All they've done is tease her return for years. It'd be worth bringing her back at this point just to shut them up. And of course, if they do bring her back, they'll need to make some changes for her. My expanded thoughts on how to do that (source thread):
@fodigg said:
If Jean comes back Cyclops should feel literally compelled to go to her but visibly struggling against it, whereby it is then revealed by Jean (who is temporarily infused with Phoenix energy before she ditches it forever in the White Hot Room so she can finally evolve as a character) that Mr. Sinister programmed both her and Scott to pursue each other for the benefit of his genetics experiments. Then together Jean and Emma remove this mental programming from Scott (Jean's is already gone from her rebirth) and Scott comfortably stays with Emma.
This would accomplish the following:
- Retains the current continuity instead of backtracking to a decades old status quo.
- Allows them to defy expectations and have Jean & Emma working together and getting along swimmingly.
- Let's them permanently uncouple Jean and Scott, allowing Scott's growth to stay and for Jean to become something more than just the center of the Scott/Logan love triangle.
- Explains a galling character flaw in Scott's history--ditching his wife for the "real" Jean--which has dogged the character for years. Both the relationship with Maddy and subsequent flight to the returned Jean would be explained as Sinister's programming taking root.
- De-mystifies their relationship without totally nullifying it. They can look back on their years fondly and know they truly loved each other without any sort of active pursuit in the present, and with the firm knowledge that they weren't some sort of "soul mates," but were guided by Sinister's machinations. Again, defy expectations by making them incredibly fast friends without any tension.
- Provides an opportunity for Scott to drop some baggage. He's been growing more and more tense and, well, villain-like over recent years. There would be an opportunity to drop miscellaneous other mental "viruses" of Sinister's here that could be used as an explanation to have Scott chill out a little, and maybe even hand the reigns of the X-Men over to someone more even-handed, like say Storm, who will go back to the mohawk and cut any fool who steps. Ah, to dream.
Then of course they should have Logan make his romantic advances—which Scott has no problem with—and be politely but firmly told no. Not because they couldn't write a story about that, but because if Jean is going to come back she needs to become something new, and she can't do that if her primary role is as someone else's love interest.
Jean Grey has been gone for years and yet because of the constant teases we're all still sick of her. And worse, all her usual props and roles (e.g., Phoenix, team telepath, Cyclops' love interest) have been passed off to other characters (e.g., Emma, Cuckoos, Rachel Summers, Korvus, Hope, Cable, Nate Grey, Phoenix Five) so she has no unique role to go back to. The only solution as I see it is to allow her to return, but then ditch the Phoenix thing permanently and let her develop into something new. New personality, new relationships, new costume, new abilities.
This is a brilliant idea! She definitely needs some "new" developments so she isn't seen as the bland character that has a connection with the phoenix and keeps dying. More than anything though I hope she stays with the X-men (Scott or Logans, I don't mind either way), I don't want her joining the Avengers just for the sake of it and I can't see a realistic way of her joining. I want her to have some development but I don't want her to leave everything behind otherwise what was the point of bringing her back if she leaves anyway?
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