Jean always exists within the Phoenix Force and at some point, Wolverine will be the Phoenix.
Retcons Often Lead in Weird Directions
Jean Grey and the Phoenix have been a repeating motif for years, because Marvel and DC Comics (but honestly mostly Marvel) can’t stop reminding people of how much better things used to be. Marvel retcons usually work to bring things back to the vaunted past, and they often do some rather weird things because no one really thinks about the effects that retcons will have on stories that were told before the retcon. Making Jean the Phoenix always is one of these retcons, and it’s led to a hated ship being endgame.
X-Men fans hate Jean and Logan as a couple, and there have been flamewars online over it for as long as comic fans have known the Internet existed. Marvel itself never pull the trigger on the relationship, even when it was popular in the ’90s, mostly because the House of Ideas has a pathological need to show readers that the idealized past and its ideas are always better than anything new. Marvel makes a lot of mistakes in their decisions, and this retcon is yet another example of a change causing a canon shift that no one expected.
What do you think of the Wolverine/Jean Grey ship? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Daybreak Game Company -
Image courtesy of MAPPA
