Black History Month Superhero #6: Storm
Name: Storm
First Appearance: Giant Size X-Men #1 (1975)
Bio:
Now back in 1971 there was a black female superhero named Butterfly, who had two brief appearances in the Atomic Comics. Her run was short and she’s easily forgotten although she is the true first black female superhero. We’ll also forget when Lois Lane was turned into a black woman temporarily to see what life was like from the perspective of a black woman. The award of the first black female superhero in a mainstream comic is Storm!
Before we get to her we need to look at the impact and inception of X-Men. X-Men was always big on diversity and never shied away from civil rights issue. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are to be credited with this team’s creation.
“I wanted them to be diverse. The whole underlying principal of the X-Men was to try to be an anti-bigotry story to show there’s good in every person.” — Stan Lee
The X-Men were created in 1963 during the Civil Rights Movement and the commentary was very real. X-Men comic books have often showed mutants as victims of mob violence similarly evoking images of the lynching of African Americans from the 1800s to the late 1950s.
The mutants symbolized blacks, Jews and other marginalized groups and the plights they faced centered around bigotry, prejudice, and blind hatred to highlight what was happening right in the U.S. and promote empathy, inclusion and equality.
The comparisons specific characters receive now weren’t initially on purpose, Professor X has been compared to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and Magneto to being the more militant Malcolm X. During X-Men’s second wave in 1975 they introduced a new team of characters, Wolverine (who had only appeared once in Hulk), Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird and our star for the day Storm!
Ororo Munroe AKA Storm is a descendent of African witch priestesses. Her mom, a Kenyan princess, married an American photographer (hence her American last name) and moved to New York. She was born in Harlem but moved to Egypt when she was six months. When she was five her parents were killed in an Arab-Israeli conflict and she was buried under the rubble from her home next to her deceased mother. This is what caused her notorious claustrophobia which plagues her throughout her time as a member of the X-Men.
Now an orphan, she roamed the streets of Cairo and became a skilled thief and actually pick pocketed Professor Xavier while he was in the area fighting the Shadow King. Her powers to control the weather didn’t manifest until she turned 12 and she began using her powers to help other tribes where she began to be worshipped as a goddess of rain. Professor Xavier heard of what she was doing and returned to Africa to convince her to use her powers to help the entire world with him and his team. She quickly became of of his most trusted students and routinely served as the X-Men’s team leader.
Storm is one of the most prominent X-Men characters, appearing in countless stories and in every cartoon television series created about the group. In the comics, after studying under Xavier and working with the X-Men for years she returned to Africa to help her people and eventually married Black Panther (T’Challa!). She was known as The Mutant Queen of Wakanda and actually took over as the sole ruler of Wakanda once Doctor Doom critically injured T’Challa. They had a great relationship but things went south when they ended up on opposite ends during the Civil War storyline.
If you’re like me you grew up on the TV series that launched in 1992 which had the best theme song EVER. The X-Men animated series was critically acclaimed receiving the highest ratings with its main rival being Batman the Animated Series (my personal number one). Storm kicked all kinds of butt in that series and we were able to see the multi-ethnic group work together against the same prejudice they’ve been fighting since the 60s.
Regarding the X-Men films….fans of X-Men are pretty divided on how they feel about the films and although I think Halle Berry was a strong Storm it drives me nuts that she had an accent in the first movie, a half-ass accent in X2, and no accent in X-Men: Last Stand. Alexandra Shipp was alright as Storm in X-Men Apocalypse although the film was a disappointment overall. I’m waiting for a great on screen version of Storm and years ago I said Taraji P. should play her but she’s a little older now.
Powers:
DON’T. PISS. STORM. OFF.
She is known as one of the most powerful mutants on earth. She can control ALL forms of weather in various environments. Rain, snow, sleet, fog, hail and most popular lightning. She can also manipulate the weather in extraterrestrial ecosystems. Yes, weather in SPACE.
Storm is sensitive to the dynamics of the natural world, and her powers over weather are impacted by her emotions. One of the consequences of this special connection she has to nature is that she has to suppress her extreme feelings to keep her emotional state from resulting in violent weather.
DON’T. PISS. STORM. OFF.
She can separate water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen through electrolysis, which gives her the power to breathe underwater (WHAT??). She can alter her visual perceptions so as to see the universe in terms of energy patterns. She can sense the flow of kinetic, thermal and electromagnetic energy behind weather phenomena and can she can freaking bend that energy to her will.
She can tweak the temperature of the environment, humidity and moisture at the molecular level, control atmospheric pressure, and in all honesty there’s a bunch more she can do but she doesn’t need to use it since she’s a master in a bunch of different hand to hand combat techniques. She’ll break your face without her powers. That’s how legit Storm is.
A royal, powerful, highly skilled and intelligent, beautiful, black female superhero sends a message that is against the narrative that has been historically seen about black women in the media. We’ve gotten a lot of the “Mmmmm guuuuurl” neck snapping caricatures, smart mouth, “sassy”, sarcastic stereotypes that get imitated and mocked by the majority (seriously, stop), but I have many more Storms in my life and I wish we had more of them represented since our people are dynamic and not one-sided, especially our women. This is why a character like Storm is important and hopefully we can see more dynamic fictional characters created to reflect that. We’re getting there.
