Team » X-Men appears in 13419 issues.
Haters gonna hate.
I'm already reading two books in which Storm is one of the main characters, so I don't see why I would bother with this.
Storm shouldn't need her own book for the same reason Mr.Fantastic shouldn't need his own book, her story should be central to the X-men's story anyway.
I don't think of it like which character "deserves" their own title. It would be easy to say that a character like, say, Doop is less deserving of his own book because he's a less central character, but I think the opposite's true: because Doop's story isn't important to the X-men's, it should be told in a separate book, whereas I feel Storm's story should be central to the X-men's and so should just be told in the X-men books.
If the bolded part were still true I would 100% agree with you. However, those days are long gone Storm's story hasn't been central to the X-Men for years. Marvel made a colossal mistake marrying her to the Black Panther and removing her from the X-Men world. While the marriage in and off itself wasn't a terrible idea, the ramifications were awful for Storm. I posted my reasoning for this in a different forum, but essentially the marriage forced Storm out of the X-Men's and into the Avenger's editorial control.
The following is was taken from article by Steve Morris which explains the problem with Storm better than I could.
"As a result of Storm marrying Black Panther, she moved from the X-Men office to the Avengers office, where T’Challa is managed. This meant she had to be removed from Uncanny X-Men, annoying Claremont (who also lost Kitty Pryde at around the same time, and is rumored to be the main point of contention between him and the company). It also allegedly meant that Ed Brubaker’s plans to use her in his Uncanny X-Men run had to be initially quelled, as the focus had to be on establishing her as a supporting cast member to the Black Panther book. The wedding issue saw massive sales, and tied in to Civil War.
Once she moved across to the Black Panther solo book, there was immediate discomfort with Hudlin’s stories – which seemed to have awkward political agendas shoehorned in. To top things off, Hudlin’s dialogue for Storm bore little resemblance to her previous formal style, as she became what was essentially a cheerleader for her husband’s feats. At one point she sentenced somebody to death, when Storm has always been aspired to use non-violence as an answer.
There was respite from the iffy Black Panther title when Dwayne McDuffie decided to use the characters in his Fantastic Four run, brilliantly using them as replacements for Reed Richards and Sue Storm. There was suddenly a dynamic between the couple, which seemed realistic for perhaps the first time. Their repartee was funny, they seemed to like each other, and the series was favored by critics. But this was only a short-term move, and eventually the character returned to Black Panther, which was rapidly losing sales. A series of relaunches followed, none of them lasting for a long period of time despite a number of different sales tactics.
Editorial started to feel that they had a lame duck on their hands, solidified when writers like Warren Ellis brought Storm back to the X-Men and gave her more to do as a guest than Hudlin allowed her in the book she was meant to be a central part of. The marriage became an open joke among fans, who watched as Storm’s status in the X-Men’s world dwindle, to the point where Chris Yost’s 2008 Storm miniseries ‘World’s Apart’ was entirely focused on the difficulty she’d have in living her split life.
Hudlin failed to get the Black Panther cartoon a run on BET, instead having to settle for a direct-to-DVD release. At the same time, he left the comic book and was replaced by Jonathan Maberry, who couldn’t reverse the sales decline. The book was cancelled. Incredibly, Marvel’s most famous female character was now unused. X-Men writers started to bring her back into their world, with Matt Fraction setting her up in the X-Men’s Utopia location for a scattered bunch of guest-appearances. Black Panther, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen. Having previously been promoted by a number of X-Men titles, the character was now seemingly ignored and viewed as a drag on Storm’s personality."
Moving Storm from the X-Office to the Avengers Office was like the kiss of death for the character. They had no love for one of, if not their most famous female character. Storm being under Avenger Office control is why it had to be Wolverine and not Storm who was in the schism with Cyclops (even though Storm would have made infinitely more sense).
Now that the X-Office has her back, they are working to reintegrate her after years away. They couldn't simply dump her back in the X-Men as a central character once again. The problem is the X-Men have gone in different directions, many of which don't make sense for the character of Storm. I love that Cyclops asked her to stay after schism, I don't buy that she actually would have done it. Likewise for the Jean Grey School. When Xavier was gone it the past, Storm led the X-Men and Magneto led the school. Then when Mags was gone, the new mutants gravitated to Cable and became X-Force. Storm is a great leader, but leading the school isn't her gig. It doesn't allow her the freedom necessary for her to be true to herself.
From the business side of things, love her hate her, Storm is one of Marvel's most famous female characters and is a potential cash cow for the company. This solo series is a way to bring her back to the forefront in a consistent manner so they can capitalize on her popularity.
From the fan side, Storm's lost her voice and is a far cry from the character that moved the team to Australia or bested Scott without her powers or that formed the XSE. This solo is necessary to get her back to her true self because that can't (isn't) happening within the current X-Men books.
So I very much see the need for a solo for the character.
I just read all of that!^ And this is how I feel!
Does this count as calling it?:
If so, called it! :)
Glad there's another female solo title at Marvel, but kind of disappointed that it's Storm that got it.
Log in to comment