Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!
As a character, Storm enjoyed a full-blown renaissance during the First Krakoan Age thanks to gifted creators like Al Ewing and Luciano Vecchio. That creative momentum shows no signs of slowing down with the “From the Ashes” era in full swing. Ororo Munroe has already joined the Avengers, and now she’s set to star in her own ongoing Storm series, courtesy of writer Murewa Ayodele and artist Lucas Werneck.
X-Fans… the Storm storm is intensifying. Ororo’s fans are hyped — and so is Murewa! Fortunately, Murewa was ready to make his X-Men Monday debut and discuss Earth’s mightiest mutant. Let’s see what he has to say.
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AIPT: Welcome to X-Men Monday, Murewa! Before we dive into the X-Fan questions, I want to start with a question about those X-Fans. I have to say, the hype for Storm among X-Fandom is — fittingly — at an omega level. And you’re clearly having a blast engaging with Storm’s electrified fanbase on social media. So, what has this entire experience been like since you were announced as the writer of Ororo’s new ongoing series?
Murewa Ayodele: I not only love comics with a passion, but it’s most of what I do. I write comic books full-time. From watching videos about the history of comics to podcast interviews with creators and comic book news — I’m usually always engaging with an aspect of this beautiful industry. My “every day” is always filled to the brim with something comic book-related. So, getting to interact with the Storm fandom, X-Fandom, and Iron Man Fandom is always a blast — like a fun family reunion — the ones that come with good barbeques and tons of drama.
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AIPT: Never a dull moment! OK, let’s dig into those X-Fan questions, as there were a lot! First, X-Fan StormBennett(Monarch) wanted to know what types of media inspired your Storm series. Are there any TV shows, movies, mangas, comic books, novels, etc. that served as inspiration and possibly hint at what we might expect as your story unfolds?
Murewa: The thing about an ongoing series is that one can throw in a lot of influences and inspirations because of the sheer magnitude and size of the long-form storytelling they require. For example, my storytelling sensibilities for the Storm series are inspired by classic Quasar comics while my approach is inspired by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s much more modern run on Venom. The mood is slightly inspired by Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force, and the overarching plot is inspired by a Fantastic Four issue written by Dwayne McDuffie.
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Several sub-plots and smaller plots have been inspired by a collection of Marvel Comics that have featured Storm (Storm, Fantastic Four, X-Men: Gold, Uncanny X-Men, etc.), various anime (Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Mew Mew Power, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood), UFC fights, and various mood boards I created on Pinterest. Hilariously, I get myself charged up before writing by watching Brazillian Phonk Instagram reels.
AIPT: A fascinating mix of inspirations. Thank you for sharing all that! Now, X-Fan 1407 Gray Mulin Ln. the living memory of the X-Men asked what aspects of Storm’s personality or backstory are you most excited to delve into that perhaps haven’t been fully explored before?
Murewa: Quite a lot of strong people wear baggy clothes to appear softer. Lots of tall people walk with their heads bowed to stand out less. As a Black man in the States, you make yourself appear more vulnerable if you’re approached by the police, so the man with a government badge, a gun, and a uniform doesn’t feel threatened. Truly intelligent people hide how smart they are to connect better with the people around them. The thing about “dangerous” (strong) people is that they put themselves in shackles so that society doesn’t have to do it for them. As early as the Chris Claremont era of Uncanny X-Men, Storm’s godly form is unleashed (“Rogue Storm!”) but she cages this form back within her human form.
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In this series, I’m most excited to explore a Storm that fully embraces her strengths and the challenges that come when your strengths are on wide-open display. When gods live among us — we tend to kill them, but Storm doesn’t die easy.
AIPT: So with all that said, X-Fan Sunny was curious to learn what the most challenging aspects of Ororo’s character have been to write so far.
Murewa: When I was doing my research for the Storm series, I had a difficult time figuring out what Storm’s character flaws were. She hides them well by surrounding herself with good people. It was shocking when I discovered these weaknesses not only existed but that there were numerous chinks in our goddess’ armor. I had written quite a few episodes that I had to scrap when I finally realized what they were.
AIPT: X-Fan Reece is extremely excited to read Storm and was wondering if you can tell us who Ororo’s main support character will be. Maybe there’s more than one?
Murewa: The first five issues of the series are a wild ride that takes us across four continents and a dimension outside our universe, so there aren’t characters that are repeated often enough to be considered supporting characters. But in the next five issues, the supporting character will most definitely be Maggott (Japheth). His role is slightly similar to the one Gentle played when Storm was based in Wakanda.
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AIPT: You mentioned Maggott. Japheth is a more obscure X-Men character with some very die-hard fans. What appeals to you about the character and what makes him a good foil for Storm?
Murewa: This is going to be a slightly convoluted answer, so brace yourself.
AIPT: I’m ready.
Murewa: One of my favorite comic book podcasts is Off Panel by David Harper. At the end of the year on the podcast channel, David Harper has an episode where he and his good buddy, Brandon Burpee, rank the top 20 comic books of the year. Those episodes are always a ton of fun.
Brandon Burpee’s favorite character in the whole wide world is Maggott. It’s my secret mission to sneak Storm into their top 20 list with good quality work but if that fails, appearances by Maggott will do it, and if that fails too, I’ll include Stilt-Man (David Harper’s favorite character). That’s what Marvel gets for hiring a comics stan to write their comics. 😂 🤣
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The second reason is that I love writing African Marvel characters because I feel a kinship with them as a fellow African. I got Ororo Munroe (part Kenyan). Jed MacKay got Idie Okonkwo (Nigerian). I rushed to the character pool to call dibs on Japheth (South African). The dude has a cool design, an awesome name, and an interesting personality. I couldn’t resist the “Amapiano” call.
This panel from X-Men #70 cemented my decision to feature him in the series. I love his chemistry with Storm. I don’t think Storm and Maggott (the white hair gang) will always get along very well and that makes for very good story opportunities.
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AIPT: I’ll be honest, I also listen to Off Panel, and Brandon was certainly one of those die-hard fans I had in mind. I’m also thinking about that time in 2020 X-Fans had artist Joshua Cassara draw Maggott at the Green Lagoon in an X-Men Monday Twitter poll.
Anyway, based on some preview images, it appears to X-Fan Enadorn that Ororo will have a more political role as a solo star. If that’s accurate, what exactly will that entail? Galas and dinners? Making decisions for mutantkind? Foreign relations?
Murewa: The political role Ororo will play in the Marvel Universe is a major plot point I may not be able to reveal here. But at the beginning of this series, yes, we meet her in a position where she negotiates with country leaders on mutant matters. One of those country leaders is Doctor Doom.
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AIPT: Someone Ororo has quite a bit of history with. Next, X-Fan Stiles was wondering how you feel about Ororo’s mystical lineage. Although it’s one of the most interesting parts of the character, in Stiles’ opinion, many writers have neglected it over the years.
Murewa: Canonically, I don’t view it as writers neglecting Ororo’s mystical lineage. Rather, I see it as Storm herself is hesitant to explore that aspect of her life just yet. The question now is… is she hesitant because she sees herself more as a mutant than a mystic? Or is she hesitant because she thinks being a mystic will pull her farther away from her X-Men siblings? Or is the hurt of losing her parents still too great for her to fully embrace this aspect of her lineage? Whatever the true question and its answer is, it’s an aspect of Storm we plan to make our additions to in this run.
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AIPT: X-Fan LEGIIONNAIRE shared that he’s a Brazilian fan who wanted to know what it’s like working with Lucas Werneck. For instance, how do you two develop action scenes? And how are Ororo’s costumes and fashion choices decided?
Murewa: Some suggestions come from Tom Brevoort, some come from me, and some come from Lucas Werneck. It doesn’t matter who comes up with an idea. If it’s good, we jump on it. At this point, I think Tom is secretly a massive Storm fan. His notes have always been so on point.
But when it comes to super intricate things like action sequences… if I’m not mistaken, English is a second language for Lucas. It’s my second language as well. I was so worried and scared that a lot of nuances would be lost in translation. Since they say, “a picture is said to be worth a thousand words,” I began to include quite a number of images for mood in my scripts. But I wouldn’t say that’s what made this series work out so beautifully. Rather, it’s Lucas Werneck’s dedication to strong panel-to-panel storytelling, striking visuals, and beautifully rendered and expressive characters that have taken this series to heights I couldn’t have imagined.
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So, yes, I suggest costumes and fashion choices, and script fight scenes, but Lucas miraculously boils them down to their important components and raises them back to greater heights. Right now, he is getting more and more comfortable including elements not even specified in the scripts and I’m loving every moment of it. We both understand the assignment.
AIPT: Everything I’ve seen so far has been gorgeous. As we wrap up, X-Fan Emmanuel hasn’t been as excited for a solo series in a while and was wondering if Arakko will play any role in the series.
Murewa: When I got the call to work on Storm’s new solo, I was told Storm was now an Avenger, will be based in Atlanta, is involved in international politics, and her stories should center around our lovely planet Earth. With that status quo pre-defined before my arrival, I’m afraid Arakko will not be playing the same role it played for Storm in X-Men Red. But trust us, the last thing we want to do is “reduce” Ororo Munroe. The stakes are even higher than they’ve ever been. She’s in charge of not only planet Earth but the fate of the entire universe. The weights are about to get way heavier.
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AIPT: Finally, X-Fan Butterflykyss said Ororo has had several character-defining character-related arcs since debuting back in Giant-Size X-Men in 1975. For instance, “Lifedeath” showed her having to deal with being human while shedding the “goddess” persona. Without giving spoilers, what do you hope readers will take away regarding Ororo’s personal development in your solo series?
Murewa: She’s going to have a lot of deeply emotional character arcs — as that is the nature of good long-form stories. But one thing I would like this series to do is be the beginning of a trend of continuous ongoing series for the character, Storm. I want this series to kickstart Storm’s solo career both in the Marvel Universe and in our real world. 30 to 60 years from now, I want comic book readers to talk about Storm like we talk about Marvel Comics of the 1960s. So, I humbly ask readers to give us their faith, patience, and support as we make history together.
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AIPT: Well, you’ve got my support. And I know the many, many hardcore Storm fans will be picking up multiple copies of every issue — need to get all those awesome covers, right? But on that note, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday, Murewa! Hopefully the first of many appearances to come.
X-Fans, remember that Storm #1 goes on sale October 2, 2024. As that’s still a few weeks away, how about an eXtra early look at its lettered preview as this week’s X-Men Monday eXclusive?
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Every page is a work of art, Lucas Werneck!
In the next edition of X-Men Monday: Actually, I can’t tell you that right now. What I can tell you is we’ll be announcing a new X-Book.
After that, writer Alex Paknadel returns to discuss his upcoming Sentinels mini-series. Click here to submit questions to Alex today by 8 PM ET (September 9, 2024).
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Until next time, X-Fans, stay exceptional!
