‘Marauders’ Issue 1 & ‘Fearless’ Issue 4: The Confusion About Goddess Storm Still Exists?

Something is happening over at Marvel Comics. There seems to a certain level of confusion whenever Storm is involved in comic books. Ororo was featured in Marauders Issue 1 and Fearless Issue 4 this week. However, an unfortunate trend continues. It’s as if not all Marvel writers are on board with her status as a Goddess or don’t know how to deal with that aspect of her character.

I will be talking more about these two comic books (and more) in my weekly round-up. For now, I’ll be focusing on how Ororo was treated in the new issues. I have been looking forward to reading Marauders Issue 1. And even though I enjoyed going through it (writer Gerry Duggan brings a lot of fun to the story), during an action sequence, Storm’s mutant powers were temporarily nullified by a person wearing a high-tech suit.

While mutation suppressing tools aren’t anything new in X-Men lore, I would like the current writers (who are handling Storm) to explain how such suppressants would continue to work on the Weather Goddess.

According to Ta-Nehisi Coates, Storm’s gift of Godhead is much more than just a mutation. From what I can tell, it’s a ‘God’ state she can enter. She can also draw power from the faith other people have in her. Writer Okorafor also explored Ororo’s ‘God’ state in her recent Shuri comic book run.

So, I would like to ask Duggan, how can a mutation suppressing attack work on Storm when she has been confirmed to be a Goddess? Does the suppressant only stop her mutation, but she can still access her Godhead if she’s in desperate need of her weather manipulation powers?

And while Duggan, as of yet, comes across as a writer who isn’t on board with Ororo being a Goddess, over in Fearless Issue 4 (by writer Seanan McGuire), the Invisible Woman was shown to be more than okay with acknowledging who Storm is.

As an X-Men and Storm fan, seeing Ororo being treated differently in various comic books doesn’t feel right to me. In my opinion, it’s as if the Storm-centric work Coates is currently doing in his Black Panther run has been deemed ‘limited’ by Marvel. As if the company is saying Coates can do what he wants with an African-American character and make her into whatever he wants as long as he continues to play in his part of the playground.

The fact many other Marvel writers have yet to address Storm and her Godhead in their stories has, in a sense, ‘othered’ Coates’ work in the overall Marvel Comic Book Universe. And I don’t like that one bit.

Anyway, I just wanted to express my opinion about how Storm came across in the Marvel comic books released this week.

Feel free to share your thoughts with us.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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