Trinity: The Black Fantasy
by Guest Contributor Cheryl Lynn, originally published at Digital Femme
A while back, David Brothers did a fantastic series of posts over at 4th Letter about the Black Trinity and how it relates to comics. He examined three concepts found not only in comics, but in other artistic forms as well–the Black Reality, the Black Fantasy and the Black Ideal.
If you’ve clicked the links I’ve provided for you, and you should, you’ll notice that David used only male characters as examples for these concepts.
David and I had “talked” for a bit off-blog about how some of the comic industry’s most popular black female characters could fit into his concept of the Black Trinity. He had even attempted to talk me into doing my own series of blog posts examining the Black Trinity from a female perspective, but at the time I was more than a bit weary of talking about comics at all.
Until today.
Until this image right here.
Today? Today we are going to talk about the Black Fantasy from the female perspective. And the Black Fantasy is Storm. Storm is what black women want, or are constantly informed by the media that they should want, but are also told that they never will achieve. To be loved and to be beautiful. To be free. To be special.
Beautiful.
Beauty is perhaps the most notable of Storm’s attributes. After all, her birth name, Ororo, is said within the pages of X-Men to mean beauty in Swahili (instead of Uzuri, the actual Swahili word for beauty). Her stunning features are often remarked upon by other characters that come into contact with her. Her eyes are of the bluest hue. Her white locks are pin straight and luxurious. Truly, hers is the epitome of the “good hair” that our media proclaims all black women should desire and strive for. Even Claremont knew and reinforced this.
But who could blame Harmony? What black woman wouldn’t envy Storm? Storm had no need of relaxers or sunny Saturdays spent beneath the searing metal of her grandmother’s pressing comb. She never sat patiently while a beautician sewed blonde ringlets to her head to hide her tightly woven brown cornrows from view. Her hair was naturally straight. Her hair was naturally light. She was born conforming to the majority of our society’s beauty norms. She was born not looking like all the other little black girls. And because of that, she was lauded as beautiful. Because of how not black she appeared to be. How sad. How sad that the black fantasy presented to little black girls is to be able to shed not oppression, but to shed one’s blackness.
For fans of the character watched while the features the character did have in common with many young black and brown girls–brown skin, full lips, almond-shaped eyes–all features that Storm has never been complimented on, slowly faded from view as many colorists selected light tan hues and artists preferred sharp angular features to depict Storm.
Special.
The specialness of Storm has always been repeatedly reinforced within the pages of Marvel comics. Storm was born special. Her powers are special. Her physical features are special. She is so special that the character is apparently too special to be simply black.
And so Storm becomes a Mutant with a capital M. No intersectionality for the goddess. It’s all Xavier’s cause, all the time. Aside from brief contemplations of her heritage, of course. But is that ethnic heritage something she wants? Survey says no. Not the African-American part, anyway. Nor the Kenyan side, as well. Storm seems to have wholly embraced her husband’s culture with her betrothal to the King of Wakanda.
Loved and Free.
And what of Storm’s husband, Black Panther? With her marriage to T’Challa, Storm has been given what many covet, a land where one can escape white supremacy and an adoring black king to stand steadfastly by her side. Storm has successfully claimed every aspect of the fairy tale.
But is it a fairy tale worth reading? Black women cannot live vicariously through Storm. She is the Black Fantasy Marvel spent more than two decades telling us we could never be. The fantasy is useless, for there is no comfort in engaging it. The character only serves to remind us of how short black women fall from the racist norms society demands we aspire to.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Titanis walleri wrote:
“And what of Storm’s husband, Black Panther?”
A wish-fulfillment fantasy in his own right, iirc.
And from what I’ve heard, the current guy writing him is a hack…
Posted 13 May 2009 at 12:37 pm ¶
Seattle Slim wrote:
Oddly enough, I never found Storm very appealing for many of the same reasons mentioned above. I really liked (and miss) Misty Knight. There have been times where they tried to pull fast ones, but over the years, she’s worn the hell out of that afro starting with a TWA to a full blown AFRO. Bad as hell, spunky, thick, sexy, even flawed. I like her because she could be me. Storm just seemed watered down a bit.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 12:47 pm ¶
WhatANightmare wrote:
I don’t read comics, but I did used to sit at a lunch table full of white and Asian guys in high school. Right around the time that the first movie came out, there was an argument about Storm’s heritage. At the time, I did not know that Storm was African. One white guy started it by saying, “But isn’t Storm Dominican or Puerto Rican, or something?” This from a guy who claimed to be an X-Men officionado.
Even now, people are quick to point out that she is African. Nothing wrong with that, but even without the benefit of comics I always got that she is different, AKA more than or better than Black. Anything, but never BLACK.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 12:49 pm ¶
Alexia wrote:
Wow, it’s been a long time I guess. I followed the X-Men comics for a short while in jr. high in the 90’s, and last I checked, she and Wolverine were gettin’ it on on the regular. I read the comic books very superficially and didn’t ever get into the backstory of the characters that much. I haven’t even paid attention to any of the characters beyond the film trilogy in over ten years. I need some time to think on this right here, because it’s so fascinating. Looking back (now that I’ve grown up and given up the perm), I can totally see how problematic Storm can be as a character…
Posted 13 May 2009 at 1:22 pm ¶
cmap wrote:
I like Storm’s character.
I never realized that she could have represented those things. I am bi-racial, so I was pretty comfortable with her hair texture being “straight”.
I always felt that there something deeply touching to her character, and I loved how she was written… she had intense powers that she could sometimes lose control over, she was torn between old love and new love..
Storm was so feminine, but so troubled and strong. I liked her, but of course my favorite was the bad ass, Rogue!
But this post on Storm does have validity. It may just reflect social misgivings inadvertently, but I think she is a symbol of feminine beauty and power (of all races) than she is specifically a black feminine symbol.
I don’t think there are any mainstay real black feminine symbols in graphic novels… there probably won’t be until people with experience of that perspective begin writing comics. I can name ten white guys that write comics, but who can name one mainstream black female writer?
You see, the literature is lacking because the experience is lacking. When you’re a writer, you write what you know… unless you got mad skills like Pearl S. Buck or something!
Posted 13 May 2009 at 1:33 pm ¶
AintIAWoman wrote:
Storm is indeed very special.
I was reading comics a couple weeks ago at a Cosi by where I work, and an older black woman came by to ask what I was reading. We ended up getting into a big talk about how we both grew up loving comics, X-Men in particular. We talked about the way the females were depicted in general, and memories of wanting to dress & look like them, until each of our mothers kindly informed us that women do not always look like that, and cannot always fight crime in high heeled boots and tight costumes.
I’m white, in fact, but I always only identified with Storm. I wanted to be her every second of every day, growing up. Marvel sold her to me. She was so special.
I never fully realized that her eyes are blue, and the disconnect there. Because I had the privilege not to notice things like that. ‘The Bluest Eye’ parallel here is definitely damaging.
Though my brother and his male friends would never fully let me participate in ‘guy things’ like the X-Men, my skin color gave me the privilege growing up of seeing ideals of beauty who ‘looked like me’ everywhere I looked. How sad that a character I loved so much strongly reinforces unachievable racist ‘norms’ of beauty for little girls of color everywhere.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 2:12 pm ¶
Alexia wrote:
OK, I’m done thinking.
I remember when I would consider Storm’s looks: I accepted them as part of her mutant-ness. The eyes, the hair, those Tina Turner legs, etc. However, even though Storm’s facial features are more European than mine, I still found a way to identify with her.
I grew up being the weird girl, the odd one. Even to this day, I get a lot of “You’re really different,”. But in junior high, being different is seen as something negative. So on a subconcious level, I felt like a mutant, but that one day when I get older, being different will be my strong point instead of something to be ridiculed for.
It pretty much came true, too. So one the one hand, I as a young black girl felt that “Storm-ness” was something attainable for me, but on the other hand, I see the depictions of her as a beauty that everyday black girls can’t attain to, and that’s detrimental. Again, it all goes back to personal experience I guess…
Posted 13 May 2009 at 2:41 pm ¶
Asada wrote:
I don’t even read comics, can’t even read manga ( not that they are the same thing, there is such a diffrence between both !!) so I cant say I saw Storm. Not until ex-men the movie with Halle Berry. The description you have off storm reminds me alot of the female character in Captain Planet ( she was created to be racially ambiguos).
Posted 13 May 2009 at 2:59 pm ¶
Charlotte wrote:
Storm isn’t just a woman either – she’s also frequently confused for a goddess in the comics. If I remember her origin story correctly, she believes she’s a goddess herself and is worshiped as one in the village she was born in because she has the power to change the weather.
(Not even touching the presumptions there…)
I believe it’s noted that she’s not actually a goddess, just confused as one.
So Storm is human and superhuman (not just mutant) simultaneously, from the beginning. She always stood apart from the rest of the X-men, never quite fitting in as a result.
She is, however, considered to be one of the most powerful mutants – weather changing being a lot more useful and damaging than, say, Cyclops’ laser beams or Wolverine’s fighting abilities.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 3:31 pm ¶
Kaonashi wrote:
I always loved Storm as a child because she reminded me of Tina Turner’s character in Beyond Thunderdome, only more kick ass. Like pretty much everyone else who cheered when rumors of Angela Basset was in consideration for this role, I HATED the fact that Halle Berry got cast. I didn’t see her blue eyes as a way to whiten her up; it was more a outward sign of her mutantness than anything.
What’s more problematic is her skin tone fluxuations.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 4:20 pm ¶
Jay wrote:
The description you have off storm reminds me alot of the female character in Captain Planet ( she was created to be racially ambiguos).
Are you sure you’re thinking of Captain Planet? There were two women on the team, a Russian and a Japanese, though they, like everyone else on the team, were unintentionally ridiculous racial caricatures.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 4:23 pm ¶
Louise wrote:
My god that is messed up!!!!! Please someone make a Black woman in media of whom we can be proud…. ( we love latoya but she isn’t so visible)!
Posted 13 May 2009 at 5:01 pm ¶
mute wrote:
@ Jay
she might be talking about Gaia.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 5:21 pm ¶
Kendra wrote:
@ Asada and Jay:
I think Asada is referring to Gaia/Gaea, the Earth goddess/spirit character. I always saw her as a woman of color, but yeah, she does seem racially ambiguous in the same way that Storm is. I think Gaia had blue eyes, too. Don’t remember.
Didn’t know that Angela Basset was a possibility for the role of Storm in the movie triology. That kind of pisses me off. Of course, I got over the fact that James Kyson Lee couldn’t be Sulu in Star Trek b/c Heroes couldn’t lose two people at the same time. But I am still pissed.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 5:25 pm ¶
Titanis walleri wrote:
“Are you sure you’re thinking of Captain Planet? There were two women on the team, a Russian and a Japanese, though they, like everyone else on the team, were unintentionally ridiculous racial caricatures.”
I believe they’re thinking of Gaia.
Also, I always assumed Storm’s eyes (and her white hair) were a side-effect of her mutant powers…
Posted 13 May 2009 at 6:06 pm ¶
elle the elephant wrote:
I used to be a fan of the X-men until a few years ago when the stories started dropping in quality, and I have mixed up views of Storm. On one hand, she is the first Black female character, a founder of the second group of X-men in the 70’s, is one of the most powerful mutants(in fact, reading a old issue from the early 80s, I remember her single handedly taking on the rest of the X-Men in a training exercise, and actually holding her own against Jean Grey a.k.a The Phoenix) and actually leading the team when Cyclops isn’t around. She has a very strong personality, and is among one of the more progressive female superheroes.
On the other hand, she was created by a old white guy,Chris Claremont(quite possible the greatest X-Men writer and the man that single handedly revived the X-Comics when it looked like they were heading to the trash heap of comic history in the 70s), who was very much influenced by the mainstream ideals of beauty, that is long hair,blue eyes,skinny nose,skinny frame etc. and it shows in the character of Storm, that Claremont can’t even comprehend a beautiful Black woman that doesn’t conform to European ideals of actractiveness. I mean, she has no connection to her African community, and is dedicated to Prof. Xavier’s cause 100%(never mind the fact that Prof. X’s cause doesn’t really help mutants,it only helps humans that are afraid of mutants,but thats another story), so I’m not surprised she turned out the way she did, because she was written by someone who was coming from the uber-white perspective, and had no experience with Black African culture.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 6:51 pm ¶
Jennifer wrote:
Is Storm beautiful because of her blue eyes and white hair – or in spite of it? I don’t recall any scenarios where it was stated that because Storm is a black woman with blue eyes and white hair, that makes her beautiful. Even your first cell (which has long been mocked as a Claremont wet dream) doesn’t support that idea. The doctor isn’t spellbound by her features – he’s confused by them.
Additionally, Storm has work braids, cornrows, short cuts, mohawks…she’s even been bald. If she’s never seen a pressing comb, who cares? Neither has my niece. Are we really about to start measuring what’s authentic black beauty based on whether we held our ears down on Sunday afternoons? That’s dangerously close to what we do to each other in real life.
Finally, there is no possible way you can think that Storm is anything but black unless you’re simply not paying attention. Her blackness has never, EVER been a question. Black father, Kenyan mother, goddess in the Kenyan/Tanzanian region, plenty of trips to African countries. No true Storm fan – even a casual one – would ever make that mistake. And if Storm fully embraces being Wakandan, so what? That tends to happen when both of your parents are dead. Or perhaps you don’t know (or conveniently forgot) that Storm has made contact with both her parents’ parents; both sides were present at her wedding. So what I’m getting from this piece is that even if you marry an African man and fully embrace his African heritage, you’re STILL not black enough. Well, fuck it – why even try?
I’ve had plenty of problems with Storm’s portrayal in the past, and don’t get me started on the films. God knows that “African jungle bunny” crap they brought her in on was bad enough. But there’s so much to criticize when it comes to Storm and race issues that I can’t believe that one thinks it starts and stops with hair/eye color. This scratches the surface with a cotton ball.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 7:08 pm ¶
cb3n wrote:
Storm’s eye color has actually been pretty variable over the character’s history. The first panel where we see Storm’s face close enough to make it out (Giant Size X-Men #1, page 9) she appears to have extremely light (almost white) gray eyes. This however is most likely unintentional because two pages later she clearly has blue eyes. So from the start, the character was apparently intended to have blue eyes. But this changed pretty quickly in her early iconic run as a member of the X-Men.
Like many of the artists working at Marvel Comics at the time, Dave Cockrum, who first drew the character, had a habit of drawing his subjects (particularly women) with relatively large and prominent eyes. When drawing them from a distance, he would frequently omit the the iris and pupil completely to save time and energy. At some point this became standard practice for many of the characters, even more so when John Bryne took over the art. Generally Bryne reserved the effect for when the characters were using their powers, but over the course of his tenure on the series, he started using it more and more casually (especially in Storm’s case) until finally for a while, Storm lacking eye color basically became canon enough that it is one of the accepted ways to draw her.
Similar things happened with other characters as well, Nightcrawler usually had monochromatic yellow eyes, Wolverine is rarely show with irises or pupils when he wears his mask and Colossus doesn’t have them when he powers up (which is most of the time in some comics) ect. In fact if you look through X-Men comics from the 90s, you’ll find all sorts of characters sporting all white (or in Gambit’s case, red) eyes. It’s kind of creepy when you think about it. In the end though Storm is definitely one of the characters most commonly associated with the blank white stare look.
In more recent years this practice seems to have fallen out of style with X-artists, but it may account for why some people seem surprised when they hear about Storm’s blue eyes. She was so rarely drawn with any eye color at all during some of the classic X-Men storylines that many readers probably think of her and think blank white eyes. However, it’s pretty clear that she was intended from the start to be blue eyed and 99% of the time if she had any color to her eyes at all, it was blue. Scattered cases of her having brown eyes can be found, the cover to Uncanny X-Men #117 is a great example, but these are probably due to a colorist unfamiliar with the character logically assuming that a person from Kenya would probably have brown eyes.
Just a guess given the history of American comics and the dogmatic nature of in house styles back in the day, it’s likely her facial features are so anglicized because Cockrum/Byrne had no idea how to draw black women… Although without a doubt, western standards of beauty probably played a role in this too. Even if Cockrum had shown up with sketches of a Kenyan woman who actually looks Kenyan, I doubt it would have made it past editorial.
In terms of her hair, it was probably made as long straight as it is because Wein and Cockrum wanted to draw her topless and needed some way of covering her up. Her first appearance involves her flying around topless making rain for her worshipers. She is frequently naked throughout the Claremont’s run with her hair being used to hide the pertinent points from view. It’s actually an extremely unusual amount of nudity for comics at the time. I’m not even gonna start trying to figure out why it was common to have a naked Kenyan weather goddess in X-Men but not a naked Sue Storm (or for that matter Johnny Storm) over in Fantastic Four. They probably thought the hair was a neat effect and a good way to have her run around naked without the Comics Code getting on their butts. I can’t even guess as to why they felt the need to make it white though…
Of course, regardless of intention (and clearly there is a lot of exotification intended), the effects are just as described in the above article.
Sorry this is so long, I’m a big dork and comics tend to get me talking…
Posted 13 May 2009 at 7:19 pm ¶
Asada wrote:
@jay and Kendra
http://www.turner.com/planet/gaia.html
yes I am talking about Gaia. SHe has blue eyes, pink lips and a dark skin hue but her hair is wavy black. I always thought she was black but then she had blue eyes and pink lips, so I could never say with any certainty. Looking back, I read that she was meant to be racially ambigous ( to fit in the goody goody message of everyone helping the earth and “mother nature” as a mother to all).
I wish the oil company thieves would watch captain planet…..
Posted 13 May 2009 at 7:34 pm ¶
Jennifer wrote:
#18, fantastic points all around. Let’s be frank; with the exception of skin and hair color, all of the older comic women look alike. And I mean EXACTLY alike. I shouldn’t ever have trouble distinguishing Storm from Psylocke. Terrible stuff.
Look, nobody here is trying to pretend that the blue eyes/white hair thing was NOT a throwback to Caucasian features. However, I DO believe Claremont when he brought up the whole ancient ancestors thing. Why? Because it’s too stupid to not be true.
It’s hard to even take this argument seriously when the writer is using comics written before I was even born. Let’s try something from THIS millennium. I see that Marvel IS trying – maybe for better or worse, but the art of Scott Eaton and Ken Lashey are clearly example of black characters with black features, Storm included. It looks quite nice. (The second-to-last one, IIRC, was from the Worlds Apart arc, and the art wasn’t exactly applauded there.) We can probably argue that Storm never should’ve had blue eyes and white hair to begin with, but the idea of changing 30 years of canon just because some black female readers have hair issues that date back to their respective childhoods is asinine. There are therapists for that kind of thing.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 9:51 pm ¶
Cheryl Lynn wrote:
I wrote the post and even I don’t think it would make any sense to change the character’s hair and eyes from a marketing standpoint. Consumers recognize the character by her white hair and blue eyes. It’d be like making Wonder Woman blond or giving Superman an Afro. You can’t make changes like that decades later. The best thing for Marvel to do would be to get past creators to just stay silent about the blatantly offensive and hurtful “best of all the races” explanation (no bringing that mess up in tribute articles) and tell new creators to bury it. For good. Pave the whole mess over with the mutancy explanation. Which is a perfectly fine explanation. I’ve never read an X-Men comic that stated Polaris must be part amphibian because her hair is green. Why should Storm’s blackness be explained away just because she’s a little different? The eyes and hair don’t disturb me, the reasons given for the eyes and hair do. A lot. Damn, can’t she just be black? Can’t her hair just be her hair instead of some sign that she’s a mystical multi-racial sorceress? It’s not like we have that many black heroines currently in action. And there were even fewer back then.
Over time, the changes and explanations sapped away all the enjoyment I had from reading about this character. Well, not all. But it did sap most of my enjoyment from reading Marvel comics. Because every time I see a black female character all I can do is wonder how long it will be before Marvel starts getting cute with the continuity or the pencils or the Photoshop. Because they’ve even pulled these stunts with other characters too. Recently. And many of the creators who have tried to make positive changes are either long gone or have one foot out the door. And I’m pretty sure the positive changes they’ve made will be steamrolled right over as soon as they’re gone in order to satisfy these folks (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/308330.html). How many chances should you give a company before it’s time to go buy something else? Especially when other companies like Zuda and Drawn & Quarterly are trying and getting it right. Permanently. The first time. Not just for a few months until some artist or writer decides the lead character should be multiracial or look like Mariska Hartigay–no matter what kind of message that sends out to readers. I’m just tired of companies making changes that are offensive so as not to offend or drive away the predominately white audience they seem to really want. God forbid somone be deprived of his exotic (but not too black!) fantasy.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 10:57 pm ¶
Martina wrote:
I’m pretty mixed about the whole thing. For a long time though, Storm has been one of my favorite Marvel and comic characters in general.
But gotta admit, this post makes me think about her more. I don’t remember when, but there was a time during the 90s cartoon that I wondered about her (especially because of the accent).
Her blue eyes were pretty caucasian to me, but in one volume it’s said blue eyes were prominent in her mother’s tribe, but that just makes one all the more curious perhaps. Marvel has issues with its writers and artists too, so I give up on paying mind to the features sometime, but for me Ororo represented being African-American, and probably still will regardless.
And actually, I’m not too fond of her marriage to T’Challa. I don’t particularly care for the character, but the marriage itself seems like it was done ‘just to please African Americans (women in particular)’. And to be honest, not all African American (women) can relate to that either.
But unless it’s Deadpool (not the new one anyway), I don’t read Marvel anymore. I just stick to fanfiction, at least in these worlds, Ororo claims her African heritafe strongly. Sometimes it’s for the sake of story-telling, but some of the writers embrace it as an important part of her. Marvel (and DC to a point) are why I give up on American comics – for the most part.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 11:19 pm ¶
aamer wrote:
Its impossible to bring up Storm without discussing Psylocke – a caucasian british woman who had her features surgically altered by ninjas TO RESEMBLE AN ASIAN. wtf.
White on the inside, hot asian ninja on the outside.
Claremont had a thing about creating strong fantasy women who beat up men…
This is from tvtropes.org:
“When a pornstar revealed that Claremont had allegedly hired one of his colleagues to dress up as Storm (a strong female character he wrote) and do things to him involving copious amount of lubricant, many people were grossed out, but only a few were surprised.”
nuff said.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 11:52 pm ¶
karak wrote:
I could be mis-remembering, but I thought that Storm was ostracized from her fellow Africans by her strange looks–in fact, she was constantly bullied for being a freak. That might be a new revamp of the character, though.
This isn’t an objection to your analysis, I’d agree that the focus of her looks is always on the *mutant* without a black/white context.
Posted 13 May 2009 at 11:54 pm ¶
Aiyo wrote:
growing up i always liked storm from the cartoon, her hair was white and i was born with a few grey hairs so that nade ne a little proud i guess. But looking at what was mentioned it does seem that she fits the kinda of black but more spectrum she is ‘exotic’ so there for is desired by many because she does not fit the norm of many black women in the world
Posted 14 May 2009 at 2:37 am ¶
x wrote:
Okay, all these “BUT I IDENTIFIED WITH HER” nerd girls are missing the point.
These comics were and usually still are written FOR men, BY men. It doesn’t matter that you identified with her or not. The point is, these men threw in a black character, then proceeded to make her as un-black as possible.
Wake up.
Posted 14 May 2009 at 3:38 am ¶
AintIAWoman wrote:
@X- i don’t think ‘nerd girls’ are missing the point. The point is true that a lot of us DID identify with her when we were young, and then we grew up and slowly realized Storm and other female characters were made by and for men. And that they are unreasonable expectations of beauty/power/etc. Its still interesting to note this and ask: what does that say about us and our options for hero identification as girls? What sort of characters shaped us and why? And were they racist or sexist depictions of reality? (answer: yes) I think that’s still a useful discussion.
Posted 14 May 2009 at 8:56 am ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
As someone who’s read X-Men comics for about 40 years, let me address a few points:
Storm has been around for 3.5 decades, not two.
Chris Claremont didn’t create the all-new X-Men. Len Wein and Dave Cockrum did. But Claremont became their primary writer soon after that. He may be an old white guy now, but he was a young white guy then.
Storm’s origin goes something like this: Mother was an African princess who married a US government worker. They were killed in Egypt when Ororo was young, so she grew up on the streets as a thief. As a teenager she returned to her ancestral village where she was proclaimed a goddess. She met T’Challa somewhere along the way and recognized him as a soulmate.
At least initially, she was an American citizen who spent her first few years in America. This was my counterargument whenever someone argued that she was a great example of multicultural diversity. Let’s see someone who doesn’t come from an American, European, or Western background (unlike Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Banshee), I’d say. The only non-Westerners were Sunfire and Thunderbird, and they left the team early.
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/multxm.htm
Marvel has reconnected her to her African heritage in a few recent mini-series. I don’t know if that’s enough to make her more than superficially “African.” Other than the hair and eyes, what are some qualities a Kenyan woman might have?
Many black characters in comics don’t have black features, so I’m not sure it’s fair to single out Storm for that. Many black women in comics also have body types that are a (white male) Hollywood fantasy. That’s arguably as bad as the hair and eyes.
T’Challa is now in suspended animation while his sister replaces him. I don’t know where that leaves Storm. I had doubts that Marvel would want to tell stories about a strong (black) married couple, and it seems I was right.
Posted 14 May 2009 at 9:39 am ¶
Queenb727 wrote:
@x
You say “It doesn’t matter that you identified with her or not.”
It actually does. I’ve studied art history and art education. One big debate is whether or not (and how much) the intentions of the artist matter. To me, they do matter, but the viewers interpretation matters just as much. At least in a situation like this where the question is what do viewers internalize.
We can never recreate the conditions under which the comics we made and how they were received. All we can do is bring our own experiences and perceptions to the table. That means that we can recognize the stereotypical ideas of beauty expressed while still taking out any positive we see.
One dangerous thing about your position in my opinion (and someone stated this upthread) is that there is an ideal of black beauty. This idea that anything less than medium brown to dark skin, brown eyes and an afro is the “whitening” of black beauty. I do fit into that category. And I do wish there were more representations of black beauty that looked like me. But I also have a lot of mixed race and simply more european looking (even if they are black so says the family tree) family members. They have blue, green, hazel, etc. eyes. Their hair may be kinky, straight, or in the middle. They may even have lighter skin. But they are still black. And they are still an example of black beauty. They are not a lightened up version of black. And if they want to usurp the intentions of the artist to identify with Storm, I don’t see a problem with that.
Posted 14 May 2009 at 9:53 am ¶
Kristin wrote:
I’m a Black woman who’s been a comic book collector for over 25 years and Storm was never one of my favorites.
Part of the problem was when I started reading comics in the 80s Storm was potrayed as a woman who was constantly holding back on her powers for fear of hurting someone. It would get frustrating to read a fight scene that went on too long or that the X-Men even lost because Storm wouldn’t throw a few thunderbolts. At the same time I was reading DC’s New Teen Titans and one of Titans, Raven, had a similar problem but I thought it was handled better. When Raven misused her powers, bad things happened; when Storm actually “misused’ her powers she was effective. The only time I really warmed up to Storm was during her mohawk phase, she really embraced herself and her powers. Of course during that time all the other X-men where running around saying “What’s wrong with Storm? We got to get her back to normal!”
When I was reading these comics back in the day I remembered Storm’s blue eyes and white straight hair being recognized as prophesied signs of a goddess. What culture has legends/gods/heroes that look radically different from them? Usually they will be an idealized version of the culture; smarter, faster, stronger… I also remember a similar panel to the second one above where Stevie Hunter, Kitty Pryde’s cornrowed dance teacher, raved about Ororo’s hair while running her fingers through it. In real life these women would have asked her where she bought it.
The character has been retconned over the years; first she was Egyptian, then Kenyan, then her father was revealed to be a Black American. In recent years she started to occassionally sport braids, which I take to mean that the artists have actually started to look at Black women. Her marriage was so out of the blue that I can’t suspend my disbelief to enjoy it. The Wasp and Professor Xavier getting married would make as much sense. Those two were shown interacting as much as Storm and the Black Panther were over the years.
Posted 14 May 2009 at 10:37 am ¶
AC wrote:
You know I always just thought of all the X-Men as mutants and never paid much attention to racial stuff, although to be fair most of the writers/artists don’t either (I didn’t know until like last YEAR that Jubilee was supposed to be Chinese-American).
It’s hard enough to find awesome female characters period, let alone non-white ones, in comics, but for my money Agent 355 from Y: The Last Man is the most badass.
Posted 14 May 2009 at 12:10 pm ¶
TierListE wrote:
I’m a bit wary of the “but light skin black women/WoC with uncommon WoC features are also pretty” response to these things because I always fear a little that that’s going to stall or negate any more progress of the acceptance of ethnic features.
Exotic looking WoC have get their own flak and I don’t want to diminish that, especially angry and/or jealous people wanting to kick them out the race, so I understand the hurt when people push them aside and go on about “real” black/WoC women. But right now I doubt that their is any confusion from the media that they are in fact attractive, or at least more attractive than the more common WoC. Women with light skin, straighter hair, and lighter features better know from outside sources that they are beautiful and a lot of people in their communities, even if they’re being sore sports about it and unfairly lash out, envy them.
I certainly don’t want things to rubberband so these less common WoC don’t exist in media at all, but I certainly will always be in favor of a more porportionate representative of ethnic beauty so girls with dark skin/unstraight hair/common ethnic features growing up can also feel like they have a wanted place in this world.
Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:22 pm ¶
Titanis walleri wrote:
“I had doubts that Marvel would want to tell stories about a strong (black) married couple”
I think Marvel, or at least one of the people running it, hates marriage.
Case in point: Spider-man selling his marriage to Satan.
Posted 14 May 2009 at 1:50 pm ¶
N wrote:
Regardless of the explanation that her looks are due to her being a mutant, the bottom line is that the artists chose to portray an African woman with straight white hair and light eyes. Look past the comic to the artists. Why was that appearance chosen?
Why not a white AFRO if she had to be different? Why not red eyes or some other non eye color color?
Posted 14 May 2009 at 2:08 pm ¶
Mr. Noface wrote:
@Kristin
“The character has been retconned over the years; first she was Egyptian, then Kenyan, then her father was revealed to be a Black American. In recent years she started to occassionally sport braids, which I take to mean that the artists have actually started to look at Black women. Her marriage was so out of the blue that I can’t suspend my disbelief to enjoy it. The Wasp and Professor Xavier getting married would make as much sense. Those two were shown interacting as much as Storm and the Black Panther were over the years.”
Storm has always been Kenyan in the comics. Professor X found her (as so many have alluded to) in Kenya being worshiped by a local tribe as a goddess. She grew up in Cairo Egypt after the death of her parents, so I’m guessing where the confusion comes from.
@Cheryl Lynn
I remember reading that panal at the begining of your post when I was a younger, and thinking, “What the hell does that even mean?” especially since those physical descriptions didn’t mesh with how storm was being drawn in the comics before that period.
When she was first introduced she was very clearly portrayed as a dark skin black women with “african” features with the exception of straight white hair and blue (literally cat-like) eyes. As time went on and her popularity grew, there have been times when it seemed like they were trying to lighten (i.e whiten) her up, but the truth is, her color and features have varied with the artists tasked with drawing her.
The writing of her character, however is another matter entirely. I agree that she has been written as someone “above all others”. A standard set for women of color with the knowledge that they could never attain it (naturally that is).
Posted 14 May 2009 at 2:24 pm ¶
chicagorose wrote:
Jennifer wrote:
“but the idea of changing 30 years of canon just because some black female readers have hair issues that date back to their respective childhoods is asinine. There are therapists for that kind of thing.”
Was that really even called for? This is a place meant for discussing racial issues? Don’t see how that bit of derogatory snark was on target, especially when historically established favoritism, regarding mainstream preferences for WOC, have always leaned torwards straighter hair textures and lighter eye coloring. Nothing in the piece I read made claim to how Storm ought to look; it took issue with a prominent character of color falling victim to the standard “pretty for a black girl” syndrome- if we don’t look like Halle Berry, we are irrelevent, undesirable, and evidently, by your statement alone, easily dismissed by the “They jus’ be jealous gurl!” type criticisms and arguments. I don’t see how sharing similar physical traits as the subject matter or knowing someone who does should blind anyone to the truth of what was stated in the article.
TierListE wrote:
“I’m a bit wary of the “but light skin black women/WoC with uncommon WoC features are also pretty” response to these things because I always fear a little that that’s going to stall or negate any more progress of the acceptance of ethnic features.
“…but I certainly will always be in favor of a more porportionate representative of ethnic beauty so girls with dark skin/unstraight hair/common ethnic features growing up can also feel like they have a wanted place in this world.”
Amen, Amen, and Amen.
Posted 15 May 2009 at 9:00 am ¶
Aris wrote:
TierListE (comment #32): AMEN!
Posted 15 May 2009 at 11:20 am ¶
Louise wrote:
In responce to the commentator who felt that we were by being analytical of the representation of the chracter, questioning people’s ethnicity and right to be be black. No we were not doing so, but we were simply questioning why they had chosen some chracteristics that were so far from normative in the community that they actually seemed to separate the chracter from her origins.
I live in europe and there are white women who have naturally full lips, fuller than mine as a black women, it soes not mean that i am less black and them less white. i see white women with body types alike my own slim on top and with a round and high traditional caribbean backside, it means nothing, it mean that they are not typical of the white population around them. Nobody means to denigrate you are question you, we just question why these things have been done.
Posted 15 May 2009 at 3:12 pm ¶
Zahra wrote:
AC,
I LOVE Agent 355 from Y: The Last Man. She is truly one of my favorite female characters, ever. (Not so wild about her mentor.) And while different artist may draw her differently–I think Pia Guerra did it best–I love the fact that she has natural styles (locs or a very short Afro in the flashback to her teenage years), and that her locs grow proportionately to the time the story takes.
I’m also a fan of the character of Allison Mann, who’s recognizably drawn as Asian-American from the moment you meet her, even before the backstory about her changed last name. Although I have some quarrels with the way the series ends…
Posted 15 May 2009 at 4:18 pm ¶
theartscholar wrote:
I was never really a die-hard storm fan, I always thought Misty Knight was so much cooler- just me though.
Posted 15 May 2009 at 6:21 pm ¶
Titanis walleri wrote:
“The writing of her character, however is another matter entirely. I agree that she has been written as someone “above all others”. A standard set for women of color with the knowledge that they could never attain it (naturally that is).”
Although that’s true of all superheroes, isn’t it?
Posted 15 May 2009 at 6:33 pm ¶
Hibbs4Prez wrote:
One of these days, seriously, when a topic is started up on this site concerning the questionable handling of a black character I just wish for once it could be a black male character. Because I swear there are some “Holy Christmas” black male comic characters that were handled far worse than Storm.
That being said its a shame once again that folks are more concerned over the look of Strom and her sudden marriage to Black Panther (btw they did have a history which was established in some stories from the 1970 and 1980s). Why doesn’t anyone address the fact that Storm is a woman who can control the weather and yet leaves the continent of her birth which just so happens to arguably be the continent most in need of someone who bring elemental gifts to the people, wildlife, vegetation. You know…something like RAIN!! How could the writers not addess the fact that Storm is spending all that time in rich America fighting bad guys here and there when millions of people could arguably better benefit by her help ending starvation in Africa? This is why I love Alan Moore’s more realistic view of super heroes in the Watchmen series.
Posted 15 May 2009 at 8:57 pm ¶
DivergentDana wrote:
“Its impossible to bring up Storm without discussing Psylocke – a caucasian british woman who had her features surgically altered by ninjas TO RESEMBLE AN ASIAN. wtf.”
I could’ve sworn she was possessing the body of an Asian woman, Kwannon, but the white on the inside bit still stands, and so does the British supermodel’s adopted penchant for dressing like a porno ninja.
Posted 16 May 2009 at 2:29 am ¶
Titanis walleri wrote:
“Why doesn’t anyone address the fact that Storm is a woman who can control the weather and yet leaves the continent of her birth which just so happens to arguably be the continent most in need of someone who bring elemental gifts to the people, wildlife, vegetation. You know…something like RAIN!! How could the writers not addess the fact that Storm is spending all that time in rich America fighting bad guys here and there when millions of people could arguably better benefit by her help ending starvation in Africa?”
Comics aren’t allowed to alter their settings in certain ways, apparently. It’s like how cancer and AIDS still exist in Marvel and DC’s universes, despite the plethora of super-scientist characters presumably able to whip up a cure…
Posted 16 May 2009 at 5:30 pm ¶
Neville A. Ross wrote:
@Hibbs4Prez:
Making rain in Africa all the time means nothing if other mutants-many of whom are black or of color-are also being picked on because they are mutants. Fighting against such injustice should be foremost in the mind of anybody who’s a mutant, especially if giant mutant hunting robots can fly across most of the planet and scoop you up to either kill you or imprison you. That’s why Storm does what she does. If you can’t see that because you are so blinded by love of the Motherland, then you are a cold and unfeeling person, indeed-and I say this as a fellow person of color (Afro-Canadian from Toronto).
Posted 16 May 2009 at 11:09 pm ¶
Anon wrote:
I always found storm boring. I don’t see her special snowflakeness as evidence of racism so much as a failure of imagination.
As black characters go I would have found a more sympathetic depiction of Joanna Cargill far more interesting than a ‘blue-eyed african goddess’.
Then again I also preferred the refined yet out-of-her-depth British version of Psylocke to the ass kicking porn ninja. I love comics but they often trend toward the crass.
Posted 17 May 2009 at 10:23 am ¶
cb3n wrote:
@Zahra
Ooh, don’t say anything about how it ends, I haven’t gotten the last trade yet.
Pia Guerra is amazing, personally her work on Y: The Last Man easily puts her as one of the best artists currently working in mainstream comics. Now if only the big two would recognize that and give her a shot at a run on one of their major titles. I’d love to see her on a team book like X-Men or JLA or Teen Titans. I could even maybe see her with a short Spider-Man run. It’s somewhat absurd that the winner of the 2008 award for best penciler/inker (with Jose Marzan, Jr) can’t seem to get work with DC or Marvel. I’ll also say somewhat confidentially that as someone who has worked in the industry, I’ve heard some very sexist comments directed towards her and hope, but doubt, that has nothing to do with her trouble moving up in the ranks.
Also, Brian K. Vaughan, while still frequently problematic, is the best white male writer currently working in the business when it comes to depicting women and/or PoC. Some of his interviews suggest a very conscious and deliberate approach to making sure all of his characters are as fleshed out and believable as his white male characters. Unlike the other superstar writers currently out there, he’s pretty adept at avoiding the use of stereotypes as a crutch for character development.
@DivergentDana et al
Yeah, the Psylocke thing is pretty messed up, especially because she started dressing and acting as a ‘porn ninja’ as you say immediately after becoming Asian. Back when she was white she was relatively reserved for a superheroine, but once she becomes Asian, mother’s lock up your sons (and daughters).
Posted 18 May 2009 at 11:52 am ¶
Mer wrote:
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/multxm.htm
“and Ireland as part of the British Empire (see above). ”
Ugh. That makes me feel ill. We fought a war to not be seen as that thank you very much.
Irish != british. Thats racism thank you very much. British isles, British empire = insulting and racist.
I never saw banshee or siren as irish, mostly because the American writers obviously hadn’t a clue, not of the ancent, not of the history, not of the culture.
Posted 18 May 2009 at 12:49 pm ¶
Zahra wrote:
cb3n—
My lips are sealed. Love to hear what you think when you finish, though.
I agree: Pia Guerra is amazing. Having gotten into comics through Y: The Last Man, I’m constantly wondering why everything I pick up is so badly drawn. I’m saddened but not surprised to hear that sexism seems to be holding back her career…
And this:
“Also, Brian K. Vaughan, while still frequently problematic, is the best white male writer currently working in the business when it comes to depicting women and/or PoC.”
Co-sign! I sometimes describe The Last Man to friends as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer with better racial politics and worse gender ones.”
Vaughn writes multiple POC (also lesbian/bisexual women) as main characters, fully fleshes them out, & makes you really care about them; he gives them power and sometimes leadership authority; he explicitly acknowledges racism & how it affects the characters in the text; and then come the problems…
The same strengths and weaknesses show up in his YA series Runaways, too.
Posted 18 May 2009 at 5:08 pm ¶
Lisa G wrote:
I think that the larger issue at hand, has nothing to do with the Storm or comic books. I believe it has to do with the portrayal of women of color. As a thick, dark-skinned sista; it is very rare to see a representation of myself in the mainstream media, let alone in comic books and it becomes disheartening to hear how people define what’ being black’ is. It is quite clear that we come in different shapes, sizes and colors. I know, my family looks like the original Crayola Multicultural Markers.
Yet, we don’t embrace our differences. It is clear that the media and those who are fully integrated into popular culture, has an infatuation with lighter women of color- they are the exotic other. However, what many women who are darker fail to realize, is that they still are exotic. They don’t favor the majority!
The issue at hand is not who or what makes you black; but how ‘black is beautiful’ is being represented. And apparently looking at mainstream media, being dark-skinned, with regular ole brown eyes and natural hair, ain’t the boogie!
My suggestion is that maybe we should do an in depth cultural analysis of the imagery of Storm and other women of color in comics and other forms of entertainment media and ask ourselves: What is being represented? What is stereotyped? What has been lost in translation? Who will more than likely be effected by this?
It is painfully clear that this discussion has brought about quite a few mixed views. Yet, I feel as if some people are missing the point. I know that every representation of black women isn’t true, whether it’s positive or negative. Sometimes, I wish that could have one to identify with a representtion, that doesn’t have to be a mutant/outsider- I spend most of my life like that. I want someone that represents me in looks, whole heartedly. Not just that 1% of us who happens to be the European style of beauty.
Posted 18 May 2009 at 7:09 pm ¶
LegalDiva wrote:
I have often been told that there is something “different about me” and asked to explain my heritage going back a couple of generations…The subtext of these inquiries is clearly that someone who “looks like me” couldn’t simply be black/african-american. And just for the record this usually comes from other black folks (i.e. african-americans but mostly people from the caribbean and africa). These very frequent encounters illustrate to me that we black folks have swallowed all the negative about ourselves such that anything about us that diverges from negative stereotypes requires an explanation. The explanation must involve something that makes me ” less black”. Perhaps a caucasian, carribean, or asian parent/grandparent. No just black american lineage. I reject the notion that being “less black” is what makes me beautiful or special. What makes me beautiful is the way I embrace what god gave me – almond shaped eyes, full lips, a broad nose, a plump derriere, a caramel complexion, and relatively kinky hair….Oh, almost forget that sexy front-toothed gap.
Posted 21 May 2009 at 2:20 pm ¶