Jon, Fleet and I have a new theme for our blogs this week; women. Now, I’m not talking about the kind of women who stand by in the background, or the vampy “bad girls” who skank up the place, I’m talking about strong, confident, women characters in comics. In this segment, I’d lie to take some time to discuss one of the strongest women in the super-hero set, the X-Men’s Storm.

Storm stands head and shoulders above all other super-powered ladies when it comes to being a strong woman.She carries herself with a regal presence, is worshipped as a goddess in her native Kenya, and controls the freaking elements! Mother nature indeed. She’s strong and powerful, but is still vulnerable and human as I believe she is the only character I know of that suffers from a debilitating case of claustrophobia. And say what you will of her days without powers, when she went through a punk-rock phase and decided to sport a mohawk, it was just another example of how independant minded, and free spirited she is. She didn’t care what you fan boys thought. She’s tough, noble, and feminine.

So yeah. Ororo Munroe is in my opinion, the strongest woman in super-hero comics, which is a field generally devoted to gratuitous fan service, and subservient girlfriend background stereotypes. Sure, I’ve seen some disturbing fan-art, and even professional artwork that does the typical objectification of a woman characters, but when I think of Storm, it’s not the babe-alicious factor that first comes to mind but instead the image of a no-nonesense goddess of the elements.
-Jim
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One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
I hated punk rock Storm, because it always felt forced. Claremont was really deeply interested in rock musician/superhero hybrids at the time, e.g., Dazzler fronting a real band instead of a disco 12-inch, Lila Cheney, Calisto (or Patty Smith — I never could tell who she was supposed to be), some character in his first novel who was the female equivalent of Mick Jagger. Storm was his, “Well, I haven’t done hardcore punk, yet” moment. Thank Odin he kept her “Hullo,” which was always the best “I’m-not-from-these-parts-and-I’m-a-goddess” introduction any X-man ever had.