thunder always happens when it’s raining
a summer storm
when i was younger, i wished i was storm. ororo munroe, the original field leader of the x-men, was a literal force to be reckoned with and everything about her resonated with me. her white hair, her grace, and her ability to control the weather and fly elegantly through the sky’s. a kenyan princess and priestess, storm was the lone black girl representation in the early x-men comics and tv series’. although she’s often pushed to the back in the modern marvel universe, black girl superhero fans have always loved her for her magic and unique origin story. ororo is the daughter of an american photo journalist and kenyan princess—she was raised in harlem after her parents were killed in an israeli-arab conflict, and later became a skilled thief and pickpocket. after a life on the run as a teen, she was worshipped as a goddess by east african tribes for her mystical weather changing abilities before joining the x-men. stan lee, the founder of marvel, said the civil rights movement and mistreatment of black folks was one of the inspirations for the x-men, with professor x and magneto representing the competing ideologies of malcolm and martin (though that didn’t inspire much black representation in the universe). over 40 years later, the representation of black women in the world of comic books is still scarce, but we’ll always have our storm.