Phoenix Resurrection: The Return Of Jean Grey is a five-issue limited series published by Marvel Comics, written by Matthew Rosenberg and drawn by Leinil Francis Yu for the Marvel Legacy branding initiative.
As you probably guessed by the title, Phoenix Resurrection features the revival of its titular heroine (the original one, not the time-displaced teenage one), who was Killed Off for Real in New X-Men #150.
Rachel Summers — Jean's daughter with Cyclops from a bad future — and the time-displaced teenage Jean factor majorly into the story. The latter's ongoing title, Jean Grey, will also have a tie-in issue.
X-Men: Red launched following this story's conclusion, joining color-based sister titles Gold and Blue as part of the X-Men line.
Phoenix Resurrection: The Return Of Jean Grey contains examples of the following tropes:
- Astral Projection: Something is projecting memories of people or events from Jean's past in the real world, including apparitions of Annie Richardson's death when Jean's powers first manifested, and psychic ghosts of Jean herself from the time of Annie's accident, Logan, Hellfire Club guards, and Seamus Mellencamp.
- Back from the Dead: The original Jean Grey, who has been canonically dead since 2004 — and that wasn't even the first time it happened. You can't really expect a Phoenix to stay permanently deceased, can you?
- Among others that appear in Jean's suburban purgatory are Banshee, Scott, John and Elaine Grey, and most surprisingly Annie Richardson. However it is as yet unknown what their presence means.
- Several projections of deceased individuals also appear in the real world, including Annie, Logan, and Seamus Mellencamp.
- Thunderbird and Madrox make appearances in issue 2, while Moira MacTaggart is mentioned.
- Issue 4 ultimately reveals that those who are being seen aren't actually alive, but manifestations from the Phoenix Force.
- Issue 5 ultimately brings back both Jean Grey and Scott Summers, but Scott is killed off as an attempt by Phoenix to keep trying to get Jean to bond with it again.
- Jean Grey #11 ultimately has teen Jean force the Phoenix to swallow its pride and bring her back to life.
- Badass Boast: While talking to Jean in the diner in issue 2, Erik starts to have a Psychic Nose Bleed, which he passes off as a war injury. When Jean asks if he fought during "The War" he responds, "I was the war."
- Batman Gambit: Modern day Beast surmises that the entire thing is a plan by the Phoenix Force to get Jean to finally accept fully bonding with it - it has drawn the X-Men into the "egg" it's created to put them into a Duel to the Death in order to force Jean to bond with it.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: In the Jean Grey tie-in, Teen Jean has one with the freaking Phoenix!
- Bittersweet Ending: Adult Jean earns her right to life outside the Phoenix's influence and reunites with her fellow X-Men, while the teen Jean returns to the world of the living and the Phoenix leaves for parts unknown. Unfortunately, Scott dies once again in Jean's arms, but not before they express their love for each other one last time.
- Black Eyes of Evil: The apparition/projection of Annie Richardson has black, empty eyes, that just makes her encounter with the children at the start of the story even creepier.
- Brown Note: Rachel is overwhelmed by psychic residue near Annandale-on-Hudson, while Cable goes down when Cerebro overloads while he's using it to pinpoint more phenomena.
- Crisis Crossover: Largely self-contained, as Jean Grey is the only other title tying into this series. The other books in the X-Men line continue to run as normal, and there is no crossover with any of the other franchises.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Why isn't the young Jean Grey involved in this? The Phoenix Force kills her in the penultimate issue of her series. Of course, this being a series involving the Phoenix, she's resurrected after she basically bullies the Phoenix into doing so.
- Explosive Instrumentation: Cerebro explodes while Cable is using it in an attempt to track the Phoenix phenomena appearing across the world.
- Foreshadowing: Prior to the announcement of this series, the spirit of adult Jean was seen in an issue of the Jean Grey ongoing series, which focuses on her time-displaced counterpart trying to defeat the Phoenix Force once and for all.
- Greasy Spoon: Jean finds herself working at a small-town diner, with no memory of her past life, and surrounded by people, like Annie Richardson and Thunderbird, who are dead.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Jean walks past a church with Revelations 6:8 * on a sign out front. Appropriate already due to the number of dead characters who turn up, but gains a double meaning when Banshee appears at the diner where she works. Sean most recently served the Apocalypse Twins as their Horseman of Death, and is currently being treated by the X-Men to free him from their influence.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Upon learning the Phoenix resurrected her so they can be merged again, Jean is angry and disappointed that she can only live by the Phoenix's rules and tells the firebird that having a great destiny without having any say in it is no life at all.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's unclear exactly what or where Jean's suburban refuge actually is. Is it a real place? Or is it a projection of Jean's psyche? Complicating matters are that it's mainly populated by characters who are dead, or in the case of Banshee trapped between life and death, (however that then raises the question of Magneto's presence, as he's currently very much alive) and has yet to interact with the world beyond it.
- Meaningful Background Event: When Jean first comes home from the diner, the photos near the door are her graduation photo, and a picture of herself with her mother and father. When Scott comes calling, the graduation photo has changed to one of her and Scott together. Additionally, in the same panel her pet bird has keeled over dead in its cage.
- Mind Screw: This is the nature of Jean's existence, particularly the meaning of the different players who appear in her world (most of whom, like Annie, Scott, and John, are actually dead). It's let unclear through the first couple issues whether or not it's happening in the real world, or if Jean is perhaps in some sort of psychic prison or purgatory.
- Power Floats: Two children who are impacted by the psychic manifestations are found by the police unconscious, bleeding from no apparent wounds, and floating at about head height. Magneto also spends the duration of his battle against Iceman, Chamber, Boom-Boom, Longshot, Wolverine, and Hellion floating in the air.
- Psychic Nose Bleed: Rachel gets one while investigating the floating kids in Annandale-on-Hudson. Magneto gets one at the diner where Jean works after his projection is "killed" by Wolverine in the real world.
- Screw Destiny: At the end of the series, Jean forfeits her destiny as a Phoenix host just to live as her own person.
- Sdrawkcab Speech: The projection of Annie Richardson encountered by the children at the start of the story speaks backwards. Specifically, "Daed ffo retteb erew ew" ("We were better off dead"). When the X-Men arrive on the scene later, Rachel is affected by the psychic residue, and absently says the same thing.
- Spin-Off: X-Men: Red will feature a new team led by post-revival adult Jean, and will be spinning out of the series.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: According to
Word of God, Wolverine and Hellion still aren't on speaking terms after their frielationship collapsed during the Liu X-23 series, but they're forced to work together while investigating one of the Phoenix phenomenon. - Tragic Villain: The Phoenix comes off as this in Issue 5, with adult Jean telling it off and telling it to leave her alone, stating that they're not good for each other, in a way that comes off as a bad break-up. The Phoenix ultimately concedes, and flies off, looking rather lonely.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Issue 5 spends half of the book with Jean telling off the Phoenix for its constant attempts to bond with her and that she didn't want to keep getting resurrected.
- Working with the Ex: Wolverine and Hellion are put on a team together when the X-Men break up to investigate Phoenix-related phenomena. Per Word of God their silence around each other throughout the mission is the result of their ugly split during Liu's X-23 ongoing.
- Villainous Breakdown: The Phoenix Force suffers this in both the main title and the Jean Grey tie-in - teen Jean's refusal to roll over and die causes it to screech out that she can't stop it and that the Phoneix is forever and it really breaks when the older Jean refuses to bond with it again and just would rather be dead again.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In Jean Grey #11, it's revealed that the Phoenix Force wanted to bond with teen Jean, but because she went on her quest to fight the Phoenix Force, it decided to just kill her and resurrect the original Jean from her ashes.
