“When We First Met” highlights the different people, sayings, items, or occasions that later become well-known pieces of comic mythology. Today, we examine the moment when Jean Grey just began using Jean Grey as her superhero moniker and formally abandoned the code designation “Marvel Girl.”
Having a popular comic book series and an animated series in the 1990s was one of the X-Men’s greatest features. However, one of the main characters in both the comic book and the cartoon, with vibrant names like Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops, and Jubilee, was Jean Grey.
In the 1980s, it was retconned to say that Jean was never the Phoenix, but that the Phoenix Force simply pretended to be her until it went crazy and died as Dark Phoenix. This was clearly done because the comic book writers all felt that she had outgrown her original code name, Marvel Girl, but didn’t want the extra baggage that came with her SECOND code name.
As a result, she adopted the moniker Marvel Girl once more after Jean Grey was discovered to be alive and joined X-Factor. She was known as Jean Grey, though, by the time X-Factor and the X-Men combined to create a massive X-Men squad, replete with a Gold squad and a Blue Team. When, then, did she formally stop going by “Marvel Girl?”
Why did Jean Grey Take the Name Marvel Girl Again?
When Jean Grey, Marvel Girl, joined the team in the first issue of X-Men #1 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Paul Reinman), the original X-Men formally became a quintet, as mentioned in my piece the other day about when Jean Grey first became a telepath. She became the first female member of the X-Men and the first female student at Charles Xavier’s school.
Even after leaving the X-Men in the middle of the 1970s to join the All-New, All-Different X-Men, she continued to be a Marvel Girl for many years. However, she kept dating Cyclops, so she was with the X-Men when the Sentinels attacked them.
She was then taken by the Sentinels along with Banshee and Wolverine, and she appeared to be the Phoenix in X-Men #101 (by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and Sam Grainger).
She founded the team X-Factor with her old X-Men friends in X-Factor #2 (by Bob Layton, Jackson Guice, and Joe Rubinstein) after it was discovered that Jean was still alive after the “Phoenix” passed away. She even called herself “Marvel Girl” to herself.
Since the members of the X-Factor crew had been friends for a long time, they tended to address one another by their first names. You would see things like Cyclops just calling Marvel Girl “Jean” in X-Factor #25 (written by Louise Simonson, Walter Simonson, and Bob Wiacek).
But it’s noteworthy that Iceman refers to Jean as “Marvel Girl” later in the issue.
In other words, she was still referred to as “Marvel Girl.”
It’s important to note, though, that over time, the others would typically refer to one another by their code names, but they nearly always called Jean simply “Jean.” For example, in X-Factor #43 (by Simonson, Paul Smith, and Al Milgrom), you can see how everyone is referred to by their superhero names, but Jean is just “Jean.”
The fact that no one ever called her Marvel Girl was kind of funny. Officially, though, she was still a Marvel Girl.
When Did Jean Grey Stop Being Called Marvel Girl?
The major shift, in my opinion, occurred when Jean appeared in Uncanny X-Men for a few issues around 1990. She brought her X-Men costume, complete with no mask, back to X-Factor in X-Factor #56 (by Louise Simonson, Steve Carr, and Al Milgrom).
She removed her mask two issues later (drawn by Jon Bogdanove and Milgrom), and she essentially did not wear it for the remainder of the series (after issue #70, X-Factor amalgamated with the X-Men). In X-Factor #71), a new X-Factor squad takes over.
However, as demonstrated in X-Factor #63 (by Whilce Portacio and Louise Simonson), her code name was still legally Marvel Girl.
However, she was now simply called “Jean Grey” in the very next issue, which noted that she and Iceman had gone on a mission together.
X-Factor #65 (by Portacio, Jim Lee, Chris Claremont, and Art Thibert) began the original X-Factor’s last narrative (before to a crossover with the X-Men that culminated in X-Factor merging with the X-Men). Jean is once again referred to as Marvel Girl in that issue.
However, she was simply referred to as Jean Grey by Apocalypse’s Riders on the Storm (later renamed the Dark Riders).
However, these profiles of the X-Factor members maintained by Apocalypse were found in the issue’s back material, and Jean calls her Marvel Girl.
Therefore, it appears that they are determined to preserve her as a Marvel Girl. (Incidentally, I find it strange when I hear “Marvel Girl” spoken aloud. What about all of you? My wife also mentioned that when she spoke it, it sounded strange to her. If it sounds strange to you as well, please let me know.
But in X-Factor #67, all of the identities are written out (as Marvel liked to occasionally do for new readers), and Jean was just identified as Jean Grey.
In X-Factor #69 (by Fabian Nicieza and Portacio), Jean is once more called simply “Jean Grey,” which is her official code name, in case that was an isolated incident.
Although you could argue that it might have been an isolated incident, I suppose X-Factor #67 is the answer; therefore, X-Factor #69 is when it became “official.” I even startled myself because I honestly believed it wasn’t made public until X-Men #1!
Contact me at brianc@cbr.com if you have any ideas for a future When We First Met! The added benefit of emailing me the tip is that it can be searched later, so if I take my time writing about it, I can give you due credit!
Are you curious about Jean Grey’s journey from Marvel Girl to her well-known identity? Explore this X-Men legend’s journey in depth! To read more intriguing tales from the worlds of comics, superheroes, and vintage animation, visit our website. Watch this space for more fascinating revelations and moments that fans will love!