Perez Marvel Holiday Special

George Perez has contributed a lot of art to Marvel over the decades, but he hasn't done too many Christmas based drawings....at least until the Marvel Holiday Special of 1994.

Made that much more special, as it also has a rare drawing of Spider-Man, and even X-Men Iceman and Wolverine (though George did draw a lot of the Beast when he was an Avenger).

Sad that he didn't doing anything inside, but the stories are: Beast/Iceman by Kurt Busiek, James Fry and Neil Vokes; Captain America by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake; the Thing by Gregory Wright and Mike Manley; Silver Surfer by J. M. DeMatteis, Mindy Newell, Rick Leonardi and Al Williamson; Spider-Man by Karl Bollers and Gray Morrow and the X-Men featuring Wolverine by Karl Bollers and Sal Buscema as the Marvel heroes get ready for Christmas.

 

We Are The Marvel Champions Part 2

Picking up where we left off, more on Marvel's Champions!

Champions #11 (February, 1977) was a big issue for the team in more ways than one.

First and foremost, it had the team meeting Black Goliath (a West Coast super-hero with growth powers and ties to Hank Pym/Ant-Man and the Avengers).  It also guest-starred ex-Avenger archer, Hawkeye, and his time-misplaced cowboy buddy, the Two-Gun Kid, and the team faced off against the shadowy threat of Warlord Kaa (as well as getting use to having Darkstar around).

The team also was to deal with the Stilt-Man, and a threat from Black Goliath's recently cancelled title, and artist John Byrne came aboard as Champions artist at this time (through issue #15), joining Bill Mantlo's wild scripts (which were a part of the rest of the Champions' run!).

Things did get wilder, as Hercules, Black Widow, Ghost Rider, Iceman, Angel and Darkstar faced the Stranger (a cosmic powered villain who had previously faced the X-Men and the Silver Surfer) in Champions #12 (March, 1977), and dealt with the item that Stilt-Man stole....and might end the Earth, all while half the team ended up in the other dimensional realm of Kamo Tharnn (the Possessor....an old foe of Hercules and Thor).  The team was able to stop all the problems and come back together in Champions #13 (May, 1977)...but there were problems developing on the team (having a headquarters and other equipment that didn't work, as well as the differing personalities of the team causing problems...and the team let Ghost Rider take a little time in his own title in Ghost Rider #23, and Black Widow helped Spider-Man fight the Silver Samurai in Marvel Team-Up #57).

Swarming Super-Heroes

The team came back together in Champions #14 and #15 (July and September, 1977), where they fought Swarm, lord of the killer bees!  (This wasn't John Belushi on a cross-continental bender, but instead a man (Fritz Von Meyer) who had been mutated into a form where he was held together by bees!).  The Champions managed to pull apart this threat as they were falling apart....

Vacation From Trouble

The team tried to get away from trouble (and each other), but only ended up facing Godzilla (at least Hercules, Black Widow, Angel and Iceman did) in Godzilla #3 (October, 1977 by Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe); the whole original team gathering to help Iron Man fight MODOK and A.I.M. in Iron Man Annual #4 (August, 1977, by Bill Mantlo and George Tuska); Hercules working with Black Widow and Iceman and Avengers Iron Man and the Beast to fight Typhon (an old foe of Hercules) in Avengers #163 (September, 1977, by Jim Shooter and George Tuska), and the team being the destination of Magneto and the Beast in a world taken over by Dr. Doom in Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (October, 1977 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall), which led directly into...

Back to Business

...Champions #16 (November, 1977 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall).  In this issue, the team was a pawn of Dr. Doom and his mind-controlling gas as well, except for the non-breathing, very demonic Ghost Rider, proving the Beast knew what he was doing when he led the team out west!

The rest of the team was controlled and did fight against Magneto, the Beast and even the Hulk, but eventually Dr. Doom was beaten (but not without more fracturing of the team dynamic....which already was falling apart).

The team showed how fractured it was here...


....and things didn't get better.

The Last Issue

Champions #17 (January, 1978, by Bill Mantlo, with art by George Tuska and John Byrne) had the Champions facing off against a group of evil mutants (Unus, Lorelei, Blob and the Vanisher) who had come to the team looking for help...from the Sentinels (evil robots who planned on eradicating mutants, and it seems demi-gods, ex-Russian spies and demonic motorcycle riders as well)!

This was the end of the Champions run, but not quite the final end of the team....that was promised for an upcoming Avengers issue, but instead ended up in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man....

...and for more on that, check back!

We Are The Marvel Champions Part 1

Take one son of an Olympian god, a millionaire mutant, an ex-Russian femme fatale, a walking ice box and a demon from hell...and what do you have? Certainly not a team....well, actually, there was one.

In a tribute to committee thinking, two ex-Avengers (Hercules and Black Widow) joined solo star (Ghost Rider) and two ex-X-Men (Angel and Iceman) to form...The Champions! (And it really was quite a committee...David Anthony Kraft came up with the name for the team, Len Wein and John Romita contributing to the design of Angel's new costume - taking away a blue colored costume in a blue dominated team, and Len insisting a team have five members).

Cover dated October 1975, the saga of Marvel's Champions began. Originally intended to be an Angel/Iceman series, the Marvel offices convinced writer Tony Isabella to add Hercules (a strongman), Black Widow (a woman) and a solo star (Ghost Rider...though, had he not gotten his own title, it could have been Black Goliath! Or even Son of Satan, Captain Marvel or Power Man) to make it a full-fledged team. Art on the first two issues was by Don Heck (himself no stranger to the Avengers or the X-Men), and Champions #1-3 (also originally suppose to be Giant-Sized Champions #1, another in a long line of pre-production tinkering for the team) told the tale of how these unlikely teammates would gather.

The hell it was to put this series together was reflected in the story...it was Pluto (Olympian god of the netherworld), who, in an agreement with other more demonic underlords to restrict the actions of Zeus, god-father of the Olympians (and Hercules in particular). Pluto's plan was to wed Hercules to Hippolyta (queen of the amazons), and Venus (the goddess of love) to Ares (the god of war), which would end their interference with his plans for Earth and Olympus. If the human friendly Olympians don't play along, the alliances he made with the netherworlder demons like Mephisto, Satan and the Demon of the Mask, would destroy Olympus. Hercules and Venus oppose this, along with the rest of the future Champions, but Pluto has Zeus' (father to the Olympian gods, and Hercules) aid in bringing them back to Olympus. The Earth heroes eventually figure out a way to Olympus and defeat Pluto's armies, but are not enough to stop the demonically backed Pluto himself. The Ghost Rider has to convince Zeus to stop Pluto (as Johnny Blaze knows a little about demons, and gets Zeus to realize that the only reason the underlords united was to topple Olympus). Venus stays behind to spread the message of love amongst the gods, and Hercules and the rest of the humans return to Earth.

Group Dynamics

The Champions next gather in Champions #4 (May 1976, by X-Men writer Chris Claremont and art by George Tuska, who also drew #3).

In this issue, the team faces Dr. Edward Lansing, who has a solution to the homeless problem – turning them into his mind controlled mutated slaves. Black Widow and Hercules are the first to stumble onto his plot, but the Mutates overpower the two. Dr. Lansing then uses his mind control box on the two ex-Avengers, and sends them to attack the two ex-X-Men (Iceman and Angel, seems the Avengers and X-Men always fight!) as well as Black Widow’s mentor, Ivan Petrovich, who were all at Angel’s beach house. In facing Ivan, Black Widow breaks her control, then turns to break Dr. Lansing’s control box…which frees Hercules and the Mutates, but the Mutates kill the Doctor. Angel decides at this point that the team should form on a regular basis, to be champions to protect the innocent. The Champions bid fair well to Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider #17 (April 1976, by Tony Isabella and Frank Robbins) but that’s just to allow Johnny Blaze time for his own series, and doesn’t stop their adventures.

On A Rampage

In Champions #5-6, (April and June of 1976, written by Tony Isabella and art by Don Heck in #5, and George Tuska in #6), the team faces an inventor, Stuart Clarke, who succumbed to the recession and uses his exo-skeleton to try to rob a bank. At the same time, Angel was securing his right to the Worthington fortune his mother left him, and the team battles Clarke (who gets the name, Rampage) and asks him to surrender, but Rampage instead tries to kill himself by exploding his suit’s jet back. Iceman manages to save everyone, even Clarke, who is injured by the blast. During all this, Black Widow is elected leader of the team.

Motorcycle Detour

The team briefly appears in Avengers #151 (September 1976), to comment on the hype around the announcement of the Avengers new roster (which will include ex-X-Man the Beast…he comes in more later). Ghost Rider is present as well, having returned from his team-ups with the Son of Satan, the Werewolf by Night, the Man-Thing, Morbius and Daredevil in Ghost Rider’s #17-20, Daredevil #138 and Marvel Premiere #28 (all from 1976, and explains why the motorcyclist from hell was not available for the two issues with Rampage).

Back To Full Strength

In Champions #7-10 (August-January 1976/1977), the team experiences a few explosive changes both inside and outside the book (as shown by this stunning cover by artists Gil Kane and Al Milgrom for issue #8! And, it wasn’t even a fully symbolic cover – as the damage done from this explosion gets Angel to switch from his costume to a red version of the blue costume he had worn in the X-Men, but more on that later,…so keep reading, true believer!).


Tony Isabella and George Tuska still write and draw issue #7, to set the stage, but Bill Mantlo becomes the new writer for the rest of the Champions series, with Bob Hall in some of his earliest work as an artist for issues #8-10.

The team changes at this time as well, starting with a temporary headquarters! And, the team just starts to settle in as they get to face a menace that's like a marriage...something old (armored Russian Iron Man foe, the Titanium Man), something new (the Russian mutant Darkstar, wielder of the darkforce), something borrowed (a new Russian named Yuri in the second Crimson Dynamo armor) and...well, something that fought something blue (that being the Griffin, who faced the blue-furred Beast and Angel back in Beast's solo stories in Amazing Adventures, as well as Spider-Man and the Beast; now returned to face the Angel and his friends in an attempt to get back to being human).

Griffin and Darkstar go to free Rampage from the hospital, while the returning Ghost Rider is headed there as well to meet the Champions' first costume foe of their own and use his "demon from hell" act to get some information from the bankrupt villain.

Meanwhile, the Titanium Man captures the Black Widow and her mentor, Alexi Bruskin. Rampage delivers the news of the Widow's capture to the rest of the Champions, but unbeknownst to him, his exoskeleton was booby-trapped by his supposed allies, exploding in an attempt to kill the Champions.

Thanks to Iceman, they survive, and Ghost Rider even saves Rampage. The explosion does cost Angel his costume, and he gets a red-colored variation of an old costume of his. The Russian villains then try to add Ivan Petrovich to the group they want to take home - and it is revealed why - Yuri is Ivan's estranged son. After a pitched battle in Los Angeles and in the Pacific Ocean, Bruskin dies, Darkstar switches sides, the Champions capture the Titanium Man and the Griffin and Yuri escapes. All the while, conflict grows amongst the Champions.

The conflict subsides for a while during the Christmas season, as the Champions celebrate together in Marvel Treasury Edition #13 (1975, by writer Roger Stern and artist George Tuska), where the team thinks Iceman delivered some snow...but instead it was a little Christmas magic in California!

And, the rest of the Marvel Champions' story will come soon, so stay tuned!

Human Torch’s Marvel Team-Ups

Back in the 1970s, Marvel produced Marvel Team-Up, a book to focus on Spider-Man meeting the rest of the Marvel Universe, and a frequent partner of the amazing arachnid was the Human Torch…
…but Spider-Man was headed to a Giant-Size Spider-Man book, so they needed a new lead for MTU!

For a few issues in the early days, it was the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four who was meeting with other Marvelous co-stars!

These issues are as follows…

The Torch meets the Jade Giant

Marvel Team-Up #18 (February, 1974) featured the Human Torch fighting alongside (and sometimes with) the incredible Hulk (Dr. Bruce Banner) against Blastaar, the Living Bomb Burst (an old foe of the Fantastic Four from the Negative Zone …who, well…had explosive powers and had first appeared in Fantastic Four #62, May, 1967 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), and also featured Johnny’s native American friend, Wyatt Wingfoot (who first appeared in Fantastic Four #50, May, 1966, also by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby).


This little gem was written by Len Wein, and featured art by Gil Kane in "Where Bursts the Bomb"!

Fire vs. Ice

Next up, was Marvel Team-Up #23 (July, 1974), where the fiery Johnny Storm faced off against the X-Men’s Iceman, and the two of them met the new menace of Equinox, the Thermodynamic Man in "The Night Of The Frozen Inferno"!

Except Equinox had already faced Spider-Man (who was too busy to fight him for long, as he was meeting Dracula in Giant-Size Spider-Man #1, which also came out that month…and had the X-Men preparing for their own explosion in popularity with Giant-Size X-Men #1).


All these tales were written by Len Wein, and the art in the MTU issue was by Gil Kane!

Flames Meet Weather’s Fury

For Marvel Team-Up #26 (October, 1974), it was time for the Torch to team up with the mighty Thor, and face the menace of the Lava Men (foes of Thor and the Avengers, from Journey Into Mystery #89 and Avengers #5, both by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and were the underground dwellers only two previous appearances before this issue).

These foes had a rock hard tenacity!


The Asgardian and the young flaming one did well against these foes, in this tale entitled "The Fire This Time" written by Len Wein and drawn by artist Jim Mooney!

Burn After Reading

With Marvel-Team-Up #29 (January, 1975), things changed a little, as the story was written by Gerry Conway (though art was still by Jim Mooney), as the Human Torch ended up working with the armored Avenger, Iron Man (a.k.a. Tony Stark)!


This team faced off against a new villain, Infinitus, the Reincarnated Man.  Oddly, Infinitus hasn’t found his way back into any stories as of yet…so he didn’t seem to make any impression on the fans…even with the title of the story..."Beware The Coming of...Infinitus!  Or How Can You Stop the Reincarnated Man?"

So Hot With Twice the Flame

Now Marvel Team-Up #32 (April, 1975) was a real barn-burner, teaming the Torch up with the only character he met in this run NOT co-created by Stan Lee…that being Damion Hellstrom, the Son of Satan!


This also features the first team-up where Johnny met his co-star for the first time within the pages of MTU!


This tale entitled "All The Fires In Hell...!" was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Sal Buscema had the two facing off against Dryminextes (a demon who had possessed members of Wyatt Wingfoot’s tribe).

An Odd Pairing

The last of Johnny’s spider-less team-ups was in Marvel Team-Up #35 (July, 1975) and continued from the previous two issues, and featured the Torch working with the sorcerer supreme Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange) to save his fellow Defender, the Valkyrie, from the clutches of cult leader, Jeremiah!


This story was by Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema. and came out at the same time as Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 (the last of the original stories in the Giant-Size Spider-Man run, as #6 was a reprint…of a team-up of Spider-Man…and the Human Torch!).

The Fire Still Burns

But, the Torch wasn’t done with Marvel Team-Up, as he continued to meet Spidey in many future issues, and even worked with his Fantastic Four teammate, the Thing, in issues of the Thing’s team-up book, Marvel Two-In-One!


Flame on, Johnny Storm!

X-Men Days Of Past Future

After adding new student Jean Grey (aka Marvel Girl), Professor X sent his team, the X-Men out on their first mission against the evil mutant, Magneto back in the X-Men #1 (September, 1963, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby).  While that issue is the first appearance of Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, the Beast, Angel, Marvel Girl and Magneto and all the mutant madness they brought with them (though other mutants and ideas like seen in the movies didn't come until later), they all had a history before that issue...

...and we'll take a quick look at a little of it here!

Teacher, Teacher

First off is the man who helped to bring the team together...Professor X.

Professor Charles Xavier was a telepath and telekinetic who was one of the most powerful mutant minds on Earth.  Charles felt it was his mission to help mutants...

...he did so in X-Men #117 when he faced evil mutant Shadow King (Amahl Farouk) after meeting a young thief (Ororo, later to be known as Storm) in a story by Chris Claremont and John Byrne (reprinted a few times, like in Marvel Masterworks #24 or Classic X-Men #23).

Charles even worked with his future foe, Magneto, trying to save Gabrielle Haller in a story detailed in Uncanny X-Men #161 (September, 1982, by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum)...

...wherein the pair faced off against Baron Strucker and the agents of HYDRA before Nick Fury joined S.H.I.E.L.D.!

This story was reprinted in X-Men Archives #4, and, yes, the Professor is still in action on his own (pretty much) because he still has use of his legs.

X-Men #20 (and #21, both by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth, in May/June 1966) detail the story of how Charles Xavier lost the use of his legs fighting against the invading alien, Lucifer.

These stories are collected in Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men #7 and in the X-Men Omnibus #1, and this was the inspiration for Charles Francis Xavier to begin to collect the mutants he had been researching together and form a school (as well as a team of agents he could sent into the field to protect people from those who would misuse their power.....).

Much of Professor X's history is combined with the X-Men, not really having a title of his own....though one could say that the X-Men book IS the story of Professor X!

Still, Professor X did get a little bit of solo action in Marvel Team-Up #118 (June, 1982) working with Spider-Man against Professor Power and the Fixer to help Mentallo (Fixer and Mentallo being foes of Nick Fury and his agents of S.H.I.E.L.D).  Professor X was also a member of the Illuminati along with Namor the Sub-Mariner, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), Black Bolt and Dr. Strange which formed after the Kree-Skrull War, and helped the Marvel Universe as a whole deal with events such as the Beyonder, the Hulk, the Infinity Gauntlet and the Civil War.

Got My Eye on You

Cyclops was the first mutant Charles Xavier decided to recruit for his school, and he needed the help.

Charles Xavier began to look at young orphan Scott Summers as his first recruit for the X-Men in a back-up series starting in X-Men #38 (November, 1967) to X-Men #43 (April, 1968, all by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth) wherein the Professor and the soon to be Cyclops faced off against the Living Diamond (Jack Winters, who showed up in X-Men #39, December, 1968, which in the main story Scott got his first individual costume) and Scott became the first member of Xavier's team.

All these stories are collected in X-Men Omnibus #2 along with...

X-Men #56-59 (May-August, 1969 by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams), which had the X-Men facing off against the mutant hunting Sentinels and had Scott meeting his younger brother, Alex, who also had a mutation of his own and facing off against the Living Monolith!

These stories are part of the basis for the Sentinels attacking all of mutantkind (though they started their war against mutants back in X-Men #14, November, 1965 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), but weren't the end of the Sentinels (nor Cyclops!).

Scott also never wandered far from the X-Men (later members might give an excuse why....), and Scott even found out more about his own history while working with the second team of X-Men (founded with Giant-Size X-Men #1, with Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Thunderbird) and all of that history was summarized well in X-Men Origins Cyclops (2010) in time to have Cyclops ready for his time as an interstellar pirate in his own magazine which came out this year!

Cold Reception

Iceman was the student Cyclops was sent to retrieve.  Young Bobby Drake was not quite ready for his mutant power to manifest, and his cold powers got him into hot water with his parents and an angry mob...and need the help of Cyclops to save him in the run of stories from X-Men #44-46 (May-July, 1968, stories by Gary Friedrich and George Tuska) with a power recap in X-Men #47 (August, 1968) by Arnold Drake and Werner Roth (all of these stories also in the X-Men Omnibus #2...).

In the early days of the X-Men, Iceman hung around with the rest of the team, occasionally leaving the title to fight the Human Torch, and was trying to get serious with magnetic mutant Lorna Dane...at least until Scott's brother, Alex, showed up.

Iceman was one of the X-Men to leave the team after their encounter with Krakoa in Giant-Size X-Men #1.

Iceman and Angel pal around together, co-founding the Champions (along with Ghost Rider, Black Widow and Hercules, which lasted for 17 issues in the mid-1970s written by Tony Isabella, Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo, and drawn by Don Heck, George Tuska, Bob Hall and John Byrne) in a series that also guested X-Men related people like the Griffin, the Beast, Magneto, Unus, the Blob, the Vanisher, Lorelei and the Sentinels as well as introducing villains Rampage and the Swarm before the team ended (and as a team founded with ex-X-Men and ex-Avengers, and a few loners like Ghost Rider and Darkstar...it at least showed that the West Coast of the Marvel Universe needed protecting!).

Bobby then joined Beast, Valkyrie, Moondragon and Gargoyle in the New Defenders, before returning to the reformation of the original X-Men in X-Factor, and then rejoining the X-Men.

Bobby was also the first of the original X-Men to have his own 4 issue mini-series in 1984/1985, and had his origin explored in 2010 in X-Men Origins: Iceman.

Give Me Wings

Angel was Warren Worthington III, son of a wealthy family, and had everything in the world...so mutant powers weren't particularly welcome, even if they were wings that allowed him to fly.

Warren even went out and tried to be a super-hero on his own, in a back-up series from X-Men #54-56 (March-May, 1969, by Arnold Drake, Roy Thomas and Werner Roth), and almost succeeded in blowing up a city if not for the help of Cyclops and Iceman, which led to Warren joining the X-Men (even though he was the first X-Man to have a small feature outside of X-Men, being an all-new back-up in the last two issues of Ka-Zar's 3 issue reprint title of 1970 and in Marvel Tales #30...stories which were odd as they were written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, and drawn by George Tuska, wherein Angel faced the Dazzler (Burt Worthington, not the discoing Alison Blaire).  All these tales are also in the X-Men Omnibus #2!

Angel left the X-Men with Iceman, joined the Champions, but Angel came back to the X-Men for a bit first (most notably during the time of X-Men: Days of Future Past - X-Men #141 and Uncanny X-Men #142 in 1981 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne), when Kate Pryde sent her mind back into her younger body and helped the X-Men stop the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants which included Mystique, the Blob, Pyro, Avalanche and Destiny...and prevented the Sentinels from enslaving mankind!

The plot sounds familiar...

Still, the Angel left the X-Men to go to the new Defenders, then to X-Factor, which led to Warren losing his wings and becoming an agent of Apocalypse (and getting the name Archangel as well).  Still, Warren held it together to come back to the X-Men...even if it was under the Archangel name (and with new blue skin as well....). That wasn't the most shocking transformation an X-Man would undergo....


 

Big And Hairy

That would be the Beast!  Hank P. McCoy was just an ordinary genius, with incredible coordination and abnormally larger hands and feet.  Really big hands and feet!  In back-up stories from X-Men #48 (September, 1968, a fact file by Arnold Drake and Werner Roth) and stories in X-Men #49-53 (October, 1968 to February, 1968, also by Drake and Roth), with the soon-to-be Beast fighting the Conquistador with the help of Cyclops, Iceman and Angel!

Stories also in X-Men Omnibus #2...as well as mostly in Amazing Adventures #17 (a few pages missing in this March, 1973 reprint....with a cover by Jim Starlin, no less).    

In Amazing Adventures #11-16 (March, 1972 to January, 1973, by Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Tom Sutton, and Bob Brown), the Beast set out on his own, and became a furry mess, messing around with a mutagenic formula for the Brand Corporation...and it doesn't go well for Hank!  Still, at least he was being featured at this time (unlike the rest of his fellow X-Men), facing ex-X-Men foes Unus, Mastermind, the Blob, and the Juggernaut, as well as new foe the Griffin, and even became an Avenger after this run was over (and this run is reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men #7).

The Beast did return whenever the X-Men called, and while as an Avenger (where he met Moondragon), formed a friendship with Wonder Man that has mostly survived the years (and was drawn especially well by both George Perez and John Byrne)...and then the Beast joined the Defenders for a time, then X-Factor (losing his blue fur for a time), then rejoined the X-Men and mutated even further into a more cat like "Beast", but still with blue fur and proving that once an X-Man, always an X-Man!

The Female Is the Deadliest

Then there is Jean Grey/Marvel Girl!  The girl with mind-reading powers as well as telekinesis, and the love of Cyclops/Scott Summers life!

Jean had a little fact file in X-Men #57 (June, 1969) by Linda Fite and Werner Roth....but, for the most part, Jean's life wasn't really her own....Jean helped Professor X battle the Z'Nox to save Earth....and in that touched a primal force of the universe, the Phoenix (or at least John Byrne teased that in X-Men: The Hidden Years in a bit of retroactive continuity).

Even though Jean stuck with the X-Men (and Cyclops), she didn't stay long after Giant-Size X-Men #1, but did return to help....

This alien lifeforce took the place of Jean when she sacrificed herself to save the team...and became the Phoenix.  Sadly, this force went bad and died (in the form of a powerless Jean Grey) devastating Cyclops (who had thought her the love of his life)...

...but, really she was just waiting in a cocoon, and brought back to him with the advent of X-Factor!  Jean eventually dumped her code name for a time, and then even accepted the Phoenix for a while...before taken from us yet again.   But, like any Phoenix, Jean should be back!