The Four Color Media Monitor

Like a Phoenix from the ashes, as some would say. The lady once known as Marvel Girl, whom Grant Morrison killed a second time in his New X-Men run, as if that would solve problems any more than the other mistakes made since the end of the 1980s, is now being brought back, presumably reclaiming her own mantle from the badly written alternate timeline version Brian Bendis conceived a few years ago. Syfy says, however:

This is, put simply, a big deal. Of course, a time-displaced, younger version of Jean has been kicking around the main continuity the past few years, but not the OG Jean. The younger Jean has been anchoring her own (excellent) solo series, which focuses on the potential return of the Phoenix, and it sounds like that story will eventually come to a head in Phoenix Resurrection.

Oh please. Anything launched under the guidance of Axel Alonso and Joe Quesada is unlikely to speak excellence. Why, what Morrison did was very unappealing and didn't solve any mistakes made in the 1990s. Under his pen, the X-Men were hostile to non-mutants, spent time on weak drama involving Cyclops choosing to leave Jean for Emma Frost, as if that would serve any improvement after the Madelyne Pryor debacle of the late 80s (she later became the Goblin Queen), and when Jean is killed again later on, Cyclops said he didn't love her anymore. Wolverine's execution of Magneto disaster didn't help matters either.

A lot has changed since Jean died all those years ago (most notably the X-Men are no longer the center of the Marvel universe like they were back in the day), so it’ll be interesting to see where she fits into the new mutant status quo. Also, what does this mean for young Jean?

Chances are she won't be her own agency. It's one thing to resurrect her, as Claremont did, but it was "commercial reasons" as he put it, at the behest of Jim Shooter, meaning it was only so she could reunite with Cyclops at Madelyne Pryor's expense. I once thought it would've been a better idea to just have Pryor die of natural causes as could be expected for a clone, and that could pave the way to a reunion more satisfyingly, but Claremont and company had to go so far as to make Pryor into a Goblin Queen, as if that would make the case any better. It didn't. Did I mention the way Cable, as their son, was handled, was no improvement either?

If the X-Men are no longer front/center in the MCU, the reason was because of real life rivalry between Marvel's film studio and Fox Studios. Idiotic as it's been, the X-Men were probably better off in a downplayed role, though bad stories evidently never stopped.

As for the time-displaced Jean, I'll assume for now that they'll be sending her back into the vortex of the timestream again, while the actual Jean reclaims her position in the MCU. But so long as Quesada and Alonso are still around, no deal from me to buy any of their garbage.

Oh, and before I forget, Epicstream reminded:

It’s worth noting that the original Cyclops and Wolverine have died as well. Wolverine lost his healing factor during Paul Cornell’s run with the character, and was engulfed in Adamantium while trying to stop another Weapon X project during the Death of Wolverine story. Cyclops was killed by the Terrigen Mists during Death of X, which resulted in a mutant/inhuman war caused by Emma Frost, who wanted revenge.

Presumably, they'll be returning as well, and if Prof. Xavier's still dead, he'll be revived too, and Cyclops will be exonerated of that horrible Avengers vs. X-Men moment where he slew his mentor. And while may think the way a Cyclops/Frost affair was handled was dreadful, it will at least be appreciated if Frost is cleared of that stupid matter involving the Inhumans as well, because their cheap excuses for pitting mutants against Inhumans were disgusting.

But again, that's no guarantee there'll be better stories in the future, so long as Quesada and Alonso are still at the helm. Nobody who cares about the MCU should waste money on their output so long as they're still there.

Labels: golden calf of death, marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, women of marvel, X-Men