How Powerful Is Jean Grey In The MCU Compared To Sentry & Franklin Richards?

Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Jean Grey’s introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Spider-Man: Brand New Day has raised questions over who is the more powerful between her, Franklin Richards, and Sentry. The MCU timeline has never exactly been short on powerful characters. From Thor summoning continent-shaking lightning storms to Scarlet Witch rewriting reality in WandaVision, each new phase of the MCU has introduced heroes and villains capable of pushing the franchise's power scale to new extremes.

However, 2025 dramatically changed the conversation. The arrival of Sentry in Thunderbolts* introduced a character whose abilities rival some of the most powerful beings in Marvel history. Robert Reynolds brought a level of raw power that made even longtime MCU heavyweights look comparatively grounded. Then, shortly afterward, Fantastic Four: First Steps introduced Franklin Richards, a character comic readers know is potentially one of the most powerful individuals Marvel has ever created.

Now Spider-Man: Brand New Day has added another major player to the mix with Jean Grey. Unlike Sentry, who arrived with his incredible abilities already established, or Franklin Richards, whose greatest powers remain largely unrealized on-screen, Jean's story feels like it's only beginning. Indeed, the ending strongly suggests that what audiences have seen so far is merely the tip of the iceberg.

That raises an interesting question over where Jean ranks in terms of power. The answer is complicated because the MCU version of Jean remains in the early stages of her development. Nevertheless, both Brand New Day and decades of Marvel Comics history provide some fascinating clues about how she compares to Sentry and Franklin Richards – and how powerful she could eventually become in the MCU's future.

Jean Grey's MCU Power Level Compared To Sentry

At the moment, Sentry still appears to be more powerful than Jean Grey in the MCU. The biggest reason is simply scale. In his MCU appearances, Sentry has demonstrated immense physical strength, durability, speed, energy projection, and near-godlike combat capabilities. His powers make him a one-person Avengers team. He is operating on a level where conventional superheroes struggle to affect him at all, particularly when the Void is unleashed.

Jean's abilities in Spider-Man: Brand New Day are impressive, but they function differently. Throughout the movie, she primarily relies on telepathy. She reads minds, communicates mentally across long distances, influences people, and uses her psychic abilities to gather information. During the climax, however, Jean unlocks far greater telepathic abilities and her telekinesis, allowing her to manipulate objects and exert force on a scale previously unseen in the film.

The problem for Jean in a direct comparison is that Sentry's power set is much broader. Telepathy is an obvious advantage. Jean could potentially attack Sentry mentally in ways that many heroes cannot. However, MCU audiences have not yet seen her demonstrate the kind of planet-shaking psychic power necessary to definitively overpower someone operating at Sentry's level.

Comic-book Jean Grey has repeatedly reached power levels that rival or exceed Sentry, particularly when enhanced by the Phoenix Force. At her strongest, Jean has fought cosmic entities, manipulated matter on an enormous scale, and wielded power capable of threatening entire star systems.

Without Phoenix-level enhancements, though, Sentry's combination of overwhelming physical and energy-based abilities generally gives him the edge. For now, MCU Jean appears below Sentry overall, even if she possesses abilities that could make her uniquely dangerous to him.

How Powerful Jean Grey Is Compared To Franklin Richards

Franklin Richards is where things become much more complicated. The MCU version remains largely unexplored, making any direct comparison somewhat speculative. What audiences know, however, is enough to suggest that Franklin could eventually surpass almost everyone else in the franchise when he revived the dead Sue Storm after drawing the attention of Galactus.

Comic readers certainly know that's true. In Marvel Comics, Franklin is routinely described as one of the most powerful mutants ever born. His abilities extend far beyond telepathy or telekinesis into full-scale reality manipulation and universe creation.

Over the years, he has altered reality, manipulated time, reshaped matter, restored entire worlds, and performed feats that place him in the same conversations as cosmic entities such as Galactus, Eternity, and the Celestials. Jean Grey is unquestionably one of Marvel's most powerful mutants, but even Phoenix-powered versions of Jean are often portrayed as operating within a different category from Franklin.

Jean's abilities primarily revolve around the mind and the manipulation of matter and energy through telekinesis. Franklin's abilities allow him to fundamentally rewrite reality itself. If Jean moves a mountain, Franklin could potentially decide the mountain never existed.

At present, Jean is clearly more experienced and more developed than MCU Franklin. Long-term, however, Franklin may ultimately occupy a tier that almost no other character can reach.

How Much Stronger Jean Grey Could Become In The MCU

The really fascinating part of this discussion is that Spider-Man: Brand New Day strongly suggests Jean hasn't even begun approaching her full potential. It repeatedly emphasizes that her powers are evolving. For most of the story, Jean appears primarily as a telepath. By the climax, she suddenly develops significantly stronger abilities and demonstrates levels of power that even she seems surprised by.

Brand New Day treats these developments less like an endpoint and more like the beginning of something much larger. That mirrors Jean's comic-book history remarkably well.

In Marvel Comics, Jean's powers continually expand throughout her life. She begins as straightforward telepathy but gradually develops into one of the most formidable mutant power sets in existence. Her telekinesis becomes powerful enough to manipulate matter at extraordinary scales, while her psychic abilities allow her to affect countless minds simultaneously.

Then there is the obvious elephant in the room: the Phoenix Force. Although Brand New Day never explicitly references the cosmic entity, many aspects of Jean's portrayal feel like groundwork for an eventual Phoenix storyline. Her rapidly increasing power, emotional intensity, and struggle to control her abilities all echo elements of classic X-Men stories.

When the MCU eventually introduces the Phoenix Force, Jean's ranking changes dramatically. Comic-book Phoenix Jean routinely operates on a cosmic scale. Dark Phoenix consumed a star, destroyed an inhabited solar system, and forced the X-Men to confront a threat unlike anything they had ever faced. Few Marvel characters can consistently compete with that level of power.

Even without the Phoenix Force, however, Jean's future looks extraordinary. Right now, Sentry appears stronger, and Franklin Richards likely possesses the highest long-term ceiling. But Brand New Day presents Jean as a character whose powers are still developing. What audiences witnessed was not the finished product. If Marvel follows the trajectory established by the comics after Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Jean Grey may eventually become one of the MCU's most powerful heroes – and one of its most dangerous.