[OOC: Some Jean Grey headcanon]
First, Jean has always wanted to be a superhero.
When she was very young, Jean witnessed a dear friend of hers slowly dying. In that chaos, Jean telepathically connected with this friend and tried to hold onto her mind, tried to keep her friend alive, even though her friendâs body was failing. Jean was at risk of dying because of her persistence, and she would have died, had an entity known as The Phoenix not stepped in and interfered. The Phoenix gave Jean the strength to sever the telepathic connection that threatened her life and became bonded to Jean from then on. Though Jean survived her brush with death, her friend still perished, and this haunts Jean. Jean has the power to save people, and her initial traumatic failure stings. She sees it as a personal shortcoming, and I believe that much of her heroics later in life are compensation for this. When Jean became an X-Man and could start saving people, she had one of her dreams fulfilled, and probably treated everyone she saved as a replacement for that girl whose life she watched end that day. Jeanâs innate, commendable desire to do good is colored by a fear of failure, and a fear like that can be a powerful motivator for error.
I also feel that The Phoenix, which was still new to the idea of having its own identity, took on some of Jeanâs personalty when it bonded with Jean. Since The Phoenix is Jean and the Phoenixâs first taste of Jean was full of her childhood need to save a dying girl, the Phoenix, in all of its infinite power and knowledge, has held onto that. It, too, has a need to be a superhero and to do good, and has the same potential that Jean has for error. This accounts for Jean and The Phoenixâs behavior later on, I think, because a strong, controlling desire to do good can often lead to so much bad. And with a power like Jeanâs, a corrupted sense of good can do serious damage.
Second, Jean feels a lot of pressure from Charles Xavier.
I have always thought that Jean could have been the next Charles: she could have been as wise as him, as patient as him, and certainly as manipulative and selfish as he is in the name of good (again, I see the Phoenixâs behavior as evidence of this). If The Phoenix had been stable, or had ultimately left Jean alone, she could have been a powerful household name like Charles someday. I feel like Jean knows this much was expected of her, and it got to her: not only did she need to do good, she needed to prove herself to Charles Frances Xavier, one of the greatest mutant telepaths the world has ever known, and someone who became a father figure in her life. Letting down Charles was tantamount to letting down her father.
And when Jean let Dark Phoenix take all those lives, she failed everything she ever believed in. She failed as a hero; she failed the friend whose memory she couldnât let go; she failed Charles Xavier, the greatest man sheâs ever known. Even if she were to come back in the comic canon, she could never properly forgive herself. But perhaps thatâs what she needs: maybe Jean needs the weight of the world, a sense of true weight and responsibility, to do good. Marvel just never gave her much of a chance.
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