I'm sure based on their ability similarities that this question must have been asked at least once in the past. But I never came across it so i'm interested to hear some votes or opinions. Emma technically has more powers & abilities but Jean is clearly the stronger Mutant of the two. There are only a few mutants as strong as Jean and even fewer that are stronger. Both Mutants hold mental-powers, who wins?

Oh and I should probably list each's known abilities-

Jean Grey (Not Phoenix) : Empathy, Telepathy, Telekinesis & Eidetic Memory

Emma Frost : Mental bolts, Memory Alteration, Telepathy, Mind reading / Mind-control, illusion-Casting, Astral-projection, Induced paralysis, defensive ability to shape-shift into Diamond form.

Jean Grey basically can do a lot that Emma can do (only better) but to the best of my knowledge, I've never seen Jean Grey use mind control, illusion casting or any kind of manipulation on someone like Emma frost is capable of doing but whether or not Jean is capable of it, I don't know. We have even seen this happen to Jean Grey once when Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club manipulated and altered her illusions. She was for the most part helpless to it.

Jean destroys Emma.

Jean has the power(a lot of that), Emma has the intelligence and the skill, but in the end Jean is gonna win, she's just one of the strongest mutants out there. I'm not sure if O5 Jean will get on the same level since She's having no telepathic training, just a power boost, while old Jean was trained by Xavier, so she didn't only have raw power.

Jean just has more power at her disposal than Emma has...to my knowledge, Emma is better at subtle things like creating false memories or causing people to react a certain way to certain stimuli, but that's just because she has had much more practice and experience with the manipulation aspect of TP.

But Jean has already demonstrated that she has enough power to easily break through all of Emma's mental defenses. No contest

though I do like Emma better

Jean pretty much always wins

Hate to say it but I think Jean's telekinesis would tip the scales in her favor.

Plus they've fought in the past and Emma lost.

whatever emma can do, jean can do better. its just that jean doesnt go low or abuse her powers. emma even said it herself that jean grey is a bully and there was a time when jean and emma fought, half of emma's memory was wiped out.

both are smart but emma is always showed as a better tactician but that won't be enough for her to win. jean's powers are far greater than emma's. jean is also well trained by xavier.

Jean will win.

@darthphoenix: Lol yeah totally agree. And I kinda figured that too, even though I like Emma more for her personality but I guess I just had to ask out of curiosity to hear different views of the two. I wonder if Psylocke would be a better match-up against Jean Grey.

Jean.

Jean with or without the Phoenix...100%.

jean has beaten emma on a few occasions, across time & dimensions, with and without the phoenix force... so yea definitely Jean

Jean

Psylocke is even less powerful than Emma... she gets utterly pspanked by Jean.

Psylocke vs Emma would be more interesting. But in this scenario Emma wins.

In the battle of Emma and Jean. As much as i dislike Jean, she will ultimately win this contest. She has the power. That said, Emma is MUCH more SKILLED than Jean, particularly in the subtle and domination style powers. Its not a clean sweep pwning from Jean vs. Emma. But it would be a win. Recall in Emma's favour, she has defeated Xavier more than once. And doing so, she used her subtle suite of powers to infiltrate every level of his mind (X-Men Genesis iirc). She had him at her complete mercy. If Emma could do this to the less skilled than either Emma or Charles, Jean then the battle would be much closer. Emma is right. Jean is a telepathic bully. Little finesse, all raw power.

You raise another interesting scenario Phoenix Jean vs. Phoenix Emma... She crushed Thor with only a 5th the Phoenix's power... against Jean... each with half the phoenix's might... this could be very interesting. and much much closer - as the power disparity that always leans to Jean is negated here.

Jean Grey win absolutely.

Jean would win. She's just as skilled, if not more so, and much more powerful.

EDITED for grammar.

i think most people will say jean because when jean(then really the phoenix force) fought emma the first time "jean" won.....i feel bad for emma if only she could be a omega level mutant too then at least she would have a chance

Jean but you can consider Emma as a powerful mama too. I will say Jean goes in first place and Emma in sec place. Emma with her diamond form will be a lil difficult to beat.

i want to see diamond form vs telekinisis only, no psychic power involved :)

I do that's a catfight I would love to see. Sadly one of the ladies well "lose" and her fans well call PIS and then we all lose as the jean/emma merry go round keeps spinning.

@devilsgrin81:

Just wanted to address a few things you said in your post.

1. Emma is not MUCH MORE SKILLED, compared to Jean Grey. Being a powerful telepath requires both skill and power, with skill usually being the most important factor. For example Jean has always had more raw power than Xavier, yet he held the top spot in telepathy, while she was second. .When Xavier lost his powers due to the Onslaught event, Jean immediately became most powerful telepath on Earth, still Emma was never ranked, and for the record it took both of them to be gone for Emma to tacitly take the title. The second Xavier came back he was top dog again. Emma being primarily a telepath and unscrupulous in using it for most of her life leads people to believe she can do things that Jean can't, when in fact it's the other way around. Jean doesn't use her telepathy the same way due to the morals Xavier instilled in her, not because she doesn't have the skill. An entire silent issue was dedicated to showing this, and Emma herself said Jean was the most gifted psychic she had ever encountered, after having faced several others before that statement was printed. Even Emma knows Jean outranks her in telepathy, power and skill.

2. Emma called Jean a bully for two reasons. One, because she was trying to use psychology on Jean during their confrontation because she knew she couldn't win any other way. Two, because of the scare tactics Jean was using when she confronted Emma, invoking Phoenix imagery and bringing up Emma's first encounter with the Phoenix, which left her broken and in a coma.

3. Its quite possible you are confusing Jean with Rachel. It's Rachel that is all raw power and no finesse, which is why Jean can perform complexed feats of transferring, swapping and supercharging powers and making room in her own mind for another enormously powerful mind.

4. Phoenix Jean vs. Phoenix Emma won't be as interesting as you may think. Emma had the power of the Phoenix in Endsong, while Jean was using none, and Jean blasted her and removed the Phoenix with gesture.

When it's all said and done Jean has not been the second and most powerful telepath on Earth by having less skill than Emma.

Jean Grey wins in every scenario. She has more raw power, skill and just as much experience as Ms. Frost. Let's not forget how Jean effortlessly broke through all of her defenses.

Jean, and I mean the original Jean, and not the teen. Ha

Except Xorn jean beat emma and teen jean beat xorn jean

Just to add to the general consensus, Jean.

I think ppl just vote jean because the first time they fought jean win but it wasnt really jean it was phoenix posing as jean.....darn confusing comicbooks that dont make sense :/

@hopesummersforthefuture:

For me, I've read the X-Men series from the beginning and while I appreciate Morrison's take on both characters, that initial "fight" I don't particularly put much credence into outside of Morrison attempting to paint Jean as a woman who is capable of a fiery temper and he leaned a little on Phoenix to excuse it. I do believe Emma has more experience in being devious and cruel with her telepathy but Jean is capable of that as well and her skill set (the older Jean, not this young one), would enable her to gouge out any debilitating memory which would make her win over Emma. I don't like it, I adore both characters and if I was really honest with myself, I think at this point, Emma has more to lose than Jean in how Scott's love (and her love for him) can be wielded as a weapon against her. Does that make any sense?

Yes it makes sense. Anyways yeah when xorn/jean fought emma, emma told her "why cant you ever stay dead" while xorn/jean told emma "scott would never be yours as long as theirs a jean grey around"(referring to teen jean)

Yuck. I hate how they keep that going, even with how Scott threw that comment to Logan during their fight on Utopia about Jean never loving him. It undercuts the development of all four characters since all four had since moved on a long, long time ago.

@veitha: @thunderbolt30: @poze11: @hislolita: @time

True. Also at least Emma could say she was "Beaten by the best"

Normal Jean would stomp Emma, Phoenix Jean would erase her from existence. Even teen Jean can defeat Emma, she can transform into pure psionic energy now. Xorna defeated Emma, though she was using the Cuckoos power.

right on :)

The haters win. Both woman fans would never be happy with there fav losing to the other.

Pretty sure Jean could telekinetically shatter Emma's diamond form (Emma's diamond form was the worst "powerup" ever - removing your own biggest asset for limited stat boosts when you could make yourself invulnerable to psychic attack using your biggest asset is a non-starter; I really liked Morrison's run, but TBQH, the diamond form was just an excuse to have Emma resemble a diamond, not as a legitimate power increase).

Anyway, I'll go with Jean on this one - much more powerful, her skills cover a wider range, and even in terms of personality, as much as I've always liked Emma as a villain then hero, Jean has the drive to go the distance, whereas we generally see Emma disengage when the going gets tough. Arguably a smarter strategy, but it does show a distinct personality trait that could explain why Emma's never been able to defeat Jean or Ororo.

true

lol true but jean wins for a reason people like her better :) Also she was part of the o5

certainly not everyone. I'm not a hater, but she's possibly the most boring member of the O5... (new Teen Jean is anything but boring of course). Emma is way more interesting for a lot of people than Jean.

I dont think shes boring, i think she is a tragic super hero. Sure she came from a good/peaceful family but her childhood was cut short when her friend died and her mutant power activated. also the whole coming back from the dead thing, i wonder if teen jean would end up changing that. Also i am getting bored with the teen o5 can they just go back so i can see if time changes???

@hopesummersforthefuture: You know, with Jean... i so rarely think of her as being a true hero. Which i completely realise is a little unfair, as she has done some fairly heroic things.

Perhaps its that up until Phoenix, and indeed for the vast majority of the time following the Dark Phoenix retcon, Jean was just a damsel in distress (sadly enough, as she was initially supposed to be the first proper female hero for marvel). The very occasional EPIC-LEVEL-POWER displays, solely existing to remind us of how powerful she could be, never actually conveyed her heroism to me.

Tragic Super-Hero? hmmm i see where you're coming from with that. Doomed perhaps moreso than tragic. The cut-short childhood thing... that's hardly a point in her tragedy box from an x-man context. EVERY single x-man had a similar childhood event, if nothing else, it was the manifestation of their powers. And most of them didn't have the peaceful family background (though it seems only Scott of the O5 didn't). I can think of Jean, Bobby, Hank, Kitty, Warren and perhaps some of the new, young X-Men who had seemingly idyllic childhoods.

I much prefer teen Jean. She's feisty. And being trained by Emma will make her even moreso. yay. A red head with some actual fire.

Agreed!!! :)

@ghostrider88:

It was Mastermind who controlled Jean through illusions, not Sebastian Shaw. The Black Kings powers deal with control over mass.

@reddknave: Hey, oh yeah you're right. Thanks. I didnt read the particular Classic X-Men comics pertaining to the event but from what I remember of the show, could have sworn it was Shaws manipulation. But you were right. Nontheless though, you didnt answer the question. Was she just confused or weak from the transformation she was going through? We've all seen her in some great battles of the mind, and she's held her own against better opponents. I know she prevails at the end against them but still, he tricked her pretty well at first.

And thanks again everyone for some awesome answers.

@devilsgrin81 You are not alone there, I completely hear what you mean. Yes she is a true hero & Legend (should I say Heroine). But I never liked her much. Maybe it's just me, the female characters I've always liked the most were the baddass variety; Elektra, Domino, Black Widow, etc.. so yeah, maybe i'm just being biased but I find Jean Grey a little on the boring side. I don't hate her or anything, just don't think she's anything special, especially for a character of such importance.

While she was a damsel in distress at certain points during the original series (a product of the times), she's always been feisty and willing to fight. Her first appearance, had her assembling a rifle, for instance, and in another early 'first', she was one of the first Marvel superheroines to go toe-to-toe with the team's arch-nemeses without any of the boys' help (this was during her battle against the Brotherhood after Lorelei neutralized the male X-Men, and the first official Marvel Girl Power Moment iirc). I would suggest it was really the Animated Series that portrayed her as being passive, and even the Jim Lee run occurring around the same time generally had her portrayed as witty, and daring. Some of her best showings post-Phoenix were in X-Factor's original run, so I tend to think that it was moreso the animated series that characterized her as a 'supportive, motherly type' - she's supportive, but her personality has always had an edge to it. Just to put it into perspective, I tried to find a few scans of her non-Phoenix showings; unfortunately, I couldn't find more detailed scans of her taking down two Sentinels while her and Scott were invading their headquarters, or the speech bubbles showing her actions piloting the spacecraft that lead to her evolution, but I think there is more evidence of her heroic and aggressive personality if you look at her overall showings.

Gallery

@phoenixofthetides said:

@devilsgrin81 said:

GhostRider88 marked this as the best answer

@hopesummersforthefuture: You know, with Jean... i so rarely think of her as being a true hero. Which i completely realise is a little unfair, as she has done some fairly heroic things.

Perhaps its that up until Phoenix, and indeed for the vast majority of the time following the Dark Phoenix retcon, Jean was just a damsel in distress (sadly enough, as she was initially supposed to be the first proper female hero for marvel). The very occasional EPIC-LEVEL-POWER displays, solely existing to remind us of how powerful she could be, never actually conveyed her heroism to me.

Tragic Super-Hero? hmmm i see where you're coming from with that. Doomed perhaps moreso than tragic. The cut-short childhood thing... that's hardly a point in her tragedy box from an x-man context. EVERY single x-man had a similar childhood event, if nothing else, it was the manifestation of their powers. And most of them didn't have the peaceful family background (though it seems only Scott of the O5 didn't). I can think of Jean, Bobby, Hank, Kitty, Warren and perhaps some of the new, young X-Men who had seemingly idyllic childhoods.

I much prefer teen Jean. She's feisty. And being trained by Emma will make her even moreso. yay. A red head with some actual fire.

While she was a damsel in distress at certain points during the original series (a product of the times), she's always been feisty and willing to fight. Her first appearance, had her assembling a rifle, for instance, and in another early 'first', she was one of the first Marvel superheroines to go toe-to-toe with the team's arch-nemeses without any of the boys' help (this was during her battle against the Brotherhood after Lorelei neutralized the male X-Men, and the first official Marvel Girl Power Moment iirc). I would suggest it was really the Animated Series that portrayed her as being passive, and even the Jim Lee run occurring around the same time generally had her portrayed as witty, and daring. Some of her best showings post-Phoenix were in X-Factor's original run, so I tend to think that it was moreso the animated series that characterized her as a 'supportive, motherly type' - she's supportive, but her personality has always had an edge to it. Just to put it into perspective, I tried to find a few scans of her non-Phoenix showings; unfortunately, I couldn't find more detailed scans of her taking down two Sentinels while her and Scott were invading their headquarters, or the speech bubbles showing her actions piloting the spacecraft that lead to her evolution, but I think there is more evidence of her heroic and aggressive personality if you look at her overall showings.

Gallery

I just liked jean and scott from the 90's cartoon especially with the phoenix sega and dark phoenix saga. It was better then the dark phoenix saga from the comic books and had no maddie pryor. It was less complicated. Although when i first watch the cartoons jean was not really in it until the phoenix stories and then i liked storm too(controling the weather is awesome). I didnt get into the comics until 2000 and by then they just killed jean off so i was angry and quit comics until 2010 when hope summers was first introduced. Like many others i was tricked into thniking maybe hope was jean reborn but she wasnt. Fans didnt like that idea. Then after avx i was going to quit comics until bendis brought the o5 back and it was like the comics having jean grey back sorta. :)

@hopesummersforthefuture: No worries; speaking as a Jean Grey fan (she's just one of many characters I actively follow), I count discovering the original series as the real point where my love for comics was born, so I think it is helpful to point out that Jean's personality existed before the contrived Scott/Logan/Jean triangle (which was pretty non-existent until the animated series - it was Jean that nipped that in the bud) or even before the Phoenix Saga. Not jumping on you; I just thought it would be helpful to point out that Jean is a warrior, and relevant parts of her track record occurred during a time when superheroines were seen and not heard (I really wish I could find that scene of her taking out the Sentinels in the original series, because that's one of the earliest indications of a high power moment from a Marvel heroine...and I found it! - see below; included the first panel to reiterate that Hank, Jean and Scott were wearing the brotherhood's outfits to infiltrate the base. Notice that Scott didn't order Jean to attack. She recognized what she had to do and made her move).

X-Men v. Sentinels - 1st 2 Panels; Marvel Girl v. Magneto (cont'd.) - next 3 Panels:

@phoenixofthetides said:

@hopesummersforthefuture: No worries; speaking as a Jean Grey fan (she's just one of many characters I actively follow), I count discovering the original series as the real point where my love for comics was born, so I think it is helpful to point out that Jean's personality existed before the contrived Scott/Logan/Jean triangle (which was pretty non-existent until the animated series - it was Jean that nipped that in the bud) or even before the Phoenix Saga. Not jumping on you; I just thought it would be helpful to point out that Jean is a warrior, and relevant parts of her track record occurred during a time when superheroines were seen and not heard (I really wish I could find that scene of her taking out the Sentinels in the original series, because that's one of the earliest indications of a high power moment from a Marvel heroine...and I found it! - see below; included the first panel to reiterate that Hank, Jean and Scott were wearing the brotherhood's outfits to infiltrate the base. Notice that Scott didn't order Jean to attack. She recognized what she had to do and made her move).

X-Men v. Sentinels - 1st 2 Panels; Marvel Girl v. Magneto (cont'd.) - next 3 Panels:

Cool. I like ur first scan btw :). Jean grey will always be my favorite(even if she is boring) and marvel tries to bury her all the time but it doesnt work out for too long :) Marvel spent so much time and money trying to make emma frost the perfect jean grey replacement but it doesnt work. Emma might be alive but jean's legacy will always live on just like a Phoenix.