10 Stupid Comic Book Movie Deaths That Should Never Have Happened

Just how pointless was it to kill Jean Grey in X2: X-Men United? So pointless that the junior novelization retconned it so that she lived. When even the knock-off book for middle schoolers can make more narrative sense than a big-budget movie, it might be time to conduct a post-mortem and see where things went wrong.

At the end of the film, the X-Men retreat, battered and beaten, to the Blackbird to escape the encroaching destruction of the Alkali Lake base. As the dam breaks and a torrent rushes towards them, Jean leaves the relative safety of the jet and uses her telekinesis to simultaneously lift the craft into the air and buffer away the crashing wave. Upon her success, she lowers her hand and allows herself to be carried away by the water.

First things first: why did she have to leave the Blackbird? She very easily could have managed the same maneuver without endangering her life. Second, why did she just let herself drown after she got everyone to safety. She's telekinetic! She's THE telekinetic! She very easily could have lifted herself into the air, or at least above the level of the rushing water.

Third, it never mattered in the end anyway because the producers knew they were bringing her back for X-Men: Last Stand so they could botch up the Dark Phoenix saga.