STORM vol 5 #7
“Serpents, Salamanders and Storm Gods”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colourists: Alex Guimarães & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort

STORM

Iron Man enlists her to help out with an issue in Brazil – this is presented as the first time they’ve worked together since issue #1, but that must be disregarding missions as members of the Avengers. Basically, a sample of an attempt to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum has been lost in a helicopter crash caused by a “weather anomaly”, which has plagued Brazil more generally. Storm takes the mission in order to retrieve the body of the pilot of a crashed plane, despite Iron Man’s distinct lack of explanaion of what’s going on here.

It’s downright odd that calling in a fellow Avengers is presented as a last resort, particular when it’s Storm and the crisis involves weather. Presumably this is tied in somehow with Iron Man’s secrecy about the mission.

Confronted with a group of literal storm gods, she retreats to regroup. She cuts off part of her hair to get free, as well, so she has a new hairstyle from here on. In issue #1, the narrator told us that “ilè” (there ought to be a dot under the e but I can’t figure out how to get this machine to do both the dot and the grave accent at the same time) was a magical spell which causes instant death. That was immediately followed by Storm being struck by lightning and the appearance of a flying whale thing, somewhat similar to the creature that shows up here (as to which, see below).

The idea seems to be that she’s using magic to escape, as prompted by the vision of Dr Voodoo that she experiences – that would fit with the recurring theme of people prompting her to embrace her magical heritage. Or maybe she’s using the Eternity power, which isn’t even mentioned otherwise outside the recap page? Or both? It’s hard to say.

SUPPORTING CAST

Maggott has emerged from his cocoon after being healed by Storm last issue using the essence of Eégún. He seems in perfect health and considerably powered up – he can keep up with Storm on foot without breaking a sweat. Curiously, there’s no sign of his actual maggotts.

GUEST CAST

Iron Man. He’s very cagey about this mission that he’s asking Storm to go on, and concerned about whether she’ll keep it secret. On his own account, he’s “working with a group of mad scientists” in Brazil to re-create the Super Soldier Serum, though he refuses to say why. The one panel of the scientists shows them in lab coats and purple masks.

He’s been sneaking girls into the Storm Sanctuary to impress them, which Storm isn’t happy about.

He’s wearing his 1980s red and white armour in this story. He’s also used this armour in West Coast Avengers lately, which in turn is linked to a storyline in his own book where much of his more modern armour has been compromised.

The Black Panther and Mr Fantastic also have cameos dealing with the weather in Brazil.

The Silver Surfer appears in a “near future” flash-forward at the start of the issue, which at this stage has no connection to the main plot. The flash-forward seems to take place in the aftermath of a Ragnarok-style battle in which Surtur has died; the Surfer absorbs the power of his sword.

Galactus. The Surfer is serving him again (or at least will be in the near future). This is a bit confusing, but for once the reasons have nothing to do with this title. The last major Galactus storyline in a mainstream Marvel Universe title was the “Reckoning War” arc in Dan Slott’s Fantastic Four, which ended with Galactus being cured of his hunger (again) and heading off with the Surfer to explore new regions of space. Murewa Ayodele may well simply be assuming that this is Galactus’ current status quo.

However, Galactus has since shown up in Ultraman X Avengers, where he had been arbitrarily reset to world-devourer mode and the Surfer was not around. Since that story involved characters from difference franchises travelling between their respective universes, it seems to be intended as canon. It’s not on Unlimited and I haven’t read it, but apparently it offers no explanation of why Galactus is back to his classic status quo, and it’s possible that a decision has simply been taken to ignore it. It’s unlikely that the story has been simply overlooked, though, since it was edited by Tom Brevoort and came out only a few months ago.

Thor shows up at the end to object to Storm fighting the other storm gods.

VILLAINS

Oblivion. It shows up in the flash forward at the start of the issue, with no apparent connection to the main story, in which it consumes an Ender. The narrator describes Oblivion as “the most powerful of the Primordials”, and the scene presents it here as a defender of the universe against outside threat. This is set in “the near future”.

The Ender. The creature that scares Galactus and then gets consumed by Oblivion comes from the Black Winter storyline that ran in Thor in 2020. In the original story, written by Donny Cates, the Black Winter is a cosmic entity which consumes universes in the same way that Galactus consumes worlds; in particular, it destroyed the previous cosmos, of which Galactus is the sole survivor. Ayodele treats it as just one of a whole race of Enders, most of whom get consumed by Oblivion before they can do any harm to the Marvel Universe.

The narration suggests that Galactus “answers to” the Enders, as if they had some authority over him, but it’s more likely that Ayodele simply means that the Enders are further up the pecking order than Galactus – they are to Galactus what he is to humans.

Several storm gods show up in Brazil to fight Storm. They’re probably not really villains here, but they’re the antagonists for this issue, so let’s play along for now. The obvious implication is that they’re responsible for the weather anomaly that downed the plane,  presumably because of something to do with Iron Man’s undisclosed motivations. Mamarangan is an Aboriginal storm god; his steed Ipilya is a giant gecko which is the creator of rain and thunder in Anindilyakwa mythology. Sango is a Yoruba god, Susanoo is Shinto and Chaac is Mayan.

Only Ipilya is completely new to the Marvel Universe. Mamaragan and Chaac have never appeared on panel but were referenced in the 2009 Handbook one-shot Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica. Susanoo has appeared once before, in Chaos War: God Squad #1 (2010). Sango is among the many gods who appear in Thor Annual #10 (1982), and he’s made a handful of later appearances, mostly cameos or flashbacks to stories from mythology.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES

• Maggott’s fight with the Juggernaut was in the previous issue.
• Storm says to Iron Man that “The last time I asked for your assistance on a mission, I gave a press release about our findings”, which is issue #1.
• Storm has a vision (I guess?) of Dr Voodoo, who reminds us that she’s a descendent of Ashake and Agamotto (as mentioned in previous issues) and references her temporarily giving up her mutant powers as part of a deal that he brokered in issue #3.