Storm Facts

Are you a fan of Storm? You should be, because we got One Dozen Storm Facts!

1. Created by Len Wein and David Cockrum, Storm ended up being a combination of two characters: Typhoon and The Black Cat. The Black Cat had a similar costume, but due to the creation of Tigra, Hellcat, and Spider-Man's Black Cat, the character became redundant. Typhoon was originally a male superhero, but editor Roy Thomas suggested making the character a woman since the new X-Men line-up lacked a woman. Renamed Storm and given a design based off both characters, Orono appeared next to Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Sunfire, and Thunderbird in "Giant-Sized X-Men #1" in 1975.

2. Originally, Marvel Editorial asked Cockrum to change Storm's hair color. They were afraid if her hair was white readers might think she was elderly. Cockrum refused to budge and the character's iconic hair color remained white. In 1983, artist Paul Smith was asked to redesign Storm. Of all his submissions, Marvel Editorial went with his "joke" idea of giving her a black, leather, biker outfit and a white Mohawk. Inspired by Mr. T. The look was chosen as a goof, but ultimately the creators started to like the design. In 2013 the Mohawk look was brought back until it was yet again changed back in 2017.

3. In 2006, King T'Challa of Wakanda proposed to Storm and she became Queen of Wakanda. This marriage happened during Marvel's "Civil War" and was considered an important stepping stone for the Marvel Universe. So supported in fact, that Emmy Award-Winning Costume Designer Shawn Dudley was asked to design a wedding dress for Storm to be used in the issue the two were wed. It was also established by writers Eric Jerome Dickey and Axel Alonso that ever since their first meeting in 1980, Black Panther and Storm have had romantic interactions. Going so far as to establish that T'Challa took Orono's virginity when they were teenagers.

4. Storm's mother N'Dare was an African Princess/Witch-Priestess from a tribe in Kenya who possessed magical abilities. Her father was an American photojournalist named David Monroe. The three of them were involved in a plane crash over Egypt that left Storm an orphan. Due to being trapped under rubble with her dead parents for hours, Storm developed a serious case of claustrophobia that would haunt her for years.

5. As a child, Orono was a thief in Cairo and-after discovering her mutant abilities-she became worshiped as a Goddess by tribes people until being discovered by Professor X. After her memory was wiped and she was psychologically reverted to a child by the villain Nanny, she became a thief again. Fellow thief Gambit found Storm and jogged her memories back.

6. While not often picked as leader compared to Professor X, Cyclops, or Wolverine, Storm has led the X-Men on several occasions. The first was after the death of Jean Grey when Cyclops needed to leave the X-Men and left Storm in charge. This was in 1980. The most recent was after Wolverine died in 2014 and Storm became leader of The X-Men and Dean of their school. She also led The X-Treme X-Men and an all-women team of X-Men. She also led the underground mutant team The Morlocks, was a reserve member of The Avengers, and substituted on The Fantastic Four with Black Panther.

7. Storm has constantly battled a foe called The Shadow King, a manifestation of humanities darker desires. Shadow King was in possession of an African crime-lord that Storm worked for as a child, but was defeated by Professor X. He reappeared to battle Storm and The New Mutants, and again when Gambit protected the mentally de-aged Storm from Shadow King. Shadow King also manipulated the tribe that worshiped Storm back in the day, continuing his grudge against the mutant.

8. Like her mother, Storm comes from a long-line of mystically gifted African women. Though she has never capitalized on her heritage, alternate versions of Storm have shown her to be a powerful sorceress. Storm's spirit is so strong she was one of two people considered to be the host for Eternity-the physical manifestation of reality itself. She shared this honor with The Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange.

 9. Orono Monroe/Storm is the first Black, Female Superhero in comic book history. Following her would come characters like Monica Rambeau, Misty Knight, Vixen, and many more.

10. Storm is labelled as an Omega-Level Mutant, which is a simple way of describing how powerful of a mutant she is. She can create fogs, mists, and clouds, summon rain, hail, snow, all forms of strong winds, create thunder and lightning, she can clear any weather conditions and modify atmospheric pressure, she can create precipitation, electromagnetic blasts, absorb or produce oxygen even within the human lungs, acid rain/toxic fog, flash freezes, she can bend light by using moisture creating a field of invisibility, create air pressure within the human body, she breath underwater by separating hydrogen molecules and survive in space by bringing oxygen into space and controlling her own air pressure. She can also manipulate solar winds and cosmic storms, perceive the world in the form of energies she can manipulate, and control ocean currents.

11. In the universe of "Mutant X", Orono was bitten by Dracula and is a vampire known as Bloodstorm. As Bloodstorm she continues to not kill her foes, but employs Kitty Pryde and Forge as blood suppliers. In Amalgam Comics, Storm was fused with DC Comic's Wonder Woman and became "Amazon". She led The JLX, a fusion of The Justice League and The X-Men. In "Age of Apocalypse" she is a street-wise rebel who was romantically involved with Quicksilver. During "The Asgardian Wars", Storm was manipulated by Loki and given a replica of Mjolnir. Once she held the hammer, Storm became The Goddess of Thunder. In 2015's "Secret Wars", the world was split into different realities and each world had it's own Thor as a type of enforcer. Storm made regular appearances as an alternate version of Thor.

12. Along with Black Panther, Storm has been romantically involved with Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Cyclops. She also was so in love with Forge they almost got married.

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