She arguably seems to have done more good and created a stronger foundation for something lasting (unless the X-office finaly goes Genosha on the Arrakii*) as part of the Great Circle on Arrako than the entire Quite Council (including her) did during the existence of the Nation of Krakoa.
As for stepping down. Perhaps one should see her in the light of a Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus type figure.
Little bit of history for those unaware. In the roman republic the leadership of the nation was usualy held by two figures called consuls, which were appointed by the senate each year. The decision to normaly have two leaders was made to avoid falling back to the rule of kings. However in times of crisis having two leaders with opposing ideas and ambitions, together with potential bickering among the senate could prevent important actions from being taken. As such there was position a single person could temporarily be appointed to called dictator (sound of dramatic thunder), who could rule the nation with absolute power.
The stateman Cincinnatus (519 - 430 BC) became something of an idealized figure of the "good dictator", being presented as humble, honorable person who personaly worked the land of his small farm and was given the title of dictator twice before quickly and willingly giving it up once the crisis was resolved.
Which is where Storm's role for Arrako could very well fit in aswell.
Also the titles were indeed meaningless and hollow.
Neither Krakoa nor Arrako had any notable space ships, let alone fleet of them, enough personal with the ability to survive and move through space by their own powers or policing/military organization with the ability to supervise, protect or control a large enough space within the sol system to nominaly be considered "in controll" of it. All while over 99.9% of the sapient population of the system was concentrated on the third planet from the sun and did not collectively acknowledged or support any such claims.
In this regard SWORD was nothing more than a spy organization, which focused on extracting informations and manipulating the affairs of actual space faring empires and nations, which had the fleets, organizations and logistic structure to actualy make claims of entire solar systems and areas of the galaxy.
As such declaring Storm the "something" of Sol was around as meaningfull as if the first nubian Pharao had been declared ruler of the atlantic ocean.
*It seems the crosshair over their heads has faded somewhat for now. Perhaps the X-office will proof pessimists like me wrong in their regard.
My friend, I would like to nominate you to write up the spoiler thread for ROM #3. I won't be reading it until tomorrow morning and due to time constraints I'll only be writing up one thread. You have a deep understanding of the work Ewing is presenting and it would be really fun to read your take. If so then I'll do X-Men Forever #1.
"Danielle... I intend to do something rash and violent." - Betsy Braddock
Krakoa, Arakko, and Otherworld forever!
Excellent post Grunty!
Storm as Regent of Arrako and Voice of Sol were basically empty titles. She destroyed the throne she was given. She cast off her golden crown. The only thing she did of intergalactic note was tell the others about resurrecting the Shi'Ar empress Xandra(was that her name?). She was never going to stay on Arrako forever. Even when she first left for space I thought it was weird. Storm loves Earth. That's her favorite atmosphere.
Sure it must have been exciting to make a new atmosphere and determine its climate. Sure she made for a good shepherd for the Arraki as they got used to life without endless siege warfare. But we all knew, deep down, that she would come back to Earth eventually. All the main drama is on Earth.
As much as I love and adore what Lord Ewing did(and continues to do) in his run, it has felt ancillary to the main story on Earth. And the sales reflected that, despite being by far the best written books in the line. It was Storm and a collection of colorful characters off to the side while Wolverine/Scott/Jean/etc do the main story somewhere else(very much evocative of the X-Treme/New X-Men paradigm from 2 decades ago). And even if I also adored X-Treme, it was the beginning of Storm losing her place as a central X-Men character, so much so that the BP line scooped her up(even from Lord Claremont himself!), and she was basically irrelevant in the X-line until Lord Ewing brought her into his fold(sure, she had some stories like IvX or whatever as headmistress of the JGS, but do we really claim that era?).
That said, given what we can so far ascertain of the upcoming era, I do wish we could have Lord Ewing writing Storm off on her own adventures for years more to come. I just can't see a different writer doing a better job with her in this Storm solo coming up, especially if they are set on miring her in American politics! Such a swamp is no place for Ororo, she'd get less filth on her in the Morlock sewers.
Let the flames destroy all but that which is pure and true!
Regent of Arrako I don't agree was an empty title. Ewing actually wrote her doing a lot in that function. I was very critical when she relinquished it during Judgement Day but in the end it didn't matter as Ewing still had her acting as such anyway, so I'm not even sure why he bothered having her give it up.
Voice of Sol though definitely was meaningless. Amounted to nothing and we STILL never found out why she wanted either titles and roles to begin with. One of Ewing's few fails.
I think there is still a lot of potential with Storm in Galactic settings as it's something that was new and different with the character. I'm not big on those kind of stories but it was nice to get something different with her and see it explored for a time, no matter how short it ended up being.
Last edited by Saturius; 03-19-2024 at 08:48 AM.
We aren't doing this. The idea that either was an empty title with no actual story is a talking point with very little to support it. In the black panther annual she was the catalyst that stopped Dormamu from claiming Chandilar and saving the universe, an intergalactic empire spanning 15 galaxies, stopped a Shiar civil war that would have harmed the quadrant by saving Xandra 3 times. Just by her being there she's saved countless lives.
She literally started the healing process and transformation of an entire society that has CPTSD. Imagine millions of people with the fight, freze, fawn... response living in constant trauma and never having a way out. Storm gave them that and began the process of lasting change. She helped fell Uranos the guy responsible for nearly destroying two worlds. We are storm fans and we will be giving flowers to the all goddess and acknowledging her actual contributions to the stories being told. She was responsible for setting into motion Redroot's return, stopped Emperor Vulcan, ended a civil war. I want her to stay on arakko because she accomplished so much.
Last edited by OG Storm; 03-19-2024 at 10:09 AM.
"She saved countless lives by being there" which she would have done without the titles, anyway.
Accomplished...past tense.
It's one thing not wanting to let go...another thing to realise you have no choice but to let go.
Last edited by Devaishwarya; 03-19-2024 at 11:19 AM.
Lord Ewing *Praise His name! Uplift Him in song!* Your divine works will be remembered and glorified in worship for all eternity. Amen!
But she did it while having the titles. It's literally because of those titles that she was there.
Letting go for what? Has there been something new?
She did those things and minimizing them does what now?
My point is we don't celebrate all the positive things she did. We will spend pages focusing on her hair, he costumes... we don't actually talk about her accomplishments. If we are going to point out the missteps we should also be focusing on the successes that occurred during his run.
Last edited by OG Storm; 03-19-2024 at 11:44 AM.
Okies...
While we're here celebrating her successes (which we have been doing, not minimising. You brought up that one instance in another book) Brevoort and Co. have clearly moved on.
Lord Ewing *Praise His name! Uplift Him in song!* Your divine works will be remembered and glorified in worship for all eternity. Amen!
https://youtu.be/J73l7Fpkpic?si=y8CNG3KADXOrOrsC
"Sisters" clip featuring Jean and Storm.
I was trying to do too much and not doing any of it as well as I could. But I've had a change of mind... though not everyone shall enjoy it. I will.
#midnightermonday #uglystepchildren #lolgbtcomedyshow
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Storm and Jean having an actual bond and relationship? Impressive.