Ta-Nehisi Coates' Storm: a wishlist

I am so stoked for this series. Storm is one of my favourite characters, she has such a deep and rich history to draw on and so, with all respects to Ta-Nehisi Coates

#1: a twelfth issue

Ah, yes, Ta-Nehisi Coates spinning off a title from his Black Panther run, we all know how well that usually goes, don't we? I admit, I didn't bother with World of Wakanda but I did my part for Black Panther & The Crew. I just hope that this issue can somehow find the audience it needs to keep going because just based on Storm's appearances in Coates' other work he has so many ideas for her that it would be a crime for this series to get the “one arc and then chopped” treatment.

Also on this subject...

#2: bitch ass manbabies to shut the hell up

Attention, cretins! This is Storm we're talking about here: she's not a new character and she's not taking a precious bloody name away from any fictional white men you might be emotionally invested in. Could you please, just this one, shut the bloody hell up about “forced diversity” with this one. Go back to crying into your cornflakes about how the Hulk is now an Asian kid and/or a woman.

We cool? Moving on.

#3: Cairo

One of the really interesting parts of Black Panther & The Crew was exploring Storm's relationship with Harlem, her parents' home that she only experienced as an adult. The previous Storm ongoing had a lot to say about her relationship to Kenya (if I'm wrong about it being Kenya, I apologise, I remember it being Kenya that she lived in between Cairo and meeting the X-Men). One part of her life that hasn't been touched on in some time is her childhood on the streets of Cairo where she was a pickpocket.

#4: The Further Adventures Of The Crew

A man can dream. But if not the whole tea, then maybe just...

#5: Misty Knight

I was wrong, it turns out. When I was reviewing Black Panther & The Crew I completely forgot that Misty and Storm know each other really, really well. Back in the olden days of Chris Claremont's original run, Misty was Jean Grey's roommate in New York city and so she and Storm interacted quite a lot. This throws that relationship I enjoyed so much in The Crew in a whole new light.

#6: Special Agent Ororo Munroe, FBI

I am sure this was brought up recently in some X-title or other but once upon a time, in a much later Claremont run, Storm and several other X-Men were deputised to the FBI as the XSE (yes, it was really called that, Xavier's Security Enforcement). She is, or was, a legitimate agent of the government. Food for thought.

#7: Doom

So there was this very odd arc in the Claremont days where Doom captured the X-Men and subjected them to all sorts of trials and tortures but in the end he lets them go in exchange for a dinner date with Storm. It sounds like I'm making this up but I swear its true. There was a similar situation with Dracula.

#8: Bruno from Ms. Marvel

He's in Wakanda, Storm spends a lot of time in Wakanda and what's more Storm is a teacher so she could easily be brought in to lecture at his polytechnic on mutant rights or agriculture or something. This is the most fannish idea on the list and that's why its last, a little whimsy to go out on, but just think about how cool it would be. 

It's The End, But... Black Panther & The Crew

This has so much promise and there's a sad irony in the series premature finale dropping the same day as Secret Empire's extended ending.

I don't doubt that some time down the line Ta-Nehisi Coates might find room for these characters in the main Black Panther series (as he has before, especially Storm) but one can't help but wonder what this series might have achieved given more time.

There are few places in the world that feel so real even if you've never been there as New York. London, perhaps, and definitely Paris. New York is the setting of so many comics, movies, novels, documentaries... there's no escaping knowing some of its history and setting a story in that history gives it such resonance, especially when one of the authors (I don't know Harvey's biography, I'm afraid) happens to be a historian. Coates' and Harvey's Harlem is so vividly brought to life and the mixture of reality and Marvel Universe lore is expertly judged. Butch Guice's art helps, of course, but so much of it is delivered through the little details of language and character that I feel I have to give the lion's share of the credit to the authors.

Then there's the team that we barely got to know: Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Manifold. As I said before when reviewing earlier issues, one of the highlights for me was seeing Storm and Misty interact. I don't doubt they did back in the day, Misty was Jean Grey's roommate back during Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men, but I know of little if anything since. The two women worked so well together in this series and I don't see Marvel really finding much excuse for them to interact in the near future, even if Storm is now based in the city now the X-Men have started squatting in Central Park.

Then there's Manifold, veteran of the Secret Warriors and one of those characters that never got enough time to shine during his run with the Avengers. He was with the team for a whole two issues. It was interesting seeing him written with such affection for Harlem as an adopted home, not a terribly common angle in anything I've read set in there. Storm, similarly, comes to Harlem as an outsider, though she shouldn't be. She speaks of her connection to the place, her parents' home, the place she should have grown up in if they hadn't died in Africa leaving her stranded.

And it was all so damn interesting. The Harlem setting, the eclectic cast of characters interacting in unusual combinations, the whole historical perspective...

I promised myself this would be a positive one because this was such a good series. I don't want to rant about the injustice of its cancellation like I did with Unstoppable Wasp. Its a sad reality of the modern comicbook industry that good series like this with unique things to say are given too little advertising so they wither on the vine.

Who knows, though, maybe there's a chance we'll see this Crew sometime down the line. Worse ideas have seen revivals . I mean, there's a Ben Reilly ongoing right now...