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Femmes-Fatales — X-Men - Storm Redesign
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Published: 2017-10-08 19:02:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 5311; Favourites: 123; Downloads: 24
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Description
To accompany the tentatively titled X-Men Blue team I've been submitting redesigns for, I figured I'd do a sister team under the Gold banner. As with the Blue team, these characters exist in my head canon set on Marvel Earth-20113.Fourth is Storm AKA Ororo Munroe.
The design and background for this character remains the same as I'd done previously in her profile I'd posted (seen here: fav.me/db4fgq8 ). She's also only tentatively part of the Gold team as I'm undecided whether I want to keep the previous roster I had (fav.me/db97xhj ) or not.
I'd also encourage those of you who like this design and want to learn more about my Earth-20113 concept, to check out the redesigns linked below.
Dazzler - fav.me/dbp231r
Frenzy - fav.me/dbp1lnv
Psylocke - fav.me/dbp5vrd
Kitty Pryde - fav.me/dbptws2
Rachel Grey - fav.me/dbpu5z1
M - fav.me/dbptndg
As always, I love hearing from you all so please feel free to leave a comment to let me know your thoughts on this piece.
Enjoy!
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Comments: 30
Dude, Storm has been my all-time favorite X-Gal... since I was like 8... which was why I was so pissed off with how she was treated in X-Men Apocalypse. But this... there ain't enough YESES I can give ya ^^
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Across all the X-Men films, Storm is terribly portrayed and was severely miscast. Even in cartoons, she tends to get the short end of the stick. I don't know what it is about these men who are adapting her, but they need to stop writing her into the Auntie/Mammy role.
But... thank you! I'm glad you like this piece!
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Truer words never spoken, bro.
^^
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I always look forward to seeing your redesign for Storm, given that you are such a fan I know you are going to nail it every time. I really enjoy how you've connect the cape to her suit and to her cuffs, as well as how the gold on her suit really adds a touch of elegance without being too flashy. While this is not my favorite hairstyle for Storm I do like that you've tried to modernize her mohawk look but kept the length and added braids as it adds a little bit of edge without going too extreme. All in all, nice job she looks beautiful
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Thanks! I actually originally posted this design alongside some other X-Men (seen here: X-Men Omega Team Redesigns ). I'm happy to see that you like what I've done with her. As far as her hairstyle is concerned, the twists are really done in my part to give Storm a hairstyle that doesn't conform to Eurocentric beauty standards. She was originally designed from that perspective, but I don't think she has to stay that way. We should absolutely see her in twists (as she wears here), braids, bantu knots, afros, locs, etc.
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I will for sure check this out ( my apology for the late response as I have been pretty busy with work. )
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It's also worth mentioning that I included that same one here: X-Men Redesign Teams .
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I REALLY love the design for this, like a mix of my fave 90's one and some colors from her usual costume (which I don't really care for). :3
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Thanks! I'm not sure what you mean by "her usual costume" though. Storm has had dozens of costumes over the years. She basically changes her look every couple of years now. XD
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I mean, the black one piece swimsuitish one with thigh highs.
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Well, she's worn roughly four variants of what you're describing (five if we count the white one she wore that was designed by Simone Bianchi). I did this ages ago (so that why the art is of a poorer quality and why two additional costumes are missing): X-Men - Storm Comic Costume Chronology . Those are her costumes from the main line of comics. I assume you're probably referring to her first costume? Or perhaps the 2007 or her current one from X-Men Gold (which isn't drawn)?
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I haven't really kept track. lD
I just have something against Storm nowadays, she's far too uppity to me. The version of Storm I grew up with was the 90's Animated Series version, and she was always so nice there.
Extra minus points because she said in-continuity that she hates Spider-Man. Not cool considering all the times he's helped the X-Men.
Her recent costumes haven't been that interesting to me.
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First of all, I'd advise you to refrain from using the word "uppity" when referring to black characters. There is a derogatory racially charged context for that word.
If we accept that her dialogue was in fact in-character, then we have to examine what she said. Her exact words were "I don't like you." They were "I hate you." There's a difference. She says "[...] even if the Jean Grey School did need a special class guidance counselor, whatever that is, why should it be a non-mutant, loudmouth, masked outsider whose true identity we don't even know, meaning at worst, this is a ploy by one of our many enemies -- and, at best, our already despised and suspected school accepts into itself a publicly derided maniac wanted for arrest by the police and federal authorities." The gist of what she's saying is mutants are already distrusted and their association with Spider-Man could make that worse. He then brings up Black Panther, which obviously irritates her given how poorly Black Panther treated her. Some folks have gone on in an attempt to explain why she'd dislike him. Some point to Secret Wars, where there was a conflict between the two. Others points to when Doc Ock was Spider-Man and punched Storm in the face.
But is this in-character for Storm? Should we accept this as canon? No, it's not and no, we probably shouldn't. It's from a mini-series from two years ago that was written by someone with zero experience writing Storm. It's evident that he's unfamiliar with the character and hasn't done any homework since the dialogue doesn't ring true for her. In the past, Storm has had ZERO issues with outsiders and non-mutants working for Xavier's/Jean Grey's. She's also never really been shown to distrust Spider-Man all that much. She might find him annoying due to his juvenile behaviour and tendency to act like a man child (despite clearly being in his late-20s or early-30s). But would she actually dislike him enough to say so? Probably not.
So, should we judge a character for an obscure piece of dialogue that was written by someone with no previous experience with Storm? That rings false for the character? That seems unfair to me.
Storm has always been kind and compassionate. She remains so to this day. However, she is also passionate and has a fierce streak. She doesn't put up with BS and will do whatever it takes to protect her people. If anything, it seems that your exposure to her recent appearances may be limited to bad writing. In which case, is it fair to bash a good character for bad writing?
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Huh, I had no idea of that. Really I've never heard of 'uppity' being a derogatory term.
Yeah, there is all that. That exchange and mentioning the 'non-mutant' thing seemed like it was making her, a mutant, who has had to deal with racism, sound racist toward Spidey.
I suppose it doesn't matter, but I haven't been a fan of the character in-comics for a while. Or really maybe 75% of what Marvel is doing with their comics in general.
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If you'd like to read further on the racist history of the word "uppity," here are a couple of articles:
"Yep, 'Uppity' Is Racist" - www.theatlantic.com/politics/a…
"How Bad is 'Uppity'?" - www.npr.org/sections/visiblema…
The word was also included in the article "These Words You Use Every Day Have Racist/Prejudiced Pasts, And You Had No Idea" (www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/of… ).
Seeing as mutants are a fictionalized group of characters within a comic book world, it's important not to conflate them as being an actual race or to use the term "racist" when describing a fictional character who may hold prejudice against a mutant. The comics themselves I believe adopted the phrase "mutant-phobia" (like homophobia). There's nothing remotely prejudiced about Storm saying "non-mutant" as she is merely stating a fact. Spider-Man is not a mutant. Also, there would be no such thing as reverse mutant-phobia just as there's no such thing as reverse homophobia or reverse racism. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. are all based upon systems of power wherein the majority (who hold the power) discriminates against a minority (who has no power). We see this play out every day in our society and I could think of multiple examples. When it comes to sexism, for example, we can think of the pay disparities across all fields or the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace. There isn't a reverse of that because women are not in those positions of power within our society in the same way that men are. The same can be said for white people and people of colour. A 2015 study, for instance, found that the publishing industry is 80% white people. There's absolutely no shortage of qualified people of colour who can be editors, literary agents, journalists, novelists, etc. Other studies have been done that find that employers are more likely to hire a white man with a criminal record over a black man without a criminal record, employers are more likely to discriminate against people with "ethnic" names on their resumes (i.e. employers are more likely to call Jane Smith in for an interview than a LaToya Williams), and people of colour (especially if they are black or of Latinx origin) are often given lengthier prison sentences for lesser offences than white people with worse offences. An example that you'll hear a lot of people use is Brock Turner, who sexually assaulted a woman and yet only got a six month jail sentence (but only served three months) while there are instances of men of colour serving 20+ year prison sentences for nonviolent crimes.
Storm is a character of many intersections. She is a black woman. She is a mutant. She is queer (though it's never been officially confirmed the textual evidence for this is pretty obvious and widely accepted as true amongst her fans). Though she was born in America, she was raised abroad and would likely speak with an accent that differs from American ones. As such, she'd be superficially "othered" as a foreigner. This means that Storm, above most other Marvel characters, is acutely aware of the systems of oppression as this is her everyday reality. She understands that it is important for others to understand these systems and that mutants require special counselling that someone like Spider-Man is ill-equipped for on the basis that he is not a mutant. Spider-Man is a cisgendered heterosexual white man who comes from a middle class family and has a university education. Hell, doesn't he have his own company now? It's completely absurd that Marvel pushes this notion that he is an outsider when he literally belongs to the most privileged group in America. It is disingenuous and, quite frankly, insulting towards the people who face oppression everyday to insist that his personal struggles are in any way comparable to people from marginalized groups. It's like a man complaining about a paper cut when there's a pregnant woman giving birth right next to him without an epidural.
At the end of the day, I still feel like you're giving weight to a piece of dialogue (especially since you haven't cited any other examples wherein you feel that Storm has acted maliciously and out of turn) that doesn't deserve the weight it's being given. I think it's out of character and think it should be taken with a grain of salt. Especially if we're privileging Spider-Man over Storm by failing to understand her point of view or trying to comprehend what it's like to be someone with as many intersections as she has. One of my greatest issues with fiction and the people who read it is this desire for characters to be without flaws. This is unrealistic and doesn't properly reflect the human experience. Each and every human is complicated, a mix of good and bad. So, why should fictional characters be any different? We place unrealistic standards of likability on them, which I don't particularly think is fair. You have tons of people who absolutely refuse to show empathy or put themselves in the shoes of characters, which I find fundamentally problematic. If the same judgment were turned towards us, would we not all fail? We all have bad days. We all say things that are hurtful. We are each judged incorrectly at some point by someone. Ultimately, I try to show empathy for characters. As a writer myself, I need to be able to do that. I don't always succeed since there are many a character that I often can't stand (like Rogue or Batman), but I still try my best. That's not to say that people need to like every human and every fictional character. I just think we need to adjust the way we look at them critically.
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I'm sorry, I'm too depressed right now to read all that. I'll see about getting to it another time.
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You're welcome.
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Always fabulous to see this fantastic design you've given Storm. I adore the pose she has in this piece, it just fits with her so well. As for the team roster, maybe make it so Storm's team is still intact, but she is a part-time member of this squad? I feel like that could work. But then again, I'm a little biased because I absolutely love the team you already made for her.
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Thanks!
Heh, yeah, you're probably the most vocal supporter of that concept of mine. What is it about that particular gathering that resonates so deeply with you?
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Simply put, I love Storm and she deserves so much better. She should be given that level of importance, so I just love seeing her have it. On top of that, in concept it just works well. With a team like the X-Men, there would realistically be some overlap in terms of which characters do what and what team they're on, so it just makes narrative sense.
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Well, I mean that specific roster. You've been very clear in your admiration for the Omega line-up. So, I was wondering why that specific grouping resonated so deeply with you. I imagine it goes beyond Storm being on it.
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My imitation for the group mostly comes from the designs of the outfits. I think the variety allows them to stand out a little more, and it helps to define the personality of each character. I also love how you changed the characters. Each one has their own little edits or alterations and they all add so much. Theresa is also a major plus.
I also thank you for keeping John Proudstar around. He really is too underutilized.
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If your affection is largely based around the visuals, then wouldn't your opinion change if another group had a better look?
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That's true. But the team also has a great synergy about them. I really would love to see this team and these characters interact in a series. I think it could be incredibly entertaining.
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I think there's a dramatic aspect to them as well, particularly in the form of Nightcrawler's prejudices in my head canon.
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That dramatic aspect definitely will play out very interestingly.
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