Raise You, Like a Phoenix
Wearing our vintage misery/No, I think it looked a little better on me.
This post contains major spoilers for the plot of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The year is 1976. The X-Men have just successfully staged a rescue attempt in Earth's orbit and brought a damaged Starcore shuttlecraft back down to Earth. The efforts were largely successful thanks to the psionic powers of Marvel Girl, who is missing beneath the waters of Jamaica Bay as the X-Men search the sunken wreckage of the shuttle for their comrade.
Suddenly, the water bubbles and broils. The sky crackles with radiant light as a massive jet of water bursts from the dark of the bay—and at the top of that iridescent jet is a woman in green and gold, with hair like flames, as she raises her fists above her head and screams:
"Hear me, X-Men! No longer am I the woman you knew. I am fire! And life incarnate! Now and forever--
--I AM PHOENIX!"
It is one of the greatest origin stories in comics history. Like all good superhero origins, it is about death and rebirth, about great power, and eventually, about the greater responsibility that comes with wielding it.
Jean Grey had one origin story. In 1976, she got another. In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, she has a third. But can we say it's hers?