Storm (comics)
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- This article is about the X-Men character. For the British comic book character of the same name, see Storm (Don Lawrence).
Storm (Ororo Munroe) is a Marvel Comics superhero and a prominent member of the X-Men. She first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975).
Storm has the mutant power to control the weather, including lightning, rain, snow, and wind, which she primarily uses to make herself and others fly.
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Character history
Family
Ororo's mother, N'Dare, was the princess of a tribe in Kenya and the descendant of a long line of Africans with white hair, blue eyes and a natural gift for sorcery, although Storm herself has not developed this talent. N'Dare fell in love with and married African American photojournalist David Munroe.
Early life
Ororo was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. When Ororo was six months old, she and her parents moved to Cairo, Egypt.
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Five years later, a bomb destroyed their home and killed Ororo's parents; although the original version of this story stated that the bomb was dropped by a jet of the Israeli Air Force during the Suez Crisis of 1956, later stories have revised the bombing first to an event of the Six-Day War of 1967 and then to an unnamed military conflict. Ororo was trapped in the collapsed building alongside her dead mother, a traumatic experience that would ultimately leave her with a severe case of claustrophobia.
The thief of Cairo
The orphan Ororo grew up on the streets and became a proficient thief under the tutelage of master thief Achmed el-Gibar. To this day she is an excellent pickpocket and lockpick.
One of her most notable victims was Charles Francis Xavier, the later Professor X. He used his mental powers to prevent her escape. He also recognized the child to have a unique mind that would require further examination. However Xavier was located by mentaly attacked by Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King. The two men were preoccupied enough with their battle to allow the girl to escape. Both however would recall her later. The events were depicted in flashback in "Uncanny X-Men" #117 (January, 1979).
The wanderer
Shortly after her twelfth birthay, Ororo felt something drawing her to the south of Africa. She left Cairo by foot and started traveling. She soon attempted hitchhiking. However the first man who offered her a ride soon attempted to rape her. However the young thief had learned self protection from Achmed el-Gibar. She used her knife to protect herself and killed the man in self-defense. She was however horrified by her act and swore to never take another human life. Ororo would reconcider that oath in adult life. The events were depicted in "Uncanny X-Men" #267 (September, 1990).
Ororo continued her solitary treck for a year. She nearly died from dehydration while crossing the Sahara. Her journey brought about 2000 miles south of Cairo. During the journey new powers emerged within her. Ororo proved to be a mutant with the power to control the weather.
Those powers would proove useful in her first heroic battle. Ororo witnessed Andreas de Ruyter and men of the South African Army in the process of kidnapping a young boy, slightly older than her. Ororo saved the boy and learned his identity. He was Prince T’Challa of Wakanda. The South Africans would have used their hostage to blackmail his father T'Chaka, the Black Panther. The two youths continued their journey together and fell in love. The first such occurence in their respecting young lives. However they soon had to part ways. Storm wanted to continue her journey of self-discovery. T’Challa felt bound by duty to return to Wakanda and train to succeed his father. The events were first depicted first in "Marvel Team-Up" vol. 1 #100 (December, 1980) and somewhat expanded in "Black Panther" vol. 3 #26 (January, 2001. T'Challa would grow to became Black Panther and join the Avengers. They would remain friends in adult life.
The Goddess of Serengeti
But for the time being Storm had to continue her journey. Her road brought her to the Kenyan portion of Serengeti, the land of her ancestors. (Southern Serengeti is territory of Tanzania). There Ororo called out to the Goddess of her ancestors and was rewarded with a bright Vision of a woman resembling Storm in adult life. The events were depicted in "Uncanny X-Men" #226 (February, 1988). Storm would continue to swear by the Goddess but no name has ever been given to this deity. Current speculation is that this Goddess is Gaia who has made multiple appearances in the Marvel Universe as the ultimate maternal ancestor of its various gods (for example Thor).
Ororo came to use her powers to help the native tribes and their efforts in agriculture. She came to be worshipped by them as their "Goddess of life", possibly the same deity Ororo had contacted in her vision. However her powers came with a price. The weather Ororo controlled was also subconsiously affected by her emotional state. Ororo had to detach herself from stronger, violent emotions in order to prevent the fury of the elements to bring ruin to those close to her. Ororo spend years exploring her powers with the help of Ainet, a tribal elder who came to serve as the surrogate mother of the youthfull goddess.
Recruitment into the X-Men
Ororo reached her maturity while still in the role of a tribal goddess. There she was found by her old victim Charles Francis Xavier, who invited her to join his second team of X-Men. Ororo accepted, taking the code-name Storm. She was the third female member of the team following Marvel Girl and Polaris.
Professor X had already recruited Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Banshee before contacting her. Before their first mission , Ororo had to wait for Xavier to recruit Sunfire, Colossus and Thunderbird. Their first mission involved them following Cyclops in rescuing Angel, Havok, Iceman, Marvel Girl and Polaris from the mutant ecosystem inhabiting the Pacific island of Krakoa. Storm was able to combine her powers with those of Cyclops , Havok and Polaris and send the entire island to outer space. Her first major victory.
Early career
Although Storm initially had trouble adjusting to Western culture, particularly the sort represented by her sometimes-vicious teammate Wolverine, Storm found a home and family among the X-Men. Moreover, she revealed herself to be a capable leader, and became leader of the X-Men when its longtime leader, Cyclops, married and left the group. When the then-young Shadowcat joined the X-men, Storm formed a very close, almost maternal bond with her.
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Around this time, the X-Men spent a long time in space battling the Brood, an alien race. Spending so much time away from planet Earth severed the deep psychic connection Storm had with her home planet, prompting a period of much soul searching. Storm went through some profound personal changes because of this inner conflict, which resulted in her becoming more aggressive and violent. This led to her cutting her hair in a mohawk and wearing leather clothing - changes alienated her from Shadowcat for a time. She also fought Callisto for leadership of the Morlocks and won by stabbing Callisto in the heart. Callisto only managed to survive due to the healing powers of another Morlock. The two remained enemies for awhile, but eventually managed to make up and are now friends. Storm now trusts Callisto enough that she asked Callisto to look after Xavier while he was in Genosha.
Leaving the X-Men
Storm lost her powers for a while, though they were eventually restored. She also had an on-again, off-again romance with the mutant Forge. Storm first broke up with Forge when she discovered the neutralizer gun used to erase her powers was created by him, though she later forgave him. Forge once proposed to Storm, but got cold feet and backed down before she could accept leaving her distraught and in tears.
Later, she was transformed into a child by Nanny and, amnesiac, returned to thievery, during which time she met Gambit. After regaining her memory, she brought him to the team and was restored to her adult state later in Genosha.
Leader of the X-Treme X-Men
Storm later led a group of X-Men outside of the mansion in the search for Destiny's diaries, the Books of Truth. On this search, she enjoyed a brief flirtation with a younger man, Slipstream and was kidnapped by the intergalactic warlord Khan who wanted to make her his queen. Despite being badly injured (shot by Viper prior to being captured and having to fight off Khan's harem), she managed to defeat Khan with the aid of the X-Treme X-Men who came to rescue her. They brought her back to Earth where she spent time recovering with the aid of Wolverine.
Storm continued to lead the group even after Destiny's diaries were rendered inert because she did not approve of the way Xavier was running the mansion. The group returned after the mansion was destroyed by someone posing as Magneto, called Xorn, to help in the rebuilding process. Storm now remains there, where she heads the X-Treme Sanctions Executive, a special police task force of mutants policing mutants given worldwide authority. o
Television and film
Storm, voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith, was featured in the X-Men animated series of the mid-1990s and guest starred on a few episodes of the Spider-Man animated series.
In the animated TV series X-Men: Evolution, Storm was portrayed as a teacher at Professor X's Xavier Institute, and was voiced by Kristen Williamson.
She was played by Halle Berry in the movies X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003). Despite a high-profile actress like Berry in the role, in both these movies, Storm received little screen time and took a backseat to characters such as Wolverine and Jean Grey. Due to her little screen time though, Halle Berry complained and as a result the role may be enhanced for X3. But allegedly she wants to stick with the role for another possible sequel, X4.
External link
- Spotlight on Storm from UncannyXMen.net (http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/spotlight/showquestion.asp?faq=10&fldAuto=76)pt:Tempestade (Banda desenhada)