In 1975, the world of X-Men was changed forever. The original incarnation of the team was abandoned, in favor of a new lineup of characters. This was the era that helped make the X-Men the most popular team at Marvel, which would last for another thirty-five or so years, when The Avengers rose to fame.
The second generation of X-Men was led by an African woman named Ororo Munroe, who used the codename Storm. She quickly became one of the most popular characters in the series, and is often regarded to be the first black female superhero.
Storm quickly asserted herself as the leader of the new X-Men and was one of the most powerful members of the team. She had a warrior's spirit in battle and a gentle heart with her friends. This is the reason why so many fans and Marvel writers grew to love the character.
We are here today to look into the history of one of the most important members of the X-Men.
From the time she defeated Wonder Woman, to the time the Phoenix Force turned her into a tyrant, here are the 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Storm.
15. She Once Had A Magical Hammer
While the Marvel universe has always been connected, there used to be some barriers that stopped teams from interacting too much. One part of this involved the realm of Asgard and the Norse Gods, who only ever appeared in the pages of Thor and The Avengers.
It seemed that most people weren't too concerned about the fact that the Norse Gods were real and walking around. This would change in the modern era of Marvel, as crossovers between teams began to happen more often.
The X-Men and the New Mutants did once appear in the realm of Asgard. Storm was given her own magical hammer, called Stormcaster. This hammer acted in a similar manner to Thor's Mjolner and vastly increased Storm's powers. She eventually gave the hammer up, as Loki was using it to assert his control over her, in order to convince her to stay in Asgard.
14. She Is A Mixture Of Two Different Characters
The original members of the X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This changed with the second incarnation of the team, as they were made by different writers. Wolverine, Colossus, Thunderbird, Nightcrawler, and Storm were created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, while Banshee and Sunfire were made by Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, and Don Heck.
Dave Cockrum reused some of his character designs from The Outsiders for the new X-Men. Though his originally pitch to DC was refused, both Nightcrawler and Storm came from this pitch. The design from Nightcrawler was exactly the same, though he was originally a demon who had been exiled from Hell before becaming a superhero.
Storm was a mixture of two of Dave Cockrum's characters. Her appearance was based on the Black Cat, who had the ability to transform into a feline form. Storm's powers came from another character called Typhoon, who had the ability to control the weather. These characters were combined into a new character, who we now call Storm.
13. There Is A Theme Park Ride Based On Storm
Universal's Islands of Adventure is a theme park in Florida. It is made up of several islands which are based on specific franchises, like Jurassic Park and Harry Potter. One of these is the Marvel Super Hero Island, which contains rides and attractions based on the famous superheroes and villains.
Storm has her own ride on this island, called the Storm Force Accelatron. It is basically the teacup ride, with some X-Men imagery and voice-overs.
It seems that the days of the Storm Force Accelatron may be numbered, as Universal Studio's biggest rival is Disney, who now owns the rights to all of the Marvel characters. However, Disney is still bound to honor any contracts involving the Marvel characters that were made before the purchase.
This means that the Marvel Super Hero Island will stay in business for the moment, but the contract will eventually run out and the rides will all have to be shut down.
12. She Is One Of The Best Characters In The Marvel Vs. Capcom Series
Capcom once managed to secure the rights to the X-Men franchise, so that they could create a fighting game based on its characters. This led to X-Men: Children of the Atom, which was a huge success in arcades. Capcom would go on to make many Marvel fighting games, which occasionally crossed over with their own video game franchises.
Storm has appeared in almost all of the Marvel fighting games produced by Capcom, and she has consistently been one of the best fighters in each game. Storm was at her most fearsome in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, where she is considered to be part of the "Big Four." This is a tier of four characters who are regarded as the best fighters in the game. They include Cable, Magneto, the Sentinel, and Storm.
The reason Storm is so powerful in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is due to the sheer range and scope of her combos. Storm has attacks that are useful for every possible situation, and skilled players can chain together long combos of vicious attacks on their enemies. Her hyper moves also have a massive amount of range and will deal a lot of damage.
11. Villains Keep Falling In Love With Her
Storm is portrayed as a beautiful woman, which must be why she is the object of affection for so many different characters. Storm has been in relationships with Forge, Black Panther, and Wolverine. There was also a suggestion that she had been in a relationship with Yukio, and that she may have feelings for women as well.
It isn't just the heroes who have fallen for Storm in the past. Chris Claremont seemed to love writing stories that involved villains falling for Storm.
Doctor Doom is clearly infatuated with Storm during their first encounter, as he attempts to charm her at dinner (before kidnapping her). Arkon the Magnificant also kidnaps Storm, as he needs her powers to save his world from destruction. He asks her to remain on his world and be his queen, which she refuses. Additionally, Loki clearly felt strongly about Storm during the X-Men's adventures in Asgard.
Dracula was another of Storm's suitors. He almost managed to turn her into a vampire, before the X-Men rescued her.
10. The Disturbing Storm and Black Panther Retcon
Storm and the Black Panther were once married lovers. During this time, Storm left the X-Men in order to become one of the rulers of Wakanda. However, the relationship did not last long and the two eventually divorce.
It has been established that Storm and Black Panther have known each other for a long time. T'Challa was traveling across Africa when he was accosted by bandits. Storm came to his aid, and the two of them fought their way to freedom. It was stated that the two traveled together for a time, before T'Challa had to return to Wakanda.
The Storm miniseries of 2006 fleshed out the journey they took together. It is established in the fourth issue that Storm and Black Panther lost their virginity to each other.
There is a huge problem with this scene, however. The original encounter between Storm and Black Panther was said to happen when they were both twelve, with later issues confirming this.
This means that Marvel released a comic book that depicted two twelve-year-old children about to have sex for the first time.
9. She Was Almost Bisexual
The X-Men comics have always been an allegory for any minority that is subject to prejudice. When the series was created in the '60s, the struggle of the mutant race was meant to reflect the civil rights movement of the time.
As time went on, the X-Men has come to reflect oppression of different sexualities in modern society. The first ever gay wedding in Marvel history happened in the pages of Astonishing X-Men, which was considered to be a milestone moment.
Chris Claremont had originally intended for Storm to be bisexual. He had wanted her to pursue a relationship with Yukio, with whom she seemed to have a physically close relationship.
Claremont was not allowed to do this at the time, as Marvel would not admit that any of their characters were gay. Thankfully, this rule is no longer in effect. The X-Men now have several gay and bisexual members, which includes Northstar, Psylocke, Shatterstar, Rictor, and Karma.
8. She Was The First Member Of The X-Men To Meet Charles Xavier
The question of which member of the X-Men first met Charles Xavier has been changed on numerous occasions. When the X-Men first debuted, it was established that Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, and Angel were all members of the team and Jean Grey was meeting them for the first time. Later issues confirmed that Cyclops was the first official student at the Xavier Academy.
There have been numerous retcons since then about who Xavier met first. It was established that he met Sage on the day that he lost the use of his legs, which puts her ahead of the original team.
As it currently stands: the first member of the X-Men that Xavier met was Storm. He was traveling through Egypt when she picked his pocket and ran off with his wallet. Xavier used his powers to read her mind and was about to stop her, when the Shadow King interceded.
The two would meet again when Xavier formed his second generation of X-Men.
7. Halle Berry Had To Lobby For A Bigger Role In The X-Men Movies
The most famous adaptation of Storm is the one that is seen in the live action X-Men movies. She has mostly been played by Halle Berry, who seems to have retired from the role. Storm was played by Alexandra Shipp in X-Men: Apocalypse, who appears to be on board for playing the character in future films.
Halle Berry's performance as Storm has been polarizing among the fans. This is partly due to the fact that she did a horrible African accent in the first movie, before abandoning it for the later films. There are also people who don't like her performance in X-Men: The Last Stand.
Storm's role in X2 was greatly diminished from the first movie. Halle Berry actually fought hard to have a bigger role in the third film and threatened to leave if she didn't get it. She clearly chose the wrong hill to climb, considering how terrible The Last Stand turned out to be.
6. She Had An Accidental Mishap In One X-Men Issue
It was established early on that Storm has no problem with nudity. This was played off as an aspect of her upbringing in Kenya, though it was actually a lame attempt to justify fan service.
Storm had her own garden in Xavier's mansion, where she kept a range of flowers from across the world. She would often shed her clothes and use her powers to summon a rain storm, in order to feed her plants.
Storm accidentally showed more skin than she was supposed to in a reprint of an issue of Uncanny X-Men. In the issue, Storm leaves the shower and is kidnapped by Arcade. The original version of this issue was released in color.
When the issue was reprinted as part of the Essentials collection, they reused the original black and white artwork for the pages. It seems that someone at Marvel was asleep at the wheel, as they never noticed that the original artist had drawn Storm's naked breast.
Marvel reprinted the issue without shading in her chest. This means there is a Marvel book out there that has Storm's bare breast in it.
5. She Is Descended From Magical African Priestesses
One of the complaints about Storm's design is that she is an African woman with different ethnic elements. Her parents are established to both be of African descent, yet Storm has long flowing white hair and blue eyes.
There have also been artists who have drawn Storm with Asian features. This has actually come up on occasion in the X-Men comics, with geneticists noting that Storm has elements of several different ethnic groups in her DNA.
It was established that the reason why Storm has white hair and blue eyes is that she is a descendant of a long line of mystical Kenyan priestesses. The hair and eyes are supposed to signify a magical heritage to other members of the tribe.
Storm has almost never attempted to use magic throughout her time in Marvel comics, though there have been a few alternate universe versions of Storm that have used sorcery.
4. Joss Whedon Wrote The Worst Storm Line Of All
Joss Whedon is responsible for writing and directing the first two Avengers movies. He has been given a lot of credit for the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Joss Whedon has also taken over the director seat for the Justice League movie, which means that his fingerprints are all over some of the most iconic movies of this generation.
However, not everything Joss Whedon touches turns to gold. This is especially true of the superhero genre. Joss Whedon was asked to write the script of the first movie in the X-Men franchise. He did so, but it was mostly hated by the studio. The entire script was rewritten... except for one line.
To Joss Whedon's eternal shame, the only piece of dialogue that was kept from his initial draft of X-Men was Storm's line to Toad about what happens when they get hit by lightning. This is often regarded as one of the worst lines in movie history, and it came from the pen of Joss Whedon.
3. She Beat Wonder Woman In A Fight
In 1996, the two giants of the comic book industry published a series that pitted their greatest heroes against each other. DC vs. Marvel featured a conflict between the two universes of each franchise, which led to a tournament between their characters.
The heroes of Marvel and DC were finally going to fight it out so that all of the questions of "who would win in a fight between..." would finally be answered.
The results of many of the fights were questionable, to say the least, mainly because the battles were decided by fan vote. Fans were very upset about the victory of Wolverine over Lobo, but Storm beating Wonder Woman was a close second.
Wonder Woman is equal to (if not stronger) than Superman. Storm manages to beat her with some extreme weather conditions, which Wonder Woman should have ben able to shrug off.
The main reason Storm won is because the X-Men were at the height of their popularity at the time, so the results were often skewed in their favor. Wonder Woman might be the toast of Hollywood right now, but she wasn't as popular during the mutant-ruled years of the '90s.
2. The Mohawk Was Created Because Walter Simonson Shaved His Beard
One of Storm's most iconic looks was when she shaved her hair into a mohawk and wore a regular leather outfit. This aesthetic is sometimes referred to as "Punk Storm" and has appeared in the X-Men movies, video games, and even in the '90s cartoon. This look also became associated with her Asgard outfit, during the period when she wielded Stormcaster.
The reason for this change was because the editors at Marvel wanted a dramatic shift for the character. One of the main reasons that the mohawk was chosen was due to a real life incident, which involved Walter Simonson.
Simonson was famous for having a beard, which he had kept for most of his life. When he decided to shave his beard, his daughter freaked out and refused to believe it. Chris Claremont wanted to put this story in X-Men, which is why Kitty Pryde has an overly dramatic reaction to Storm's new look.
1. The Phoenix Force Turned Her Into A Tyrant
Marvel has a series called What If... which deals with alternate reality scenarios. These stories run the gamut from awesome to terrible. These stories also tend to be a lot more violent, as the writers don't have to worry about keeping characters alive.
One of the most peculiar issues of What If... focused on what would happen if Storm had become the host for the Phoenix Force instead of Jean Grey. In it, Storm is replaced by the Phoenix Force, with the original sealed away underwater.
The Phoenix version of Storm becomes a tyrant who takes over the world. She enforces a militant eco-friendly law, where anyone who kills animals must face her punishment. Any superheroes or villains who oppose her are frozen in stasis and shot into space. It takes an alliance of the X-Men and the remaining Earth heroes to free the original Storm and use her body to overwhelm the Phoenix.
The idea that a Phoenix/Storm would take over the world is baffling. There is also no mention of D'Ken or the M'Kraan Crystal, so the universe is likely also doomed by Storm's desire to stop whale hunters.
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Can you think of any other facts about the X-Men's Storm that we missed? Let us hear it in the comments!