I'm one of the few on this board who openly acknowledges that I liked the STORM miniseries. My kids' mother likes the miniseries. My oldest daughter likes the miniseries [ she's 17 ]. All of her friends who've read my miniseries [ which my daughter took it upon herself to share without asking me to do so ] also like the miniseries.
Many comic fans were repulsed from jumpstreet, though. Did a lot of that repulsion have a lot to do with a combination of ignorance of, disrespect for, and racism and resentment toward Black Panther as the premier Black male superhero in comics?
Yes. There is no denying such. Even when the Storm fans first rushed HEF to besiege us, the inital purpose and interaction was definitely confrontational. And this is on top of the Three Headed Monsters and Lovecrafties of the world.
Okay. Let's look at the EJD sex scene. Because that's the real static that people have.
Is that disrespectful of the characters? No. However, when we project various AMERICAN VALUES upon it, will SOME PEOPLE get offended? Yes, of course.
Are AMERICAN VALUES the operating dominant moral compass of these AFRIKAN HEROES with deeper souls, and of lineagesat least 8000 years older than America is actually operating off of American values? No. There ya are. Stop being Ugly Americans.
And kill that statutory rape nonsense, because that's not the law in traditional Africa. Stop superimposing Americanized, Westernized morals and ignorance upon a much older and much more mature AFRIKAN NOT AMERICAN civilization. Before that? The people who had already decided to dislike the idea of the book and the marriage and these two characters who are clearly a terrific and nigh perfect match for each other actually could only hang their hat on the rather dubious and essentially substanceless argument that EJD didn't have TChalla get saved by Ororo.
Yeah. The Crown Prince of a civilization that's rockin Top 100 Tech in the galaxy...reeeaaaallllly doesn't need to be saved by a young lady who hasn't yet gotten a grip on her powers yet. Which brings me to this question here. Does the original story reflect the supergenius of TChalla? Would a GROWN ADULT SUPERGENIUS SUPERSTRATEGIST PRINCE of THE GREATEST HUMAN CIVILIZATION IN HUMAN HISTORY actually dress talk and act like this?
Hell naw. That's what's wrong with the whole original story, and that's why the whole original story needs to get retconned.
Would that same princeling on his Walkabout, seeking to hide his actual identity from easy visual determination, blending into the general masses and thus without his hypertech, retinue of servants warriors bodyguards powerful sorcerers etc...[ the Walkabout is an actual tradition in Africa which is similar to one of the Rites of Passage that we celebrate in my own family btw ]...dress and act like THIS, given the time period and the prevalent political climate of the world and Africa?
Yes.
That rendition is much more sensible and realistic.
He doesn't need to be saved by a girl who hasn't gotten a grip on her powers yet. And given the Marvel canon about mutant powers manifesting during the teenage years? That tack taken by EJD rings true, too. However. Once said young lady locks in her powers? Yeah. THE GALAXY needs to be saved by her. THE UNIVERSE TOO. Multiple times. And let's not forget...she saved an entire city, and a whole countryside...inclusive of TChalla...by the end of the book. And clowned her rival. With class, I might add.
She wasn't the slowest zebra anymore.
So yeah. The critics of the EJD miniseries? They all have different reasons for their repulsion...but. Bottom line? I think there's a lot of skipping of a lot of content in the miniseries in order to harp and imo blow out of proportion the sex scene and the fact that TChalla wasn't a D-Lister in need of help from anyone...and at that point in their lives? He SHOULD enjoy a PRONOUNCED advantage over Ororo, until her control of her powers kick in.
None of that stuff I mentioned gets addressed.
Let me tell you something else that the sex scene made clear: Black Love is still threatening to a lot of people in the LCBRD. It wasn't just bad enough that EJD showed that two teenagers who loved each other actually had sex [ because that NEVER happens across the world, across racial ethnic political class cultural and other lines; nope ] what really got their goat was that Ororo was ALSO bangin TChalla in RH's miniseries. Maxine Shaw once had a sig that read: "Ororo, Queen of Wakanda. She's Black AND F#ck!ng" or something to that effect.
And that reality liked to have scoured the flesh off of most people having a problem with The Marriage. Because these two being Black, Afrikan, unbowed, without needing any White character leading anything at all or even being anywhere at all in their general cast, more powerful than any married cape couple in Marvel history, and featured everywhere in the big crossover events...was just too much.
Despite all that shade, EJD still sold in the low to high 20k's. Had the shade been ameliorated even a little? He'd have hit round 40k monthly. And the BP ongoing would have hit even more.
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2006/2006-03.htmlWas Ororo playing second fiddle in the talks TChalla and Namor had? Nope. Was she less involved in the discussion than TChalla was? Yep. She did not know the real reason that TChalla joined The Avengers, so she couldn't act like she DID know something that SHE DID NOT know. However, it was she...not TChalla...who checked Namor. In Atlantis. In his throne room. And...uh...she was getting infinitely more shine, a much more prominent position, and possessed of far more relevancy MU wide as Queen of Wakanda than at any time she ever spent in the X-books. Literally. Not even CC got close to what Hudlin did for Ororo. Real talk.
This is how THEY introduced Storm:
Not from the unashamed mature humanity embracing body beautiful cultural perspective of Africa, but from the sexually titillating fetishist perspective dominant in the psyche of most White Americans and especially White young to middle age males at the time this pic was crafted.
With Reginald Hudlin...in 6 or so issues...RH had such far reaching impact that Ororo was featured in every major Marvel event and in multiple books that wouldn't even touch her before. At her most popular, under CC's pen? Storm was a NONENTITY outside of the X-books.
Reginald Hudlin, in the space of 6 issues, had Ororo doing more than the X-office had her do in nearly 20 years. When was the last time that Ororo squared off with someone Clor-like?
Yep. The Asgardian Wars. 20 or so years ago. Pause and let that marinate. TWENTY OR SO YEARS AGO. And remember? Loki CLOWNED HER with ONE MOVE. Didn't Claremont write that? Yes, he did. Under Reginald Hudlin's pen? Storm backs down Iron Man when he shows up at the Wakandan Embassy trying to be a boss.
Under RH's pen, STORM DROPS CLOR WITH A EMP.
Now. Who's being the most appreciative of and respectful to Storm, again? Didn't THIS happen under Chris Claremont?
When you look at the substance of the work of RH and the benefits of Ororo being married to TChalla which afforded other writers the option to use Ororo too. Adn it's clear that everyone knows that Ororo is an equal partner in her marriage with TChalla. McDuffie wrote it...
RH wrote it...
And haters...who didn't read RH's book, mind you, for the most part...hated it with that special intensity that only abysmal ignorance can bring.
Don't forget. For the first time in world comic book history, we see a royal Black superheroic married couple traveling the cosmos WITHOUT having to rely on White folks for anything. We see at last this heterosexual couple frequently on panel together [ seriously, think back. When was the last time that you saw two Black superheroes together forming thee most powerful married couple in comics, both from The Big Two, both deeply in love and constantly shown on the same panel together. Supportive of each other. For not just pages or books but arcs and whole runs? Answer: NEVER EVER. None before RH. None after him ] showing them working together as a team that has not only the power to defeat enemies physically...
[ and you know that I can't pass up the fact that THIS pic giving TCHALLA vastly overdue props got the LCBRD hooowwwwlliiiing with hatred ]:
And THESE got shade, too, although not as much as the previous SS arm bar:
TChalla and Ororo also showed the brilliance resources strategic cunning teamwork and knowhow to pull leverage on powerful extraterrestrial entities
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5VgL6ZXwkaw/RhPANEbqteI/AAAAAAAAB_0/Nq9BXQJ5F4s/s1600/Fantastic%2BFour%2B544-2.JPGqueen Ororo is an equal above and everywhere else. She is NOT a cheerleader. She is NOT second fiddle. And she is presented as NOT being second fiddle by RH and everyone else who respects and "gets" the character.
So let's see. A guy who is in canon being shown having contingency plans to take on Galactus like Black Panther is...
Really ain't worried about Norrin Radd aka Silver Surfer, who owes his power to Galactus.
However, the LCBRD haaaateed on TChalla. Despite his capability in that regard being well well established in canon...buut they are cool with the idea of Hawkeye taking on Ultron
Now. When has Hawkeye EVER shown any aptitude or ability to take on Ultron?
I'm waiting.
Never? Thought so. But Hawkeye taking on Ultron is "cool". TChalla taking on SS is catches shade like the dark side of the moon.
Like sin and Sal said. Most of the static isn't rooted in legit issues dealing with legit characterization and story plot. Most of the rabid backlash comes from deep seated dual desires: to keep Ororo as 'their" exotic wallflower piece unsullied by any Black man, aaand "their" deep discomfort with TChalla because of who and what he is. Especially when a skilled Black scribe is writing him.
Ororo will catch a very similar level of intense shade when she permanently takes herself off of The Fetish Farm and establishes herself as a true Afrikan superhero who is every bit as much a mutant as she is regal, Afrakan, and unconquerable. Like Yost said...she doesn't have to choose between Worlds Apart. She symbolizes Worlds United.
Her LCBRD fanbase though? Not so much.
