Should Marvel have never killed Jean off in the first place?

[amhixson]

Follow-on poll to my previous one:

Given all the retcons, revisions, and other back-and-forth that followed, would it have been better if Marvel hadn't killed Jean off in the first place?

To be clear, I'm referring to her death at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga in Uncanny X-Men #137.

[ohsnapulon5000]

she serves best as a martyr and she also helps tip the scale in the "Marvel kills off black X-characters" argument.

[MarvelMaster616]

I'm a bit on the fence with this. I can't say yes or no because killing Jean in the Dark Phoenix Sag was one of the most memorable moments in the history of X-men. That story more than anything made the X-men one of the best series in comics. I think that if Jean had survived, it wouldn't have had the same impact and the X-men we know may not exist in the same form or grandeur. I don't think Jean dying was the problem. It was how Marvel handled her return and the events proceeding her death. Chris Claremont made a huge mistake in pulling a Jean Grey look-alike out of thin air in Madelyne Pryor and just forcing her with Cyclops. Jim Shooter made a big mistake in getting too elaborate with the retcon surrounding Jean's return. In the end I'm glad Jean came back. She's way better off alive than she ever was dead. However, I think her death in the Dark Phoenix Saga has such a big place in the history of X-men that it would be hard to discount.

[perdid06]

I agree, Jean death in the DPS was one of the most memorable moment of comics history, it defined the x-men for years to come...That was a great story...It was inevitable that Jean will come back, but they should have handle her return much better...the created such an absurd story, with madlyne , the cocoon ect...sometime the simplest story is the best, Jean was the phoenix and she should have raised from her ashes...as simple as that...of course she would have been tainted by the destruction of o'bari..but between the fact that she was rendered insane by Emma frost and Jason wyndgarde and the possible explanation that the phoenix force destroy dead end civilisation, it was a good enought raison to be half forgiven, and it will have been good for her character to have to live with what she 's done.... rather than saying it was not me but a monster wearing my face!!!
The all phoenix concept became far too complicated and boring with all the recon and potential hosts...it should have stayed simple as the ultimate expression of Jean power, or her exclusive ability to channel this primal force....

[Sanji]

No, it was right to kill her. Resurrecting her again would be a mistake, I hope she stays dead.

[Artemis Assassin]

I'm never too sure if I hate her, like her or just don't care, but I think it was a good move to kill her off: She's one of those characters that actually gained influence by dying. I can't think of any other dead X-Men who is mentioned this frequently and left behind such a legacy. People remember her as the Phoenix and as Jean Grey and her death affected their decisions and development. Generally I think people have died and come back so much it doesn't really matter in a lot of cases if they'd come back, but in her case I think it might ruin all the drama she left behind and ruin her image as the X-Martyr. If she were still alive she'd me an X-Men one of the first at that, but dead she's in Frosty's words "a sacred cow": Even if you don't like her it's hard to argue or deny how important she was to the X-Men's development.

[blanchett]

I think Jean's death was so powerful. If they didn't kill her the story wouldn't have been that memorable. I think Grant Morrison also gave Jean a good send off by having her evolve pass humanity. I don't want her back for the sake of it, despite her being one of my favorites. I think it would be doing the character an injustice.

[Atomiq]

I would have liked to see Chris Claremont's original plans for the Phoenix unfold (Cosmic superhero or along those lines). Some editor mandated she die, and that always has an off smell to it. In the long run tho, Jean's death added gravitas to the DPS, so killing her was the right thing to do.

[AcesX1X]

no, it was a fitting end to a well-told story that taught us how actions have consequences. shame it was cheapened over time.

[MartinRedmond]

I think it's tacky that she died and it isn't a powerful story either.

[sunofdarkchild]

Once she destroyed that star system with 5 billion people the only options were to keep her as a permanent villain or to kill her. If they wanted her to live they would have had to have made the system uninhabited like the cartoon did.

[jarrod]

No, Shooter made the right call. Claremont might have hated it at the time but in retrospect he agreed, Jean's death made the story (and the X-Men in general) better.

The mistake was bringing her back.

[sunofdarkchild]

No, Shooter made the right call. Claremont might have hated it at the time but in retrospect he agreed, Jean's death made the story (and the X-Men in general) better.

The mistake was bringing her back.

It's ironic. It was to avoid a moral issue that Shooter wanted her to be punished and then to die, but in bringing her back they made Cyclops into a deadbeat who ran out on his wife and newborn son and pretty much said "that's ok!"

How far they fell in just 6 years.

[xhx23x]

Killing her was the right call. The story just works better like that.

[darknessatnoon]

It's not a saga if you just get lobotomized at the end.