[5] Under the authorship of Chris Claremont and the artwork of first Dave Cockrum and then John Byrne in the late 1970s, Jean Grey underwent a significant transformation from the X-Men's weakest member,[6] to its most powerful.

[11] Chris Claremont, the longest-running writer of the X-Men comics, revealed that his and Cockrum's motivation for Jean Grey's transformation into Phoenix was to create "the first female cosmic hero".

[11] Shooter publicly laid out his reasoning in the 1984 roundtable: I personally think, and I've said this many times, that having a character destroy an inhabited world with billions of people, wipe out a starship and then—well, you know, having the powers removed and being let go on Earth.

[12] The relationship between Jean Grey and the Phoenix would continue to be subject to different interpretations and explanations by writers and editors at Marvel Comics following the story's retcon in 1986.

[12] In a 2012 public signing, Claremont spoke about the context of the late 1970s and the end of the Vietnam War during the story's writing, stating that the history of these events also made Jean Grey's genocidal actions difficult to redeem.

[18] Claremont expressed dismay that Jean's resurrection ultimately resulted in Cyclops abandoning his wife and child, tarnishing his written persona as a hero and "decent human being", and the "untenable situation" with Madelyne was dealt with by transforming her into a prolicidal demonic villain and killing her off.

The overarching plot focused on the team assuming the roles of teachers to a new generation of mutants at the Xavier Institute while navigating their personal relationships and dealing with newly emerging pro- and anti-mutant political sentiments.

Named "Madelyne Pryor", the unaware clone meets Cyclops in a situation engineered by Sinister and the two fall in love, marry, and have a child, Nathan Christopher Summers.

[52] Learning of her true identity and purpose as a clone created by Mister Sinister drove her completely insane and she plans to sacrifice Nathan Christopher to achieve greater power and unleash literal Hell on Earth.

[58] Jean also met another alternate future child of hers and Scott's: the immensely powerful Nathan Grey, who accidentally revived the psionic ghost of Madelyne Pryor, leading to another confrontation between the two women.

[62] Onslaught makes his first full appearance to Jean on the astral plane and shows her how humanity is closing in on mutants as well as revealing that Xavier was in love with her while she was a student to convince her to join him.

With the vast majority of earth's heroes missing and assumed dead after Onslaught is finally defeated, Jean and Cyclops open their home to Quicksilver and his daughter and try to help the X-Men to get their lives back together.

[77] Strange psych occurrences around the world, which include a large bird flaring out from the sun and an explosion on the moon, raise red flags for the X-Men, who quickly launch an investigation of these events.

She explains that the Phoenix favors isolated individuals, and to remain whole and avoid being consumed by its god-like power, Maya should rely on others to help ground her and keep her connected to her humanity.

[102][103] Jean's younger self, who had been brought from the past into the present by an older Hank McCoy, eventually found an entirely new way to use her powers separate from the Phoenix Force.

In the initial plotline of the Phoenix being a manifestation of Jean's true potential, these powers are considered her own,[43] as part of Claremont and Byrne's desire to create "the first cosmic superheroine".

When she became Phoenix, she became the most high-profile female superhero in comics, but the other X-Men creative team Jim Salicrup and John Byrne felt her powers overshadowed the other members and stories.

"[115] David Caballero of Screen Rant stated, "Jean Grey served no important purpose in the team before The Dark Phoenix Saga, especially during the X-Men's early days.

"[117] Tamara Jude of Sideshow asserted, "As the only female superhero of the X-Men, Jean Grey (initially introduced as Marvel Girl) lacked an impactful role in the comic series.

The answer to that question doesn't come to her immediately, yet it is true that from her relatively one-dimensional origins eventually sprang a complex personality full of nuance and empathy that has only grown more interesting as time has gone on.

Though a parable about a straight character is not to be mistaken for actual queer representation, it is still worth noting that a lot of Jean Grey’s most avid advocates are LGBTQIA people.

It fit her quieter nature at the time, but she would then adopt several looks over the years that changed according to her ever-evolving personality,"[130] while Lance Cartelli ranked her 16th in their "50 Most Important Superheroes Ever" list.

Like any X-Man worth her salt, Jean’s story is a bit convoluted, and the Dark Phoenix Saga is a trippier ride than most, but Claremont keeps things clipping at an even pace that helps even the wildest plot twist go down easily.

Nearly forty years after its publication, it’s hardly a spoiler to say the Dark Phoenix ended with Jeans’ (first) (temporary) death, but what rose from the ashes was a whole new era for how grand comic books could be.

[157][158][159] Joe Glass of Bleeding Cool wrote, "Nothing with the Phoenix is ever easy and straightforward, but it is dramatic and fun, and Rosenberg has managed that tight rope expertly in this first issue.

Macro-level ideas regarding the soul, mutant resurrection, and the state of the mind are all explored in one way or another—anchored by the imminent danger to one of the X-Men's most iconic faces, and it makes for one very compelling mix.

The Watcher commends Jean and tells her that choosing to not change her future means that her ultimate fate is in her own hands whether or not she ends up hosting the Phoenix Force back in her present.

[198] In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Jean Grey is a responsible, but extroverted young woman; scathingly sarcastic and a bit of a tease, and she secretly reads other people's minds, particularly the other members of the X-Men.

[volume & issue needed] She sends a spy to keep tabs on what Kitty is up to with Reservation X, forming a wide Resistance in the pages of Ultimate Comics: X-Men consisting of past members like Iceman, Strom and Colossus.

Charles Xavier II, the new leader of the displaced Brotherhood, attempts to attack the team using a psychic illusion of Xorn, but this deception is exposed by the young Jean.