Warning: SPOILERS for A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6!Wolverine. The climax of A.X.E.: Judgment Day has arrived, and her final assault on the Celestial Progenitor demands Jean get creative in her attempt to get the job done. The sheer strength of her combined telepathic and telekinetic abilities would be matchless against any other foe, but a cosmic deity such as a newborn Celestial proves to be a challenge. Her solution is to combine a bit of Betsy Braddock's ingenuity with an attack strategy inspired by Logan. The resulting power move is a beautiful synthesis of the former Phoenix and the X-Man who's the best there is at what he does.
The X-Men are arguably defined by the vast amounts of psionically powered mutants within their midst. Part of the beauty of this is wide range of ways that these abilities manifest among mutantkind. Jean Grey and Charles Xavier are both Omega level mutants due to the raw power of their psychic abilities. Emma Frost is better equipped for precise, almost surgical telepathic feats. Karma is able to possess others, Prodigy telepathically gains learned expertise, and Askani's chronoskimming blurs the line between telepathy and time travel. These unique iterations of psychic abilities makes each of these characters distinct and helps shield them from becoming redundant. Betsy Braddock, during her tenure as Psylocke, innovated her own psionic powers in ways that had not been seen before by mutantkind by pioneering the usage of a psychic knife. The Psi-Blade has since become an iconic weapon and is highly effective in physical and mental combat.
In a sense, Jean Grey finds herself both in a mental and physical battlefield in the final fight against the Progenitor. In Kieron Gillen, Valerio Schiti, Ivan Fiorelli, Marte Gracia, VC's Clayton Cowles, and Tom Brevoort's A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6, the final team of Avengers, X-Men, and Eternals have arrived in the central node of the newborn Celestial. On a tear since failing her personal judgment session with the Progenitor, Jean wastes no time trying to kill them before the Celestial can completely annihilate the Earth. Racing across the physical manifestation of the Progenitor's mind, Jean draws together the focused totality of her telepathic and telekinetic powers. Speaking to her teammates, Jean its, "Betsy's move, but it's a good one. My psychic totality will blow this sky-high." In saying so Jean summons six psi-blades of her own, and fashions them as her own set of psychic Wolverine claws.
Jean Grey Combines Psylocke and Wolverine's Most Iconic Weapons
Jean is halted just short of sinking her psi-claws into the Progenitor's core. Although fans do not get the chance to see just how much Jean Grey can do with her newfound weapons, one can only imagine the damage she could serve up with her immense power focused into claws that shred steel as well as psyches. And who knows? Between stories like Dark Web, Sins of Sinister, and Fall of X, Jean will surely have more opportunities to whip out the psi-claws if she so desires. The real question is who will be more upset: Betsy when she hears that Jean cribbed her and Kwannon's signature move, or Jean when she finds out that Captain Britain is dating her daughter Askani. As a matter of fact, that might be the perfect time for Jean to pull out the psi-claws once more.
It would appear Jean Grey is entering a new era for herself as a character. Her final conversation with the Progenitor sees her itting the responsibility she bears for the actions of Dark Phoenix. More than that, she is done retreating into her classic X-Men-inspired Marvel Girl phase and has recently been able to save more lives than she ever took as Dark Phoenix. That's not to even mention the world-shaking change that Jean has made in creating the Phoenix Foundation at the end of Judgment Day #6. This new era has already seen her embrace a new look, and now she has new psi-claws to add to it. Psylocke definitely invented the move, but incorporating a little inspiration from Wolverine allows Jean Grey to make these psychic knives all her own.
A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6 is available now from Marvel Comics.
