Storm #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
STORM vol 5 #4
“Flame in the Wind”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colour artists: Alex Guimarães & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
STORM:
She dresses up for her dinner with Dr Doom, in the dress that she borrowed from Rogue last issue – which might explain why it’s in Rogue’s signature colour of green. Apparently Rogue and Storm are exactly the same size, or close enough that the dress can be really quickly altered. (It’s hard to imagine Rogue getting much use out of this ballgown, but if she owns one at all then fair enough, she’ll probably have it at Haven at the moment.)
A flashback shows a five year old Ororo eating her father’s gumbo and loving it. Young Ororo is remarkably precocious, to the point where it seems that it has to be a plot point – her father does remark on it, and she replies “Well, I’ve lived a long life.”
Her deal with Eégún, which requires her not to use her mutant powers for a week, works a little oddly: she can use her powers whenever she wants, but until she makes that choice, she’s physically a non-mutant. As such, she reacts badly to a dessert “tailor-made for mutant taste buds”.
She listens politely to Doom’s monologue over dinner, until he decides to execute the chef, at which points she tries to save the poor guy without using her powers. Having crossed that line, she starts answering back to Doom’s arguments, and explaining why she doesn’t buy him as a mutant ally. When Doom magically restrains her, she uses her powers, breaks the deal, and drops dead.
In the afterlife, Ororo is briefly but blissfully reunited with her father but, conspicuously, not her mother. She appears as a child for a few panels before being returned to life by Eternity as “my cosmic storm.”
SUPPORTING CAST:
Eternity. We saw Eternity at the end of issue #1, where he declared that he had found Storm worthy of him. He resurrects her with apparent cosmic power.
David Munroe. Storm’s father doesn’t actually get named in this story, but his name is long established. His gumbo recipe is apparently magnificent. He’s very proud of his daughter.
Curiously, he shows up alone in the afterlife to greet Ororo when she’s briefly dead, which begs the question of where Ororo’s mother N’Daré is. Both David and N’Daré were supposed to have died in the same bombing first shown in X-Men #102, and both were briefly raised from the dead in X-Men: Gold #33-35. David talks as if N’Daré did indeed die as established, but doesn’t explain where she is, despite Storm asking. He seems to know that she won’t be there long, to be fair, so maybe he just doesn’t have time. At any rate, N’Daré’s absence is clearly a plot point.
VILLAINS:
Doctor Doom. In an apparent attempt to impress Storm, he’s found out her father’s gumbo recipe, presumably using magic. It’s not entirely clear whether the schtick with the mutant-specific dessert is another attempt to impress her, or a genuine test, or a stunt based on something he already knows via magic.
Doom’s pitch to Storm is that he’s come to admire the way that mutantkind continues to strive for the stars despite their many setbacks, and that he wants to make mutants “Doom’s people”, under his protection. He doesn’t seem to be under the impression that Storm can make deals with him – rather, he offers to restore her powers and invites her to be his “mutant ambassador”.
Eégún. He appears as a weird bird thing as soon as Storm breaks her deal by using her powers, and kills her. Then he declares his intention to destroy the planet and attacks Dr Doom – who, as Sorcerer Supreme, seems to be putting up a respectable fight. The issue seems to end with the cosmic-powered Storm impaling him with… lightning rods, I guess?
FOOTNOTES:
Page 2. This and the opening line of narration on page 3 are a straight recap of issues #1-3.
Page 4. So after two pages of recap, we get a symbolic splash page with the story title and full credits… immediately followed by a recap page with title and full credits. Some of this is redundant, surely?
Page 16 panel 2: “Where were your virtue and solidarity when Orchis murdered my people?” This is arguably a little unfair – Dr Doom did protect Latverian mutants from Orchis and did ultimately align himself with the X-Men against them. But he could have done more.
“Where were they when you attacked me and the Avengers in the Afghan desert?” Avengers #19.
Page 22 panel 5: “Hadari Yao”. Cloud walker, in Wakandan.
Gosh. I only now noticed that the character in the penultimate page is _not_ meant to be Eégún.
So the intent is to imply that somehow Eternity decided to intervene and give Ororo the means to fully challenge Eégún? I rather dislike that odd choice, not least because it would imply that we now have two X-Women on an almost first name basis with Eternity itself. It wasn’t long ago that Jean was talking with Eternity as well.
That IMO harms the continued viability of the X-books, or at least of these specific characters. Once they are lent cosmic significance by the plot it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle.
For Storm specifically it makes her often-presented mystical side difficult to work with from now on. There ought to be consequences for herself and even for Doctor Voodoo.
The only way to avoid these hurdles that I can see right now is the situation of Doom being Sorcerer Supreme. Maybe Eternity is reacting not to Ororo or even Victor, but to the circunstances of the role itself.
We will see, I guess.
Much of the internet commented on the scenes of Storm in lingerie.
“Young Ororo is remarkably precocious, to the point where it seems that it has to be a plot point ”
Storm had been depicted as a precocious child before. In X-Men 113, Magneto traps the X-Men using chairs that reduce the X-Men’s physical abilities to those of six-month old children. Therefore, he doesn’t bother to search them for lockpicks.Luckily, at six months, Storm “had the coordination of a young girL” and she’s able to pick the locks so they can escape.
“Where were your virtue and solidarity when Orchis murdered my people?” This is arguably a little unfair – Dr Doom did protect Latverian mutants from Orchis and did ultimately align himself with the X-Men against them. But he could have done more.”
Ayodele has said that he had to write this issue before Fall of the House of X ended, so he had no idea if Doom would or wouldn’t help the X-Men against Orchis. But it’s something that Breevort should have caught.
““Where were they when you attacked me and the Avengers in the Afghan desert?” Avengers #19.”
He did conjure up soldiers of sand to confront them but it was part of magically showing them what the world could be like if they joined them. When they refused to join him, he called them cowards and left. Again, this reads like Breevort didn’t fully understand the issue.
Storm using her powers before the time limit expired was completely idiotic. She knows that in a few hours, her powers will return. But if she uses her powers before then, she will be killed. Doom casts a spell to paralyze her. At this point, she should try stalling Doom until the time limit expires. Doom has no reason to harm the chef now that he knows the chef didn’t screw up. Instread, she uses her powers and is killed by Eegun. The annoying thing is that this sequence COULD have worked. If Doom had some other reason to want to kill the chef- the chef was embezzling, the chef embarrassed Doom, etc.- and Doom went to kill the chef.,Storm using her powers to save the chef’s life would make sense. Instead, it looks like Storm got herself killed because she didn’t want to stand around paralyzed for a couple of hours.
This book continues to wow me. I love how it isn’t just making Storm fit a solo superhero mode. It is paced to the character. Deliberate, thoughtful and elegant. There is wisely enough grandeur for Werneck to create stunning art. But I appreciate it is heady and emotional over action just for the sake of action.
Storm is a character that creators are often either unsure how to approach or are worried about breaking somehow. As if her importance makes her difficult to use. Ayodele gets who she is on a deep level and deftly keeps the core of the book on her internal side.
Easily the best solo book of the era.
I did have to arch an eyebrow at “mutant taste buds” being a thing, as though the mere presence of the X-Gene also affects one’s sense of taste beyond the usual enhanced senses suite of powers. But I guess we’ve seen mutant chefs before so it must be possible.
I cheekily asked on Twitter about Storm’s disappearing stockings, and was reassured she simply decided against them after seeing the slit in the dress. So the first shot was just … for mood. Sure, we’ll go with that.
I think Storm now has the record for Dinner Dates With Doctor Doom. Has there ever been a What If or alternate reality where she’s married him? Because I’m starting to wonder what they’d be like as a love match/power couple.
I do worry that this makes both Jean and Ororo cosmic level characters at the same time, but hopefully it will all pan out.
I do like the approach overall.
I did have to arch an eyebrow at “mutant taste buds” being a thing, as though the mere presence of the X-Gene also affects one’s sense of taste beyond the usual enhanced senses suite of powers. But I guess we’ve seen mutant chefs before so it must be possible.”
Tony Chew, X-Man.