SDCC 2024 Interview: “Storm: Dawn of a Goddess”

Storm: Dawn of a Goddess by Tiffany D. Jackson is a YA retelling of Storm’s origin story prior to her joining the X-Men.

Between the reboot of X-Men ’97 and Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel’s X-Men have had a recent pop culture resurgence. Storm: Dawn Of a Goddess is a YA retelling of the origin story for popular X-Men character Storm. The Geekiary sat down with author Tiffany D. Jackson at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 to discuss the process of writing for a character as iconic as Storm.

The Geekiary: How did the story concept for Storm: Dawn of a Goddess come to fruition?

Tiffany D. Jackson: I’ve been a huge Storm, Marvel fan. I was really interested in writing, I was just wondering, “How do you even go about doing that?” So I kind of put out feelers, being like “Hey, I’m really interested in writing a Storm novel.” Finally, my agent got a call from Marvel saying, “Hey, we’re interested in her writing an IP project for us.” That’s how it came to be, they reached out. Of course, I started screaming.

TG: What was the process of working with Marvel like?

Jackson: It was very cool. Marvel basically gave me access to every single comic known to man, and I got a chance to go through there and find Storm’s origin story and talk to some experts. I fleshed out an outline and they approved. They were basically, we were in lockstep. They approved the draft, they approved the final copy, they made changes where they felt they needed to make changes – mostly because we wanted to make the story right and support for accuracy, of course.

TG: What were the challenges of writing for a character as iconic as Storm?

Jackson: I guess the biggest challenge is the fear I had because this is, as you said, an iconic character. Everyone loves Storm and everyone has their version of Storm that they love. I didn’t want to screw up, and I think that was the biggest challenge – making sure that we had all of the information and that we had as much detail as possible, that we made it both organic yet original. I think another part of it was just telling a tale about someone who is so iconic, but not everyone knows her background story.

TG: How much inspiration did you get from other variations of Storm that are already out there?

Jackson: It was hard at times because I grew up watching the [X-Men] ’97 cartoon. That is when I first really got introduced to Storm. And then of course that are so many other different variations in her comic book life. I sort of got the chance to pick and choose. I wanted to make sure that, since this is somewhat of an origin story, I wanted to make sure that I touched upon phases in her life that she would visit later. Even when you think of the Mohawk Storm, I want to talk about the fact that she’s already confidently comfortable with her hair. I visited the Storm where she was a leader, and I visited the Storm where she is in love with several different characters. I guess I wanted to make sure that this novel touched upon the rest of her journey.

TG: Are there any characters or moments that you wanted to include that didn’t end up in the final story?

Jackson: No, and I guess maybe because I got a chance to include T’Challa in this. T’Challa’s her first, one true love, their first teen love story. That was the biggest character I wanted to include. I guess if we ever do sequels to this, I would love to talk about her early days as an X-Man, things that she’s started to learn because she also learned about herself and learning the team. I would also love to see the way she starts to interact with Professor Xavier. She sort of plays him in the very beginning, she’s kind of like, “Who are you to tell me who I am?” I would love to see some of that.

TG: Do you prefer writing for established characters or creating your own?

Jackson: I do prefer creating my own, mostly because you can’t screw up your own characters. And also, like I said, this is nerve-wracking to do, especially if I knew someone was doing my favorite character, I would absolutely grill them down to the details. Let’s make sure you actually do this correctly.

TG: Will we see more of your version of Storm in future installments?

Jackson: I would love to see different versions of this come about. So we’ll see, we’ll see what happens.

TG: What are you currently working on?

Jackson: Right now, I’m working on a middle grade thriller that’s coming out with Scholastic next year. Then, I’m also working on my next thriller YA. And I don’t know, maybe we’ll see more of Storm later.

Storm: Dawn of a Goddess is published by Random House Books and is available now.

Author: Jessica Wolff

Jessica Wolff is a graduate of Drexel University with a BS in Film/Video. She has a passion for entertainment and representation in entertainment. She currently resides outside of Washington, DC.

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