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The Trial of Jean Grey # 1- (All-New X-Men # 22)

By Mark Rodriguez

It's time for another crossover as the Shi'Ar empire wants to try Classic Jean Grey for the crimes of her modern day self, which somehow gets the Guardians of the Galaxy involved. Their first movie was just about to come about, and I didn't want to go into this blindly, so I decided to pick this up. This story actually has two 'part ones' since the events of this issue will unfold at the same time as Guardians of the Galaxy # 11 until the teams meet up. Let's check it out.


The story opens at The New Xavier School, as Kitty Pryde watches over X23's training in the Danger Room, Classic Beast is working on his equations in the lab and Classic Iceman is making snow angels in the backyard. In the cafeteria, Classic Angel is about to enjoy his burger, when the Classic Cyclops and Jean join him. Before Angel can even savour his burger, Jean yells at Cyclops to 'go ahead!!!' to which he asks to 'go ahead with what?'.

Jean knows Scott is wondering if he should talk to her and he should go ahead and do it. Scott is angry she read his mind without permission and she says she can't help it. Cyclops asks if everyone is ok, especially after all the stuff they went through, considering that Jean saw her future self (XornJean) die. Cyclops wants to talk to Jean about what she's feeling and she doesn't want to talk. They continue to argue, with poor Angel sitting in the middle, feeling very awkward and uncomfortable.


Cyclops says Jean saw their entire future, and knows everything about their whole lives (I assume when she read XornJean's mind), while he only knows bits and pieces. She says he shouldn't know too much of their future. Cyclops changes the subject and wants to know, as a friend and a teammate, if she's ok. Jean angrily responds she's dealing with everything, the fact that she's in the wrong time, that she dies twice, that her family dies, that she marries Scott but he left her for Emma, and that she saw her own future self die. She storms off saying she's dealing with it. Scott leaves too. Angel says he feels uncomfortable, and Bobby would probably have loved that. I swear I bought this comic mostly for this scene alone.

Speaking of which, Iceman is still outside, singing and making snow angels when he sees some strange lights floating through the sky. Just them something hits him and sends him flying. Beast and the others are alerted by the intruders, and Iceman makes a huge ice wall to protect himself from these mysterious guys in armored suits and big guns speaking some kind of alien language. They shoot down the ice wall, and blast Iceman before he can warn the others.

Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Kitty, Jean and X23 jump into action. Kitty recognizes the soldiers are members of the Shi'Ar. She tries to phase through their weaponry, since that usually shorts it out, but she gets electrified instead and is down. The X-Men get ready to attack. Jean diverts their energy blasts as Beast is amazed that they're fighting with actual aliens.


The soldiers trap the X-Men is some sort of soundproof bubble forcefields. Cyclops tries to blast his way out, but the Optic Blast basically explodes within the bubble, frying him with his own eye blasts. Just then, something shoots at the Shi'Ar soldiers from behind. It's Iceman, shooting off sharp icicles at them, but he soon gets trapped in a bubble as well.

The Shi'Ar take Jean back to their ship and head off. The bubbles release the others and Angel soon flies off after the ship. The ship soon flies out of the Earth's atmosphere and Angel can't follow. Kitty wonders why the Shi-Ar would fly off with Jean and leave the rest, and Beast asks if she knows them. Kitty says the Shi'Ar are their allies, or so she thought. X23 points out that the spaceship is coming back. Instead of the Shi'Ar, we see the Guardians of the Galaxy make their entrance. Star-Lord introduces the team but realizes they're too late.

My Opinions-

That whole scene with Jean and Scott arguing all while Angel is sitting between them just trying to eat his burger was the main reason I bought the book. I felt bad for him, but the scene was so funny. Plus Jean is a good example of why it's not smart to piss of a girlfriend that can read your minds. It was funny seeing Scott get pissed, without saying a word, and Jean randomly blurting out, 'THAT'S NOT FAIR!'. I'm also wondering why Angel is eating while in full uniform. At least take the gloves off.


This crossover came at a perfect time to garner interest for the, at the time, upcoming movie. The Guardians of the Galaxy have become popular in the movies nowadays, so the big gamble to bring these relatively unknown characters to the silver screen paid off. Between the success of the first movie and having the Guardians meet up with Tony Stark and the X-Men, the comic was a great for new fans to hop into.



 I also enjoy the concept of the Classic X-Men co-exiting with their modern day selves, so this was a surefire buy for me. This comic was a good set up for things to come.

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