Eternity has grown desperate. He abducts a powerful cosmic entity and hides them in the Storm Sanctuary. What is the identity of this entity? How will this act complicate the FBI’s investigation into Storm? And why is Maggott hosting a Royal Rumble at Ororo’s place? Storm #9 is written by Murewa Ayodele, drawn by Lucas Werneck, colored by Alex Guimaraes and lettered by Travis Lanham.
To a young kid from New Orleans, France always felt more like an idea than a place, about as real as Valhalla. Yet there I was, right smack dab in the middle of Paris, about to eat my first French omelet. I’m from a food city; I’m the son and brother of cooks and chefs. I was excited, to say the least.
Until they put the plate down at my table.
When my dad made an omelet, he put everything into it. Literally. He put everything into it: onions and bell peppers and cheese and mushrooms and chicken and sausage and and and…
And this wasn’t that. This was airy, light, soft, clean … basic.
But basic, apparently, can be great.
It turned out not overstuffing your omelet meant you could actually taste the egg; it meant that the few ingredients you did use intentionally, if not sparingly, could stand out as opposed to being missed in a mush.
Sometimes just enough is better. Sometimes abundance can be a bit too much.
Still, I understand why my father’s omelets were so overstuffed. When you grow up missing meals, there’s no such thing as too much later on in life. Maybe because you’re making up for lost time. Maybe because you know abundance is ephemeral, and if you ever lose it all, you can get full off a memory of what once was.
I think Murewa Ayodele and my father would get along.
2025 is not 2020. The appreciation for Blackness, even in merely surface-level support, is at a low that I’ve not seen in my lifetime. Non-white male (or white-male coded) characters are getting hell no matter how or where they’re introduced. No matter the history. No matter the story.
It is not a great time to be a Black person creating Black art.
Think Ironheart. Think Yasuke. Think of the reception to the Heretic Prophet. Or the Doctor.
Both NYX and X-Force have been canceled. No matter what you thought (or didn’t think, as the case may be) of those titles, still: The two most diverse X-team rosters, and the other X-team writer of color, no longer have comics to lead.
So I get why Storm has so much going on: why there’s a random round robin wrestling match (justice for Gentle); why there’s a subplot of the government going to hell (err, Limbo) to recruit demons to destroy Storm’s sanctuary; why there are cameos from Isca the Unbeaten (ISCA!) and Jon Ironfire. Why there’s a cosmic entity stuffed in a closet.
(Side note: “NAJISALIMISHA KWA YULE MMOJA WA MILELE” translates to “I Surrender to the Eternal One” in Swahili.)
You’re trying to eat as much as you can before you’re eventually starved.
It’s got to be frustrating, if not scary, to have this grand, universal idea for a plot that you know, at any moment, you might be asked to wrap up in an issue or two. So while you have it — while you’re in the kitchen, full of food — you cook. And cook Ayodele does.
Unfortunately, overstuffing a limited plate means things, invariably, fall off that plate. That round-robin wrestling match (let’s call it what it is: a reason to say “xyz” is in the comic) lasted barely two pages, for little practical effect; the admittedly interesting plot to convince demons to help the government, using lies and subterfuge (how precedent), felt undeveloped and too quickly solved, with little on-page action. (Lucas Werneck absolutely would have done the fight justice, just as his work continues to be the highlight of every issue.) The cameos, out of nowhere, feel fan-service-y, rushed out and all too likely soon to be rushed back into a box. Storm feels like an observer in her own comic, patiently sitting under interrogation until her jolly green lawyer forcefully advocates for her freedom. Only at the end, when Ororo finally, thankfully calls out her frustration at being yet again controlled by someone who almost certainly doesn’t have her best interests (or any of her interests) at heart, do we get what we’ve waited nine issues for: Storm’s voice.
The interweaving story — the grand cosmic near-future tale of an Eternity-fortified Storm battling Oblivion … err, Hadad, and the now struggling Storm trying to keep herself, her sanctuary and her promises together — is fascinating in concept, but feels like too much all at once in practice.
In a better world, a fairer world, Ayodele would have the confidence and backing to stretch these ideas out, building investment in these characters’ plights. Each issue, an intricate, intentionally seasoned egg omelet. But this is not a better world; the people are hungry, starved, and tomorrow for creators of color is never promised.
Thus, we (over) eat so if Storm’s saga should suddenly end, at least, for a bit, we were satiated.
Buy Storm #9 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
A proud New Orleanian living in the District of Columbia, Jude Jones is a professional thinker, amateur photographer, burgeoning runner and lover of Black culture, love and life. Magneto and Cyclops (and Killmonger) were right. Learn more about Jude at SaintJudeJones.com.
