Every Time Jean Grey Was Killed In Comics

Jean Grey has a reputation among comic book fans for dying a lot. Ever since the death and immediate return of Superman, death has been as much a revolving door as most comic book prisons. There used to be a saying that the only comic characters that really stayed dead were Jason Todd, Bucky Barnes, and Gwen Stacy. Now none of that statement is true. Still, even among people who die and revive at near regular intervals, Jean Grey is cited as someone who dies way more than average. So, I say we fact check that, by taking a look at every time Jean Grey has actually died in comics and see if that reputation is earned.

Before that though, we need to set some ground rules. We will only be looking at deaths in the main universe and main timeline of Marvel, so no What If stories or alternate futures. Even classic storylines like “Age of Apocalypse” won’t be counted here, sadly. We’ll also not be counting entire universal erasures or world-wide wipes like Thanos snapping half of all life out of existence. Simply put, those don’t seem fair because they affect everyone equally, so they really just raised the average number of deaths for everyone, and if we did count alternate histories we’d be here till the end of next month. So with the boundaries all set, let’s dive into how many times Jean Grey has really died.

1) Piloting the Crashing Space Shuttle

Jean’s first death comes in Uncanny X-Men #100, when the X-Men are on a space shuttle careening towards Earth. She uses her psychic powers to absorb all of the astronaut’s knowledge to guide the shuttle to a relatively safe crash into the water, but all the while is being bombarded by cosmic radiation that eventually does her in. However, her sheer desire to live allows her to awaken to her full potential and literally will herself back to life with her powers, rechristening herself as the Phoenix. Of course, this was later retconned to be the moment when the Phoenix Force first merged with Jean, and in fact stored her body in a cocoon underneath the bay instead of her dying and resurrecting, but this stood as a real death and important showcase of her power for a long time, so I say it counts.

2) Sacrifice to End the Dark Phoenix

Jean’s most famous death of all comes in Uncanny X-Men #137, where Jean destroys herself on the moon to ensure the Dark Phoenix will never rise again. Once again, this death was technically written out of continuity with the Phoenix Force duplicate debacle in X-Factor volume one #1, but we can’t have a list where this death doesn’t count. Frankly, the duplicate has always been one of Marvel’s stupidest retcons, so how about we all just pretend it didn’t happen? Either way, this was definitely the death that stuck in the public perception the most, even if it only lasted for about six years before she came back. Without a doubt, it’s my favorite one of her deaths.

3) Fitzroy’s Sentinels (But Just Her Body)

This one is really weird and I’m not sure if I should count it, but I’m also not sure I shouldn’t. Effectively, in Uncanny X-Men #281 Jean and the Hellions are attacked by Trevor Fitzroy’s Sentinels and blasted, with the mutant-hunting robots declaring them dead at the scene. However, just before her body gave out, Jean managed to transfer her mind (consciousness? soul?) into the body of Emma Frost. At the conclusion of the arc, she was plopped back into her own body and was just fine. However, Jean’s body was completely dead. There was no brain activity or anything other vital sign, her body was shut down full stop. And yet putting her… essence back into it brought her back. This one is up to personal interpretation to count or not, as it just begs the question of where we draw the line at death. Is it with the body being deceased, or does the person’s sense of being have to go to the realm beyond? That’s up to you to decide.

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4) Given a Stroke by Xorn/Magneto

New X-Men #150, at the very least, shows us a clear-cut death. After Magneto reveals himself to be the X-Men Xorn and takes over New York City, he kills Jean Grey even after she reawakens to her Phoenix powers, only to be shortly taken down by Wolverine himself. Granted, while this death is clear, her killer certainly isn’t, as not too long after his apparent “death” it was retconed that Xorn only thought he was Magneto because of a very weird and convoluted series of events we will not be getting into. Still, this is technically Jean’s first real death in Marvel canon. It’s also the one that stuck the longest, staying gone for a record thirteen years before she fully came back. With, however, a brief exception where she was alive for about five issues about five years in.

5) Endsong Sacrifice(s)

Phoenix: Endsong is a very strange limited series for this list, because it could easily conflate the numbers massively. Effectively, the Phoenix Force revives Jean Grey against her will and controls her body, with Jean struggling to weaken it to return herself and it to death because she wasn’t ready to be revived. This involves having Wolverine slash her apart at least six times, though it could easily have been more, and freezing herself in a glacier. These deaths, however, only last more the briefest moment and I’m not sure if they should count because of that. Sure, the argument can be made that if I count the shuttle death I should count these, but the shuttle death was a pivotal and emotional character moment, while these were solely to establish stakes and gore. In the end, she transcends to the White Hot Room as she is eviscerated by Cyclops’s optic blasts. That, at least, is probably a death I can count, which feels strange, as this is a series all about how Jean shouldn’t be revived.

6) Assault on Orchis

Now we enter the Krakoan era of the X-Men, where death became as common as laying down to sleep given how the Five could resurrect anyone, anytime. Jean is part of the X-Men strike team that attacks Orchis to ensure they never develop the super Sentinel Nimrod in House of X #4, but while the team is successful in destroying their base of operations, they were not so lucky in getting out alive. Jean is one of the last to go, with her ship being torn apart by the Sentinels after the others bring down the facility. Of course, her and the rest of the team are immediately revived by the Five on Krakoa, showcasing the mutant nation’s incredible ability to cheat death. If anything, her and the rest of the team’s deaths were intended to demonstrate this awesome power, which has its own problems, sure, but was still an awesome moment.

7) Betrayal at the Hellfire Gala

Despite the fact that characters like Wolverine perished dozens of times over the span of the Krakoa era, Jean only died twice, once at the start and once at the end. That definitely does help her beat the “dying all the time” allegations. In X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1, the Krakoan party is besieged by Orchis, and Jean is stabbed in the back by longtime X-Men ally Moira MacTaggert, who has become an evil cyborg. However, this proves to be nothing but a small obstacle to Jean, who leads the displaced mutants through the White Hot Room and resurrects herself with all the might and majesty of the Phoenix. Her most recent death, this one shows that death really has no hold over Jean anymore, and she is more than capable of fighting her way back with sheer will alone, as she always has.

So there we have all of Jean’s canonical and mainline deaths, and even now the number is confusing. Conservatively, if we don’t count the original two or the split-second revivals, Jean has died as little as four times. On the other hand, if we look for the highest possible number and measure loosely, she’s died around fourteen times, maybe more. At the end of the day, Jean Grey has a complicated relationship with death, even more so than most other superheroes. Jean will always find a way back, with her lust for life and the popularity of her character, but it would do for Marvel to just let her stay alive for a little bit this time. I’m not quite sure if Jean has earned her “dies all the time” reputation, but at the very least she deserves a reputation for the most confusing and ambiguous deaths.