Wolverine Finally Explains Why Only Jean Grey Can Be the Love of His Life

Marvel has finally explained why Jean Grey is truly Wolverine's greatest love - in a remarkable twist that changes their entire relationship.

Marvel's X-Men comics have finally explained why only Jean Grey can be the true love of Wolverine's life. It was love (or, perhaps, lust) at first sight when Wolverine set eyes on Jean Grey. He wasted precious little time making a move on her - ironically leading to a brawl with his fellow X-Man Angel, who objected to anyone making a move on Cyclops' girl. Angel himself had been one of Jean's previous admirers, even going on a couple of dates with her, but he'd lost out to Cyclops.

The Wolverine-Jean-Cyclops love triangle has been a mainstay of X-Men fiction. Wolverine backed off for a while after Cyclops and Jean Grey married; he didn't attend the wedding, but he did give Sabretooth a warning not to interfere. But it wasn't long before Wolverine and Jean Grey were sharing illicit kisses again, and after her death Cyclops was shaken to learn Logan had kept a lock of Jean's hair. All those days of conflict are in the past now, of course, because Jean is back from the dead and the mutant race lives on the island of Krakoa, operating by different standards of morality. Monogamy seems to be out of fashion, with Jean sharing moments of passion with both Cyclops and Wolverine. There have even been hints Cyclops and Wolverine are having sex on the Moon too.

Life of Wolverine: Infinity Comic #10, by Jim Zub and Ramon Bachs, finally explains why Jean Grey is Wolverine's one true love. The story has seen Jean dive into Wolverine's memories, helping him navigate his history as he experiences a complex form of time travel. As Jean reflects, over the years Wolverine has loved and lost so many, and he's increasingly kept his heart guarded out of fear of loss and rejection. Jean is the one person he trusts to breach his defenses, and he proves the point by allowing her to retain all the memories she has scanned during this particular adventure. She now knows him as truly as he knows himself - and he's happy with that fact.

Wolverine has always had a thing for redheads; in fact, Jean Grey is almost the spitting image of his first love Rose, a fact she's now aware of. What's more, Jean's fiery spirit made even more attractive to Logan. But it seems Jean Grey's telepathic powers were what made her so seductive to Wolverine, because she offered the prospect of a lover who truly knew him. It's important to remember Wolverine was an amnesiac for much of his life, with no knowledge of his own history, so the prospect of someone truly knowing him would undoubtedly have been almost irresistible.

Now, of course, all fears are gone. Wolverine doesn't need to fear rejection; Jean has seen everything he is and everything he has ever done, and she loves him regardless. There doesn't even need to be fear of loss, either; Jean's ties to the Phoenix Force may have gone, but she lives on Krakoa, where the Resurrection Protocols grant mutants a form of immortality. As far as the X-Men's Wolverine is concerned, Jean Grey really is his perfect lover in every way.

The X-Men are a team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in The X-Men #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to low sales, following its 1975 revival and subsequent direction under writer Chris Claremont, it became one of the most recognizable and successful franchises of Marvel Comics. They have appeared in numerous books, television shows, the 20th Century Fox X-Men films, and video games. The X-Men title may refer to the superhero team itself, the eponymous comic series, or the broader franchise including various solo titles and team books such as the New Mutants, Excalibur, and X-Force.

In the Marvel Universe, mutants are humans who are born with a genetic trait called the X-gene which grants them natural superhuman abilities. Due to their differences from the majority of humanity, mutants are subject to prejudice and discrimination and many X-Men stories feature social commentary on bigotry and justice. The X-Men have fought against a variety of enemies, including villainous mutants, human bigots, supervillains, mystical threats, extraterrestrials, and malevolent artificial intelligences. In most iterations of the team, they are led by their founder Charles "Professor X" Xavier, a powerful telepath who runs a school for mutant children out of his mansion in Westchester, New York, which secretly is also the headquarters of the X-Men. Their stories have frequently involved Magneto, a powerful mutant with control over magnetic fields, who is depicted as an old friend of and foil to Xavier, variously acting as an adversary or as an ally.

The current iteration of the official X-Men team is headquartered in The Treehouse, a Krakoan base in New York City, and the roster is voted on by their fellow mutants in elections held at periodic Hellfire Galas. No longer working in secret, they fight publicly for the safety of mutants, to build bridges between Krakoa and human nations, and to protect the Earth and Solar System from extraterrestrial threats.

From 2000 to 2020, 20th Century Fox released thirteen superhero films as part of the X-Men film series.

Marvel Studios launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in 2008, focused on the Avengers and their related characters, whose film rights they still owned. Marvel was then bought by Disney in 2009, but could not use the X-Men or other mutants, as their film rights still resided with 20th Century Fox. However, an alternate version of the post-credits scene in Iron Man (2008) had him specifically mention "assorted mutants" in regards to the larger universe he and Tony Stark were a part of.  Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were an odd case, as they had strong ties with both the Avengers and the X-Men. The studios negotiated a deal so that they could share the characters' film rights on the stipulation Marvel Studios would be unable to make reference to their background as mutants or as Magneto's children, and that 20th Century Fox could not allude to their history as Avengers members. While Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver would only appear in two MCU films: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch would go on to become a semi-regular character, appearing in six films in the franchise in addition to headlining her own eponymously titled television series. On December 14, 2017, Disney announced its intent to acquire 21st Century Fox's film and television studios, which would thereby result in the film rights to the X-Men and associated characters reverting to Marvel Studios. Disney CEO Bob Iger later confirmed that the X-Men would be integrated into the MCU alongside the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer and Deadpool. The acquisition was completed on March 20, 2019.