In “The Black Body in Ecstasy, “ Women’s Studies professor Jennifer C. Nash advances a revision to the discourse of Black women in visual culture (through the study of pornography) that may offer insight to the complex intersections of sex and race in the X-Men’s Storm. #xmen 1/8
Nash opens by establishing “black feminism’s approach to representation, which treats visual culture, unless produced by black women, as presumptively problematic.” Her complaint is that critics always fall into this exclusively “protectionist” approach that oversimplifies. 2/8
Storm’s portrayal of sexual exoticism is well-established in Claremont studies, often with emphasis on the exploitative potential through her participation in long-standing stereotypes that might be seen to dehumanize, objectify, or fetishize Ororo as a character. 3/8
Nash very much acknowledges the damaging potential that these type of portrayals may have, but she also identifies an additional possibility that is, in her eyes, worth exploring, one which sees “black female protagonists rendering explicit racial mythologies,…” 4/8
“…at times toying with them, at times finding pleasure in them, and at times problematizing them.” For her, this creates what Judith Butler describes as an “aggressive counter-reading,” something that adds complexity to a discourse and decentralizes essential conclusions. 5/8
The question then simply becomes: can Storm do this? I can’t answer that question as I think it’s subjective, but I would point to the fact that her sexuality is often transgressive, and that her agency is often central to the entire UXM franchise, so there’s hope. 6/8
Adapting this theory to comics requires a number of complex localizations due to the fact that Storm is fictional, and thus all attributes of her performance are in the hands of her (usually white male) creators – typically there are zero Black women involved in any way. 7/8
For Nash, though, the alternative is absence, which might be more politically correct but ultimately unproductive. Storm’s presence as both a sexual object and a sexual subject in the pages of UXM, if nothing else, can foster discussion on Black women’s sexuality. 8/8
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The Forge/Storm reunion in Fall of the Mutants story hit a lot of emotional notes and thus offers a great object lesson on the importance of the illustration team to capture and project the emotional nuance of character melodramas through expression. #xmen 1/8
The spectacle of working in the superhero genre has the potential to distract from an artist’s skill with rendering emotion, and Silvestri in particular has been badly undervalued in this aspect of his work. The quality and diversity of Storm’s expressions make that clear. 2/8
Without these expressions, Claremont’s emotional beats really can’t come to fruition. The narrative of Forge and Storm – the intimacy and longing between them - can be seen in their words, but it’s really brought to life through the visual imagery more than anything. 3/8
While the circumstances of Rogue’s absorption of the Carol Danvers persona are surreal and supernatural, they nonetheless provide an intriguing example of the concept of “restorative justice” in a manner that makes a compelling story at the same time. #xmen #rogue 1/9
Restorative justice is a system that focuses on “providing an opportunity for the parties directly affected by the crime – victims, offenders and communities – to identify and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime” instead of simple punishment. 2/9
Though more recently popularized, RJ was commonly practiced by First Nations communities in North America, forming the basis of entire judicial infrastructures (where most Western justice systems, up until recently, focused on the familiar penal structure). 3/9
As a collaborative medium, comics are sometimes denigrated for their committee approach to character-building, but a closer look at the 'committee' behind Wolverine shows how a character like Logan offers a multifaceted connection to creative genius. #xmen #wolverine 1/10
As noted by Marvel historian Sean Howe, Wolverine was first “named and conceived by Roy Thomas, who detected a need to exploit the Canadian market” before being “developed further by Len Wein and John Romita” ahead of Logan’s debut in “The Incredible Hulk.” 2/10
Throw in Claremont, and the pedigree is quite impressive already. Thomas is perhaps best known as the greatest writer of Conan comics, a character that later artists would draw from quite directly in their interpretations of Wolverine. 3/10
In UXM #220, Claremont takes a moment away from a chaotic era to touch back upon the longstanding, well-evolved relationship between Storm and Wolverine, giving readers another character-revealing scene between this iconic X-Men duo. #xmen #wolverine #storm 1/9
The scene initiates a journey of self-discovery for Ororo, one of many throughout the series but this one will specifically create the rising action for the “Fall of the Mutants’’ event. She has to go alone, but someone has to lead the X-Men in her absence. She recruits Logan 2/9
The power dynamic is foreshadowed in the simple fact that Wolverine (an archetypal hunter) has literally scaled the highest mountain to be alone, but it doesn’t matter. Even without her powers, Ororo has tracked him down. 3/9
In an introductory essay penned in 1980, John Byrne recounts his personal perspective on Jean Grey and her transformation to Phoenix. His candid account paints a less grandiose view on the cultivation of the character within the series than we normally hear. #xmen #JeanGrey 1/7
“I’ve never liked Phoenix. There, I said it...It’s not that I don’t like Jean Grey. I have an abiding fondness for readheads, and have been in love with Jean since we first ‘met,’ about a millions years ago when I was 13.” 2/7
“Granted that her power were not nearly as spectacular as Cyclops’, or Angel’s, or even Iceman’s, but she looked real good in a tight uniform and could – and did – serve to get the X-Men out of tight places.” 3/7
Placing Kitty Pryde into the position of viewpoint character has to represent one of the most groundbreaking decisions within the entirety of the Claremont run – a move that ultimately impacted the series, comics as a whole, and even Western media in powerful ways. #xmen 1/10
The Claremont run begins with Cyclops as the main viewpoint character. Kitty joins the team right at his departure and soon enough takes over as a main viewpoint character for the rest of her tenure, as reflected in our data (noting that Kitty’s only on for 70ish issues). 2/10
At the time of her arrival, Claremont had already executed a turn toward more adult-oriented stories (something that becomes even more pronounced after the death of an X-Man in DPS). It’s therefore perhaps odd to bring on a teen protagonist. 3/10