Artgerm's relaunching the X-Men franchise under superstar writer Jonathan Hickman, who has a plan that he expects to span years.
The story has begun in the House of X and Powers of X miniseries, both of which serve as setup for the Hickman era. So far, it's hard to say quite where the story's going; each issue contains a number of unexpected twists and turns, ranging from major character deaths that surely won't last. When the dust settles in October, Hickman will relaunch the X-Men franchise with a new flagship X-Men book.
Naturally, Marvel Comics has hired some high-quality artists to run some stunning variant covers for the first issues. Stanley "Artgerm" Lau has been commissioned to create a beautiful X-Men #1 variant cover featuring Jean Grey in her new/old Marvel Girl costume. The Marvel Girl costume is a classic one that dates back to the '60s, and it's one of the most fondly-ed ones. The yellow mask, gloves and boots were adapted from the original X-Men training uniforms, but the costume move away from form-fitting superhero spandex to a much more flattering, feminine green dress.
It was a one-piece, but it still featured a belt for decorative purposes; the color changed a few times, but the buckle always had an X in the center. Artgerm captures the look perfectly, and his variant cover shows Jean Grey stepping through a Krakoan portal into a wooded area.
the X-Men of Hickman's House of X book are actually Krakoan clones, which would perhaps explain the costume choice; Jean Grey was wearing the classic Marvel Girl costume when she first encountered Krakoa in the classic Giant-Size X-Men #1. If that's the case, of course, it's entirely possible that this version of Jean Grey isn't the real one - but she certainly seems to possess all Jean's powers, and a very similar personality too.
Marvel's official solicit for X-Men #1 states that Jonathan Hickman and Lenil Yu will "reveal the saga of Cyclops and his hand-picked squad of mutant powerhouses." Amusingly, Cyclops' team basically seems to be the entire Summers family, plus Wolverine, meaning both he and Jean Grey will be in the first issue.
