It's Officially the End of an X-Men Icon – And It Is Heartbreaking

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The following contains major spoilers for Binary #2, on sale November 5 from Marvel Comics.

Jean Grey's tragic end in the Age of Revelation has finally been revealed, and it has completely changed Carol Danvers' life.

A preview of Binary #1 (by Stephanie Phillips, Giada Belviso, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC's Travis Lanham) brings readers to the very first year of the Age of Revelation, when Jean Grey took to the stars in a last-ditch effort to save the rest of the universe from the threat of the X-Virus. To form and maintain a barrier between Earth and the rest of the cosmos, Jean sacrificed her own life. Fortunately, Jean wasn't alone in her final moments, as Jean's longtime friend and the current Phoenix, Carol Danvers, was right there at her side through all of it.

Binary #2

Written by STEPHANIE PHILLIPS
Art by GIADA BELVISO
Colors by RACHELLE ROSENBERG\
Letters by VC's TRAVIS LANHAM
Design by JAY BOWEN
Main cover art by RICKIE YAGAWA
Variant covers by CORIN HOWELL & RACHELLE ROSENBERG; JACOPO CAMIGNI; and JUNGGEUN YOON

Introduced all the way back in 1963's X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Jean Grey has been counted among Marvel Comics' most prominent mutant heroes from the very beginning. Unfortunately, she, like so many others, has found nothing but pain and suffering in the Age of Revelation. Set ten years from the present of the primary Marvel Universe, the Age of Revelation follows in the wake of Douglas Ramsey's transformation into the event's eponymous heir to Apocalypse and his subsequent attempt to remake the entire world into a purported mutant utopia.

During Binary #1, readers discovered that Carol Danvers had not only taken on the impossible power that is the Phoenix Force, but she had also gone back to embracing her former alter-ego as Binary. While Carol has taken it upon herself to protect her hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts, from the X-Virus that ravaged so much of the rest of the globe, doing so has made her into a pariah amongst her fellow residents, many of whom now see her as their jailer rather than their savior. In fact, the situation has grown so dire that some residents of Beverly have taken it upon themselves to try and end Captain Marvel's life, albeit to absolutely zero degrees of success.

As horrifying as the Age of Revelation might be, it is made all the worse by the fact that, at least as of now, it is a vision of the future to come for the Marvel Universe fans know best. Back in September, Executive Editor and Conductor of X for Marvel Comics Tom Brevoort confirmed, "As far as we're approaching this, these are all legitimate futures. This isn't a What If world. These things exist, as far as even the present-day characters are concerned. So, you’ll see a certain amount of reflectivity in what happens." Brevoort also stated, "Going into January and beyond, we’re kind of in the shadow of tomorrow, where the events going forward will all kind of live in the umbra of these events that we have just witnessed."

Binary #2 goes on sale November 5 from Marvel Comics.