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| Storm (Ororo Munroe) |
The X-Men are incredibly popular and one of the most popular superheroes on the team is Storm, whose real name is Ororo Munroe. She’s been a fixture in the X-Men team and
transcended the comic into cartoons, video games and movies. She has
her own on-going series, but it’s in danger of being cancelled after
only five issues. So, to help raise awareness, here are some cool facts
you probably didn’t know about everyone’s favorite Black female
superhero.
1. Storm Was Originally Supposed to
Be a Man
Back in the 1970s, Marvel editor Roy Thomas was trying to develop an
international team of mutants to appeal to foreign markets. Originally, the black female of the team
was supposed to be called “Black Cat” who could turn into a humanoid
cat. She had a similar costume as Storm but without the cape, and a
“cat-like haircut with tufts for ears.” Unfortunately, artist Dave Cockrum
discovered several other female cat characters were developed like
Tigra, The Cat and Pantha. The team suggested he use his idea for a
male character that could control weather, called “Typhoon,” and turn
him into a woman.
2. Storm is the First Black Female
Superhero
Storm first appeared in Giant-Size
X-Men #1
(1975) written by Len Wein and penciled by Dave Cockrum. She was one
of the first black comic book characters, and is the first black female
in mainstream comics.
3. Storm Has Appeared in Every Marvel Animated Series
Storm has starred in, or made an appearance in, several animated series
like Spider-Man and His Amazing
Friends (1982), X-Men
(1992), Spider-Man (1995), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Marvel Super Hero Squad (2009), Black Panther (2010) and Wolverine and the X-Men
(2008). She has appeared in four of the seven X-Men live-action films,
which is almost as many as Wolverine and Professor X who’ve appeared in
every movie.
4. Jada Pinkett-Smith Almost Played Storm
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| Jada Pinkett-Smith |
Before casting Halle Berry as Storm, Jada Pinkett-Smith was offered the
role but turned it down. Angela Bassett and Rachel Luttrell were
almost cast as well.
5. Everyone Thought Storm’s White Hair
Would Look Silly
Cockrum
wanted to put the white hair on Storm, but everybody said that she’d
“wind up looking like somebody’s grandmother.” He said, “Trust me” and
insisted that the artwork would keep everyone from seeing her as an old
woman. He was right.
6. The Mohawk is a “Bad Joke”
In Uncanny X-Men #173 (1983), writer Chris Claremont and
artist Paul Smith gave her a new costume and a punk mohawk. Later, in Marvel Spotlight: Uncanny X-Men 500 Issues
Celebration,
Smith said it was “a bad joke gone too far … I knew that they
were going to cut the hair, so as a joke I put a Mr. T mohawk on
her … [editor] Louise Simonson said ‘We’re gonna get hung [sic]
no matter what we do, so let’s commit the crime!’ So we went with the
Mohawk … But once you get into the whole leather and stud thing
it was a bad joke that got way out of hand.”
7. Storm’s Wedding Dress Was “Shocking” to the Designer
When Storm married T’Challa (aka Black Panther) her dress was designed
by Shawn Dudley, the Emmy-Award Winning Costume Designer for TV’s Guiding Light. He told TV Guide
“I was a little shocked when I first saw the ‘comic book’ version of
our dress because I’m a control freak,” said Dudley. “I had to really
wrap my head around the ‘updates’ and changes to our original
rendering. But it was all good and I really thought the evolution from
original research to our classic rendering than on to the final version
was a cool process.”
8. Storm is One of the Most Powerful
Superheroes in the Marvel Universe
In the Marvel Universe there are different classes of mutants based on
their power level. The most powerful level is “Omega Level” which means
they have almost unforeseeable limits to their power. Storm is a
special category in that she has “Omega Level Potential.” In Black Panther #21 and Origin of Marvel Comics: X-Men #1
she was classified as an Omega-Level or an Omega Level Potential mutant.
9. Storm’s Name Means “Beautiful”
The name Ororo Monroe was made up by creators Dave Cockrum and Len Wein. But, in X-Men #133, Ororo says that her name means “beauty” in English. And she is beautiful. In fact, Storm was ranked 30th in Comics Buyer’s Guide‘s “100
Sexiest Women in Comics.” Coincidentally, she’s from Kenya and, in Swahili, Ororo actually means “soft” or “delicate“.
10. Storm Didn’t Fly Because Berry Was Pregnant
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| X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) – Storm (Halle Berry) |
In all Halle Berry’s appearances in the X-Men movies she’s done impressive stunts like flying, except in X-Men: Days of Future Past. This because actress Halle Berry was pregnant and didn’t want to take a chance of harming herself or her baby. She told the BBC,
“Storm probably won’t be as bad**s as she was going to be because we
won’t be able to do any fighting or flying or things like that. She’ll
be different than we originally planned her to be but I still think
she’ll be an integral part of this new X-Men movie.”
What do you think of Storm? Did you learn anything new? Should they save the Storm comic?
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<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="33900 ">20 Comments
Didn't know she was pregnant while filming the last movie.
Bet Jada wishes she hadn't turned it down. Think Halle needed the role more though.
I like Storm. I didn't know Berry was pregnant either.
What? No Lando? I kind of took it as a given! Unless they are planning to bring him into the second movie just like in the originals. But no Lando would be a travesty to the Star Wars universe. But please don't make it about him being black. That should have nothing to do with it. All that matters is that he is an iconic character played by a fantastic actor and he deserves as much respect as every other cast member.
The premise of this column is ludicrous on its face: "most important cast member left out".
Like your bitch coward ass would say that offline. Cowards are hilarious
I would pay good money for a Lando solo movie with a sweet blaxploitation soundtrack.
Remember that in October 2013 Michael Arndt left the project as a writer and Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan taking over scripting duties. Reportedly there were some massive rewrites, which were pushing production back, causing Abrams to be concerned about the 2015 release date. I have to wonder if Lando was a victim of the rewrites?
Great point since it's hard to imagine not even having a cameo.
They actually declared the Expanded Universe non-canon. It exists as it's own continuity, and they've started a new canon including the movies and any official content made from now on.
A lot of the charisma and atmosphere of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi revolve around the Lando character. To not bring him back borders on insanity or senility.
There is one problem about Lando as a regular. He was not in Star Wars chapter 4. Then he appeared half way into The Empire Strikes Back. He became a major character in Return of the Jedi.
James Earl Jones voice as Darth Vader. Maybe the black girl from 12 Year a Slave is playing Lando's daughter? Then, he might come in 8 and 9.
Jada never would've worked. She's only five feet tall, IIRC. Storm is close to six feet.
She wouldn't have been as impressive Maxine
I agree, maybe we'll have to wait an episode. I guess Abrams don't want to give off all the characters we want in the first episode (of the new trilogy). He maght just want to save some surprises for ep 8 and 9 🙂
I don't care about a diverse Star Wars or any other pc nonsense. I do care however that Lando isn't in the movie. How the hell do you cast it without Billy Dee Wiliams? He was a great character and a fan favorite. This makes no sense at all
First of all, Nichelle Nichols is the most influential black actor in science fiction, but nonetheless Billy Deep should be there. Crazy that he's not. Abrams hopefully will bring him back for Episode 8, but you would think Williams would know something about that, unless he's playing dumb. Obviously one of the main characters is black in the new movie so it's probably not a racial situation.
Great point Jasen! She is definitely the game changer for minorities in sci-fi.
I certainly don't understand why Williams was left out . . . especially if they went through all of that trouble to bring back Mayhew.
Perhaps Abrams, Kennedy and the Disney people are among those fans who are still crying "traitor" over what happened in "Empire Strikes Back". Who knows?
Awesome Facts 🙂
Storm is written by a fan base here. please use your books and no someone else link who are only posting what they want Storm to be and not what she's actually is. Where is the claustrophobic stuff? Hmmmm, seems like they are not being honest.