Jean Grey is loved and adored by fans worldwide. I need people to understand that I get that. She is one of the founding team members and she is incredibly special to fans and comic writers alike. As much as I would love to rant and rave about how much I HATE deaths in comics because they have no meaning anymore, I will not go down that route. Instead I will offer you my two cents on why I don’t want to see Charles Xavier die (rumored to kick the bucket in Avengers vs. X-Men #11) and why I don’t want Marvel to bring back Marvel Girl. Massive spoilers to follow, so you have been warned. When I say spoilers I just mean things that have already been released by Marvel I won’t dive into the online rumors or other Marvel Now! rumblings.
Jean Grey has stayed dead for a damn long time. Okay, so it hasn’t been that long (especially since she has died like 10 times already), but she died in 2005 and has stayed dead, much to my surprise seeing as Marvel loves bringing her back to life so much. So Jean Grey has died and is in the White Hot Room which is pretty much a way for Marvel to bring her back anytime they want. Avengers vs. X-Men seemed like a perfect place for Jean Grey to come back and save the X-Men by once again being the host for the Phoenix Force, but Marvel has decided to handle this a different way and bring about Wanda’s hex powers and Iron Fist’s mystical powers as new weapons against the Phoenix. Props to Marvel for not using Jean Grey as the “end all, be all” for every story ever told about the Phoenix. Clearly when you introduce two new forces that are capable of taking on the Phoenix Force and tease the thought of the Secret Illuminati Group of using one cosmic force to fight another, you’re going to have some pretty angry fans who are smart enough to wonder why more people haven’t been helping take on the Phoenix all along if it really is this big of a threat. Just because Cable comes back in time to kill all the Avengers, all of a sudden this death machine known as The Phoenix is a threat? Did you know it has come to Earth numerous times before?! So once the Avengers are in danger of being attacked by a time-traveling mutant they decide they need to stop The Phoenix? Excuse me for being blunt, but Kang is traveling through universes to destroy the Avengers yet Cable bothers them?
I will not give you a recap of what has gone down in the series thus far. All you need to know is that Tony Stark goofed up and while trying to kill The Phoenix separated it into five different X-Men. Three have been depowered, while only two remain: Cyclops and Emma Frost, two of the most hated characters in comic books right now. Fans hate these two! Yet these two apparently survive the aftermath of Avengers vs. X-Men as they are shown in a Marvel press releases for New X-Men. What an opportunity to kill off at least one of the most hated characters! But no, it will be another character that kicks the bucket. Rumor has it that character will be Professor X, who out of nowhere decided to align himself with Avengers to take on The Phoenix. Professor X might as well have put on red Starfleet uniform, because it is pretty obvious he will not last this battle. But it remains to be seen how Xavier’s death is going to devastate the entire world. Charles Xavier, the same guy who kind of just walked away from everything, is all of a sudden the guy who is going to be the game-changer? I hope this is not the case. I hope Marvel has a better plan in mind, as Xavier has lost his luster as being the leader of the X-Men since… Well lets be honest, he hasn’t been the leader for a longtime. Xavier’s dream is dead. Having him die along with it just isn’t going to rock my world. It is going to disappoint me. The death of Cyclops would do far more to push the Marvel Universe towards a rocky future. Love him or hate him, he is the leader of the X-Men, no matter how much Marvel wants to put Wolverine in that position. Poor Wolverine, remember when he was one of the best characters in the X-Men?
With the first story arc being the original X-Men showing up to see what has become of the world, I can’t think of a better way to make Cyclops become the dark brooding character he becomes than seeing that he has died. Marvel has said they are going to push the “this is what we have become” on the future and past selves, with Marvel Girl realizing she is dead… Death in comics doesn’t have to be a joke. Having someone come to the future to realize they died is amazing. I love that. But Jean Grey is the WRONG person for it to be. My point is Xavier dying will not drive this story into dark territory. Now on the flip-side, if Emma Frost was to die that would make Scott even more bitter and angry at the world.
But the worse thing that could happen is having Jean Grey come back to life. Her death has been monumental in creating a Scott Summers I love to read. This is the first time they have truly captured that. In all of Jean Grey’s deaths it has affected Scott, but not like this. Scott is not okay. He is a narcissist with immense emotional regret. That is some serious depth for the leader of a team, and I like my characters with emotional depth. Bring back Jean Grey and all that is gone. Cyclops could not be in a worse place right now. He is the number one enemy of the X-Men. He has come full circle by becoming what he hated the most. He feels like he is doing the right thing, just like Magneto did. But Marvel, if you HAVE to kill Xavier, if that is what HAS to happen, at least let Cyclops do it.
I've been kind of disappointed with AvX. It sounds good on paper, but the whole event had no emotional significance. And for Professor X to possibly bite the dust in the end means Marvel is still relying on that age old tactic of killing off an important character because death, as it is perceieved in comics is this big deal rather than the emotional context behind said death.