#storm 101

(add you thoughts too pls!)

I think we should also speak more on how much Ororo struggled in terms of mental health during her depowered arc!!

I see it mostly remembered as a period where she was a badass even without the powers but I was surprised to see just how deep her struggle went and how clearly Clermont depicted, on many instances, depression, suicidal thoughts and even what can be interpreted as suicide attempts.

This facet makes the arc all the more inspiring, surprising and powerful as we see an individual who never seemed to give way to despair be seriously compelled to give up.

"A madness. A need to escape that will not be denied"

What makes me go even crazier is the way it is explored through the lense of her flying ability. Whether on Forge's balcony or at the mansion's lake, Ororo's love for freedom and flying is twisted into such an insanely dark and gut churning search for a final moment of lightness and flight before giving up on herself. These scenes will never leave my brain!!!

But it's also a journey with ups and downs, mistakes and delusions, which makes it all the more accurate and impactful.

As her responsabilities towards the team test her ability to lead, this scene can also be fit into the dark allegory of her flight that Clermont is shaping up.

Thinking she is in control and has it all figured out she gambles her life on a frankly badly thought through plan that will most likely kill her.

I see this as...a place holder. If she isn't the goddess anymore and she can't just give up because of that, might as well die heroically still doing her duty as a hero. Storm has always had this wild switch from fearless confrontation to secluded avoidance that I find SO compelling. (And can also be found in Scott, her narrative parallel in terms of leadership)

In the end her revelations on life and death during life-death part 2 are still a very shaky lesson as the brutality of the mutant massacre manages to still rattle her to her core despite her spiritual journey. It's an accurate and really really engaging back and forth.

Hi!

As a disclaimer, I'm not an expert on eastern African cultures and Storm's background in terms of tribes or specific heritage is still kind of imprecise in comics, but let's talk about the canon!

On that point, yes, last anon was referencing the Maasai people which are an ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania.

Anon noted that it could've been interesting that the daughter gets a name of Maasai origin because in the comics, when Storm's powers kicked in, she decided to leave Cairo for her mother's home country, Kenya.

On the way, she went through the Serengeti plains on the north of Tanzania at the Southern border of Kenya to then settle in the Uzuri Village in Kenya which she served as Goddess for years before Charles Xavier convinced her to join the X-Men.

In classic comics Storm's specific origins are kinda restricted to her mother just being Kenyan, without details while her father is from Harlem. But in more modern comics her heritage is traced back to a tribe of a "hidden village" in the Great Rift valley in Kenya.

All in all, considering the local Maasai culture, it would've been a nice touch to pick a specifically Maa name for her (maybe) futur daughter in order to pay homage to these years of her life and the people that welcomed her in her youth.

So that's the little story!

Personally I don't mind the canon choice at all since I find that it makes for a great mix of Ororo's very rich history and cultural influences. Swahili is still the official language of Kenya and the influence of her childhood spent with her parents in Cairo is so often put aside in terms of cultural background in favour of her just being a thief that I think it's a compelling aspect of the name for it to also have Arabic roots.

Plus, it makes for nice symmetry with Ororo's own name meaning one simple word! (Ororo meaning Beauty and Furaha meaning Joy)

I AM READING ROM AND I'M NOT FINE!!!!

"You must surrender to the storm" !!!!

"All lives deserve saving. Even his!"

Meanwhile, Storm to Forge at the same point in their relationship in the comics:

Punches him and roasts him to no end calling out his appalling behavior as governmental accomplice:

Then they part ways by her threatening him with a gun in between the eyes, she's so sweet and precious 💜🙏