Iconic Marvel character and founding member of the X-Men, Jean Grey, will soon make her long-awaited return in the upcoming comic book series, Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey. The former host of the Phoenix Force has been dead for years, but has continued to cast her shadow on the Marvel Universe.

Introduced with the costumed identity of Marvel Girl, Jean Grey debuted in 1963 as one of the five original X-Men. The character soon became romantically attached to her teammate Cyclops, with whom she formed one of Marvel's most well-known romances. Jean Grey's life changed forever when she bonded with a cosmic, world-devouring entity called the Phoenix Force. The destructive power of the Phoenix Force eventually transformed Jean into the uncontrollable Dark Phoenix. The character killed herself to save her teammates in the issue, Uncanny X-Men #137. The character since found her way back into comics, but has remained dead since 2005.

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Bleeding Cool reports that Marvel is preparing to resurrect Jean Grey. Alongside a recent push to promote their classic characters, Marvel will publish a new comic book series titled Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey, written by Matthew Rosenberg and illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu. The following is the description for the first issue:

Years ago, Jean Grey died and the X-Men mourned her. Since then, the world has changed, her teammates have lived without her and died without her. And now, when strange events start happening all over the world, those teammates can only come to one conclusion – the one true Jean Grey is back!

Though Jean Grey has long been dead, she is one character that Marvel continues to make use of to tell stories. Without actually resurrecting Jean, Marvel managed to bring her back to the forefront of the Marvel Universe in 2012 with the launch of All-New X-Men, which saw the five original X-Men travel through time to interact with today's heroes. The time-displaced Jean became heavily involved in many X-Men stories and other Marvel events. In May, the character received an ongoing solo series, which is something that even the original Jean never had.

Last month, Marvel released Generations: Phoenix and Jean Grey #1, a one-shot that allowed for the two versions of the character to interact through time travel. The story gave fans a chance to see more of the original Jean but didn't restore her to life.

Fans will be interested to see how things will play out as Jean makes her return in the new series. The description for the first issue mentions teammates that "died without her," which is likely a reference to Wolverine, and of course her husband, Cyclops, who fell victim to a mutant disease called M-Pox. The story will present a role-reversal of sorts, as for years it was Cyclops who lived while Jean remained dead.

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Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey #1 will hit stores on December 27. The character's return will be celebrated by variant covers for numerous titles published through December.

Source: Bleeding Cool