The X-Men have no shortage of incredibly powerful and skilled mutant heroes (with seemingly more and more joining every day), but one of them stands above the rest as being the most important on a multiversal level–and X-Men’s most iconic event proves it.
The most iconic event in X-Men history has to be the Age of Apocalypse as it brought the X-Men’s most powerful foe to the extent of his villainy and explored what the world would be like if En Sabah Nur actually accomplished what the X-Men prevented from happening time and again. The result was a nightmarish hellscape where humans were either killed on sight or sent to labor camps while mutants had the choice of serving Apocalypse or be melted down and harvested for their genes. This storyline pushed the limit of what a ‘mutant’ could be, which gave life to incredibly interesting character designs that couldn’t have existed in the main continuity of Earth-616 (especially in the tie-in book, Generation Next). From its interesting storyline and scale to its jaw-dropping aesthetic, both in landscape and characters, Age of Apocalypse will forever be regarded as the most iconic X-Men event–and this revelation about X-Men’s most important mutant only adds to that assertion.
Jean Grey is the X-Men’s Most Important Mutant (for One Reason)
In the Age of Apocalypse tie-in comic Gambit and the X-Ternals #3 by Fabian Nicieza and Salvador Larroca, Gambit and his team (the X-Ternals) are on a mission across the cosmos to steal a shard of the M’kraan Crystal, the nexus of all realities. Magneto–who is the leader of the X-Men in this timeline–believes that this, the Age of Apocalypse reality, is a mistake, and that they need to correct the unnatural changes made to the timeline, and the only way to do that–as far as Magneto knows–is with a shard of the M’kraan Crystal. In this issue, Gambit and his team of thieves successfully make it to the M’kraan’s location, but rather than stealing it, they are met with the harsh reality that it is breaking–and the entirety of multiversal existence is on the verge of collapse.
In the main continuity of Marvel’s Earth-616, Jean Grey gets possessed by the Phoenix Force, and with their combined power, Jean and the Phoenix are able to repair the M’kraan Crystal, as it was also damaged in the original timeline as well. However, when Legion went back in time and accidentally killed Professor X, Jean wasn’t properly trained in her powers, and the subsequent series of events kept her from ever merging with the Phoenix. So, in the Age of Apocalypse reality, Apocalypse himself is the least of the heroes’ worries as the M’kraan is slowly breaking, and it is taking the entire multiverse with it.
This entire comic not only proves that Jean Grey is the most important mutant, as she is required to literally save the multiverse, but that Professor X’s importance is only as significant as his relationship with Jean Grey. From a multiversal perspective, Professor X is just that guy who made sure Jean was set on the right course to repair the M’kraan and save the multiverse, nothing more. For an X-Men storyline that might as well be one giant What If…? issue, the Age of Apocalypse certainly delved deep into the cosmic significance of Marvel’s most beloved characters, including Jean Grey who is revealed to be the most significant of them all.