Story By: Greg Pak
Art By: Victor Ibañez
Published By: Marvel
Storm #5 picks up exactly where #4 left off which is a good thing for those of us who wanted some continuity. Yukio has been challenged by Kuva and, should Yukio not have a champion willing to fight for her, Yukio will be slaughtered and Kuva will take her place as leader. And with Yukio consistently asking Storm “What would Wolverine do?”, Storm feels obliged to not only help Yukio but to keep Wolverine’s spirit alive and make him proud.
Which is ultimately what this issue is about.
As Storm sees Wolverine’s claw marks in a set of rocks, she understand that Yukio is by no means lying when she says that Wolverine was there to help. And when Storm ends up attempting to calm matters down, she learns that Wolverine himself tried to do the same and that maybe they weren’t so different after all. But along with Storm getting some insight into how Wolverine operated, she also struggles with coming to terms with the fact that he kept some secrets from her and that even his death was kept hidden.
Considering Storm’s powers are linked to her emotions, I’m rather enjoying the slow pace that we’re getting in regards to Storm’s mourning and her character arc. This is by no means a new Storm but rather a Storm who’s beginning to realize that she can still let loose her emotions, albeit in smaller and safe ways, rather than maintain her reputation as a calm, cool, and collected mutant willing to always do the lawful and “good” thing. We already saw some of that in regards to Storm #2 but Storm #5 starts presenting to us the idea of a Storm who’s tired of always being there for people who never were completely fair, honest, or truthful to her. She’s mad at Wolverine for keeping his secrets and the final panels with Yukio seem to show that Storm is completely done with helping out people who might not be doing things for the greater good.
However, I’m still frustrated that Pak’s Storm series hasn’t really gone anywhere. The fourth issue seemed to introduce some plot to it but that was almost entirely wrapped up in #5, leaving the door wide open for something else to happen. And while I understand that Marvel has been treating the death of Wolverine as a milestone event, and that Storm was his lover, I’m desperately waiting for Storm’s interactions and reactions to be framed in terms of what she wants to do and less of what Wolverine would have done. Storm is a phenomenal character and seeing her take a backseat to a dead Logan is somewhat frustrating, especially as Pak has no problem writing in Storm’s true beliefs or intentions.
In the case of this issue, Storm probably would’ve never helped Yukio, and it’s almost rather painful to see a “friend” like Yukio hold something as big as Wolverine’s death over head as a “but remember your dead boyfriend and what he’d do?” kind of thing. It’s actually rather painful to see, especially on the second to last page, as Yukio almost taunts Storm with a “but I knew him better” speech.
As always, Victor Ibañez’s art is gorgeous and I can’t help but think that he’s perfectly suited for this series. Issue #5 finally brings back some great fight moments and uses of Storm’s powers that Ibañez really manages to put out there as forces of nature. However, it’s his facial close-ups that are the strongest to me, and I fall more in love with his facial expressions every issue. When people doubt Storm’s true power and call her weak, it’s not her lightning that gives her strength, it’s her steely and almost defiant gaze as she looks them right in the eye and tells them they need to pay attention to what happens next.
Storm #5 isn’t a bad issue, but I know I’m not the only one eager to see an actual compelling story come out of all of this. The series is already 5 issues in and we’ve yet to see any real trouble come out of anything. Pak absolutely needs to deliver on some sort ongoing arc soon if people are still going to invest in what should be (and still can be) a very solid series.
