Wolverine #8 is the 400th issue of Wolverine solo comics, and Marvel has hyped up the huge changes to Wolverine’s past the book makes. The book has three stories in it. The first deals with the end of the Adamantine story arc, as Wolverine faces against his ancient foe Romulus empowered by the Adamantine, the metal of the gods. The last story is an amazing samurai romp by Daniel Warren Johnson that makes me really want him to do a full Wolverine story, but the second story is the one that we’re going to talk about. In that story, the villain Arcade kidnaps Wolverine’s Wendigo sidekick Leonard, trying to get the teen to give in to his darker impulses while torturing him. Arcade sticks Wolverine in one of his patented death traps, and while he’s negotiating the traps, he thinks of his relationship with Jean Grey when Arcade uses her in his trap, saying that while he loves her, there’s nothing there.
The relationship between Wolverine and Jean Grey is one of the most important in the history of the X-Men. While they’ve never technically been together in the 616 universe — although they were an item in The Age of Apocalypse until Wolverine became the new Apocalypse — their will they-won’t they relationship has played a huge role in multiple X-Men stories. Jean is mostly known for being with Cyclops, but he’s not the only boyfriend Jean Grey has had. In fact, the Krakoa Era went in a very interesting direction with the Wolverine/Jean Grey/Cyclops relationship, one which this newest development changes the tenor of, breaking the hearts of many Wolverine fans.
Wolverine and Jean Grey’s Relationship Is Extremely Complicated
Wolverine had a crush on Jean Grey from the beginning, although it wouldn’t be until 1986’s Classic X-Men (Vol. 1) #1, a series reprinting old issues of X-Men/Uncanny X-Men with an all-new back-up in every issue, that we would see them alone. This showed Wolverine hitting on her away from the rest of team in “First Night”. Years later, fans would find out why Wolverine was so obsessed with Jean Grey — she resembled his first love Rose, a young woman who served as his nurse and best friend in the early years of his life. Wolverine’s frankly creepy early relationship with Jean Grey meant that him and Cyclops had a huge feud over the whole thing, giving the early years of the All-New, All-Different X-Men the right kind of drama. Wolverine and Jean did eventually become friends, both of them admitting at times that they did love each other, but both of them knew it wouldn’t work. Wolverine’s reaction to Jean Grey’s death in New X-Men #150, the issue that kicked off her longest death, was exactly what everyone expected, beheading Xorneto (look, it’s complicated, but basically a dude named Xorn pretended to be Magneto, which is a retcon because it was originally the actual Magneto). Her return to life in 2018’s Phoenix Resurrection happened during the period that Wolverine was dead, replaced by Old Man Logan on the X-Men, but he would return in Return of Wolverine while she was pulled into an alternate universe in Age of X-Man.
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The two of them would be reunited in Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #22, but readers wouldn’t see them together again until House of X. This book ended with Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Cyclops rather close. X-Men (Vol. 5) #1 would show the map to Summers House, the home of the Summers built on the Moon, which had all three of their bedrooms connected. This led to readers believing they were a throuple, and their appearances in both X-Men (Vol. 5) and X-Force (Vol. 6) played into this. It seemed that Jean and Wolverine, at least, were together during the early years of the Krakoa Era in some kind of romantic relationship. The captions in Wolverine #8 seem to throw this into doubt, saying that Wolverine and Jean are merely “old friends and that’s all.” The canonicity of Wolverine’s Krakoa Era relationship with Jean has always been questioned, but it looks like it was mostly just them being very close friends.
The End… For Now?
A lot of X-Men fans hate the relationship between Wolverine and Jean Grey. X-Men fan spaces are always full of people complaining about it, but there are some Wolverine fans who actually like the two of them when they’re together. So, this newest development will make the haters of this relationship happy, but it’s definitely heartbreaking for fans who actually liked the two of them together.
So, does this panel put the relationship between Wolverine and Jean in the Krakoa Era in doubt? Well, let’s be real — Marvel basically moved as far away as they could from any romantic relationship between Wolverine and Jean after Jonathan Hickman left the X-Men books. The two of them did share embraces and kisses, but it looks like Marvel — or at least Tom Brevoort’s X-Men office — wants to make sure that fans know that there is nothing going on between Wolverine and Jean Grey currently, and also there was nothing going on between them in the past. However, after this regressive editorial regime is gone, the status of their relationship will almost certainly change.
Wolverine #8 is out now.
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