The last issue of ‘All-New X-Men‘ had a huge fight breaking out from the Shi’ar pitting themselves against the the All-New X-Men, Starjammers, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Jean stepped in at the very end of the issue and claimed that she was guilty of all of the crimes she was being accused of.

Uh-oh. Where does that leave us now?

Well just because Jean agrees with them that she may be guilty in the future of what they claim, doesn’t mean she is going to stand for Gladiator killing her family. While Kitty tries to tell Jean to just get out of there, Jean fights back saying that just because her face haunts Gladiator’s dreams, killing her now won’t prevent the Phoenix from coming as it would just find another host. (Say the Phoenix Five, say Quire, who knows who may also end up as a host.)

This little altercation causes Jean and Gladiator to get into it which at this point in her power set she shouldn’t stand a chance. Only, this Jean has been forced to learn something new. To learn something that the old Jean had never before: She’s now able to use her telepathy and telekinesis in together to draw the power from all of those around her. While not specifically said here, it almost looks as if Jean has jfound a way to become an Omega Level Mutant without the Phoenix force involved. I have no idea how all of this is now going to go away when they eventually find a way to restore the timeline. She and Gladiator’s Oracle both agree that the fight is done and Gladiator gives in though he clearly isn’t happy about it.

This is the issue where Jean has really just been written to shine. Literally and figuratively. Her new power set with a whole range of new potential abilities and her dialogue is one hundred and ten percent spot on. It just feels like the Jean Grey that has been long gone from the Marvel Universe.

So it came to a decent end and has a few major shake ups coming from it. In the final pages we see a member leaving the X-Men to go out on their own adventures for a bit with a closing shot of everyone walking back into the older Cyclops’ base once again. More interesting though is that in the final shot of Jean Grey we see something that it was hard to tell of it was the Phoenix Force or her new powers. The look on her face though reminded me of a certain expression that the Dark Phoenix wore on a few moments. I’m really curious as to where they are headed with the upcoming story lines. All of that being said I’ve been enjoying the idea of the X-Men in space again and am curious as to where the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ are going to go from here.

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #13
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Sara Pichelli