An important aspect of Storm’s duality, and one that contrasts her passion and will quite starkly, is her sense of interiority and self-isolation. Perhaps even moreso than iconic loner, Wolverine, Ororo often needs to withdraw and be alone. #xmen 1/11
While her self-isolation can be read as part of her burden-of-leadership arc, we actually see it manifest quite clearly when Cyclops is still leading the X-Men. 2/11
We first see it in the aftermath of the team’s battle with Garokk, which saw Storm desperately try to save the villain from death, but overcome by her own claustrophobia, she failed. She grieves alone, and Wolverine can see clearly that she needs her space to do so. 3/11
We also see it when she revisits her childhood home in Harlem. Wolverine demands to chaperone her, but she simply informs him: “What I do to today, I must do alone.” 4/11
Her famous connection to nature is important here as well. Storm likes to be alone, to fly high above the maddening crowd with just nature surrounding her. It’s how she decompresses and is clearly a solitary ritual. 5/11
We see her isolationism again in the aftermath of her relationship with Forge with the loss of her powers and her subsequent pilgrimage (leading up to Lifedeath II), which, of course, also has to be undertaken alone. 6/11
This recurs in the pocket dimension she shares with Forge during the Fall of the Mutants crossover. She helps Forge recover from his injuries and then she leaves – alone – to (re)discover who and what she is within the context of a new world. 7/11
Importantly, Storm’s isolation isn’t born of necessity – she is surrounded by people who love her but she still requires space. The isolationism isn’t presented as a character flaw, either. It’s simply her process, in sharp contrast to the processes of other X-Men. 8/11
This interiority is reflected in our data-set which reveals that Storm has, by far, the most thought bubbles of any character, and a significantly higher ratio of thought:speech bubbles than any character (double that of Wolverine). 9/11
Her isolation also adds heft to key character choices: giving herself to Jean in the M’Kraan crystal; sacrificing her sense of values to defeat Callisto; returning to the X-Men after Gambit offers her a way out; and on and on. 10/11
Though Storm would later be represented as an impulsive emotional being, Claremont’s characterization grounded her through this interiority, giving her a reluctance to open up to people and connect, a nice balance to her primal passion. 11/11
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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
Despite having all manner of characters (good and evil) express romantic interest in her, Storm’s first canonical love is Forge, a possibly counter-intuitive choice. But this might be the point, as Forge can better connect Ororo to her humanity. #xmen 1/10
Storm is routinely courted (or abducted – or both) by the wealthiest, most powerful beings on the planet/cosmos. She could be a queen, a goddess, a vampire, you name it, but she rejects all of these suitors out of concern for her own independence. 2/10
When asked in interview why it took so long for Storm to receive a relationship partner, Claremont would often reply “because nobody was good enough for her.” 3/10
Sharon Kelly is introduced to the readers in UXM #246 and is all-but killed in that same issue. She’s a character whose entire life and especially death exist in service to the plot, but, in spite of that, Claremont gives her story complexity, contradiction, and pathos. #xmen 1/9
We are first introduced to Sharon as she arrives at the Hellfire Club during a meeting between her husband (Senator Robert Kelly) and Sebastian Shaw. It’s revealed that Sharon was a Hellfire Club servant before marrying the senator. 2/9
Her brief interaction with her former colleagues showcases the kind of class exploration that one would see in a Bronte novel or, more recently, Downton Abbey. Hers is a story of rare class mobility and the perspective that comes with seeing both sides of the class divide. 3/9