Storm is one of Marvel’s most recognizable heroines and the most prominent woman of color in superhero comics (though the definition of “color” varies from artist to artist). She’s never had her own ongoing series, but she’s been a headliner in the X-Men franchise for decades. Since her introduction in 1975, Storm has assumed many roles: mutant, superhero, African goddess, pickpocket, claustrophobe, knife-fighting enthusiast, team leader, Black Panther’s arm candy, and fetish-fuel for Chris Claremont. This post is a visual summary of how artists portrayed Storm during the past three and a half decades.
1970s
Cover by Dave Cockrum and Irving Watanabe (1977)
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Cover by Dave Cockrum, Terry Austin, and Gaspar Saladino (1979)
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Cover by John Byrne, Terry Austin, and Dan Crespi (1979)
1980s
Cover by Dave Cockrum, Josef Rubinstein, Tom Orzechowski (1981)
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Cover by Bob McLeod (1981)
Are they … scissoring?
Cover by Paul Smith and Bob Wiacek (1983)
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Cover by Paul Smith and Bob Wiacek (1983)
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Cover by John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green (1984)
Great ideas in comics: Storm as a punk rock bitch with a mohawk.
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Cover by Barry Windsor-Smith (1984)
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Cover by Rick Leonardi and Whilce Portacio (1986)
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Cover by Marc Silvestri, Dan Green, and Alex Jay (1988)
1990s.
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Cover by Andy Kubert and Joe Rosen (1990)
So there was this plot where Storm was turned into a kid … it didn’t make much sense.
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Cover by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Tom Orzechowski (1991)
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Cover by Whilce Portacio (1992)
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Cover by Joe Madureira (1995)
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Cover by Terry Dodson and Karl Story (1996)
A four issue mini-series.
Cover by Scott Clark (1997)
2000s
Cover by Andy Kubert (2001)
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Cover by Salvador Larroca (2003)
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Cover by Greg “Pornface” Land (2004)
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Cover by Mike Mayhew (2006)
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Cover by Leinil Francis Yu (2006)
Storm and Black Panther were married in 2006.
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Cover by Alan Davis (2008)
In Wakanda, only men get chairs.
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Cover by David Yardin and Jacob Keith (2009)
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Cover by Phil Jimenez, Frank D’Armata, Travis Charest, and Justin Ponsor (2009)
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Thanks! Interestin’ how, starting in 1991, her covers (with very few exceptions) shift from emphasizing superheroics to pinup posturing…
And also interesting how she had to end up with a black super-hero.
Poor her, she obviously had to end up with Black Panther, if her only other acceptable partner was Blade…
Mike – that problem is not peculiar to Storm. You can blame aging fanboys, and the Image “Revolution,” and the growth in the comic convention pin-up market.
Josselin – there’s also Falcon! He isn’t married, last time I checked. And there’s Brother Voodoo … though he may be dead now. But yeah, it seems very forced that she has to marry the only other black African character in the Marvel Universe.
You say that Storm is the most prominent woman of color in superhero comics…isn’t she the most prominent *person* of color in superhero comics? Who would be more high profile? John Stewart? Cyborg maybe? Am I missing somebody?
Women are persons too!
But yeah, I get what you mean. I’m probably selling her short, because I can’t think of a more prominent male hero of color off the top of my head. I suppose Cyborg (who appeared on the Smallville series) and War Machine have both enjoyed a bump in their profiles recently, and Blade still has plenty of fans. But none of those guys was leader of the X-Men.
I don’t even know who War Machine is. And I have only a very vague knowledge of Blade….
There’s Spawn…he’s black, isn’t he? But nobody really cares about him anymore, do they?
I’ve always disliked Storm. Self-righteous sexless prig with an origin ripped off from Modesty Blaise.
BTW, she’s at least 60 years old, given that her parents were killed in the Suez war when she was a tyke.
War Machine is Rhodey from the Iron Man franchise.
I mostly know Blade from the movies (I don’t think I’ve ever read a Blade comic). What’s funny is that many people I know who like the movies were completely unaware that Blade was a comic book character.
And Spawn is completely washed up, it’s kind of amazing how quickly that character rose and fell (he used to have a cartoon … on HBO!)
Alex – Storm suffers from the same problem as Wonder Woman. Not allowed to date or do anything that might draw criticism from socially conservative fanboys (who don’t mind oogling at her tits, of course). But to be fair, Storm is married now, so presumably she isn’t sexless.
I wonder if Marvel has published one of those origin story updates where they shift the character’s childhood forward by a few years. Maybe her parents were killed in the Yom Kippur War – that would make her late thirties, right?
I never thought of Storm as especially sexless…? Or priggish? I mean, she wore that costume…and she dated various folks over the years if I remember right? The x-men books early on were young adult fair, so I don’t think we were especially privy to explicit details about any of the characters….
Wonder Woman dates!
I hadn’t realized War Machine was Rhodey. My fanboy trivia is really weak at this point….
Back in the 80s she dated Forge, but Storm was single (and dateless) for most of the 90s and the early aughts, so I’m not surprised that many readers would consider her sexless. Not that there’s something inherently bad about asexuality, but in her case I think there was definitely an undercurrent of keeping her as a “virgin princess” for the fans. But like I said above, she is married now, so there has clearly been a change in direction for the character.
And I suppose Wonder Woman has had boyfriends, but they’re more the exception than the rule in the grand scheme of things. How many serious relationships has she had since the Perez reboot? Maybe someone else knows better, but I can only think of two – Trever Barnes, who got killed off pretty quickly, and Nemesis, who dumped her near the end of Gail Simone’s run. She’s spent the vast majority of he past 25 years as an untouchable virgin goddess.
Sheesh, I didn’t realize they killed Trevor Barnes, or that Nemesis dumped her.
I try to stay away from the post Marston WW, honestly….
That’s probably a good policy.
And sorry for dumping all that nerd trivia on you. Yikes, I can’t believe I remember Trevor Barnes.
Eh, I enjoy a good bought of nerd trivia every now and then.
I wonder how much the no dates for WW/Storm thing is that readers don’t want rivals, and how much it’s that the writers just have trouble figuring out a workable dating dynamic for the big gun female heroes? I mean, with the guys, the dynamic is they save the love interest, right? Marston was okay with that…but it seems like other writers may be a bit stymied by it….
Of course, the solution is to have them date another superhero….
How painful is the Black Panther/Storm relationship anyway?
I think there is a dynamic where writers feel reluctant to put a man in the inherently subordinate position of love interest, and on the few occasions where they do, the fans reject it.
I don’t think the relationship is particularly badly written. Mostly it’s just that Storm is clearly not treated as Black Panther’s equal (still his book, his story, his kingdom, etc).
Hm! Looking closer, in that “In Wakanda, only men get chairs” cover, looks like the Panther is pulling his…
That’s Alan Davis for you.
Josselin …. she was actually a love interest of wolverine :)
The last cover is by Phil Jimenez and Frank D’Armata. Travis Charest and Justin Ponsor did a variant cover.
Did Storm get married again? Last I heard, she split up with Black Panther.
Yeah, PrettyGamer is correct. Storm and T’challa split up and she and Wolverine became an item. It was one of those “people who’ve known each other forever unexpectedly start dating” events. I wasn’t following any of the X-Men books when it happened, and I’m curious about how the creators handled their friends’ reactions. I imagine there would have been some shock, a la Chandler and Monica on Friends.
Josselin made a revealing comment a while ago. Referring to Storm’s marriage she said “And also interesting how she had to end up with a black super-hero.
Poor her, she obviously had to end up with Black Panther, if her only other acceptable partner was Blade…”.
It is almost as though marrying a black superhero is somehow degrading.
Yet everyone seems to expect that any black female superhero will prefer a white man as a bedmate. She is almost considered racist if she desires a black man. It is amazing how bigotry works among Sci-Fi fans.
I take your point, though I don’t think Josselyn was trying to say being with a black man is degrading. I think they were pointing out their aren’t a log of black heroes, and that pairing them can seem overdetermined…
I think the issue is at least somewhat, why do female heroes have to end up with male heroes in the first place? Male heroes often have romantic interests who aren’t other heroes…