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The X-Men Jean Grey has a habit of dying
and coming back to life more often than Optimus Prime,
though it is close.
But you would expect it with a character named The Phoenix,
constantly dying and being reborn from the ashes.
And as much as I would love to give you
a solid number for how many times Jean Grey has died,
of course it's not that simple.
There are retcons, and alternate universes,
and time travel at play here.
So how many times has Jean Grey died?
Well, depending on who you ask,
it could be anywhere between one and 20 or so times.
So, let's get into it.
(rock music)
Before we get started into all of this,
let's stick with some rules first.
We're gonna be talking about just Earth 616 Jean Grey,
that's the main Marvel Universe.
We're not talkin' about alternate earths,
like from X-Men Omega or any movie cartoon Jean Grey deaths.
We're also not gonna be counting all the times
that the earth itself blew up,
or the universe just disappeared,
I mean this is, this is Marvel,
we'd be here all day with that nonsense.
No, we're talkin' strict Jean Grey specific deaths.
Deal? Good.
Because I'm already going to slightly alter that deal.
Keep in mind that some of these deaths,
in invisible air quotes, aren't really deaths per se,
it get's a little complicated,
but I'll try to explain it as best as I can.
So the first notable one comes to us
in Uncanny X-Men number 100 from 1976.
The x-Men went to a space station
and beat up the mutant-hating Steven Lang and his group
of Sentinels that resembled the X-Men themselves.
As the space station starts to crumble,
the X-Men find that their ship is damaged,
and also there's a solar flare,
which means flying back to earth is gonna be
a little bit tricky.
They need to find a pilot who's willing to sacrifice
them self while everyone else is in the shielded life cell.
But the only pilot who is available
is also most likely going to die,
so Jean Grey steps in and says, you know what,
I'm gonna take your memories as a pilot,
and also use my powers to shield myself
and I'm gonna fly us all to safety
while you guys are rested nicely
in the shielded part of the ship.
But of course Cyclops jumps in and is like,
no Jean, don't do that, why would you do that,
it's such a heroic thing!
And Jean just kinda knocks him out.
'Cause you know, it's gotta be done.
Everyone says their goodbyes,
some more heartfelt than others.
They fly through the solar flare,
they crash into water, and everyone is safe and sound,
but where's Jean, where is Jean Grey?
Enter The Phoenix.
That's why the, that's why the cover says
Enter: The Phoenix.
So does this actually count as a death?
Well, we'll get back to that later,
but first, in Uncanny X-Men number 137 from 1980,
we have our second, air quote, death.
So some background here,
The Phoenix had become The Dark Phoenix,
and previously set off a massive space explosion
that killed countless lives.
The Shi'ar princess Lilandra, Li, Lilandra,
I don't know, decided that The Phoenix must die.
And that's why the cover says Phoenix Must Die.
Professor X steps in and challenges Lilandra
to a duel, the X-Men versus the Shi'ar imperial guard
on a fight on the moon!
During the battle, Jean loses control
and actually starts to succumb
to The Phoenix force once more
and in order to save everyone from that horrible fate,
Jean willingly steps into a trap,
effectively committing suicide.
There you go, we got two deaths already.
Off to a good start, except, minor problem,
apparently neither of those two count.
In Fantastic Four number 286 from 1986, coincidence?
I don't know, I just read it out loud for the first time.
Uh, it was revealed that The Avengers found a stasis pod
under the water where the ship crashed.
Apparently, The Phoenix Force had put Jean
into a stasis, and the Jean who had been wandering around
was just some sort of Phoenix Force copy.
So instead of two deaths, I think we're back at zero?
Or maybe two with a little asterisk by it, I don't know.
Here's a simple one, in Infinity Gauntlet number one
from 1991, Thanos wanted to court Lady Death,
so he snapped his fingers, and killed half of the population
of the entire Marvel Universe,
and we can see right here that Jean is among the many
who were killed, but uh, I mean, obviously she got better.
Next up we have one from Uncanny X-Men number 281 from 1991.
Once again, we have The Sentinels at play here,
but this time a little bit more effective.
Jean Grey was actually shot and killed by a few of them.
But, she did come back almost immediately
and explained that she had actually transferred her brain
into Emma Frost, so her body had died, technicality,
even though her brain had survived.
But not a whole lot of information was given
one how she exactly came back to life.
The writers kind of settled on the uh I don't know
type of explanation.
Also, Jean remarks that if she comes back from the dead
one more time, she'll be seriously in danger
of turning into some sort of walking cliche.
And I'm sure you can see by the video time code
that we have lots more to discuss,
so a walking cliche, she shall become.
But not for a few years actually.
New X-Men number 148 from 2003
shows the next time Jean Grey dies.
I'd give you a little back story here,
but honestly, it's a bit out of our scope
for this particular video.
I covered some of these aspects in this video
about the Weapons Plus Program,
and also this video about Professor X
and how many times he's gotten paralyzed,
so kind of watch those and maybe you'll understand
this next part, but Magneto slash Xorn slash
I don't even know who this character is,
trapped Jean Grey and Wolverine on an asteroid
hurtling towards the sun.
The two of them are quickly running out of air,
and the temperature is rising.
Jean Grey is terrified about burning alive.
This can't be the end for them, right?
Well, unfortunately, it was.
Seeing no way out, Wolverine stabs Jean Grey
so that her death could be quick,
and the two could go out in a literal blaze of glory.
Then, surprise surprise, The Phoenix Force shows up
once more and heals Jean Grey while also rescuing Wolverine.
So I guess everything's fine again.
Oh, and a fun fact, Wolverine reveals in this issue
that he can eat his own flesh indefinitely to survive.
And I'm really tryin' to figure out the science
behind that one, but that's besides the point.
Jean Grey is back, she's alive,
she only died for a couple seconds that time.
But just two issues later in New X-Men number 150,
Magneto slash Xorn slash who knows at this point
uses his power to give Jean Grey a planetary scale stroke.
Jean's last words, her dying breath,
was a message to Cyclops saying,
"All I ever did was die on you."
Which is, I mean in this case, pretty accurate,
but also Wolverine cuts off Xorn's head,
so it's all fine.
Alright, so these next ones maybe don't count?
But really most of the ones on this list
probably don't count either.
This comes from Phoenix Endsong number three
from 2005 and honestly, I just wanna talk about it,
because I think it's funny.
So The Phoenix Force once again brings Jean Grey
back to life and Jean feels that she's losing control,
so she asks Wolverine to kill her
in order to weaken the Phoenix enough
so that Jean could once again regain control.
What ensues is a montage of Wolverine stabbing
and killing Phoenix at least six times in two pages.
And again, it is a montage, so for all we know,
it could be more than six times,
we just only see it six times.
And afterwards Jean Grey does come back to life
and regains just enough control to kill herself
yet again by freezing herself in a glacier.
But, if we've learned anything from this whole video,
we know that she'll come back almost immediately
thanks to The Phoenix Force,
but later just kind of disappears into the ether.
And that's basically it, I think,
I don't know, there could be definitely more that I missed.
Let me know if I did in the comments down below.
And also while you're down there,
lemme know if you think any of these count as actual deaths.
I don't know, maybe it's a misconception,
and Jean Grey doesn't actually die die as often as we think.
Oh, and just so you know, we are starting
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go to NerdSyncNews.com and sign up.
The first one will be happening this Sunday,
so don't miss it.
We'll also make an announcement video on Saturday
to explain more info about it if you're interested.
And while you're here, why not go check out those
other two X-Men videos that I talked about in the video,
like this one about the Weapon Plus Program.
So we know that Wolverine is Weapon 10,
but who are the other nine weapons,
and are there more past him?
Spoilers, there are, they're weird, go check it out.
And also, you can see this video right here
all about the many times Professor X
has become paralyzed and able to walk again,
and then paralyzed and it's a never ending cycle
of craziness, click here to check that one out as well.
And links to both of these will also be
in the description below.
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My name is Scott, reminding you to read between the panels,
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