Jean’s two familiar abilities, telekinesis and telepathy, also need to be kept separate. Moving something with her mind and entering somebody else’s thoughts aren’t interchangea…

Jean’s two familiar abilities, telekinesis and telepathy, also need to be kept separate. Moving something with her mind and entering somebody else’s thoughts aren’t interchangeable, even if both look like Jean concentrating while something happens around her. The earlier Marvel Girl stories lean heavily on telekinesis. Her telepathic abilities become part of the picture as her history develops, and those abilities have their own restrictions and changes. After her return for X-Factor, she initially has her telekinesis without her old telepathy. She doesn’t arrive with every psychic ability available at full strength just because everyone remembers how powerful Phoenix was. That distinction matters when looking at how she contributes to a team. If someone is trapped, a physical barrier needs to be held back, or an attack needs to be intercepted, her telekinesis can directly affect what happens. Psychic communication involves another set of possibilities, along with the problem of being exposed to things inside someone else’s mind. There’s also a difference between using enormous force and using a power precisely. A small, careful action can be the thing that keeps someone alive. Jean’s history gives plenty of reasons to pay attention to that side of her instead of treating every appearance as a question of how much bigger a display of power she can produce.