Makani Themba-Nixon on Storm’s role in the X-Men comics versus her role in the movie:
Storm’s character was a bright spot in the relentless denigration of Black women in media. Her character operated as a strong metaphor for what it means to be a Black woman in the United States. In Africa, she was revered as a goddess and a queen. In the United States she faces fear and bigotry but she remains tough, unapologetic, strong; a warrior in every sense of the word.The movie series stripped Storm of her power and the storyline of all its potency. The comic’s artful portrayals of the complex relationships among mutants across the continuum of the political spectrum are reduced to two dimensional good versus evil. Magneto’s character in the comic series had a strong sense of love for “his people.” He would not harm other mutants and saw the struggle for self determination as key to liberation and dealing with humans on equal terms. The vilification of his character in the film served to mute these important themes in favor of advancing jingoism and assimilation.
June 23rd, 2006 at 5:24 pm
But Didn’t Claremont…
June 24th, 2006 at 5:22 am
Actually, it should start with “but didn’t Len Wein…” since it was he and Dave Cockrum (along with editor Roy Thomas) who created Storm.
June 24th, 2006 at 6:55 am
Rob — I acknowledge your greater X-Men knowledge without ceding overall Nerd Superiority.
I’m a DC fan.
June 24th, 2006 at 9:40 am
But didn’t Claremont strip her of her powers? That’s what I thought you were referring to in the title.
June 24th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Yes, and it made her an even better characters as a result. Now all she could contribute to the story and the team was her personality, not her powers. She was an effective leader and a real hero; she did not need lightning bolts and flight to make for good story-telling. In the movies on the other hand, like many of the mutant characters, she is just a “living weapon”. Her only reason to be is to use her powers in a superheroic fashion.
But really, they do not have enough room in the movie context to do much more than that. The core characters of the movies are Wolverine, Rogue, Jean, Xavier, Magneto, Iceman and Pyro and we might as well accept it. Mystique gets bonus points for presence but, again, doesn’t have much personality.
June 25th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Yes, and it made her an even better characters as a result. Now all she could contribute to the story and the team was her personality, not her powers.
Plus, she dressed in leather and had a cool mohawk!