Storm #4 Review

Story by: Greg Pak

Art by: Victor Ibañez

Published by: Marvel Comics

This is the issue Storm needed. Releasing the same day as Wolverine’s death, this issue decided to tackle that event head-on and what an issue it was. Because it was heart wrenching.

The opening pages don’t even bother breaking the news. Marvel has been hyping up the event for forever now and rather than give us some rehashed “Hey, Wolverine died!” stuff, we open to Ororo desperately fighting back tears as she commands Beast to pilot her outside of Earth’s atmosphere. And as Storm begins to freeze her body, we suddenly come to understand not only how powerful she is but also how tough she has to be. Ororo can’t mourn. Her mourning may cause the entire world to face an environmental disaster. And even in her mourning she has to think about the people.

As she begins to lose her control, Beast finally breaks the atmosphere and Ororo lets loose her emotions in a beautiful aurora that the entire world sees. The panels leading up to and featuring this are absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking, and an emotional roller coaster when we start to think more about Storm herself. She didn’t destroy the world, she gave it beauty. But she also had to delay her inevitable explosion of emotion and this is where we truly begin to understand Storm. Storm has only maintained her calm, cool, and collected persona because she had too. To a degree, she still has to. But as Storm gains control over herself and her powers, we’re beginning to see a more truthful Ororo.

When I mentioned that this issue was a turning point, I didn’t just mean in regards to Storm herself. This is the first issue in which it looks like an actual continuing story and adversary is being formed. Storm more or less finds herself getting in between a bit of trouble between monsters, mercs, and criminals but her newly found sense of self is beginning to shape her decisions as well. We saw this in issue #2 in regards to how Ororo handled the whole Callisto but Storm #4 gives us an even more surprising Ororo reaction that we won’t know the outcome of until issue #5.

I’m also so happy that Victor Ibañez is back. Scott Hepburn’s art in #3 was by no means bad, but the change in art was definitely noticeable and Ibañez is really, really great at drawing facial expressions. In fact, I doubt that the opening panels would have been as strong if Ibañez wasn’t back to draw them and the raw emotion (as well as constraint of emotion) is thrust onto the pages in spectacular ways.

This is by far the best issue of the series yet (although the first was also packed full of some great emotion) and its nice to see Storm’s solo run finally get some major conflict. Now let’s just hope it keeps the momentum from Wolverine’s death and that it uses it to its advantage.