You know when someone says to you ‘if you could go back in time what would you tell younger you?’ and you try and find something really profound to say that would do nothing but inspire said younger self?
Well now pull a Blazin’ Squad and flip reverse that, what if your younger self suddenly appeared in front of now you and just told you how much of a dick you’ve become?
I mean you’d shoot that little shit right back into the past wouldn’t you?
Well as it turns out the X-Men of today (the original 5 anyway) did turn out to be dicks, with the exception of Ice-Man, who just likes dicks. Yeah that happened. Anyway, Jean’s dead again for now, Cyclops is seen as a mutant terrorist, Angel aka Archangel had become the next Apocalypse, and Beast had become (for the good of his own world mind) a world destroyer.
Sheesh. Yeah proud Dad moment for Xavier. Whoops I forgot, he’s dead too currently.
The ‘past X-Men’ as we’ll call them I know divided opinion amongst readers, including my brother and friends. Some saw it as an annoyingly sound way of bringing all of the original 5 back together again without full on resurrecting anyone (again/ yet), so a bit of a cop-out.
I saw it as a really fun twist on a coming of age story.
A lot of children have to grow up quickly these days due to their environments or because of some shit storm they’ve had to go through sometimes decades too early. Imagine that shit storm being a peek into the future and seeing that everyone you admired is either dead or now represents everything you hate.
Jean’s always been a feisty one, but after a glimpse at her entire future won’t accept it. In her own words, she “won’t have it”.
What follows throughout Bendis and Immonen’s All New series, which eventually spawns Bunn’s X-Men Blue and the short series Jean Grey by Hopeless is Jean in her fiery way dealing not only with all the usual trials of being a teenager (puberty, love and all that bollocks) but also powers manifesting earlier than planned, being put on trial for and judged for being the person she hasn’t yet become, and of course dealing with inevitability of becoming the host for the all powerful Phoenix Force and gobbling up a few billion lives.
Yeah I’d rather not know that about myself neither.
Sometimes your future can suck just as much as your past. Jean’s does, so she’s determined not to let it happen.
It’s also a must read if you’re a Cyclops fan too; golden boy to the next Magneto.
‘Nuff said.
#harrisonthehand