Hero Profile: Storm

The X-men are one of my favorite superhero teams. A group of superhumans that fight to protect humanity despite being largely distrusted and hated, what’s not to like? They also have some of the most interesting and diverse characters. And one of the best representations of that is Ororo Munroe, better known as Storm. Try saying her name out loud, it sounds like a dog trying to talk doesn’t it? Enough silly, on with the show.

X-man, Queen, Thief, she's a triple threat!

Ororo Munroe is the daughter of a Kenyan tribal priestess and an American photographer. Born in New York but raised in Cairo, Egypt, she was as happy as a clam until she was about six. The Suez Crisis erupted between Egypt and Israel, along with France and Britain. During this conflict a fighter jet was shot down and landed smack dab in the middle of the Munroe living room. Messy. Ororo was buried under tons of rubble, alongside her mother’s corpse. Understandably, she developed a pretty intense form of claustrophobia after that. It got so bad that when she found herself confined, provided there was room, she’d curl into a ball and be almost unresponsive until she was freed. Ororo dug her way out, but was left orphaned.

Being a resourceful and incredibly lucky little girl, she lived on the street until she was picked up by a local crime boss named Achmed el-Gibar, who trained her as a pickpocket. Ororo proved to be very, very good at this profession. In fact, she was only ever caught once, by none other than Charles Xavier, who was in Egypt on business. This proves to be something of a wakeup call to the now teenage Ororo, who then wanders into the Serengeti on something of a spiritual quest. While in the African wilderness she crossed paths with a few of Africa’s beasts; lions, gazelle, elephants, and the Black Panther. Yeah, apparently T’Challa was on his own walkabout at the time. The two hit it off wonderfully, but broke off their budding romance due to their goals. Ororo was looking for some sort of epiphany, and T'Challa was looking for vengeance. Pretty much polar opposite goals right there. It’s after they parted ways that her weather controlling abilities began to manifest. Damn, as if being a teenage orphan girl wasn’t hard enough without throwing superpowers in.

Not a fan of the Mohawk, but someone
else can tell her.

A short while later, she met and befriended a witch-priestess named Ainet. Ainet became a surrogate mother to Ororo and began teaching the young Mutant about her craft. A drought hit their village, and Ororo took it as an opportunity to thank her new mother and her new home for their kindness. She made it rain for days just around their village. There was much rejoicing. This, unfortunately, also screwed up weather patterns for the entire region killing many animals and people. Ainet sensed the damage her adoptive-daughter had caused, and explained to Ororo how the gesture was nice, but incredibly stupid. Ainet taught Ororo how best to manipulate the weather so their village could prosper without destroying everybody else. Smart move.

For the next few years Ororo was worshipped as a rain goddess in her own, and several other villages. This all changed when our old pal Charles came to see her. He offered her a place on the X-men and Ororo accepted. She was given the codename Storm and quickly became one of the most powerful and respected members of the team. She has since help battle the X-men’s toughest foes like Magneto, Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix, she has become a team leader for the X-men and the leader/guardian of the Morlocks (sewer dwelling Mutants that can’t pass for normal), married T’Challa and become Queen of Wakanda. She’s done pretty well for herself as person, and amazingly well for someone who’d been orphaned at six. She has since been divorced by T'Challa, which is sad. But, her rebound guy is Wolverine, which isn't so sad. She seems to have a thing for guys with sharp claws. Who knew?

Orphan to former Queen. Impressive.

Storm has a lot of powers. Some a little more obvious than others. She can control the weather for miles around on this, and several other, planet. She can rapidly cool or heat an area, manipulate precipitation, humidity, and moisture, create and channel lightning, create tornadoes, thunderstorms, blizzards, and hurricanes. She can also clear away these phenomena. She flies on wind currents, essentially creating a small personal tornado around her body, and others. She can also use her powers to break the bonds between H2O, creating Hydrogen and Oxygen, which allows her to breath underwater. Now we’re just getting silly. She also has dormant mystic potential. Like she needs more powers.  

She also is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, having been trained by el-Gibar, Xavier, Wolverine, and Black Panther. So it should be pretty clear that she can mess you up. Its official, “Fighting like a girl” is no longer an insult. Spread the word folks! Damn, that was fast. We’re not even halfway through week one. She is also a gifted thief, and an extraordinary lock-picker. She once picked a lock with her teeth. She can survive in just about any environment, as her powers help her body to compensate for extreme heat or cold, as well as extreme speeds and altitudes/depths. In summation; Do. Not. Cross. Ororo. Munroe.

  Storm has proven to be one of the most popular X-men. She has appeared in just about every X-men series since her introduction.

Not a great Storm, but a good one.
Much better than her Catwoman.

She was one of the most prominent characters on X-men the Animated Series. She had several episodes dedicated to her. One of the more interesting episodes was in season two, in a two-part episode entitled “Whatever It Takes.” In it, she is lured back to her home in Africa by a powerful psychic entity known as the Shadow King. The creature had possessed Storm’s “spiritual” son Mjnari in a gambit to get his spectral paws on Storm and her immense power. She was able to overpower the demon and trap it back in the Astral Plane. Another interesting episode was entitled “One Man’s Worth.” In this episode, assassins from the future went back in time and murdered Xavier before he became a Mutant icon. History is rewritten so that at their point in history, Mutants (under Magneto) are at war with the humans. Storm is a loyal follower of Magneto, alongside her husband, Wolverine. A time traveling Bishop, who was immune to the timeline change for…reasons, picks them up and gets them to help him save Xavier. This was a particularly interesting episode to see both how Wolverine and Storm work together as a couple, and to see how the characters acted in an even more backwards time, the 1950s. A particularly unfortunate restaurant owner told Storm to get out, since he had a no colored people sign. Storm was astonished by the obvious racism. Wolverine suggested that the owner apologize, or risk skewering. The ending of this episode, when history resets, is rather sad but beautiful, as the Storm and Wolverine of the Xavier-less timeline revert back to normal. Check it out.

Not a real Goddess, but I can see where
the confusion must have come from.

She was one of three teachers at the Xavier institute in X-men: Evolution. Storm and Wolverine take turns whipping the young Mutants into shape. One of the biggest changes for her was in the form of a nephew named Evan Daniels, (codenamed Spyke, the spelling irks me). It is very reminiscent of Mjnari in the older show, in that Evan is not Ororo’s son, and yet she has a very mothering attitude towards the boy. She also has an episode that does a call back to her African roots. In the episode, “African Storm” an evil African shaman simply called Houngan, comes to America and uses mysticism to bind Storm to his will in a bid to take over Africa. He uses her claustrophobia and the fears that the other X-men possess to keep the team off balance. She is freed and does the “You want my power? Then take it!” speech as a nice bit of revenge. Again, don’t mess with Storm.

She has appeared in four X-men movies, all portrayed by Halle Berry. I don’t love her as Storm but she does do her best. I am thankful that while she tried a Kenyan accent in the first movie, they dropped it for the sequels. Granted, I’d have preferred them having her prefect the accent but if my options were bad accent or no accent, I would go with no. A younger version of this Storm will appear in X-men: Apocalypse but there hasn’t been anything official as to who.

She's a playable character in the X-men: Legends 1 and 2, and is very useful with all of her lightning and wind related powers. I'm going to keep pitching this one until you've all sat down and played at least one of these games.

I really like Storm. Most versions of the character I’ve seen are a free spirited woman that is a lot like the weather she manipulates. Ever shifting, elegant, beautiful, and dangerous. She has a strong bond with her teammates, and has shown on more than one occasion that she’s willing to put the world and her friends/family before her own personal happiness. I particularly enjoyed the X-men The Animated Series version, due in part to her love of doing quasi-mystic chants before using her powers. “Winds howl, storms rage,” stuff like that. She’s very much a hurricane, the incredible Storm! Next time, Tony Stark’s assistant turned superhero, Rescue.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_%28Marvel_Comics%29

 http://marvel.wikia.com/Ororo_Munroe_%28Earth-616%29

 http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Ororo_Munroe

 http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/0/4762/1099829-storm22.jpg