Issue 40: Superhero Information Initiative
By The Dude

All Hail The Queen

If you have not heard, Ms. Munroe recently married T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther, and is now Queen of Wakanda, quite a step up from princess of some remote tribe in Kenya…oh, and smoking hot leader of the X-Men. Some would not have seen the beauty of little Orphan Ororo, but T’Challa fell in love at a young age. When a little 12-year-old street thug saved him from racist gang bangers. Storm was always the hero, even as a thief.

If you have lived in a hole, or some country that has no outside contact, like Wakanda, then you may wonder who this enigma of a woman is. Daughter of Princess N’Dare and Dave Munroe, Ororo Munroe is orphaned at a young age, and grows up as a pickpocket in Cairo. Some time in her teens Ororo begins to manifest some weird… ummm… talents, and heads out into the Serengeti, where savage cannibals kill and eat… wait that was a different African woman. I mean she was worshipped as a goddess. What would you do if some beautiful young African teen came wandering into your village and she could control nature, ride the winds, sometimes hers eyes glowed blue and she had pure white hair? Worship her until Professor X comes recruiting, that’s what.

Storm first joins the X-Men in Giant Size X-Men #1. She quickly becomes a fan favorite, and a powerful member of the team. So it’s not surprising that she eventually replaces Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops, as team captain. She continues to be on the X-Men line up in some form or fashion for over two decades, (in real world time), and most often as team captain. She even beats out Scott as team captain during a period of time when her powers are lost.

The loss of her powers is due to her being shot by a weapon of Forge’s. She is clueless to his involvement. So she has no reason to not fall madly in love with him as he nurses her back to health. Things don’t go so well for him, though, when she does find out. Thus starting an on-again, off-again relationship depending on who is writing the X-Men and which arc of the story line you are reading. Luckily Forge, Storm, and the writers all came to their senses and moved on.

Storm did this punk stint in the 1980’s, were she went with a black leather halter-top, skintight black leather pants and white Mohawk. I am sure you saw her guest appearance in Mad Max Beyond ThunderDome. (I think that was her.) It took her a while to grow that hair back, and reestablish her image as a regal African princess. If you came across her for the first time during the punk era, (me), it may have also taken you some time to see her as anything more than some bee with an itch. Looking back on it now, you may appreciate the significance of an African female leading a team of 90% white guys as far back as the 1970’s.

Now back to the present. After a whirlwind tour of the world where Black Panther and Storm visit other powerful mutant, and sometimes royal allies, they honeymoon as Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic. So Stretch and Peek-a-boo, (my pet names for Mr. Fantastic and Mrs. Invisible), get some much-needed alone time. After which, they returned to Wakanda to live happily ever after… and then they invited Wolverine to visit.