Chris Claremont Speaks about Jean Grey’s Return
I just returned from a comic book convention in Philadelphia (2008) and had the privlege to hear Chris Claremont speak in a few panels. He was very friendly and talked openly about many subjects, including his work on the X-men and more specifically about Jean Grey.
Chris was asked a question by the panel moderator, “How did you feel about bringing back Jean Grey?”
He paused for a moment, tilted his head back and sighed a little. I knew exactly how he felt. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to have Jean in the Marvel universe and apparently she is back again if you have been reading the Marvel crossover series, “Secret Invasion“. But her death was poetic justice. She killed billions of people and had to die. The X-men fought for he and lost; she paid the ultimate price but did so willingly. To bring her back was to make everything before a wasted sacrifice. But I digress…
Mr. Claremont finally responded to the question. He stated that he was told Jean Grey would be returning, brought back from the dead, and joining the new comic, X-Factor. While it was good that they told him (I believe he said Louise Simonson was given the task of breaking the news) they waited until 6:30pm on Friday, after the Marvel offices had closed. So he had no recourse but to stew about it all weekend. So he took that time and wrote something to try and avoid this bad decision. His idea, as he said, was to bring in Jean’s sister and develop her own mutant powers. He was going to give her mutant tracking abilities which would have fit perfectly for the new X-Factor team, whose undercover methods of capturing mutants was really to provide them traning and sanctuary. A tracker would have been a logical fit.
Her surmised that this would have broken the boring Jean and Scott romance and opened up the romantic possibilities to all the male X-men. Jean’s sister would have been what the original Jean was, a female diversion for the X-Factor team. Sexual tension, playful flirting, new relationship dynamics would have all come from this. It sounded like a good idea and Jean could have rest peacefully or at least until a better idea was conceived to bring her back.
And even though Chris said that Jim Shooter liked the idea and told him he would support it, he was still bringing Jean back. This ,of course, took the wind out of Chris Claremont’s sails and the idea of Jean’s sister becoming a mutant hero died as Jean has so many years ago.
I found this revelation very interesting and I recalled the story in Bizarre Adventures where Jean and her sister fought Attuma and remembered that Chris had written it. Too bad he never got the chance to write a second story with her.
What are your thoughts on this? Should Chris have written this or not?
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So they decided to undo all the stuff that has happened before–even some of the classic stories–just for the sake of making everything go back to the way it used to be…just like a certain current Spiderman story named after a bad Sting song. In both cases, the people up top got their little taste of nostalgia…but man, look at the cost of it all. Shooter’s hunger for the return of the original 5 has resulted in continuity screw-ups that we’re still paying for over 20 years later!
People need to realize that you can’t go home again.