Storm's early adventures

[skemono]

I don't know if I'd say that Storm is my favorite female character (mostly because I'm not sure I'd say I have "favorites" per se) but she's certainly up there. And since there were requests for Storm scans, I'm going to share some scans of her very earliest appearances, so you can know she was awesome from the very beginning. I'll also be interspersing it with other scans from the same issues that amuse me.

Her first appearance was in Giant-Size X-Men 1, but, uh, she didn't really get to do much. She blew a bunch of target-seeking rocks out of the way, and struck Polaris with lightning (it was for her own good. Really). But when introducing, or re-introducing, as many characters as that issue did, giving small action vignettes to each, then having them team up with another large group of characters for a huge, climactic battle... there's not a lot of space for anyone to really shine. So I'm just gonna share her very first pages:




And her first appearance in costume, just to compare her outfit with the males':

Sigh. At least Colossus's top also exposes his sides for no good reason.

Oh, and she prevented Colossus from jumping out of a plane!


Her first appearance in the regular Uncanny X-Men series was issue 94, where she gets to speak a total of seven sentences over three panels. So have some raving Cyclops instead!


On to issue 95--you know, the one where Thunderbird dies after being in three issues, and I think they might have even expected us to care? Anyway, in this issue, Colossus finally gets to fall from a plane without Storm interfering.



They infiltrate a military base that a supervillain had already infiltrated. Said supervillain, who doesn't deserve for me to write down his name, starts pumping in gas of some sort, and while the X-Men flee it, they come across soldiers under his influence. Storm handles the situation.


Issue 96 replaces Thunderbird with Moira MacTaggert. Here's her introduction, which I shall henceforth refer to as "the battle of the British Isles accents":

Thus setting up the comic romance most annoying to read until Rogue/Gambit.

Also, Cyclops accidentally destroys a cairn that was sealing in a hideously powerful ancient evil. This just happened to be lying on the grounds. Does anyone know if it's ever been referenced since? Anyway, Wolverine shows us how badass he is by slicing up the demon, but it doesn't take.


I love Wolverine's face in that last panel. He's all "Ohh... I try so hard to kill things, but it just--*sniff*--it never takes...."

Oh, right, this is supposed to be a post about Storm. Well, Xavier reads Kierrok's mind and tells Storm to go after the cairn that Cyclops blew up like an idiot. The following pages set up Storm's claustrophobia and orphaning in Egypt.


Also, Storm blows up the cairn, which I would've thought would release more demons, but somehow seals away the demon already released? I'm gonna go with they're afraid of her and laying low.

Issue 97 opens with Xavier having bad dreams, setting the stage for the introduction of Lilandra and the Shi'ar in later issues, and introduces Nightcrawler's image inducer. Professor X takes leave to get some rest and relaxation due to the nightmares, but Havok and Polaris show up under mind control to blow up his plane. Storm ends up facing off against Polaris, and at first they appear to be evenly matched (because comic book writers think magnetism repels wind?). But, well, she's Storm. Before joining the X-Men, she was a goddess, while Lorna was a girl with green hair.



After Havok and Polaris escape, Wolverine wants to show off how tough and angry and rebellious he is, but Storm is not impressed.

Incidentally, the narration box at the bottom there is about Cyclops' feelings about having to fight his brother, but without the following panel for context you can also read it as him (or Wolverine, or Nightcrawler) developing a crush on Storm.

Issue 98 brings back the Sentinels. The original X-Men fought them two or three times already, so they start to freak out when they show up (also, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby cameo/reference).



Storm is unimpressed.



I love that scene, and I had been thinking about sharing it before. The Sentinels show up, Cyclops and Jean freak out, and Banshee wails "We're all gonna die!" They knock Cyclops out a building, kidnap Jean, Banshee, and Wolverine, and appear to be picking off the X-Men one by one. Then Storm rips one apart and wonders what the big deal is.

(Well, the comics state that these Sentinels were cheap knock-offs of the previous versions, and the X-Men all trash them pretty easily when they're not caught by surprise. But still.)

Issue 99 has the X-Men go into an orbital space station where the Sentinels have taken their teammates. One of the Sentinels blows a hole in their shuttle, blowing Storm out into space. Therein we learn that if people decide to call something weather, Storm can control it.

That's right: Storm can control the sun.

Also, Colossus appears to have a crush on Storm. As is right and proper.




Issue 100! This is the one that introduces the fastball special, and ends with Jean Grey having to give her life to bring them back to Earth, setting the stage for her to become the Phoenix. But instead of seeing that, let's wrap up this supposedly Storm-centric post with Professor X punching Wolverine.

Comments

[lucky_gamble]

Every time I see old school Storm, my mind wanders to the awfully cheesy version that appeared in the 90s X-Men cartoon who was rather prone to speeches before every attack.

Storm: (to enemies) “Winds! Rise and sweep these foes from my path! Let them know your harsh and relentless fury! Frost the very tears they weep as they realize that nature can never be tamed and made to serve! For the winds and rains from the ends of the earth can only be persuaded by Storm herself to brush away power-hungry villains and quench the occasionally thirsty greenhouse ferns that sit behind the Xavier Mansion where I suspect Logan smokes those awful smelling hand rolled cigaret-- hey where'd you go??" 

[md84]

I'd be pretty hammy too if I had the power to control weather. Don't forget that Storm was raised as a living goddess. People kind of expect their gods to be hammy.

[icon_uk]

Well, she wasn't really raised as a goddess, she was, amongst other things, born in New York, was a pickpocket and sneak-thief in Cairo for some time and so on, she came to goddess-hood quite a while later IIRC. As such I've never quite been able to view her as being the "powerful naif" she seems to be presented as in her first appearance, she was too smart to fall for that sort of worship completely, so I felt she was sometimes just playing into the act for dramatic effect. Also, given her tendency to refer to the likes of Piotr as "young one" I was never sure how old she was supposed to be even relative to the other X-Men

[md84]

Given the crap she went through as a kid (being buried alive in rubble, working as a thief for the Shadow King, etc.) I could also see Storm throwing herself into the goddess role just to avoid thinking about her childhood.

[skemono]

Also, given her tendency to refer to the likes of Piotr as "young one" I was never sure how old she was supposed to be even relative to the other X-Men

The issue which revealed her past as a pickpocket in Cairo (only a couple issues after the ones up here) stated that she was six months old in 1951. Given the issue came out in 1975/76, she was probably supposed to be in her mid-20s, even if she comes across as older.

And that flashback also states that she had perfect recall of her past, even from the point she was six months old (and, presumably, since birth). So it's not like one could say she just didn't remember being in New York and being a thief in Egypt.

[dustbunny105]

Also, given her tendency to refer to the likes of Piotr as "young one" I was never sure how old she was supposed to be even relative to the other X-Men

Perhaps it's an example of her playing into the goddess role, similar to how she addresses her worshipers in the first page here as her children?

[icon_uk]

Indeed, but that's almost disingenuous towards her, if she's that self aware then her role as goddess is entirely a bt of fakery and presenting her as the wide-eyed innocent and goddess figure works against her IMHO

[donnblake]

Further complicated that at this point, I believe that Wolverine was still supposed to be a smartaleck teen (and possibly an evolved badger).at this point (never made explicit, but Banshee on a couple of occasions remarks on being the old man among a bunch of kids). But I've always just read Storm as being old beyond her years.

[crinos]

I SHALL MEET YOU AT THE MONORAIL.

Okay, 90's Cartoon Storm teaming with Dr. Orpheus and/or Princess Luna This needs to happen IMMEDIATELY.

[apintrix]

YES Dr. Orpheus team-up please!

[azure_flame_god003]

"Power of Lightning, strike again!"
"Um... Power of Webshooters, get real sticky!"

[lucky_gamble]

Team MOST DRAMATIC too the RESCUE!!!!

[weber_dubois22]

90s' Storm's speeches were my favorite part of that cartoon.

[sevarem]

LOL forever. Thanks for that.

[espanolbot]

Did they ever cover what happened to the guys that worshipped Storm after she left?

[skemono]

I don't know! I am also curious about that. Until further notice, I will assume that after she left the area became blighted by a drought and they all died of starvation.

[espanolbot]

Presumably causing Reginald Hudlin's Black Panther to shake his head and mutter about wealthy white Americans taking Africa's stuff.

[thosefew]

I will assume that without her meddling, weather patterns stabilised and became moderate, rather than drought interspersed with Storm-induced flooding.

[magus_69]

EEE! Thank you!

[skemono]

You are welcome!

[majingojira]

Damn good post, Skemono. Love it!

And you're right. Storm is like the female counterpart of Spider-Man: the amount of people with crushes on her is immeasurable. Ladies love Spider-Man, but Dudes love Storm.

[skemono]

It's pretty amazing how many people fall for her. I'm not sure it's limited to dudes, either.

[donnblake]

Well, she went carousing with Yukio more than once.

[majingojira]

Again, much like Spidey.

I've seen things for Storm and several women. There's that one scene in X-Treme X-men with her in a hot tub with the then Tentacled Callisto and Yukio IIRC.

[skemono]

That's the one I was thinking of!

[donnblake]

So... thoughts.
First I notice that Piotr's costume only seems to include pants when he's in human form. Or perhaps he just stopped wearing the pants to show solidarity with Storm?

Second, how have I never realized what an awesome widow's peak Storm's rocking? No wonder Dracula fell for her.

[skemono]

Colossus is like the inverse-Hulk. When he changes form, his pants shred instead of his shirt.

[aravis]

The good ol' days when Wolverine's claws were still claws, and not... swords... And when he wasn't an immortal responsible for everything mutant-related in the history of ever. *sigh* Oh Logan, what have they DONE to you...

And Ororo's first meeting With Professor X... She's in all goddess mode speech, until she agrees to come with him. "All right" sounds so... Not goddess-y. Bad writing, or brilliance in letting her non-goddessy past shine through? I suspect the former, was her backstory even established at that point? I forget...

[icon_uk]

IIRC one of the original notions that Claremont has was that Wolverine wasn't actually an X-gene mutant but one of the High Evolutionary's New Men, a literal humanoid-evolved wolverine. It's why mutant detectors seemed to not register him as a typical mutant at first.

[skemono]

Huh. I didn't know that. In these issues, when they're captured by the Sentinels, they say he doesn't register as a normal mutant, but I didn't know why.

[silverhammerman]

That solar winds thing makes it seem like Storm's powers operate on some awfully pedantic rules. Part of me wants to call bullshit, and another part of me thinks it's hilarious.

[sailorlibra]

Storm is the best.

[skemono]

Fact.

[selke]

Seconded.

[cainofdreaming]

Does anyone know if it's ever been referenced since?

There was a story where Wolverine and Nightcrawler got transported into the N'Garai realm after the reappearance of the cairn. In Wolverine Annual '95, apparently (thanks marvunapp.com).

And then there's, of course, Kitty's Christmas tale.

[selke]

I miss this art so much. The women don't look like supermodels with fake breasts.

[baggyeyes]

Or weird bendy barbies.

[sevarem]

I love the 70's art so very much. It was so beautiful and detailed.