Storm >>> APPRECIATION <<<

[yogaflame]

Did I forget anyone of note?

Oh, I forgot Pak. I'd put him at a C with Lobdell. Coasting on Claremont's Storm, some nice power feats, but his #3 anti-goddess issue was straight blasphemy, and the lackluster villains and plots basically wasted 11 issues of solo opportunities. I'd rate him even lower if not for those high end feats and his amazingly delightful Almighty Storm, Skybreaker and All-Mother in X-Treme.

[yogaflame]

Which writer only wrote Storm briefly ie never as part of their team, that you wanted to see more of?
I mean ongoing writers like Carey, PAD, Nicieza, Davis, Morrison etc

On one hand I would have loved to see more of Morrison Storm. That issue he used her in was basically pointless, but I actually appreciated a lot of what he brought to the franchise, even if he went a little crazy at the end. I am glad he didn't use Storm in Emma's place as the seductress, but in a different capacity, I'd be interested to see what he'd have in mind for Storm.

Chuck Kim wrote that oneshot Curse of the Vampire story with Gambit, and while it was just a one shot and while he neutered Storm with that vampire magic-PIS, he did a lot right. I would have liked to see more from him.

Ellis had Storm's first solo mini and used her a bit in Astonishing. There were some tics I didn't like(Storm can carry whole skyscappers with her winds, Logan is not too heavy for her!), overall he did well. I'd like to see more from him, especially if he did a Storm-led Authority styled X-team!!!

I'd really like to see Alan Moore try his hand, in the style of Promethea, in an exploration of her mystical potential. Magik and Dani can come along, too.

Carey's X-Men is highly overrated in my estimation, but maybe that's because he didn't use Storm much. Maybe I haven't read enough of his Legacy runs to really judge. PAD is overrated to me too. I just read his old X-Factor run not too long ago and was not really impressed, and I didn't like what he did with Monet in his more recent run, so I don't think I need to see his Storm. Nicieza's 90's work was serviceable, but nothing to write home about, either. Davis's Trion was pretty neat, but the Twelve kinda fell flat(even if I did like his Ages of Apocalypse elemental Storm). I guess if he drew and wrote a Storm-led run, I'd be down.

[butterflykyss]

That said, let's work with the data available:

Lobdell- fundamentally did not understand her powers(Unlimited #1) or personality, wasted the AoA opportunity, but his Storm/Yukio and Storm/Marrow stories were decent. Mostly just coasted, but occasional flares (like Storm blasting all the Avengers when they came to help in Onslaught) showed he realized what Storm was supposed to be. Overall rating: C

Wood/Hudlin/Bendis- Wood started off exceptionally strong, even if that Piotr beef was a bit contrived, it was well executed and his Storm was not to trifled with. But then you had the all-female team era which was a borefest and regurgitated the contrived beef with Rachel instead of Piotr. Hudlin was the opposite, started off horrible(my powers don't work in space, underwater, etc...), but that last arc showed the slightest bit of potential(making the shaman send her to the afterworld and saving T'Challa from Death was cool, but then she had no way out and was going to sacrifice herself to take T'Challa's place in death....). Bendis gave Storm a few moments of HBIC action in his run(taking down Magik in one shot, taking down a whole Shield helicarrier in one shot, putting crazy-Rightclops in his place), but he kept her on the peripheral and loses major points for his horrible use of her in very brief Avengers run and Ultimate Storm too. Overall, C-.


Aaron/Guggenheim- Jason Aaron wrote that Secret Invasion story and made Storm not use her powers to defend Wakanda(when she could have just hurricaned their ship before they even touched down), making her just follow T'Challa's plan(which led to the deaths of many Wakandans) and use a sword in the end. Horrible. The Amazing X-Men run didn't do much to improve, either(rendering her powerless in Hell while they can all breathe air), making her wield an ax instead of her awesome powers. Only his brief God-gambit vs. the Candanian beast gods keeps him from a full F. Guggenheim's Stormcaster story had potential, but his X-Women arc rendered Storm comatose for plot convenience, and his Gold has not improved. Overall, D/D-.


Dishonorable mention: Maberry's DoomWar was particularly bad for T'Challa, but his Storm didn't really do so much wrong as just allow things to deteriorate around her. He did give her epic displays against various Doombots/vibranium monsters, though, so while she was reduced to a damsel in distress for much of the story, she did rise up later. Also, that was just one short story, so no grade, just bears mention.

Did I forget anyone of note?

this is why i love and value your input!!!

and what about fraction when he wrote that she couldnt make it rain in the dome?

I feel like that controversy didn't come to light until quite some time into the run, so most of that stands on him, I think. People loved the earlier protomutant arc, so I think he and his editors just decided to try that again with Rachel. But it didn't work. And then the scandal dropped. But I could be forgetting some timing there.

yea i think you are right about when the scandal occurred it happened so long ago i couldn't really recall.

Oh, I forgot Pak. I'd put him at a C with Lobdell. Coasting on Claremont's Storm, some nice power feats, but his #3 anti-goddess issue was straight blasphemy, and the lackluster villains and plots basically wasted 11 issues of solo opportunities. I'd rate him even lower if not for those high end feats and his amazingly delightful Almighty Storm, Skybreaker and All-Mother in X-Treme.

the way he wrote the all-mother had me so excited to see how he would right her in her solo. and then the solo dropped and you know, the rest. i think your analysis is spot on. the #3 issue he lost points especially when i consider what coates is doing with her now.

[yogaflame]

this is why i love and value your input!!!

and what about fraction when he wrote that she couldnt make it rain in the dome?

the way he wrote the all-mother had me so excited to see how he would right her in her solo. and then the solo dropped and you know, the rest. i think your analysis is spot on. the #3 issue he lost points especially when i consider what coates is doing with her now.

Many thanks butterflykyss!

Oh yeah, I forgot about Fraction(and Gillen, now that I think of it). I'll give Fraction a C-. Saying Storm can't make it rain with a whole Bay of water to work with was stupid, but at least he gave her some level of pomp deferring to her status as a Queen at the time(and she wasn't on his main cast because she was living in Wakanda for the most part). He did have her slay a Predator X in one shot, but he also gave her stupid speeches(a horrible imitation of TAS, "the sky is ashamed of you", uh, no, there's a horrible forcefield up).

Gillen gets a D+. Storm was on his roster, and yet she had only the most perfunctory roles in the run(checking Scott in that first meeting was a nice touch), but screaming for the Goddess like a little child against some Maddie clones was deplorable, as was calling her a 'colonial pet' through his Sinister. At least she didn't go comatose every other issue, but that's not saying much.

Pak could have been epic, which is why I am harsh on him!

[butterflykyss]

Many thanks butterflykyss!

Oh yeah, I forgot about Fraction(and Gillen, now that I think of it). I'll give Fraction a C-. Saying Storm can't make it rain with a whole Bay of water to work with was stupid, but at least he gave her some level of pomp deferring to her status as a Queen at the time(and she wasn't on his main cast because she was living in Wakanda for the most part). He did have her slay a Predator X in one shot, but he also gave her stupid speeches(a horrible imitation of TAS, "the sky is ashamed of you", uh, no, there's a horrible forcefield up).

Gillen gets a D+. Storm was on his roster, and yet she had only the most perfunctory roles in the run(checking Scott in that first meeting was a nice touch), but screaming for the Goddess like a little child against some Maddie clones was deplorable, as was calling her a 'colonial pet' through his Sinister. At least she didn't go comatose every other issue, but that's not saying much.

Pak could have been epic, which is why I am harsh on him!

ok i like this, this is fun! now lets do the opposite who would rank as her top writers and why?

[ShepardOakenshieldPrime]

Honestly I feel like people are too harsh on Pak dismissing Storm as a Goddess, his intention was good compared to other writers. He tried to make her seem like a real person throughout the solo by making mistakes and suffering the consequences, and that instance just tried to make her all the more human. It was unquestionably the lowest point in the solo but everything else was spot on, the overall content of the solo was very lackluster but honestly I feel like Marvel was partly to blame.

[rutog98]

That said, let's work with the data available:

Lobdell- fundamentally did not understand her powers(Unlimited #1) or personality, wasted the AoA opportunity, but his Storm/Yukio and Storm/Marrow stories were decent. Mostly just coasted, but occasional flares (like Storm blasting all the Avengers when they came to help in Onslaught) showed he realized what Storm was supposed to be. Overall rating: C

Wood/Hudlin/Bendis- Wood started off exceptionally strong, even if that Piotr beef was a bit contrived, it was well executed and his Storm was not to trifled with. But then you had the all-female team era which was a borefest and regurgitated the contrived beef with Rachel instead of Piotr. Hudlin was the opposite, started off horrible(my powers don't work in space, underwater, etc...), but that last arc showed the slightest bit of potential(making the shaman send her to the afterworld and saving T'Challa from Death was cool, but then she had no way out and was going to sacrifice herself to take T'Challa's place in death....). Bendis gave Storm a few moments of HBIC action in his run(taking down Magik in one shot, taking down a whole Shield helicarrier in one shot, putting crazy-Rightclops in his place), but he kept her on the peripheral and loses major points for his horrible use of her in very brief Avengers run and Ultimate Storm too. Overall, C-.


Aaron/Guggenheim- Jason Aaron wrote that Secret Invasion story and made Storm not use her powers to defend Wakanda(when she could have just hurricaned their ship before they even touched down), making her just follow T'Challa's plan(which led to the deaths of many Wakandans) and use a sword in the end. Horrible. The Amazing X-Men run didn't do much to improve, either(rendering her powerless in Hell while they can all breathe air), making her wield an ax instead of her awesome powers. Only his brief God-gambit vs. the Candanian beast gods keeps him from a full F. Guggenheim's Stormcaster story had potential, but his X-Women arc rendered Storm comatose for plot convenience, and his Gold has not improved. Overall, D/D-.


Dishonorable mention: Maberry's DoomWar was particularly bad for T'Challa, but his Storm didn't really do so much wrong as just allow things to deteriorate around her. He did give her epic displays against various Doombots/vibranium monsters, though, so while she was reduced to a damsel in distress for much of the story, she did rise up later. Also, that was just one short story, so no grade, just bears mention.

Did I forget anyone of note?

I agree with all of this save the Unlimited #1 issue. Lobdell intentionally wanted to mess up Ororo's powers to weaken her. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read her back issue run and see all the stories where it is stated she is immune to cold and this immunity demonstrated. Its not hard to convey this immunity as he did it with Iceman (I think he tried to weaken Storm like this to try and create a difference between her and Bobby. Good thing no other writer before or after him wrote Ororo's powers this way...Ororo and Bobby should never be in the same book together as it would only result in her being devalued to prop him up so that his powers have a niche to fill, IMHO). So, again, this was deliberate on the part of Lobdell to mess up a basic aspect of Ororo's powers.On top of this, he stripped her of her indomitable will so that she could get wiped out by virtually any telepath around. The only exception to this that I can recall is Uncanny X-Men #325 where she was able to beat a Morlock telepath. I guess Lobdell was fine with this since that telepath had to obviously be one of the weakest psis on the planet. Telepaths like him, who have a strong hatred for humanity, would not be living in the sewers no matter how ugly they are if they were actually powerful. They would be living it up on the surface using their powers to take what they want from normal human society. The fact that he was a Morlock means his TP power level was on the low, Low, LOW end of the scale compared to powerhouses like Emma and Xavier.

[sirmarkus]

I remember the limited series in the 90's. Sweet covers and a lot of potential with her being pulled into that pocket dimension with the morlocks, but the delivery of the story just fell flat. A great potential story was used as an excuse to change her hair.

[butterflykyss]

Honestly I feel like people are too harsh on Pak dismissing Storm as a Goddess, his intention was good compared to other writers. He tried to make her seem like a real person throughout the solo by making mistakes and suffering the consequences, and that instance just tried to make her all the more human. It was unquestionably the lowest point in the solo but everything else was spot on, the overall content of the solo was very lackluster but honestly I feel like Marvel was partly to blame.

at the time the issue was written, i didnt think it was a big deal either that ge wrote her being a "silly girl." I thought it was great that she was being written as the relatable character but now two things ring true to me. 1. Storn is not supposed to be a relatable character. She has the power to control the weather. i cant think of anyone who can relate to that lol. and 2., what did writing her as relatable do for the character? what type of character development did we really see. i much prefer coates route, embracing the idea of her beibg a goddess as this is consistent to what claremont established and hinted many years ago.

[ExodusCloak]

Chuck Kim wrote a grand Storm but out of all get writers who were trialled with one shots was not offered more work

[Wind Rider]

I would also add:

Mark Sumerak (writer of Ororo: Before the Storm)
Scott Gray (writer of Uncanny X-Men First Class)

I think they both had great takes on Storm, did their homework on her (characterization, powers, etc), gave her some development, and left potential breadcrumbs for future stories.

Honorable Mentions

Paul Cornell: I enjoyed his run on Wolverine. He only used Storm a little bit in his run but seem to have a decent handle on her character and was creative with Storm’s powers.

Jason Latour - I think he had a decent handle on Storm and gave her good development. It was too bad he had to focus so much on Wolverine and had to pick up his story after Aaron’s horrific run.

[Tmacaoni]

Well Yogaflame, you did forget Fraction's drool worthy Storm. I say that not in a good way.

[Timberjack]

Hey guys！Do you know in which issue Storm saw her mother n'dare‘s ghost？I remember it’s from uxm

[RLAAMJR.]

Well Yogaflame, you did forget Fraction's drool worthy Storm. I say that not in a good way.

Blame the artist instead.

[yogaflame]

Well Yogaflame, you did forget Fraction's drool worthy Storm. I say that not in a good way.

I guess he did have her napping in the middle of a fight, but I don't remember drool like Bendis did...?