This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New DayBy the time Spider-Man: Brand New Day made it to theaters, the revelation that telepath Jean Grey was behind the attacks on the Department of Damage Control didn’t shock anyone. Those who don’t know the name Jean Grey just nodded along, and those who recognized the name as belonging to one of the most important X-Men characters have likely been aware of recent speculation about the role Sadie Sink would play.What did come as a surprise was the motivation behind Jean Grey’s actions. Jean attacks Damage Control because they captured her sister Sara, a character who existed in the comics. However, the film goes on to reveal that Sara Grey shares the same power set as Jean and in fact taught her how to use her telepathic abilities. That twist deviates from the comics that Marvel published, but it also brings to mind a storyline that could have been one that X-Men writer Chris Claremont would have preferred.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});The Other Grey SisterSara Grey first appeared in 1980’s Uncanny X-Men #136 by Claremont and John Byrne, one of the final issues of the Dark Phoenix Saga. Having been fully transformed into the Phoenix and already wrestling with the consequences of her vast power, Jean returns to her home to speak to her family one last time. Sara thrills to see her sister as a superhero, but Phoenix’s powers scare her parents. Aftereward Jean’s father orders her out of the house. She and her parents appear a few issues later for Jean’s funeral, but Sara doesn’t really get attention until the story “Phoenix” by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum in 1981’s Bizarre Adventures #27, a black and white magazine intended for more mature audiences.“Phoenix” follows Jean and Sara two years before the latter’s death, shortly after she developed her Phoenix abilities. The sisters take a boating trip that goes wrong when they’re attacked by the Atlantean supervillain Attuma, who transforms them into underwater-breathers to become his brides. Jean changes into the Phoenix to defeat her enemies and escape with her sister, eventually using those powers to restore Sara to her natural state. But the event only intensifies Sara’s fears about mutants, and her worry that her young son will also be a mutant and deal with the same bigotry Jean faces. After that, Sara only has one brief appearance before she dies in X-Men #36 (1994), subsumed into the techno-organic alien species known as the Phalanx. A few flashback issues later on fill in some details about Sara’s life, revealing that she and her husband became mutant rights activist who clashed with Friends of Humanity leader Graydon Creed, but that’s pretty much all there was to Sara Grey.But there was almost so much more, and it goes all the way back to the Dark Phoenix Saga. The Sara Grey SagaOriginally Claremont and Byrne had wanted Jean to overcome the Phoenix and have a redemption arc, even after she destroyed a planet. But for Marvel’s EIC at the time, Jim Shooter, Phoenix had gone too far. She needed to die, so Claremont and Byrne wrote her bravely sacrificing herself to save her teammates.The Dark Phoenix Saga was instrumental in helping Claremont make the X-Men into the premiere superhero team, and its huge sales numbers got Marvel hankering for more spinoffs. An informal brainstorming session between Shooter, artist Jackson Guice, and writer Bob Layton led to the idea of X-Factor, a new team consisting of the four surviving original members of the X-Men—Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, and Angel—with a new fifth member to take the place of the late Jean Grey. But Shooter saw a promotional opportunity, which trumped his demand that Phoenix must die. When X-Factor #1 hit stands in 1985, it would feature all of the surviving OG X-Men, plus a resurrected Jean Grey.The idea may have excited readers, but it irritated Claremont. Beyond the irritation that a major X-book was launching outside of his purview, Claremont had used Jean’s death to mature and advance his other characters. In particular, Cyclops had, by this point, retired from the X-Men, married another redhead named Madelyne Pryor, and had a son with her, the infant Nathan Christopher. To resurrect Jean and send Cyclops running back to her would be to ruin all the character development he had done.So Claremont offered a compromise: instead of bringing back Jean, what about having Sara’s mutant powers manifest? Claremont had always toyed with the idea that Sara had latent abilities, which never manifested for a few reasons. Sara never had a triggering traumatic event, unlike Jean, who watched her childhood friend die in front of her. Furthermore, Sara’s internalized fear of mutants would keep her from exploring those abilities. In this version of X-Factor, a traumatic event would cause Sara’s powers to fully manifest as an adult, and the original X-Men would convene about her to help her work through it.No New DayOf course, Shooter said no. Instead Jean was brought back to life, Cyclops ditched his family to be with her and join X-Factor, and we got a few utterly terrible comics. Eventually X-Factor sorted things out and the entire situation led to some compelling stories for Cyclops and Jean… but not for Sara. Still, Brand New Day gives a look at what could have been, in another universe, where mutants were still feared and hated. A world where Sara embraced her destiny alongside sister Jean.Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters.The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Jean Grey Reveal Resurrects Abandoned Marvel Comics Story appeared first on Den of Geek.