Sunday, June 17, 2012

Look what they did to Storm

After "When to worry about Wonder Woman, when not to," reader Nicole suggested we check out 2007's Storm by Eric Jermone Dickey.  The hardcover book may carry the name "Storm" but the X-men's Ororo Iqadi T'Challa is really present just for the hopes that she might bring eye balls over to Black Panther.

storm
Supposedly an origin story, it exists so Black Panther (T'Challa) can impose his will -- sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly -- over Storm.

In 2007, the characters married.  Apparently Eric Jermone Dickey secretly fears that Black Panther is a weak ass, a wuss and there for the only way to make the man come off as strong is to make Ororo weak?

The strain of sexism is an embarrassment and Dickey should be ashamed that he feels the only way to uplift a Black male superhero is by devaluing a Black female superhero.

The volume ends with an especially telling moment.  Black Panther hisses at Storm, "Behave."  She responds, "What did I tell you about talking to me like I'm a child?  I am a woman, T'Challa."  To which he responds, "Then behave woman."  Then two panels later, he speaks again, "Behave."


Best review at Amazon is Maxine Shaw's "Not sure what's worse: the complete rewriting of the story to where T'Challa saves Storm (when it's been the other way around since the 1980s), or the explicit, detailed storm of a 16-year-old boy making love to a 12-year-old girl. Absolutely terrible."