Storm #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
STORM vol 5 #2
“Death by Voodoo”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colour artist: Alex Guimarães
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
STORM:
Storm is still sick from her exposure to radiation in the previous issue; she’s coughing up blood and losing some of her hair. Nonetheless, she has no trouble taking down a group of pirates off the coast of Nigeria. the captain isn’t especially grateful. She wears a white costume for this, rather than the black one from last issue, so apparently she’s going to be cycling through the wardrobe.
For treatment, Storm heads to the Night and Daye Hospital for the Extramundane in Arkansas (see below), which she’s apparently learned about from the Avengers. The X-Men are apparently the only major superhero group not to contribute to this facility, although they’ve evidently never used it either. Still, Storm decides she ought to be making a contribution and hands over what she describes as a ruby that belonged to her mother. If this is meant to be the ruby from her 1970s costume, then that’s a continuity error, because X-Men vol 2 #60 already established that she stole that jewel from Candra. But maybe she just has two really big rubies lying around. Anyway, Storm learns that she has “radiation syndrome” which is going to kill her in six hours, and is packed off to Dr Voodoo for help.
A montage of Storm going about her business at the Storm Sanctuary seems to confirm that it’s basically an animal sanctuary.
SUPPORTING CAST:
The Night and Daye Hospital for the Extramundane is new, but has apparently been operating in the background since the days of Force Works (whose series was cancelled in 1996). The hospital is run by a Dr Daye, who says that he works in tandem with Night Nurse; we only see her in a photograph in this issue, but she’s often shown running a clinic for superhumans in New York. Daye is a mutant with diagnosis powers, but he has a grudge against the X-Men for failing to fund his hospital, even though they’ve never used it and Storm seems to know nothing about it. Daye complains about the X-Men conquering death and retreating to Krakoa, but that would be many, many years after the hospital was set up (in publication terms), and can’t really explain the X-Men’s lack of involvement with the facility up to then. According to Daye, he did come to Krakoa, but didn’t stick around because Krakoan resurrection made him unnecessary.
Dr Voodoo is normally associated with the Strange Academy cast these days, but according to Daye he’s currently “on sabbatical”. He’s certainly in Haiti rather than New Orleans.
OTHER REFERENCES:
Page 10 panel 1: “We’ve seen the Oklahoma news.” The mutant kid who accidentally blew up a power plant in the previous issue.
Page 18 panel 4: The characters in Daye’s photo, from left to right, are the Invisible Woman, Mr Fantastic, Night Nurse, Blue Marvel, Iron man, Captain Marvel, Dr Daye, a smiling guy in a suit who I think is probably Amadeus Cho, Dr Strange, Shuri, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) and Moon Knight.
Page 23 panel 3: “You! Descendant of Ashake.” Ashake is an ancient Egyptian sorceress who looks suspiciously like Storm, and who first appeared in New Mutants #32. The Official Handbook also claims Storm as the descendent of a second Ashake, an African empress who appeared in a Chris Claremont / John Bolton story in Epic Illustrated #12 (1982).
Page 23 panel 4: “You share blood with Agamatto, the first Sorcerer Supreme.” Agamotto, best known for his eponymous Eye of Agamotto artefact, is indeed the first Sorcerer Supreme; as an on-panel character, he’s possibly more familiar from Jason Aaron’s “Avengers 1 million BC” team, where he’s the Dr Strange analogue. As far as I’m aware, the suggestion that Storm is descended from Agamotto is new; but the idea that she has some sort of magical descent is not.
I find that I’m having the same problem here as I do with Phoenix – this just doesn’t feel like an X-book. There’s been such a concentrated effort to push Storm out of the core FtA storylines that this feels completely inessential; a supplemental Avengers book, maybe, but nothing to do with the X-Men. Why am I reading about Eternity (again) and Oblivion and Agamotto and Dr. Voodoo?
Maybe the idea is that the X-Men will no longer be as secluded in their own ghetto, but be more mixed up with the bigger Marvel Universe.
This issue takes decompression to a new level. A whole issue just for Storm to realize she’s dying and go to see Dr. Voodoo.
Many readers found the doctor to be unsympathetic. First, there’s no excuse not to treat a dying patient unless they’re actually violent.
Plus, did the X-Men even know of this hospital? We saw the Krakoans funding hospitals, etc.- why wouldn’t they fund a hospital whose clientele was 80 percent mutant? The whole thing is just bizarre.
The concluding sequence was just weird. We’re supposed to believe that it took Storm several hours to get to Nigeria
(couldn’t she have just asked the Imtshe somehow wound up in Haiti, where Dr. Voodoo actually was?
For what it’s worth. Ayodele claimed in an interview that the Storm Sanctuary was designed by Tony Stark, ,Riri and Moon Girl.
(Although now that I think of it. Tony building it to repay the X-Men for Emma helping get his fortune back probably makes the most sense.)
Sorry., that should be- “We’re supposed to believe that it took Storm several hours to get to Nigeria (couldn’t she have just asked the impossible City to teleport her?). she was attacked by Oblivion and she somehow wound up in Haiti, where Dr. Voodoo actually was?”
@JCG: It’s no coincidence that the X-Men’s best eras (from a purely story quality perspective) were periods when they *were* in their “own ghetto”. Being mixed up with the bigger Marvel Universe leads to Onslaught, AvX and IvX.
I have serious questions about editorial oversight on the current X-Line of comics. As noted, this hospital’s timeline is out of whack, all because of the explicit mention of Force Works.
I’m okay with a little continuity hand waving and wibbly-wobbly but there are limits.
The scene where we get a long spiel about the X-Men not funding the work in a way where it felt like it was some sort of subplot being established and Storm instantly solving the problem and him instantly accepting her solution felt unearned and made me throw up my hands.
I could imagine it will work into the plot eventually but it just felt way overcooked.
Yeah, I’m wondering if the edict from on high is “bring the X-Men into the wider Marvel universe.” That makes sense of the weird directions they’ve taken Jean and Storm, at least.
As Diana points out, that’s a terrible idea from a comic storytelling perspective. If mutants are mixed up with all the other superheroes, how do we make sense of anti-mutant sentiment? What actually makes them different than the Fantastic Four, who were mutated as adults and are publicly adored?
This is one of my favorite issues of From the Ashes so far. Not much happens in terms of action, but there are so many themes being explored. I’ve been thinking about this issue a lot since I read it and I think this emotional pacing over action pacing works for a book focusing on Storm. Don’t know if it is sustainable in the long-run, but I’m enjoying the focus on her interactions with others.