MISTRESS OF THE ELEMENTS
[of style]
Benjamin Kissell
Storm: completely badass. Period.
WARNING!
The following article is infused with geek-commentary and stems from my undying love for (almost) all-things Storm. [Despite immense respect and love for Halle Berry, we shall just gloss right over the X-Men movies - okay? And I’ll admit up front, there are years-long gaps in my massive X-books comic collection.]
Storm, leader of the often outlaw band of misfits known as the X-Men, is not only a fantastic icon of strength, power and leadership - but one badass mother f#@ker fashion-plate unafraid to buck convention. Topping off her decades of awesomeness, with the impending Death of Wolverine in September, Storm looks to be the central-focus figure for the X-books (what with Cyclops still remembered as 'the guy who killed Professor X') [sorry for the spoiler non X-Fans ... whoops].
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Debuting in the Giant Size All-New All-Different X-Men of May 1975, Storm was a key figure from the get-go and a standout as the first African-American female co-lead in one of Marvel's main titles (X-Men returned that fall with issue 94 after years of reprint issues 67-93). Under Chris Claremont this new team centered around the complex relationships between a new team of young adults who had already survived everything from being the misfit to the maligned to the revered and how each adapted to this brave new world and all the peoples in it. Ororo Munroe was one of Claremont's first characters fully-fleshed out with an established back-story and firmly defined personality which helped catapult her into the center ring from the get-go ...
Quick Backstory Bio:
Born to David and N'Dare Munroe (a photojournalist and African Princess in-exile) in Brooklyn, Ororo spent her formative years in Cairo until a falling plane [depends on the era of the telling, sometimes it's the Six Day War, the Sinai invasion or simply a border skirmish] crashed into their apartment killing her parents and burying the 6 year old (or 5, depending on writer) Ororo in the rubble next to her mother's corpse (which incited her life-long claustrophobia). From here, she was raised in the back-alleys and streets of Cairo as a street urchin and pick pocket par-excellence until her heart called out and she began a months-long trek from the Nile Delta through the heart of Africa into Kenya. Here, as a young woman, she manifested her mutant ability to psionically manipulate the weather and was hailed as a goddess to the local tribes - it was during this time period that Professor Charles Xavier found her and recruited her (in the aforementioned Giant Size X-Men).
Come on, how could you NOT want to read about a character with this kind of backstory? Worshipped as a goddess? Awe-inspiring power? Capable of picking locks AND a super hero? From the first page of my first X-Men comic I was hooked. Storm had everything my nine year old self didn't: control. Control of self and through her leadership and powers, control of things around her.
Promo-poster detailing various Storm incarnations:
original (1975-1983), Punk (1983-88), her Asgardian garb (New Mutants Annual 1, X-Men Annual 9), iconic 1990's look (1991-96) and her modern era variant (2007-2013)
In the first Uncanny X-Men issue - a copy nabbed from Mum's comic book stash (she built it up over the years, including when she worked at Walden Books [you remember them, right?]) – I was absolutely enthralled. Despite the cover featuring some doof topped in a blond mullet (Longshot) the title splash page was all Storm. Black leather costume. Wild 80's mane of white hair. Lightning bolt across her chest. Thigh-high boots over a form-fitting, mildly-shoulder-padded costume. I was in love. She matched perfectly the uber-cool LIGHT UP [ERMHEHLERDD SHE LIGHTS UP!!!!] Storm action figure which stood on my Mum's desk at work. After reading and re-reading the issue, I “accidentally” nicked said action figure. [Mum then bought a new one for me so that hers would reappear and thus started off a life-long obsession for Storm action figures and a 7 year Toy Biz buying frenzy of X-Men toys.] Marc Silvestri's art hooked my eyes and Claremont's writing ("'Twas the Night", issue #230) took my 9 year old mind for a ride.
I decided then and there that I? Was an X-Men fan for life.
And totally #TeamStorm.
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Seriously - is this not a wall of awesomeness? People don't seem to believe we have walls full of toys ... heh. Whoops?
Check out the shelf in the center featuring no less than 13 Storms and the X-Men's blackbird.
Whether reading her as the naive-about-American-body-image ingenue (circa Classic X-Men #2 and #4), the in-your-face-stabbing-Callisto-in-the-chest-'cos-Storm-is-the-baddest-ass-amongst-a-team-of-badasses (Uncanny X-Men #170) [okay, yes, on the cartoon it was all cute and they were light sticks and whatnot but let's be real ... Storm has NO compunction with a blade and this issue? Showed that brilliantly] or even dithering over trusting a man again with her heart (Uncanny X-Men Annual #1, 2006), Storm has always been an amazing character.
Beginning with the ‘borrowed’ – [seriously, I’m sorry] – comics I nabbed from my Mum’s stash, I started amassing a veritable collection of Storm-centric issues and soon found myself doodling my own iterations of the X-Men and wannabe comics [what started, when I was 9, as the X-Kids soon became the X-Teens and evolved into X-Strike … who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to write an X-book *le sigh*]. Despite my liking Jean Grey (even loving her as the Phoenix) no other character connected with me in quite the same way – I’d draw Storm in doodles when I should have been paying attention to my teacher, but let’s be honest: who would you rather focus on, an awesome literary character who sparked your imagination or a teacher who took your Tootsie Rolls because she didn’t believe they were your lunch that day.
[Grudge still held, 21 years later.]
Thought so.
My collection began to grow as I quickly found myself on a first-name basis with each of the comic guys in the various stores in-town (bonus points for having a Mum who was as big of a comic nerd as I was); they practically salivated when we’d walk into their stores. They knew that all they would have to do is mention Storm was a “key player” or had some great art in an issue or trade paperback and it would be in my greedy little hands and I wouldn’t let it go until it was paid for. A prime example would be when I walked out the door of Penguin Comics with Classic X-Men #34 (prelude to the Dark Phoenix Saga) and the 1993 Fatal Attractions poster ostensibly as 10th birthday presents because both had lovely art of Storm front and center. [You say I wheedled my uncle into paying for them with his meager allowance, I say they were birthday gifts … poh-tay-toe, poh-tah-toe.]
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True, I loved her lengthy tresses – after all, Storm with billowing white hair is how I first encountered her – but it wasn’t long into my collection that I discovered the mid-80’s issues (1983-88) where she had embraced the conflict within and eschewed the ‘gentle goddess’ image in lieu of the most 80’s of 80’s looks – Punk. Leather and mohawk. To say that my mind was blown would be an understatement. To admit that my ridiculously long hair received a trim that summer which may or may not have been longer in the center and short on the sides miiiiiiiiiight be admitting too much. What shall be admitted is that I loved it and my insecure, picked on self knew that here was truly an icon of inner strength and self-awareness.
[Sidenote: my Mum has ALWAYS been my personal hero in these regards, but sometimes you need to just have a super hero y’know?]
Tough and beautiful; Storm was able to make a popular 'everyday' look
of the time into an iconic costume *le sigh*
This self-awareness and possession were catnip to the kid most likely to have to hide in a tree during recess to avoid the verbal (and literal) slings and arrows.
What stood out about his writing of Storm, and her fellow outlaw misfits, is that Claremont plots - he plots well and has far-sighted story-arcs for characters allowing their personalities to grow; he writes one-shots with as much depth as the storylines which pay off several years down the road AND YET would NOT regularly drag a simple story out over 4-6 issues making you feel like a bloody stooge for sitting there waiting for SOMETHING TO JUST FINALLY HAPPEN ALREADY! [Perhaps this is me just venting here, but who else is tired of comic book story-arcs taking for-freaking-ever to tell even a simple story anymore? Cross-promotion books tying in to tell the tale? I get it, you up sales but ... um ... when you can't even tell a simple self-contained story in a solo issue I take umbridge, guys. I do. ]
As my collection grew, so too did the character of Storm who developed into someone who questioned not only actions (her own as well as others') but their results. She questioned and she pushed - she exemplified what made an 80's super hero to me: someone who strove towards the ideal of good but was acutely aware of the shades of grey that fill in the space between black and white and how her actions could fall within them. For example:
- Stab Callisto in the heart to stop the battle between the X-Men and Morlocks gaining their leadership and thus saving her team? (1983) Check.
- Defend the decision to keep Wolverine on the team because of his capacity for good despite his berserker nature, violent streak and rather hard-headed attitude which pushed away teammates like Angel? (1981) Check.
- Let the world (including friends, family, ex-teammates) think the X-Men were dead because it allowed them to strike out at their enemies without entangling their loved ones (i.e. the fall-out from the Mutant Massacre) like The New Mutants and their civilian families from a base in the Australian Outback which they took from homicidal cyborg thieves? (1988) Cha-check.
- Kick major ass and kill various demonic-versions of said Marauders and their ilk while battling to save the life of an X-Man-turned-villain while New York raged in a demonic inferno ... all while sporting a seriously fierce hairdo AND shredded costume? (1989) Mother fucking check.
Yes, mistakes were made, but her journey (and that of her fellow X-Men) was one that the reader couldn't help but be drawn into. Come what may, the family that Storm was a part of was one that I wanted to be included in.
Despite never-enough Storm-heavy episodes
there were a few during the 5 season run of the X-Men Animated series
… which may or may not have influenced my childhood weird accents.
[Cute story: there is THANKFULLY no photographic evidence of me as a nine-to-ten year old playing in my backyard with my friend Jeffrey at “X-Men”. Why thankfully? Well, we weren't always content to play with our action figures and let them have all the fun. No. We'd take around-the-house items and dress up as our favorite mutants. Jeffrey would alternate between Wolverine and Cyclops and I? Was, well. DERH. I would tie my black and white Free Willy towel - a gift from Video World, thank you very much - to my wrists and pull my longer-than-average hair back to become Storm. See why I said, thankfully there's no photographic evidence? I mean, a Free Willy towel as my cape? ICK. My grown-up aesthetics are gagging as I type this. And yet, I can't help but mention that it still beats the hell out of the majority of the costumes worn in the first three X-films ... ]
Awesome print, fun team and a great adaptation of her mid-90's costume mess.
(seriously, could even two artists agree how it was drawn? )
Over the years, as I grew from outcast kid to still-pretty-awkward teen, I watched artists I was ambivalent towards leave the X-books [sorry world, I am not now nor will I ever be in love with Jim Lee] and artists I adored come along [I <3 Madureira, Pacheco and Bachalo]. Storm led her gold strike force through each of the summer blockbuster cross-overs and I still held Storm and the X-Men in my heart (and my mother's pocketbook). By 1998 with the return of Nightcrawler and Shadowcat from across the pond [Excalibur was one weird but fun run - I don't regret collecting a single issue] [also? What's up with taking her codename away now? Seriously, half the women on the teams these days go by their names; Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey ... GAH!] and the return of Pacheco art I was firmly entrenched in back-log collecting and keeping up with the rambunctious and ever-expanding family of X-Men ... as long as each story or character somehow/someway tied back to Storm. I was set. I was golden.
What can I say? I had my priorities.
That is, until I didn't. Until 2000 and the release of the X-Men movie.
Now, as a polite – and hoping to avoid libel suits – writer, the less said, the better about the 2000-2006 X-books, tv series, movies and universe as a whole.
Skipping ahead.
Of course, by late 2006 I had already fallen back on the wagon and was buying the new X-books featuring Storm with renewed gusto and collecting the graphic novels compiling my favorite weather goddess' adventures. The fact that from 2007-2011 I worked in a bookstore and had a discount on them didn't hurt this, either. [Also? Full circle there - Mum had begun my X-Men obsession with books she'd brought home when working in a bookstore.]
I may have turned my back on the X-Men for a few years, but between working in Borders and stepping into my new local comic shop I vowed I would never do so again.
In fact, in 2012, the first time I hung out with my not-yet-then boyfriend fiance one of the first things we did was peruse the new issues at said comic shop together. By the time we began dating in 2013 our connection over Storm and the X-Men [and as mentioned in previous articles, He-Man and She-Ra] was one of the things which firmly cemented that we were each dating ourselves and perfect for one another.
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Cover to the debut issue of Storm.
>SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!<
The culmination of a life-long [okay, just 20+ years ... give or take, okay?] obsession/love/adoration/other less creepy sounding words comes this summer with the release of Greg Pak and Victor Ibanez' beginning of the amazing ... the ultimate ... the stupendous ... (and hopefully long-running) Storm solo series. Just in time for my 31st birthday (in case you needed any prompting).
I already pre-ordered copies at my local comic shop. Have you?
GUUUUURRLLLLLLLLLLL ...
Hell, even Magneto recognizes that you'd be a fool to miss out on the new Storm series ...
This has been such an enjoyable read! THANKS FOR THE NERDGASM!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Al Fergus | 08/12/2014 at 05:16 AM