Couple of things I would like to clear up:
1) I NEVER said that Storm being with BP devalues her just by her being with him. Salustrade, stop making false accusations about my assertions. What I said was Storm was devalued for the sake of propping BP up and for the sake of building the marriage. I used the EJD mini as an example of this. Storm did not have to be devalued to make this thing happen. Honestly, I LIKE the idea of a Storm/BP marriage and I think it would have worked for the long haul like the marriage of Reed and Sue if it weren't for mistakes that were made concerning Storm's characterization at the BEGINNING of the ordeal.
False accusations?
Isn't this one of your posts?
I really hope they keep BP out of the "Storm" title for a while. This is a very hot button issue and I want the title to do well. Storm is a bigger character than Black Panther. There is too big a risk of her character being devalued to make him look good as we saw in the very early portrayals of these two characters going back to EJD. If this happens, it will alienate readership from the book and there will be another internet uprising behind it reinforcing to Marvel to keep these characters apart.
That said, I think it would be nice if Ororo and T'challa were good friends, but its not an interaction that needs to occur in her title anytime soon. Give the book a chance and let it get some steam first before T'challa shows up for an issue or two...if he even shows.
Why risk her title with something like a Storm/BP reunion when so many of her fans who will be supporting the book HATE it? There is no point to prove in forcing something on the readership they don't want to see. All it will do is tick them off and alienate them ensuring the book's failure.
Regardless of whatever qualifiers you choose to highlight, the fact remains that when you follow up statements to the effect that
"Storm is a bigger character than the Black Panther" with,
"There is too big a risk of her character being devalued to make him look good" that illustrates an implied belief that Storm's character is somehow in danger of being "diminished" just by mere proximity to T'Challa.
As this is one of the primary derogatory memes pushed by the vocal contingent of rabid X-fanatics who've maintained a steady stream of invective laden vitriol against T'Challa, it goes without saying that a lot of BP enthusiasts remain accutely cognizant of the thinly veiled racism ensconced within the overall criticism of T'Challa as a character and the BP mythos in general.
As I've stated before there are very few Black Panther enthusiasts familiar with Chris Claremont's original chronicling of Ororo and T'Challa's first meeting that recognize or endorse EJD's retconned abomination of a story so I personally find the dogged determination of some Storm fans to use the excuse of the aforementioned ill concieved EJD retcon as a reason to justify the blind hatred of what Reginald Hudlin did by joining Ororo and T'Challa in marriage quite offensive to say the least.
To your credit, you're one of the few posters who's expressed displeasure at Ororo being paired with Wolverine but you're in the minority in this regard as evidenced by numerous posts on the X-forums over on CBR where posters like Stormullt and Valeria Kamentari have zero problem spewing their bile filled derogatory comments at T'Challa with very little intervention (if any) by the moderators.
After all is said and done, I genuinely hope that Greg pak's take on Ororo works out for the best and takes her in bold "new" direction but lets not kid ourselves about the originality of this approach especially as Reginald Hudlin more than achieved his objective by elevating Ororo to actual political prominence within the 616 MU just over 7 years earlier than Mr Pak.
Greg Pak ain't bringing anything "new" to the table.
As for Chris Claremont's contributions to Ororo's character during his tenure as X-Scribe, there's no denying that he poured his heart and soul into her characterization and for that, he deserves recognition.
Unfortunately, there's no denying the fact that Claremont's failure to explore Ororo's actual familial background was a glaring oversight made all the more glaring by Reginald Hudlin's detailed exploration of an aspect of Ororo's backstory that no one at the X-office seemed important enough to delve into.
So in closing, lets hope that Pak can manage to write s Storm-centric book that isn't dependant on the trashing of T'Challa's character to prop Ororo up in a misguided attempt to generate sales.
