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This article is about the X-Men character. For the British/Dutch comic book character of the same name, see Storm (Don Lawrence).

Storm
[[Image:TurnerNonFreeImageRemoved.svg<|180px]] Detail from the variant cover of Black Panther #18. Art by Michael Turner.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975)
Created by	Len Wein Dave Cockrum
In-story information
Alter ego	Ororo Munroe
Team affiliations	Black Panther, X-Men, Morlocks, Hellfire Club, X-Treme Sanctions Executive
Abilities	Weather manipulation Flight Invulnerable to the effects of the weather and extreme heat and cold Posesses latent natural magic abilities

Storm (real name Ororo Munroe) is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero and a prominent member of the X-Men. She was created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, and first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), becoming one of the first black female superheroes.

Storm has the mutant power to control the weather and can fly at high speeds. She was consistently a member of some X-Men battalion from 1975 on, often serving as the team’s leader. She has been featured in almost every X-Men animated series and video game and has a theme ride named after her at the Universal Orlando Resort. Actress Halle Berry plays her in the X-Men films.

Publication history

1970s

Giant-Size X-Men #1, 1975. Art by Gil Kane & Dave Cockrum. Storm is flying in the top right-hand corner.

Storm, a.k.a. Ororo Munroe first appeared in 1975 in the famous Giant Size X-Men #1 comic, written by Len Wein and pencilled by Dave Cockrum, in which a battle against the living island Krakoa is used to replace the all-WASP, first-generation X-Men of the 1960s with a slew of international X-Men.Storm was an amalgamation of several characters Cockrum intended to use for the Legion of Superheroes. In an 1999 interview, Cockrum said:

“ The original black female in the group was to have been called The Black Cat. She had Storm's costume but without the cape, and a cat-like haircut with tufts for ears. [...A]ll of a sudden all of these other female cat characters had sprung up—Tigra, The Cat, Pantha—so I figured that we'd better overhaul this one! She wound up getting white hair, the cape, and becoming Storm. [...] I wanted to put the white hair on her, everybody said that she'd wind up looking like somebody's grandmother. I said, "Trust me." ”

Chris Claremont, who followed up Wein as the writer of the flagship title Uncanny X-Men in 1975, embraced Storm and started writing many X-Men stories (most prominently the Dark Phoenix Saga), with Storm as an important supporting character. This was a harbinger of things to come, as Claremont stayed the main writer of that comic book for the next 16 years and conseqentially wrote the most of the publications containing Storm.

In Uncanny X-Men #102 (December 1976), Claremont established her backstory. Ororo's mother, N'Dare, is the princess of a tribe in Kenya and the descendant of a long line of Africans with white hair, blue eyes and a natural gift for sorcery, which Storm's Egyptian ancestor, Ashake, is expert in. N'Dare falls in love with and marries African American photojournalist David Munroe. They move to Harlem in uptown New York City, where they have Ororo, and then to Egypt during the Suez War, where they are killed in a botched aircraft attack and leave six-year-old Ororo as an orphan. There, her violent claustrophobia is also established, result of being buried under tons of rubble after that attack. She then becomes a skilled thief in Cairo under the benign Achmed el-Gibar, and wanders into the Serengeti as a young woman, where she is worshipped as a goddess before Professor X recruits her for the X-Men.

Claremont further fleshed out her backstory in Uncanny X-Men #117 (January 1979), retroactively adding that Professor X (who had recruited her in Giant Size X-Men #1 of 1975, see above) already meets her when she is a child street thief in Cairo. In the following years, Claremont portrayed Storm as a serene, independent character. Although Storm initially is written having trouble adjusting to Western culture, particularly the sort represented by her sometimes-vicious teammate Wolverine, she finds a home and family among the X-Men such as telepath / telekinetic Jean Grey and steel-skinned Piotr Rasputin who become not only her best friends, but also a surrogate sister and brother.

1980s

Claremont established Storm as the leader of the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #139 (November 1980), a position she has held in various incarnations ever since. He wrote Storm as a strong, independent character, who especially harbours motherly feelings for the youngest X-Man, 13-year old Kitty Pryde. In Marvel Team-Up #100 (December 1980), Claremont wrote a short story in which he retroactively established that Storm, then 12 years old, saves a young Black Panther from racist thugs when they both are in Kenya. This story would later become a base for later writers to establish a deeper relationship between both characters.

In the early eighties, adventures of Storm written by Claremont included fighting the parasitic Aliens-inspired aliens called the Brood, in which Storm is infected with a Brood egg and contemplates suicide, but then experiences a last-minute save by the benign Acanti aliens. Furthermore, in the Morlocks story line of 1983, in Uncanny X-Men #170 (June 1983), Storm fights super-strong mutant Callisto for the leadership of the disfigured mutants, beats her by impaling her through the heart and almost kills her.

[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg<|thumb|150px|left|Storm in her punk look (Uncanny X-Men #223, art by Kerry Gammill.)]] In Uncanny X-Men #173, October 1983, a notable move was made by changing Storm's outward appearance: writer Claremont and artist Paul Smith created a new look, abandoning her old costume for black leather top and pants, and changing her former veil of white hair into a punk mohawk. In the story, Storm's outlook on life darkens after her struggles with the Brood. Claremont further stirred up matters when he wrote an arc in which her soon-to-be romantic interest, Forge, develops a mutant power neutralizing gun. The intended target is fellow X-Man Rogue, who had been written by Claremont as a character with a criminal backstory. Therefore, she is still believed to be a terrorist, and in addition recently has attacked S.H.I.E.L.D agents. When the shady U.S. government operative Henry Gyrich aims at Rogue, he accidentally hits Storm, taking away her powers. Forge saves Storm from death and takes her back to his home in Dallas, Texas to recover. With his help, she adjusts to life without her powers, and they slowly fall in love. When she finds out Forge has built it (she accidentally overhears a phone conversation between Forge and Gyrich), she is heartbroken and leaves him.

However, Claremont wrote further arcs that established her character strength, most notably that power loss did not lead her to being a lesser fighter. In Uncanny X-Men #201 (1986), he let depowered Storm win against Cyclops for the leadership of the X-Men.

In the late eighties, Claremont wrote arcs in which Storm temporarily joins the shady Hellfire Club (1987), is trapped in another dimension with Forge and regains her elemental powers as well as her long hair, is captured and rendered amnesiac by the evil robot Nanny, is hunted by the evil telepath Shadow King and framed for murder, and finally returns to thieving before regaining her memories back. In one well-known arc, The X-Tinction Agenda, she is kidnapped to the mutant-exploiting fictional nation of Genosha and is temporarily transformed into a brainwashed mutate, but then regains her memory.

1990s

In October 1991, the X-Men franchise was relaunched, centering on the new adjectiveless X-Men (vol. 2) comic. Claremont wrote her as the leader as the X-Men's Gold Team (the other team, Blue, was led by Cyclops). When Claremont, left the X-Men comic after 16 years since his debut in Uncanny X-Men #94 (1975), he was replaced by Jim Lee, who continued portraying her in this fashion. In the sister title Uncanny X-Men, now under Scott Lobdell, Lobdell made Forge propose to Storm in 1992, but due to a misunderstanding, Lobdell made Forge rescind his offer before Storm could say yes. Lobdell waited until November 1993 before he made a deeply hurt Storm and Forge make up with each other.

In 1995, Lobdell then wrote an arc which pitted the X-Men against the Morlocks again. As with Callisto decades before, Lobell let Storm end the battle by again mortally wounding her opponent at the heart, this time ripping out the heart of the Morlock girl Marrow, who had fixed a bomb to it. Marrow would survive due to her second heart, and would later regret her actions, make up with Storm and join the X-Men.

In February 1996, Storm got her first miniseries, the eponymous Storm #1-#4 (writer Warren Ellis, February - May 1996). In these four issues, Ellis wrote a story in whic Storm is sucked into an alternate dimension and pitted against villain Mikhail Rasputin.

2000s

[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg<|left|The marriage of Storm and the Black Panther. Front cover for Black Panther #18 (2006), by Frank Cho.|thumb]] In X-Treme X-Men (July 2001), conceived by a newly-reinstated Chris Claremont, Storm was written the leader of this team of more street-wise X-Men (as opposed to its sister titles, Uncanny X-Men and New X-Men, which featured more straight-laced X-Men). In the period until its end in issue #46 (June 2004), Claremont continued to write her as the central character. Storm enjoys a brief flirtation with younger fellow X-Man Slipstream, is kidnapped by the intergalactic warlord Khan who wants to make her his queen, but she manages to defeat him. She also becomes leader of the X-Treme Sanctions Executive, a special police task force of mutants policing mutants given worldwide authority.

In the 2005 House of M storyline of Brian Michael Bendis, due to the Scarlet Witch's magicks, 98% of the mutants lost their powers, but Storm did not lose hers.

Further Storm storylines involved a repeated use of retcon. In the 2005 Mark Sumerak miniseries Ororo: Before the Storm #1-#4, her backstory with Achmed el-Gibar was retold in more detail. In 2006, Marvel Comics decided to marry Ororo with fellow African super hero Black Panther. Collaborating writer Eric Jerome Dickey explained that it was a move to explicitly target the female and African-American audience. In order to execute this sudden change of status quo — under Claremont and Lobdell, Storm had been written nurturing a long-standing relationship with fellow X-Men Forge — the writers based the romance on one short story written 25 years ago, namely Marvel Team-Up #100 (1980, see above). Collaborating writer Axel Alonso (editor of Black Panther) even went so far to state: "Eric's story, for all intents and purposes (...) is Ororo's origin story", acknowledging they were rewriting her history.. Remarkably, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada was highly supportive of this marriage, stating it was the Marvel Comics equivalent of the marriage of "Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles", and he expected both characters to emerge strengthened. In comparison, Quesada is critical of the Marvel Comics marriage of Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson, feeling that on a "story level, Spider-Man gets harmed".

Historical significance

Main article: African characters in comics

In historical perspective, Storm deserves mention because she became one of the first black superheroes in the big two comic book houses, Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Within these two companies, her 1974 debut was only preceded by a few male black characters. In Marvel Comics, preceding characters were Gabe Jones (debuted in 1963), Black Panther (1966) and Spider-Man supporting characters Joe Robertson (1967) and Luke Cage (1972). In DC Comics, she was preceded by Teen Titans member Mal Duncan who debuted in 1970 and Green Lantern wielder John Stewart (1971), but she preceded DC's other black heroes, Tyroc who debuted in 1976, and Black Lightning who debuted in 1977.

Storm shares noteable similarities with Lt. Uhura from the popular science fiction series Star Trek, who first appeared nine years before in 1966. Uhura is also a black female, has a similar name and is also written as a character with Kenyan origins. In an 2003 essay, PopMatters columnist Lynne D. Johnson regards them as the two prime examples of black female pop culture figures. In her text, she makes the point that despite best intentions, popular culture often depicts black women in a stereotyped way: either as a talented, but harmless entertainer (Uhura) or as a tough, highly attractive enforcer (Storm).

In 2006, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada called Storm "one of the greatest female characters ever and certainly the greatest African character ever conceived".

Powers and abilities

[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg<|215px|left|thumb|Storm X-Treme X-Men #36 cover, by Salvador Larroca.]] When Len Wein and Dave Cockrum created Storm in 1975, they designed her as a mutant with the psionic ability to control the weather, especially with the gift to summon her eponymous storms. When using her powers, artists have consistently depicted that her eyes illuminate a white color and aura.

Subsequent writers have made liberal use of her weather manipulating powers. Marvel.com states that she can control wind, lightning, summon all manner of precipitation, reduce the temperature of her environment and fly at high speeds. Her powers also work the other way, enabling her to calm all weather precipitations. Storm is also portrayed as highly immune to the effects of all weather, most notably lightning and extreme heat and cold, and she can alter her visual perceptions so as to see the universe as multi-colored energy patterns and the factors behind weather. Her abilities are limited by her willpower and strength of her body, and she cannot summon completely unnatural precipitations.

Ever since Chris Claremont established her backstory in Uncanny X-Men #102 (December 1976), Storm is consistently portrayed as a skilled thief and a gifted hand-to-hand fighter. She is fluent in both Arabic and Swahili. Storm always carries with her a set of lock-picks and her ancestral ruby, which is capable of inter-dimensional transportation with the help of Ororo's lightning.

In addition, since the same Uncanny X-Men #102 issue, Storm has been portrayed as being violently claustrophobic. Over the decades, writers have often used this as a plot device in order to trap Storm. Storm is also emotionally attuned to the weather; when she is very angry, it has been underlined by writers by having a storm brew up above her. In Black Panther #21 (2006) by writer Reginald Hudlin, she is hinted to be a possible so-called Omega-level mutant, a fictional description for mutants of the ultimate power level. Hudlin made Iron Man and the X-Men hint at this, even letting them compare her to the world-devouring Phoenix.

Other versions

Ultimate Storm

[[Image:UltimateNonFreeImageRemoved.svg<|150px|left|thumb|Ultimate Storm, in a detail from the cover for Ultimate X-Men #8. Art by Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove.]] In the Ultimate Marvel continuity of Ultimate X-Men, created by Mark Millar and Joe Quesada in February 2001, Storm, a.k.a. Ororo Munroe, is a founding member of the X-Men. In his stint until July 2003, Millar created a much more belligerent version of Storm, establishing she was an illegal immigrant from Morocco who steals cars for a living and is located in Harlem before joining the X-Men. She was also written as much less powerful: at first, she is hardly able to summon more than a lightning bolt before passing out, and still has to learn to control her powers. Her main departure from mainstream Storm is her attraction to fellow X-Man Beast, an ape-like mutant whom she loves for his intelligence. However, Millar wrote this as a troubled romance, as Beast (written as a character with a deep inferiority complex after a lifetime of ridicule) can not believe anyone could truly love him. When later writer Brian Michael Bendis killed Beast off in April 2004, Bendis let a grief-stricken Storm drastically alter her hairstyle and clothing to distance herself from her time with Beast, alluding to her mohawk hairstyle change in the mainstream version.

Subsequent writer Brian K. Vaughan wrote Storm to become more predisposed to act as the team's conscience, and letting her start a romance with Wolverine. In the Ultimate X-Men: Shock and Awe arc (2005), he inserted new elements into her backstory by establishing Yuriko "Yuri" Oyama as Storm's archenemy. In this version, Yuriko is written as a fellow thief when Storm is still a teenage thief, and their friendship ends in a motorcycle chase which Ororo halts with a sudden rainstorm; Yuri loses control, has a seemingly fatal collision with a truck and is rebuilt into a cyborg by amoral Dr. Cornelius of the mutant superweapon project Weapon X.

Current writer Robert Kirkman has continued establishing a Storm - Wolverine friendship in Ultimate X-Men: Date Night (2006).

Miscellaneous versions

• In the Age of Apocalypse universe (created 1995, various writers), Storm is a member of the X-Men, but more streetwise and tough, and her romantic interest is Quicksilver.
• In the alternate dystopian Days of Future Past storyline of Chris Claremont (1981), Storm is one of the last fighters of the mutant resistance and gets killed by a horde of robot, mutant-hunting Sentinels.
• In Uncanny X-Men #160 (August 1982, writer Chris Claremont) and in the Magik (Illyana and Storm) limited series (December 1983 - March 1984, writer Chris Claremont), an alternate Storm is introduced which lives the remaining years of her life in the demonic realm of Limbo. This Storm turns to her heritage of sorcery in old age as her power over the elements waned. She tutors Illyana Rasputin in the use of good magics and battles the demon Belasco over control of Limbo. She is killed by a demonically altered version of Kitty Pryde named Cat.
• In the alternate universe Earth X series (started 1999 by Jim Krueger), Storm is known as "Queen Storm" and is married to Black Panther, something that happens in the mainstream universe seven years later.
• In the alternate Mutant X universe (1998 - 2001, written by Howard Mackie), Storm becomes a vampire after being bitten by Dracula, becoming the demonic Bloodstorm.
• In the House of M universe by Brian Michael Bendis (2005), Storm is a Kenyan princess.
• In the alternate universe What If series, written by various writers, Storm has been portrayed as a goddess of Asgard; stays a thief and refused to join the X-Men a potential X-Men recruit targeted by Mr. Sinister, written as the shady leader of the X-Men; the wielder of the Phoenix force, calling herself Stormphoenix and being the ruthless tyrant of earth, freezing every opposition in the atmosphere; marries a fellow X-Man, the feral Wolverine and bears his daugther Kendall Logan, who becomes the hero known as Torrent, having some of her mother's control over weather as well as her father's feral abilities. A relationship between Wolverine and Storm was also shown in the X-Men animated series episode "X-Men: The Animated Series: 'One Man's Worth'" (1995).
• In other languages, Storm is known as "Tornade" (French), "Tempesta" (Italian), "Tormenta" (Spanish) or "Tempestade" (Portuguese).

Appearances in other media

Film

Halle Berry as Storm in X-Men

• Storm is played by Academy Award-winner Halle Berry in the movies X-Men (2000), X2 (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). Despite a high-profile actress like Berry in the role, Storm received little screen time in the first movie and took a backseat to characters such as Wolverine and Jean Grey. In the second film, X2, Storm had more screen time but no real story. Berry rallied for more character development, and her role was enhanced in X-Men 3. In the third movie, Storm takes over as the director of the Xavier Institute, and as the leader of the X-Men after the death of former director Professor Charles Xavier.

Television

• Storm first made guest appearances on the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends in the episodes titled "A Firestar Is Born", "The Education of a Superhero" and "The X-Men Adventure". She was voiced by Kathy Garver in "The X-Men Adventure" and Annie Lockhart in "A Firestar Is Born".
• Storm then appeared in a TV pilot that later was released on video in Pryde of the X-Men. Andi Chapman provided her voice here.
• Storm, originally voiced by Iona Morris in Season 1 and then Alison Sealy-Smith for all subsequent seasons, was featured in the X-Men animated series of the mid-1990s.
• Storm also guest starred in the Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the 1990s in first the fourth and fifth episodes of Season 2, along with all the rest of the X-Men. Then, at the nearing of the show's finale, Storm appears finally at all of the Secret Wars arc episodes. In the Spider-Man series, Storm was once again voiced by Iona Morris.
• In the animated series, X-Men: Evolution, Storm is portrayed as a teacher at Professor X's Xavier Institute and was voiced by Kristen Williamson. This incarnation parallels the original Storm in many ways, portraying her as the serene second-in-command after Professor X. In this version, she is the aunt of the X-Man, Evan Daniels aka Spyke and a member of the staff at the Xavier Institute. She also is keeper of the X-Mansion's greenhouse.

Video games

File:Storm game.gif

Storm in Marvel vs Capcom 2.

• Storm has notably appeared in most of the X-Men video games that have been released on various consoles. The most noticeable ones are Marvel vs. Capcom series and the X-Men Mutant Academy games for the Sony PlayStation.
• Most recently, she appeared in X-Men Legends and its sequel X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse for various game systems. She was voiced by Cheryl Carter in X-Men Legends and by Dawnn Lewis in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

Storm in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.

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• Ororo also appeared in the EA video game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. In this game, she is implanted with an Imperfect chip and becomes evil, but Wolverine, after defeating her with difficulty, removes the chip from her body allowing her to become a playable character.
• She appeared in the video game based on the film, X-Men: The Official Game, as a very powerful character. She is "playable" only in two missions. Her voice is supplied by Debra Wilson.
• Storm was recently confirmed as one of the more powerful playable characters who will appear in the upcoming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

Other

• Along with Doctor Doom, the Hulk, the Kingpin and Spider-Man, Storm also has a ride in Marvel Super Hero Island of Universal Studios. The ride (based on a common teacup ride) "Storm Force Acceleration", also includes strobe lights which can be seen if ridden after dark. She is the first superheroine and X-Man to have a ride named after her on Marvel Super Hero Island.

External links

• Official marvel.com page of Storm
• MDP: Storm - Marvel Database Project
• Spotlight on Storm from UncannyXMen.net
• Sounds Like a Storm's Comin