X-Men: Marvel Is Resurrecting a Surprising Character From Jean Grey’s Past

1980’s classic X-Men #136 was the penultimate chapter of the Dark Phoenix Saga. After Jean Grey nearly went out in a blaze of glory sacrificing herself to save the X-Men — she was bombarded by cosmic radiation while piloting a doomed space shuttle back to Earth in X-Men #101 — the mutant telepath had become fire and life incarnate: the Phoenix. It was later revealed that Jean had become one with a primal cosmic force — the Phoenix Force — and it was this corrupted “Dark Phoenix” who died in X-Men #137 while the real Jean recovered in a healing cocoon for years before she was unearthed by the Avengers.

“Your humanity, my power — bonded by passion, tempered by love. The ultimate force, at least given means to express itself,” the Phoenix Force said at the moment of Jean Grey’s death/rebirth. “Be warned — the fire I offer can burn as well as warm — destroy as easily as heal — and it always consumes. The glory I offer is transcendent; likewise, the danger. And the flame, once taken, can never be extinguished.”

And so she rose like a Phoenix from the ashes. While the Phoenix’s cycle would see Jean Grey live, die, and be reborn over the years, one death has been permanent: Jean’s sister, Sara Grey, who died back in 1994’s X-Men #36.

RELATED: 8 Spider-Man and Jean Grey Stories From the Marvel Comics

More than 30 years later, Marvel will resurrect Sara Grey in the pages of the ongoing Phoenix run by writer Stephanie Phillips and oncoming series artist Roi Mercado (Venom War: Deadpool).

After emerging from a cocoon and ascending to her most powerful form ever in battle with Aldani and the Dark Gods (in Phoenix #8), the next Phoenix arc will see Jean’s sister return in Phoenix #11 in May before Phoenix #12 tells the “miraculous” story of Sara’s resurrection in June.

“Jean’s story is often defined by resurrection, so it feels deeply personal to ask her to confront the return of someone she lost and never expected to see again,” Phillips said. “This forces Jean to grapple with more than just the weight of the Phoenix… It’s about the deeply human conflict between responsibility and longing. Can she balance the cosmic burden of what she is with the personal desire to reclaim what she lost?”

X-Men #136 introduced Jean’s older sister Sara when the Dark Phoenix visited the Grey home in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, just before Dark Phoenix’s sacrifice in X-Men #137. The little-seen Sara returned as a pro-mutant spokesperson in 1986’s X-Factor #12, at a time when Jean (who emerged from her cocoon a year earlier in Fantastic Four #286) was working alongside Cyclops, Beast, Angel, and Iceman as X-Factor. Jean confessed to feeling “disconnected” from her family following her “death” in the years she spent inside a psychic cocoon.

When the mutant-exterminating Phalanx sought to assimilate all life on Earth into their sentient techno-organic collective as part of the “Phalanx Covenant” crossover event, X-Men #36 revealed Jean Grey’s older sister to be a victim of the Phalanx.

The remaining members of the Grey family — Sara and Jean’s parents, John and Elaine Grey, and Sara’s children, Gailyn and Joseph among them — would later be murdered by the Shi’ar when the galaxy-spanning extraterrestrial empire sought to eliminate the Grey genome in 2005’s Uncanny X-Men #467.

Phoenix #11

A BOOMING VOICE SOUNDS ACROSS THE COSMOS… …the voice of EGO, THE LIVING PLANET – and he speaks in distress: of a great imbalance! A fracturing! A coming death…And the only one who can stand in its way is the PHOENIX! But that’s not all… In this all-new arc, JEAN GREY’s calling to space and responsibility to the galaxy becomes suddenly, critically personal with the return of a long-lost loved one – whose presence will throw everything Jean knows into total chaos!

On sale: May 14

Phoenix #12

Protecting the cosmos as Phoenix, Jean Grey has experienced near-limitless mystery and wonder – a universe of perpetual possibility! But nothing so magnificently unexpected as this: Her sister, Sara, has returned to life. Murdered by the Phalanx many years ago, another in a long line of Greys to lose their lives in untimely, violent ways, Sara nonetheless stands before Jean, alive and well. But – when?! Why?! How?! All of these are questions worth asking. And Jean Grey probably should. Needless to say… this would be a very different story if she did.

On sale: June 11