Jean Grey's telepathic powers were jumpstarted at an early age when her best friend Annie Richards was hit by a car. The two had been throwing a frisbee in the street when her friend was suddenly dying. Jean's burgeoning powers sprang to life and she experienced Annie's last moments; in essence, Jean's first use of her powers was to die.

   Wracked with the unwanted thoughts of others in her mind at all times, the young Jean Grey was slowly going insane. Her parents took her to specialists of all kinds, trying in vain to cure their daughter. It was only when Professor Xavier attempted to cure Jean's insanity that she showed any signs of progress. Xavier went into Jean's mind and shut down her telepathic powers, knowing that such a young girl could not possibly hope to contain and control the staggering power.

  Jean went back to a relatively normal life for a time. Eventually, however, she became Professor Xavier's first real student. The professor taught her about her telekinetic powers, the ability to move objects with her mind, but kept her telepathic powers, the ability to read minds, secret from her.

  When Xavier formed his first team of X-Men, consisting of Cyclops, Beast, Angel, and Iceman, Jean was among their number. In those early years, as the only girl on the team, the boys were constantly flirting with her. It was the quiet and shy team leader Scott, however that attracted her attention. The two first students of Xavier became a couple.

   When the sentient island Krakoa captured Jean, and all the original X-Men save Cyclops, a new team of X-Men had to be recruited. Coming to the rescue, were an all-different, all-new team that consisted of members from across the world. Battling Krakoa, Jean caught her first glimpse of the feral Wolverine and the majestic Storm.

   Jean and Ororo would soon become best of friends, near sisters, yet it was the short and hairy man named Logan that caused the most commotion. Wolverine's animal ferocity struck a cord inside Jean. She too had something primal inside her; around Wolverine she began to let loose. Their kindred attraction began causing problems with Scott, and a rivalry began between Scott and Logan.

   On a mission, the X-Men found themselves plumeting towards the earth in a space ship. Radiation began to seep in, and only Jean could protect herself in a telekinetic cocoon to pilot the ship while the other X-Men hid in a protective room. Rocketing through the atmosphere, Jean found the pain too great. She couldn't survive the strain on her body...

   When the shuttle crashed into Manhattan bay, the X-Men couldn't find Jean; she had seemingly vanished. Then, from the depths, a bird of fire and light erupted into the sky. At the center of this firey image was Jean Grey, calling herself the Phoenix! Jean related to the X-Men that as she faltered at the shuttle controls, near death from the strain, the Phoenix Entity came to her and bonded itself to her. The Phoenix was an immortal 'organism' of the stars, destined to bond with Jean Grey in order to save the universe.

   With near infinite power levels at her command, Jean Grey and the X-Men became involved in an interstellar adventure in the Shi'ar Empire. The emperor D'Ken had seized the M'Krann crystal, the heart of the universe, and was going to use it to attain supreme powers and control all galaxies. The Phoenix confronted him, and eventually triumphed, thus saving the universe and handing over the throne to Lilandra.

   Returning to earth, however, Jean began to have problems. Her power levels were out of control and she was having more trouble containing the animal side of herself. Soon, she began having visions of her ancestors in colonial times. In truth, Jason Waynegarde, Mastermind, was creating super real illusions with the help of Emma Frost, the telepthic White Queen of the Hellfire Club.

  At the same time, the X-Men were attacked by the Hellfire Club and half the team was captured. Jean, among the uncaptured members, went to save her teammates with the help of Kitty Pryde and Dazzler. While the main team fought Hellfire henchmen, Phoenix went in search of Storm, being held away from the others at the mercy of the White Queen. The telepathic battle between Phoenix and the White Queen was clearly one-sided, and Jean soon took the advantage. Storm watched on with awe and fear etched on her face; Phoenix was a beautiful as violent. With her final strenght left to her, Emma released a final psi-bolt, exploding the structure. Jean emerged with Storm, unhurt, but Emma was nowhere to be found...

  The White Queen, however, was only part of the force set against the X-Men. The Hellfire Club was the real threat, of which Emma was merely one member, and so the X-Men set out to put a stop to the Hellfire Club. Infiltrating the club, Jean was soon caught in another 'timeslip' and found herself walking off with Mastermind. His control over her became complete and she used her powers to attack Cyclops. The rest of the X-Men were similarly overcome by the members of the Hellfire Club, and only Wolverine remained uncaptured.

   Mastermind sought to mold Jean into the Black Queen. While his control was seemingly complete, Cyclops attempted to acess Jean's inner self through the psychic rapport they had established to bring their relationship to a new level. Mastermind as waiting as Cyclops came to the rescue and in front of Jean's eyes, Mastermind seemingly slew him. Although Cyclops did not die, Mastermind believe that he had severed Jean's last cord to her companions. When Wolverine burst in, he discovered how mistaken he had been. The death of Cyclops had released Mastermind's hold on Jean.

   With all eyes on the intruding Wolverine, Jean released Scott from the ruby head-piece that blocked his optic blasts. The rest of the X-Men were freed soon after and a fight raged. The X-Men did well, Wolverine going so far as to seemingly kill Harry Leland, and the Hellfire Club had to withdraw. As an ironic parting gift, Jean gave Mastermind ultimate understanding of the universe. He couldn't handle it and collapsed, his mind fried.

   Yet as the X-Men's plane soared away, a new threat entered the picture: Dark Phoenix! Under Mastermind's manipulations, the mental blocks placed on Jean by Xavier were released, and she had given in to the incredible power of the Phoenix as well as her dark, passionate side. Demolishing the jet, she cut through the X-Men with ease, and then rocketed into space to find suitable sustanance. That nourriture proved to be a living star, which she fed off after collapsing it into supernova. The explosion killed several billion people living on a planet in the system.

   During her voyage in space, she crippled and proceeded to destroy a Shi'ar warship. In its final transmission to Empress Lilandra, the blazing fire bird of the Phoenix was clearly marked as attacker. What the empire had feared, had come to pass. The Phoenix was no longer force of good, but rather a Harbinger of Death, the Chaos Bringer.

   All the while, Scott Summers percieved everything she did through their psychic rapport. His love had just murdered several billion people and posed a threat to the entire galaxy. The X-Men knew she must be taken down, but was it even possible? With the help of Beast, who had left the Avengers to aid the X-Men, the X-Men construced at neural inhibitor, intended to lower Phoenix's power levels.

   When Phoenix returned to earth, it was to her parents house that she went. Inside, she was confronted by the inner most thoughts of her parents and sister, who subconsciously were afraid of her. Without thinking, she reacted venomously to them, threatening them with death, until she noticed a thick fog had dropped out of nowhere around the house. The X-Men had arrived...

   The battle that followed was devestating to both sides. The inhibitor prevented Jean from accessing her full potential, but she still proved a formidable match. Few X-Men possessed the resolve to kill, much less kill a friend, and when Wolverine had the shot to kill her, he couldn't. It was in that moment, that the benign Jean wrestled control from Dark Phoenix. Pleading for her own death, she quickly lost control again and Dark Phoenix regained control and melted the inhibitor. The X-Men lay defeated before her, all save Cyclops; he was no where to be seen.

   Walking out of the shadows, he would not raise a hand against Jean, but attempted to talk her out of madness. She listened, restraining the bloodlust but unable to fully regain control, she waxed between sanity and insanity. In one of the few lucid moments that came to her, Xavier took his chance to strike. It was teacher against student with the fate of the universe at stake. In the end, Xavier would have lost except that Jean battled the Dark Phoenix side of herself to overcome her evilness.

   Just as the battle had seemingly been won, the X-Men were teleported onto a Shi'ar battleship. The Empress Lilandra wasted no time calling for Jean's execution. Despite the X-Men's plea that Jean had regained control, no compromise could be reached; Jean had to die. Only Xavier's last minute challenge of a duel, prevented an instant execution.

   The competitors in the duel would be the X-Men versus the Imperial Guard. On the Blue City on the moon, the contest would take place. At first, the X-Men seemed to be fairing moderately well, but slowly, the tide turned and one by one the X-Men fell. In the end, only Phoenix and Cyclops remained against the might of the Imperial Guard...

   When Jean saw Scott fall, the barriers erected by Xavier shattered as she burst into flaming power; Dark Phoenix had returned. The massive energies she wielded quickly demolished her attackers, and slowly Xavier forced the X-Men awake to confront one of their own. Cyclops took the first shot, attacking the structures above Jean and sending an avalance cascading down on her. In Phoenix's weakened state, the blow was still only staggering. Storm attacked next, with a wreckless hurricane. Wolverine, afraid he couldn't kill her, threw Colossus at her (thanks to the light gravity). At the last minute, Piotr restrained his punch. However, the blow did knock sense back into her. Dark Phoenix slept, but Phoenix was still awake. Phoenix pleaded for the X-Men to kill her, but in the end fled into the twists and turns of the city structure. Cyclops, running after her, confronted her and challenged her to fight the dark side of her, instead of giving up. Jean knew, however, that she couldn't keep control of herself forever, and she was certainly immortal now. With a last look at Scott, she activated the defenses of the Blue City and let them shoot her down; an act of suicide.

   The X-Men mourned for a long time, especially Scott, but continued to spread their dream. Scott went on to marry Madelyne Pryor, a woman with uncanny likeness to Jean Grey, and had a son, Nathan Summers, with her.