Jean Grey

Real Rating: 4.25

This issue picks up right where issue #7 has left off. Older Jean has taken over younger Jean's body and has infiltrated Emma Frost's mind but Emma is going to let Older Jean go through her head willingly. She throws whatever she can to deter the Jeans away. Unfortunately for her, Older Jean is not easily deterred and when they reach Emma, they find her "playing" Phoenix with Scott.

But Older Jean seems to feel something and finds it in exactly in Scott - the burning flame of the Phoenix. Emma tries to stop the Jeans but it is too late! The small piece of the Phoenix Flame becomes part of the Jeans.

This was an interesting storyline. It was nice to see the Cuckoos make their appearance within Emma's mind and Younger Jean's small interaction with them. You could feel the tension between Older Jean and Emma. You know it is there and it is bound to escalate in the next issue but exactly how now is the remaining question.

I am excited with this series. I have enjoyed it so far and I am looking forward to seeing how the next issue pans out with Emma.

In this issue, we find a young Jean Grey being "haunted" by the older Jean Grey. Haunted would not be the right word, I would think to describe the older Jean. I would think younger Jean would see her as perhaps a mentor of sort but younger Jean doesn't. She seemed to be more annoyed by the fact of older Jean's presence.

The two of them begin to butt heads and this makes a spectacle of herself since she is the only one who can see "ghostly" older Jean. It is at this moment that the Scarlett Witch appears. Once Wanda has placed all the innocent humans in another place, she tells Jean that she had heard from Doctor Strange and that young Jean was a bit wound up over the Phoenix force.

Older Jean is not quite happy with the idea of the Scarlett Witch butting in and she is even made more unhappy when she whisks Jean away to the Savage Lands to enjoy some relaxation (is that what they are doing?).

Then they head to Rio to take down a monster.

All this starts to make Older Jean rather unhappy that she hijacks young Jean's body and forces her to leave Wanda behind to meet an older acquaintance - Emma Frost aka The White Queen.

Okay this issue did not even impress me at all. They made older Jean the comedy sidekick. Please don't get me wrong I enjoy humor but I don't see it Older Jean's character to be anything like that especially when she is in the seat of mentor. I believe that older Jean is really trying to help out her younger counterpart prepare for what is to come but younger Jean doesn't seem to really appreciate it at all. Maybe if younger Jean was serious about being stronger when the Phoenix arrived, she would listen to any advice Older Jean had but that won't be the case at all.

Overall, I was happy to see the Scarlett Witch and even happy that she did not treat Jean like a kid in any way, but more like a younger sister. I just wish Wanda had offered something more than being just a filler character in young Jean's quest to halt herself from being taken by the Phoenix Force.

So let's see what Emma does in the next issue.