What Went Wrong With Ultimate Storm

ourchair

ourchair

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Ordinarily, I don't really obsess much about Ultimate X-Men, but I was just thinking --- I think Millar and editorial really dropped the ball on Storm's character, by excising her 616 past as an African goddess. I think removing the goddess stuff really removes one of the most interesting parts about her.

Granted, she's occasionally had a moment to shine under the hands of some writers, but ideally, they could have introduced her in her own arc, as an example of how superhumans can be received differently depending on the context.

But instead she's just some teenage whippersnapper who steals cars. With weather powers. And gets broken out of jail by a girl who represents Mark Millar's fantasies of telekinetic bedsheet snuggle kitten skank things.
 
ourchair said:
Ordinarily, I don't really obsess much about Ultimate X-Men, but I was just thinking --- I think Millar and editorial really dropped the ball on Storm's character, by excising her 616 past as an African goddess. I think removing the goddess stuff really removes one of the most interesting parts about her.

Granted, she's occasionally had a moment to shine under the hands of some writers, but ideally, they could have introduced her in her own arc, as an example of how superhumans can be received differently depending on the context.

But instead she's just some teenage whippersnapper who steals cars. With weather powers. And gets broken out of jail by a girl who represents Mark Millar's fantasies of telekinetic bedsheet snuggle kitten skank things.
Click to expand...

I always hated the African goddess part, and that kind of thing is just the kind of thing that the Ultimate books were supposed to get rid of, for me. Same thing for Mojo being an alien ruler and Sinister an undead weird whatever he is.
 
I'm glad they got rid of the Goddess baggage, I hate that stupid idea behind her character.

And Ultimate Storm is not the storng girl leader that 616 Storm is, though they forced 616 Storm into a marriage with Black Panther. I found that story to be contrived, and a way to get Black Panther some more readers.
 
ourchair said:
Ordinarily, I don't really obsess much about Ultimate X-Men, but I was just thinking --- I think Millar and editorial really dropped the ball on Storm's character, by excising her 616 past as an African goddess. I think removing the goddess stuff really removes one of the most interesting parts about her.

Granted, she's occasionally had a moment to shine under the hands of some writers, but ideally, they could have introduced her in her own arc, as an example of how superhumans can be received differently depending on the context.

But instead she's just some teenage whippersnapper who steals cars. With weather powers. And gets broken out of jail by a girl who represents Mark Millar's fantasies of telekinetic bedsheet snuggle kitten skank things.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna have to disagree with ya on that one.

The goddess thing was pretty dumb. It seemed to just be a lame cosmetical excuse to bring her to the forefront. But in UU they were fleshing her out nicely. But then she seemed to get relegated to 5th stringer in place of Magician, Kitty or whatever random mutant they wanted.
 
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The problem with the Ultimate XMen is they added way too many people way too quickly

They should have taken it nice and slow and added people more slowly
 
E said:
I always hated the African goddess part, and that kind of thing is just the kind of thing that the Ultimate books were supposed to get rid of, for me. Same thing for Mojo being an alien ruler and Sinister an undead weird whatever he is.
Click to expand...
Well, from someone who didn't like a lot of X-Men comics, I'd have to say it's always been handled badly in 616... It's always had a Claremont stink about it, even when not being written in by Claremont. I mean sincerely, I could do without that wailing self-dramatic claptrap from the animated series.

But the way I picture it in my head is it could be sheer genius if placed in the hands of someone like compound who has a knack for trying to Ultimatize the superhuman condition in an international context, what with his Soviet MGH-dealers and X-Men Go To Japan story ideas.
 
I like Ultimate Storm a hell of a lot more then 616 or Movie Storm. She was humanized by not being considered a goddess, by getting in a relationship with the least human of the X-men, Beast, then losing him and having her outlook on life change. Her development continues when she tries to latch on to another feral X-man, Wolverine, and her past is dragged out.

I dunno, I just would see a story with her worshiped as a goddess to be contrived. I'm not saying it couldn't be done well, but I still don't think I'd want to see it. :?
 
I find the character...uninteresting. 616!Storm makes me want to cut and I hate almost every story she's in. Ultimate Storm merely doesn't do that; she hasn't really made much of an impression on me to be honest. She might be one of the most developed but she's not really that interesting; she had a relationship with Beast that...proved that Beautiful People Can Love Ugly Ones! What an exciting and revolutionary story idea! Thats never been done before!

Then he died! She was upset (!!! Who could have predicted that?) and chopped of her hair and ran away. For some less-than-spectacular backstory.

She's got a lot of potential, story-wise, but its pretty much all unrealised, in my opinion.
 
Like everyone else said, it's a good thing the goddess bull was dropped. I've never really seen why it was neccesary and 616 Storm doesn't really seem to think about it that mcuh aside from the occasional "Oh yeah I was a teenage weather god or something".

What I really like about Ultimate Storm is her love for writing. It hasn't been forgotten since it was first mentioned, but I really think it should be touched on a bit more. Maybe we could see her with writer's block in the "they're-really-teenagers" sense that we don't see that much any more? It could really turn out to be a defining character trait outside from her furry guy fetish.
 
I gotta say, Storm's never had a voice to me.

She never spoke to me in anything or way. And the Goddess thing was the only way I could connect with her.

I knew she's a Goddess, so she speaks down to people, it's almost like 616 Thor without speaking in old English.

But I still didn't like her (or 616 Thor).

Then in Ultimate X-Men she was a scared thief with mutant powers that fell in love with the ugly mutant, even when he was turned blue.

I liked that, I loved that. Ultimate Storm was awesome!

Then Bendis killed off the best Ultimate X-Men in the title, and seriously I would take Ultimate Beast over 616 Beast any day.

Then she went emo, cut her amazing locks of hair, and fell in love with Wolverine.

Now she seems to completely have taken over the Danger Room training from Scott, and I swear if Kirkman kills Cyke and gives the used to be scared Storm the spot of Team Leader instead of the Ultimate clear choice of Jean Grey as Team Leader.(not 616, although I never saw why not).

Ultimate Rogue is a massive step down from 616 Rogue. Although not under Vaughan or Millar. I still love the final issue of Tempest when Rogue goes ape **** on Sinister.

Now she's gone back to being...DON'T TOUCH ME! And that's the wrong way to take her, and it's repetitive.

But this is about Ultimate Storm.

So to wrap up.

-Back when Millar wrote her, I loved her.

-When Bendis killed Beast, he ruined two characters in the book, Beast and Storm. She's been limping ever since as a character I have no interest in.

-616 Storm, I understood her, but never liked her. Unlike Ultimate Storm now, which I have no idea what she's about.
 
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I agree with everyone but Ourchair. The goddess backstory was garbage, and an example of the institutional racism that comics have managed to get rid of (We need a black character... lets make a generic, idealized african goddess! from Cairo! No wait, from America! Oh we need a male one too...lets make a street smart sassy invincible guy! OK!)
 
I've never said that the goddess concept as it has existed or been executed in the comics was good. It's always been crap.

I'm saying it can be, when shoehorned right.
 
E said:
I always hated the African goddess part, and that kind of thing is just the kind of thing that the Ultimate books were supposed to get rid of, for me. Same thing for Mojo being an alien ruler and Sinister an undead weird whatever he is.
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Sinister was never undead from 616. He was just given immortal life, is all.

As for Storm, I like the goddess part about her from 616, but I don't miss it here.
 
Ultimate Houde said:
anything can fit when shoehorned in right
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FALSE.

MJ as Demogoblin would be **** no matter who wrote it.

I agree with ourchair actually. If they wrote her in a sort of similar way to Ultimate Thor I think it could work.

You know, like when C-3PO is worshiped as a god by the Ewoks.

Yup.
 
Why do I get the feeling that all of you are saying that Ultimate Beast was "OMG LOL THE COOLEST CHARACTER EVER" just because you want another reason to hate on Bendis. Trust me, I'm disgusted by Demogoblin-MJ as much as well...everyone else with half a brain, but killing Beast wasn't that big a deal. Let's face it; He was basically marked for death when Blob was made into his online girlfriend.

And E is right...some things are bad no matter who's writing them...for instance Marvel could come up with a story where Cyclops is a Japanese child who was found in the middle of a giant peach by a woodcutter and has a peach bit over his eye that stops his optic blasts. They could call it "X-Men fairy tales". Professor X could be a monk who's actually the emporer and they could go after Magneto, who's actually an evil demon thing.
 
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