- “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” introduces a new version of Jean Grey with mind-jumping abilities, different from her traditional telepathy and telekinesis powers.
- Jean Grey’s powers evolve throughout the movie, culminating in her unlocking her full abilities after a traumatic event, showcasing her immense control over minds and telekinesis.
- The film hints at Jean Grey becoming a powerhouse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even before officially joining the X-Men, with her abilities posing a significant challenge to heroes like Spider-Man and the Hulk.
Contains spoilers for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” gave us the best live-action Spidey in decades, and it also introduces a future member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s X-Men. After much speculation, Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) indeed joins the movie. Interestingly enough, her mutant abilities have been reimagined quite a bit — presumably because she’s still young and her powers are developing, and because the limitations the MCU narrative poses make her a far better fit for Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) street-level heroics.
The MCU Jean’s main telepathic ability is “jumping” into people, and it’s so strong that she can even use it on Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and what seems like a version of his Professor Hulk persona. This power enables her to see into her targets’ minds and control their bodies while the host’s own mind experiences a temporary blackout. While her jumps have a 30-foot radius, Jean can chain them at a rapid pace, effectively teleporting from brain to brain. If she runs out of people within the host’s projection radius, she can simply stop the jump chain and return into her own body.
Apart from the radius limitation, Jean’s powers have one caveat. Spider-Man (and, eventually, the Hulk) can resist her takeover and kick her out of their heads, possibly due to their genetic makeup being a very different beast from baseline humans.
Jean’s initial powers are weaker than her comic book abilities, but she gets there in the end
Jean Grey’s mind-jumping skill is pretty far removed from her more traditional telepathy and telekinesis-themed comic book abilities, which make her one of Marvel’s strongest omega-level mutants. This eventually changes. The movie’s endgame takes her a lot closer to the power level Jean Grey is known for in the comics – though not without a heavy price.
After Jean finds out that her telepath sister Sara (Olivia Booth-Ford) died during Damage Control’s experiments, the trauma and the rage unlocks her full powers, which are considerably more like those of her comic counterpart’s. During the film’s climax, Jean performs complex mind control feats like controlling a group of Hand ninjas in perfect coordination, keeping many thousands of New York people frozen inside a mental energy bubble, and using telekinesis with impressive precision. Her control is such that when Spider-Man takes a sniper rifle bullet the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) shot at her, Jean actually manages to keep his body going until medical professionals manage to stabilize him. Time will tell how strong Jean will become — but “Brand New Day” makes clear that she’s a powerhouse even before she joins the X-Men.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is now in theaters.
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Read the original article on Looper.
