This is a great cover featuring Jean Grey as Marvel Girl. Just gorgeous…the cover, I mean.

X-Men Origins: Jean Grey #1

This review from Comixology, click here for the full review.

…expanding on her established background from a black-and-white story in Bizarre Adventures #27 that most current readers probably don’t even know exists. McKeever sticks to telling the story of Jean’s traumatic telepathic awakening, adding just a little extra to what we knew to provide a sense of resolution.

But the real reason to get this issue is the artwork. Mayhew’s cover is nice, but his interior artwork is also painted and is superior throughout. Not only does everything look wonderful, but his storytelling skills are more than up to the challenge of showing us all the things here that happen in Jean’s head without major action scenes to drive them.

This review is from Comics Bulletin, click here for the full review.

McKeever and Mayhew have two main challenges in this story: to capture a teenage Jean Grey who is recognizably different from the adult warrior who fought so valiantly in the X-Men, and to make an oft-told story fresh again. They succeed admirably on both counts. Mayhew brings a compelling realism (which is still a far cry from anything resembling photo-realism) to the initial introduction of Professor Xavier to the Grey family (who are both wary and desperate concerning the condition of their traumatized daughter after the shocking initial manifestation of her powers).
Mayhew comes up with many masterful views into Jean’s private turmoil, in a delicate and straightforward watercolor style that foregoes heavy inks but still manages a full range of value. Jean’s red hair unites page after page, as do her signature green eyes.

The scenes where Xavier discusses his plans with Jean’s parents recall the scenes with Angel’s parents from X-Men #2. Professor Grey’s affiliation with Bard College is recalled, and throughout he and Mrs. Grey are every inch the concerned, caring, worried parents, good people who obviously contributed to Jean the basis for a stable and nurturing core personality.

And it’s here in this story in a crucial scene where Jean plays hooky from Xavier’s first Academy and ends up embroiled in another car accident in Westchester Center, where she uses her considerable telekinetic gifts to save the day.  Jean looks like Jean throughout, and in this nuanced and detailed exploration of her psyche in her early adolescence, McKeever too has painted a fascinating portrait of one of Marvel’s major mutant stars in her formative years.

10. X-men Forever # 3

Jean relives important key moments in her life while at the same time re-bonding with the Phoenix force. The cover depicts Jean in her Revolution era costume, which was extremely short lived and forgotten by most fans. Prior to this costume, Jean had been wearing her traditional green Phoenix costume and calling herself Phoenix.

9. Uncanny X-men #281

The Jim Lee era at its finest. The X-men were divided into two teams: Blue and Gold team. On this cover, the Gold team is showcased at its most iconic pose. Also in this issue: Jean is seemingly killed by Sentinels but survives by transferring her mind into the body of Emma Frost. Looks like tension had been brewing for quite sometime pre-Morrison era.

8. Fantastic Four # 286

Jean seemingly returns from the dead after being replaced by the Phoenix force. Discovered by the Avengers, she soon re-joins the original X-men in the government sponsored team, X-Factor. However, her reunion with Scott is short lived after she discovered he married Madelyne Pryor and had a son with her.

7. Uncanny X-men #135

Although not the most iconic Dark Phoenix cover, the issue began Jean’s descent into total darkness after being manipulated by Mastermind. Jean would go on as being the biggest threat the X-men had ever faced and their greatest loss.

6.  New X-men #128

A gorgeous rendition of Jean harnessing the power of the Phoenix during New X-men. Throughout the series, the force had been growing with in Jean to a point where she had become limitless. Although Dark Phoenix was no longer a threat, it was clear the Phoenix had come to disinfect the enemy Sublime and save the future.

5. Uncanny X-men #136

What could only be truly described as the final stand. The X-men fight for Jean’s life but eventually lose. In a desperate attempt to save the universe and preserve her humanity, the Phoenix commits suicide on the moon. Originally, writer Chris Claremont had intended for Jean to stay dead as a result of her actions against the D’Bari system. However, when the original X-men were brought back in X-Factor, the editors wanted Jean to be with her former team mates but found it impossible to bring her back after all the sins Phoenix had committed. Hence, the explanation of Jean being replaced by the Phoenix force was given to wipe her slate clean.

4. X-men #30

Jean and Scott finally marry. One guest had not attended the wedding: Wolverine. Wonder what would have happen if she had married Wolverine instead of Scott?

3. Uncanny X-men #101

The singular most important event to ever happen to Jean. In order to save the X-men, Jean pilots a space shuttle through a radiation storm in outer space and bonds with the Phoenix. The end result is the foundation on which Jean’s character was built upon. This issue is possibly the most important Jean story ever told.

2. Phoenix Endsong #1

After the events of Planet X, Jean is resurrected by the Phoenix force. Although the X-men had expected her eventual return, they fear that it is Dark Phoenix and not Jean who returned. In the end, it was Jean and she regained full control of the force and returned to the White Hot Room, presumably to return to our plane of existence once all her pieces are found.

1. Uncanny X-men #136

This is the cover everyone thinks about when you say the Dark Phoenix saga. On the cover, there is a distraught Cyclops holding a seemingly dead Jean as he cries out in pain. This one was for the history books, and remains firmly pressed up against our hearts. No other Jean covered has inspired such intensity and pain.