While doing my usual browse of back issue X-men comics to preserve my mental health due to this Coronavirus induced content drought we have all been suffering through, I came across Uncanny X-men #117 where Xavier and the Shadow King meet for the first time. After being broken up with by Moira, Xavier desires to embark on a world traveling trek that takes him from the Greek island of Kirinos and onto Cairo, Egypt. There while in the marketplace, he is successfully pick-pocketed by a then toddler-aged Ororo Munroe after she gets away with his wallet with her “feather light fingers”. After giving chase throughout the market place and almost losing her in the narrow, bustling alleyways of Cairo’s market he finally resorts to stunning the child Storm with a “gentle” force bolt. This exposes him to his psychic nemesis and dark yet equal counterpart, Amahl Farouk - The Shadow King.
We all know well the psychic battle of legend that follows this meeting and how Xavier manages to subdue Farouk by the skin of his teeth, narrowly escaping with his life. He claims this to be “the first evil mutant he’d ever met, the first who made him realize how truly deadly mutant powers could be in the wrong hands.” Xavier subsequently states “Then and there I found my life’s work - to bring mankind and its mutant children together in peace and harmony, and protect humanity from creatures like Farouk”. Following this he travailed to India, then Tibet, and finally back home to Westchester to form the X-men and begin the journey on his newfound life mission.
In reading this it dawned on me that not only was Ororo the first “X-men” that Xavier ever came into contact with(unless I’m mistaken and there are other, previous instances of which I am unaware), but that if she never attempted to pick his pocket in the marketplace that day, he would not have encountered The Shadow King and therefore his route to being the Founding Father Figure of the X-men and his dream for mutantkind might have unfolded in a much different way, if at all in any way that we would recognize.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Here’s a “crazy Storm fan” trying to give one of the most loved and lauded X-men characters even more clout and credit for her unknowingly crucial role in X-mythology. And to be frank my dears, you would be mostly right. However I truly never thought of this perspective until re-reading that comic today and it just made me smile to realize how destiny had literally intertwined Ororo and the X-men from the very beginning of its inception as an idea. I wish this facet of her and Xavier’s shared past experience was touched on more between the characters in canon and I hope the MCU desides to include this full story of the Xavier’s creation of the X-men mythos on the big screen.
P.S- Happy early Free Comic Book Day tomorrow everyone! Don’t forget to go and pick up your free X-men issue written by Hickman and illustrated by Pepe Larraz the GOD. Here’s to getting back to our normal weekly X-business as usual soon!