Jean Grey has hit a new level of popularity thanks to her appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. She’s the first X-Man to actually join the MCU (we’re not counting Ms. Marvel), opening the doors for 2028’s X-Men, and it’s about time. Jean Grey in the MCU is a tantalizing prospect and Sadie Sink’s awesome performance was enough to make fans even more excited than they were. Jean’s actions in the movie have made her a topic of discussion all over the Internet and Marvel Comics would be foolish not to take advantage of this. Jean has been in a weird place since the end of the Krakoa Era. She was given the Phoenix Force finally, giving readers something that they’ve been asking about for a very long, but instead of putting her with the X-Men, they threw into space, having her own adventures in Phoenix. That book got canned, but Marvel is ready to try again with Jean Grey, a five-issue miniseries that releases on November 25, 2026.
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Marvel is serious about this newest Jean series after the failure of the last one. X-Men writer Jed MacKay will write the new book, with Cyclops artist Roge Antonio joining him on art. The series is coming in the aftermath of DNX, the X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover that will deal with the threat of evil Beast and 3K. Speaking to AIPT about the aftermath of that event book, X-Men group editor Tom Brevoort shared, “In terms of after-effects, you already know about one thing that’ll be coming straight out of it: Jean Grey. And it’ll have an impact on the launch of Maximum X-Men as well. The effects will also ripple out to some degree across the other books. But the biggest place it will hit is in Alaska and in Jed’s slice of the pie, where it will be relatively seismic.”
Jean Grey returning to solo books and the Earth is a big deal, with MacKay saying, “More than anything, it felt like it was time—Jean coming into X-Men was largely precluded by the Phoenix series that was running when we launched, and even after that wrapped, I continued to hold off on it until the time seemed right. After all, adding the Phoenix to your team book throws off the balance in a pretty dramatic way. Now, post-DNX, we’re going to see the X-Men in a position to need Jean Grey—and Jean Grey in a position to need the X-Men. Dovetailing that into this moment being one where Jean is in the public consciousness more than she has previously just worked.” This series is also giving her a new look, something that is pretty common in situations like this. However, fans already have something to say her new look.
Jean Grey’s New Costume Shows That the X-Men Office Hasn’t Learned Anything
Jean Grey has had some beautiful costumes over the years. The X-Men are generally known for their sartorial brilliance and Jean has been leading the way for ages. Her most recent Phoenix costumes, though, haven’t really been able to hang with her best costumes; they’re not bad costumes by any stretch of the imagination, but they were basic nostalgia-farming costumes, combining aspects of older costumes for looks that didn’t really inspire much esteem. With Jean coming back to Earth, she’s getting a new costume and fans already have a lot to say about it.
This new look combined the blue and yellow coloration that have always been a big part of the X-Men’s history. She has the head sock look that has become a hallmark of most of her costumes since 1991. It has the same overall look of the 1991 costume, but fans have noticed that it’s mostly just a modification of one of her X-Factor costumes, particularly this one:
Older fans will recognize this costume from the end of the O5’s tenure as star of X-Factor (Vol. 1) – including my personal favorite X-Factor story, “Endgame” from X-Factor (Vol. 1) #65-68. The newer costume basically just shrinks the X on the front of it and changes the boots. The X-Men books have been all about nostalgia-farming since the end of the Krakoa Era, especially the costumes, and this new one is yet another example of the House of Ideas going back to the well. Even calling this a new costume is a bit much, and fans across the Internet have been talking about it, with most decrying the boring look of the costume. Marvel often takes a while to learn their lesson and this is yet another example of that.
Jean Grey‘s New Costume May Not Be Amazing but This Book Is a Step in the Right Direction
While fans have been kind of hard on the new costume, it doesn’t change the fact that bringing Jean Grey back to Earth after sequestering her in space for over a year is a perfect idea. MacKay’s statements sort of proved what fans always suspected about Jean in space – that she was too powerful and would have messed up the stories he wanted to tell – but we can all agree that this is the right thing for the character. The X-Men had a Jean Grey-shaped hole in their roster since 2024 and Marvel finally filling it is a step in the right direction.
