Ororo Goes Nuclear In “Storm and The Brotherhood of Mutants” Issue 3 – Review

From writer Al Ewing, Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants issue 3 brought Ewing’s offering in the ‘Sins of Sinister’ event to a somewhat satisfying conclusion.

For those who might not know, I’m not a fan of the current ‘Sins of Sinister’ event. I don’t care about Sinister at all. The only reason I have been reading Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants is that, in a way, it seems to be a continuation of Ewing’s X-Men Red series and it features Ororo Munroe.

With that out of the way, let’s go over my opinions regarding the third and final issue in this miniseries. I would say that I found it to be okay. Could it have been better? I guess so. But I also understand why certain things panned out the way they did.

Due to Ororo sacrificing herself in the previous issue, the third chapter opened 900 years after said sacrifice to show what the Storm System had been up to. And it wasn’t good. Even though the people of the Broken Land were still fighting, it was clear they were involved in a battle they were going to lose. The bleakness of the situation helped justify Ironfire’s decision to bring back Storm from the dead. The people needed their Goddess.

I was interested in seeing how Ewing would manage Storm’s resurrection after she made it clear that she didn’t want to be brought back. Ororo’s all about maintaining the cycle of life and death. In my opinion, asking for Sinister’s help to create a clone of Storm made sense. Due to the new Storm being a clone, with her memories based on how Ironfire remembered the actual Weather Goddess, the narrative was able to use her as a powerful weapon against Emma’s forces without needing to explore the emotional turmoil the actual Ororo would have felt if she had been brought back in such a manner.

I get that certain Storm fans wanted the power of belief in her Godhead to bring her back as some kind of divine elemental being, but again, narratively speaking, forcefully bringing back the actual Storm would have been a disservice to her, especially with the ‘Sins of Sinister’ event nearing the end and the timeline about to be reset.

Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants issue 3 had a lot of death in it. However, the on-page murders didn’t make me feel much because I didn’t get to know the numerous characters that died. This has been my complaint ever since the current event began. The time skips are way too quick for me to feel any kind of emotional connection to the players on the board.

Even Clone Storm vs Emma was quick. I was impressed by how Clone Ororo one-shotted the giant diamond robot Emma was controlling, but still, an actual battle would have been nice.

As for Clone Ororo’s attack against Emma, the newly resurrected clone of the Weather Goddess faced her enemy with unbridled power to create a nuclear explosion. This was the version of Storm that didn’t care about the rules and had no concept of fear. The Clone Ororo messed with the atomic bonds that helped create matter. And I lived! Her attack demonstrated what the actual Ororo was capable of if she allowed herself to let go.

However, as we have seen throughout Storm’s lengthy comic book history, Ororo needs to be mindful of the natural balance when using her powers to keep catastrophic consequences at bay.

Even though Clone Ororo was able to defeat Emma, she wasn’t experienced enough to realize she needed to protect her body from the ensuing nuclear radiation. I understand certain fans stating that radiation shouldn’t bother Ororo, but I think we have to understand that there’s a difference between being immune to something and being resistant to it. I highly doubt Storm’s body is 100% immune to nuclear radiation unless she’s using her powers to fully protect herself. And besides, Ewing needed a way to put an end to Clone Storm after the battle. It made narrative sense for Clone Storm to die after protecting her people against an enemy they couldn’t defeat on their own.

As for the art by Alessandro Vitti and Rain Beredo, there were a lot of dark shadows involved. I guess it was a creative choice to help visualize the tragic tone of the chapter? Hmmm.

I did, however, like the panels where Clone Storm appeared from her resurrection egg. The way she looked and talked reminded me of Ororo’s early days.

With everything said and done, I’m looking forward to the timeline being reset and going back to the actual Storm and what Ewing has planned for her in his X-Men Red series.

What did you think of Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants Issue 3?

Let us know.

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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