Issuu

2005

N$5o..985

StormS TURN

2P PRO RO

FLASHB DENNY O’NEIL & PHIL LaMARR

CK BLA E RSUP O HE R Y OR HIST

30 S YEAR W E N OF N E X-M

Y Y CCH HEE M M S FF

ROUGH

30!

BLAC LIGHTN K ING’S C REAT ORS SPEAK

UFF ST

BLACK VULCAN • BLADE • CYBORG • BROTHER VOODOO • LUKE CAGE • VIXEN • AND MORE!

Fe b r u a r y

K K AACC

SALUTING THE BLACK SUPER-HEROES OF THE 1970S AND 1980S!

T H E U LT I M AT E C O M I C S E X P E R I E N C E !

A plea from the publisher of this fine digital periodical: TwoMorrows, we’re on the Honor System with our Digital Editions. We don’t add Digital Rights Management features to them to stop piracy; they’re clunky and cumbersome, and make readers jump through hoops to view content they’ve paid for. And studies show such features don’t do much to stop piracy anyway. So we don’t include DRM in our downloads.

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TwoMorrows.Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

Volume 1, Number 8 February 2005 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today! EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNERS Robert Clark and Corey Bryant PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington SCANNING AND IMAGE MANIPULATION Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Kyle Baker SPECIAL THANKS Arthur Adams Neal Adams Terry Austin Kyle Baker Spencer Beck Lee Benaka Al Bigley Jerry Boyd M.D. Bright Mike Burkey John Byrne Chris Claremont Dave Cockrum Gene Colan Denys Cowan Alan Davis Steve Englehart John Eury Steve Fastner Tom Field Sean Galloway Grand Comic-Book Database Mike Grell David Hamilton Cully Hamner Ben Herman Heritage Comics Richard Howell Mark Huesman Adam Hughes Tony Isabella Roger Janecke Dan Johnson Phil LaMarr Rich Larson Ted Latner Jim Lee Steve Lightle Andy Mangels

FLASHBACK: AFRICAN-AMERICAN HEROES .............................................................................................................................................................................................. A history of blacks in super-hero comics, plus “New in Print” looks at The Superhero Book and Black Images in the Comics

INTERVIEW: MARV WOLFMAN ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. A chat with the creator of Blade and Cyborg

OFF MY CHEST: BLACK MARVELS ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. Relive the 1970s House of Ideas with guest commentator Jerry Boyd

ROUGH STUFF: 30 YEARS OF THE NEW X-MEN .................................................................................................................................................................................... X-Men pencil and unpublished art by Adams (Neal and Art), McLeod, Sienkiewicz, Mazzucchelli, Stroman, Hughes, Davis, Lee, and Kane

David Mazzucchelli Dwayne McDuffie Bob McLeod PRO2PRO: DENNY O’NEIL AND PHIL LAMARR ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 32 Darrell McNeil Clifford Meth The original writer and the TV voice of John Stewart discuss Green Lantern Will Meugniot Gina Misiroglu PRO2PRO PLUS: NEAL ADAMS ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 39 Brian K. Morris John Stewart GL’s co-creator fills us in on . . . Lincoln Washington?? Eric NolenWeathington Dennis O’Neil 43 BACKSTAGE PASS: BLACKSTAGE PAST.................................................................................................................................................................................................... Mary Beth Perrot Animator Darrell McNeil on the black super-heroes of TV toons John Petty Adam Philips OFF MY CHEST: TONY ISABELLA ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 48 Fabrice Renault Black Lightning’s creator in a guest editorial John Romita, Sr. Rose Rummel-Eury Peter Sanderson 52 INTERVIEW: TREVOR VON EEDEN............................................................................................................................................................................................................ Rick Shurgin The original Black Lightning artist offers his perspective—and rare art! Bill Sienkiewicz Barry WindsorFLASHBACK: THE PERFECT STORM .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 61 Smith Tom Stewart From 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1 to today, an in-depth look at the X-Men’s Larry Stroman Ororo Roy Thomas Bruce Timm INTERVIEW: DWAYNE MCDUFFIE ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 77 J.C. Vaughn One of comics’ and animation’s top writers, on characters of all colors Visible Ink Press Trevor Von Eeden David Walker BACK TALK ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 88 Jim Warden Reader feedback on issue #6 Tony Washington Len Wein Mike Wilbur BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Marv Wolfman Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Oswego, OR 97034.

Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $30 Standard US, $48 First Class US, $60 Canada, $66 Surface International, $90 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Storm, Falcon, X-Men, and New Mutants TM & © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. Green Lantern, Justice League, and Black Lightning TM & © 2005 DC Comics. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2005 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

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AfricanAmerican

Heroes: A History

of Blacks in

American

Comic Books by

staff editors why virtually all of the DC super-

Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Icons

heroes were white: “Because they were created in the 1940s by Jews and Italians who wrote and drew what they knew,” he replied.

and Hollywood Heroes,

FROM INVISIBILIT Y

edited by Gina Misiroglu

TO COMIC RELIEF

(Visible Ink Press, 2004). © 2004 by Visible Ink Press®. Reprinted by permission of Visible Ink Press. The images appearing herein are not from The Superhero Book and were selected by author and BACK ISSUE editor

Super-hero comic books have mirrored societal trends since their inception, and when the medium originated in the late 1930s, African-Americans cast no reflection: Segregation made blacks invisible to most whites. When African-Americans did appear in the early comics, they were abhorrently stereotyped with wide eyes and exaggerated pink lips, portrayed as easily frightened to elicit a chuckle from the

Michael Eury.

white reader, and characterized as utterly depend-

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the Black Panther,

is reprinted from The

Giordano was asked by one of his young

Characters, Inc.

The following essay

by Jack Kirby and

In 1990, DC Comics editorial director Dick

Editor’s Note:

Prince T’Challa,

l Eury

Comics’ First Black Super-Hero

Michae

ent upon their Caucasian benefactors. The cover of The Spirit #1 (1944) promised “action, thrills, and laughs,” the latter provided by black sidekick Ebony White, nervously tiptoeing through a graveyard while sticking close to his protective mentor, the white Spirit. Timely (later Marvel) . ht Holders e Copyrig e Respectiv Th 05 20 ©

Comics’ kid team the Young Allies included an African-American teen named Whitewash Jones— the “comic relief” equivalent of Buckwheat from the Our Gang (aka “The Little Rascals”) theatrical shorts—who was frequently rescued by white heroes Bucky and Toro. No black sidekick was more offensive than Spirit-clone Midnight’s aide Gabby, the talking monkey, drawn in some stories to resemble a chimp-sized black person with a tail. Other portrayals of people of color depicted them in subservience. A black butler answering the door in the Vision story in Marvel Mystery Comics #13 (1940) announced to white visitors, “Ise sorry, gennilmun, de doctor is pow’ful busy, experuhmintin!” Lothar, the aide to comic-strip hero Mandrake the Magician, “served for many years as the dumb, faithful factotum of the intelligent white man,” wrote Reinhold Reitberger and Wolfgang Fuchs in their book Comics: Anatomy of a Mass Medium (1972). “This black man, dressed in a lion skin and wearing a fez, could be trusted at first to perform only the simplest of tasks for the intellectual Mandrake.” Sidekicks and servants aside, the integration of white and black Americans was mostly avoided during comics’ Golden Age (1938–1954). DC Comics, however, published at least two stories in the later Golden Age that included early attempts at enlightenment. World’s Finest Comics #17 (1945)

The Res pective Copyrig ht Hold ers.

shows African-American World War II servicemen on leave being denied service in a “white-only” restaurant, and in Batman #57 (1950), the hero stops a fight between a white man and a black man. But instances such as these were rare. African-Americans remained in the background, if seen at all, in comic books of the late 1940s and 1950s, although a handful of titles specifically targeted a black audience: All-Negro Comics (1947), Negro Heroes (1947–1948), and Negro Romance (1950).

THE FIRST BLACK SUPER-HERO During the early Silver Age (1956–1969), African-Americans were nonexistent in the pages of DC Comics’ super-hero series like Superman, The Flash, or Green Lantern. Remarked historian Bradford W. Wright in his tome Comic Book Nation (2001), “Handsome super-heroes resided in clean, green suburbs and modern, even futuristic cities with shimmering glass skyscrapers, no slums, and populations of well-dressed white people.” The burgeoning Marvel universe, commencing from the release of Fantastic Four #1 (1961), occasionally depicted a token person of color amid Manhattan crowd scenes, or in an urban school class with Peter (Spider-Man) Parker. By 1965, war— ”the great leveler,” according to Reitberger and Fuchs—afforded African-Americans equality in the fictional realm of war comics, with black soldiers like Jackie Johnson (from the “Sgt. Rock” series in DC’s Our Army at War) and Gabriel Jones (from Marvel’s Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos) valiantly fighting alongside whites in stories set during World War II. Marvel made history by introducing the Black Panther in Fantastic Four #52 (1966). Whether the comic’s writer, Stan Lee, intentionally named the hero after the militant civil rights group, the Black Panthers, is uncertain. The Panther—actually Prince T’Challa of the affluent, industrialized African nation of Wakanda—was highly educated, extremely noble, and amazingly lithe, becoming a colleague of the Fantastic Four’s resident brain, Reed Richards (aka the immodestly nicknamed Mr. Fantastic). The Black Panther broke the color barrier for African-Americans in the world of super-heroes and was

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titles, long the home for fairy tales starring spoiled white debutantes, printed love stories featuring black women (often social workers) and men. One “relevant” moment in a DC comic ignited a firestorm of controversy. In Teen Titans #26 (1970), Mal Duncan, a black member of the Titans, was given an innocent farewell kiss by his teammate Lilith—who was white. “This was a super-hero group, and Mal and Lilith were friendly—why wouldn’t she kiss him good-bye?” thought Giordano, the editor of that issue, in his recollections in his biography, Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time (2003). When others at DC objected to the scene prior to its publication, Giordano instructed the colorist to color the scene monochromatically, to call less attention to it. “Regardless of its hue, it made some readers see red,” observed Giordano biographer Michael Eury. Some readers wrote hate mail to the editor—including a death threat! —but a flood of supportive letters validated Giordano’s gutsy interracial encounter. Outside of comics, doors were opening for African-Americans in popular culture. Primetime television introduced series featuring

The Falcon

black leads, including Julia (1968–1971) and Sanford and Son

The Falcon and

(1972–1977). The interracial friendship of real-life Chicago

his feathered friend

Bears football stars was chronicled in the tearjerker telefilm Brian’s Song (1971), starring Billy Dee

Redwing in a com-

Williams as Gayle Sayers and James Caan as Brian Piccolo. “Blaxploitation”—a trend of low-

missioned illo by Bob

budget movies starring black action heroes—became popular through vehicles like Shaft (1971)

McLeod. Courtesy of

and Superfly (1972).

Ben Herman and Bob McLeod.

I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD Marvel Comics once again took a momentous stride forward by producing the first comic-book

series starring an African-American super-hero: Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (1972). “Lucas” was a streetwise black man unjustly incarcerated and given superpowers—super-strength and ultra-dense skin—in a scientific “experiment” intended to destroy him. He punched his way through the stone walls of jail and, as a free man, sold his augmented talents as a mercenary. With his Afro, openshirted funky disco outfit, and bad-ass attitude, Cage was Shaft as a super-hero—the cover to his first issue, in fact, was blatantly inspired by the montage motif so common among blaxploitation movie posters. He eventually called himself “Power Man,” beginning in issue #17 of his magazine.

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Nubia the Amazon.

Misty Knight (MTU #1).

Blade the Vampire Slayer.

1973 Brother Voodoo.

(Nicolas Coppola, a young fan

Bustin’ Loose

of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, was

Artist Billy Graham’s

so enamored of the character

pencil layouts for an

that he took his name, and is

unpublished Hero for

better known as Academy

Hire cover. Courtesy

Award–winning actor Nicolas

of Tom Field.

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire trailblazed a trend: Marvel broadened its universe with new black super-heroes. Tomb of Dracula #10 premiered the vampire slayer Blade, a human /vampire crossbreed with a mission to destroy Deacon Frost, the vampire that killed his mother as she was giving birth to him. Blade rode the wave of 1970s super-hero blaxploitation, then retreated into the void until several 1990s revivals and a successful 2000s franchise of live-action movies. Brother Voodoo, first seen in Strange Tales #169

Jericho Drumm, a U.S.-school-

Cage Goes "Ladder 49" on Spidey

ed physician who returned to

(left) Power Man

his native Haiti to avenge his

saves Spider-Man’s

brother’s death by using occult powers. The Black Panther leapt into his own series beginning with

skin in Marvel Team-

Jungle Action #5 (1974), in an acclaimed collaboration by writer Don McGregor and African-American

Up #75 (1978). Art

artist Billy Graham. This duo handled provocative subject matter, including T’Challa’s war with

by John Byrne and

the Ku Klux Klan (issues #19–#23 [1975–1976]). Despite its innovation, Jungle Action was canceled in

Al Gordon. Courtesy

1976 and replaced with the hero’s own title, produced by the legendary Jack Kirby, who, unfortunately,

of Fabrice Renault.

made Black Panther (1977–1979) a routine super-hero comic.

(1973), mixed the supernatural with super-heroics. He was

Storm.

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Tyroc.

Black Goliath.

Shilo Norman.

1975-76

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Conducted via email on September 14, 2004

EURY: You conceptualized Blade the Vampire

creator of what you call “arguably the two

Slayer before writing Tomb of Dracula for

most famous black super-heroes,” Blade and

Marvel. When did you come up with the

Cyborg. Hey, what about Spawn?

character, and what were your original,

MARV WOLFMAN: I don’t think anybody

pre-Dracula plans for him?

ever thinks that Spawn is black—

WOLFMAN: I came up with him while at

which is good, by the way. It

Warren. I was the editor there and trying

means they just see him as a

to do something with the books that were

character and not by color.

different. The Warrens always had 5-7 non-

But to cover myself, I did

related short stories in every issue and I

say “arguably.”

decided to do a couple of theme issues. So I had planned and commissioned the history of vampires for one issue of Eerie and assigned stories to my writers from the first vampire to the last. Had I used him at Warren, Blade would have been in my “current”-day story, the only one I would

interview

by Michael Eury

MICHAEL EURY: You are the creator or co-

write. I also commissioned a history of werewolves issue and I think a few others. As I say, I was trying to come up with new ideas for the book and I thought since Warren at that time didn’t do series, that theme books would make them special.

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did his ethnicity evolve as you developed

Beyond Wolfman

the hero?

Chris Claremont,

WOLFMAN: Because Joshua, the black hero

not Marv Wolfman,

EURY: Was Blade envisioned as black, or

Len Wein and I created for the original Teen

wrote this Blade solo

Titans story way back in the late ’60s was

story (illustrated by

never printed (some of the Nick Cardy pages

Tony DeZuniga) in

for that story as well as its cover did see

Marvel Preview #3

print but incorporated into a new story

(1975)—although

Neal Adams wrote and drew utilizing as

Marv was involved

many of Nick’s pages as he could) I swore

with the tale,

the next hero I created would be black. So

as editor.

Blade was black from the moment I came

up with him. EURY: Blade followed the footsteps of Black Panther and the Falcon as one of Marvel’s few characters of color. What was the reader reaction to Blade? WOLFMAN: Blade was, I believe, the first non spandex-costumed Marvel hero type, unlike the others, to fit in better with the Dracula comic. The readers seemed to like him, enough for me to commission some spin-off Blade stories written by me, Steve Gerber and I think others for our other vampire black-and-white title. I really loved the character

EURY: Were you consulted for any of the Blade movies?

and as I developed him and realized how good he was,

WOLFMAN: No. And I had to pay my eight-ten bucks to

I actually pulled him out of Dracula to rethink him a bit. I

see the movie like everyone else. So did Gene [Colan],

was getting antsy about the Marvel clichéd black dialogue

by the way.

I was using and wanted to fix him up. My own writing

EURY: So, does the creator of Blade see his character on

was getting better and I wanted Blade’s dialogue to reflect

screen when watching Wesley Snipes in the role?

my improvement. Don’t know if that came through or

WOLFMAN: I really liked the first movie portrayal—that

not. Then I did something very different—at the end of

was 90% Blade. I could have hoped for a bit of humor—

his story, when Blade found Deacon Frost and killed him,

he was too stoic—but I can’t imagine anyone else doing

I wrote him out of the book. He didn’t appear again. His

a better job. The perfect Blade. Second film was a pretty

story, as far as I was concerned, was done and unlike the

decent vampire film but I thought it was a poor Blade

other Marvel characters who kept coming back, I let him

movie—it had nothing to do with him, really. I’m anxious

ride off into the sunset. When we did the later four-part

to see the third movie when it comes out.

Dracula series, which I thought was just plain awful, by

EURY: If Blade fought Buffy, whose butt would get kicked?

the way, I brought him back, but as someone who had

WOLFMAN: Why would they fight? They both hunt

gone insane over what he’d been doing all his life. I

vampires.

wanted, however unsuccessfully, to show the ramifications

EURY: In 1980, when you were developing the new Teen

of his life till then.

Titans with George Pérez and Len Wein, how much empha-

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sis was placed upon Cyborg’s ethnicity? WOLFMAN: Cyborg was black from the begin-

When Victor Met Sarah. . .

ning. I was actually con-

From the celebrated

in the book at one point,

“A Day in the Lives,”

the other being Raven,

sidering having two blacks

published in 1981‘s

but her name made me

New Teen Titans #8.

decide not to. I hate being

spot on and clichéd that way. Green Lantern isn’t green and there’s no character

extremely controversial (sadly, they still are to some). Was

called White Superman just because he’s white. I mean,

their relationship ever an issue with readers?

we had a yellow girl, a green boy, and another girl who

WOLFMAN: I don’t remember if we ever got any mail

had a red father in the comic, too. I wanted to gloss over

on it. We developed the relationship by starting them as

the obvious color stuff. This was a book about teenagers

friends and things grew. I think if you liked the middle-

who became friends, not an overly strident diatribe about

of-the-road liberal philosophy of the Titans you just

the white man and the black man and the golden girl.

accepted it. I mean, nobody ever complained about the

EURY: Tech-savvy Victor Stone was one of the smartest

interspecies relationship between Robin and Starfire. If

Titans, yet in his earliest appearances he talked “street,”

our people descended from apes, hers came from cats.

at least for the day, and was (understandably) outraged

There were more (maybe 2–4) letters of protest about

over his “half man, half

them sleeping together than of them being human and

machine” plight. Did any

alien. I sort of credit folk for understanding this was a

re a d e r s d e l i v e r “ a n g r y

comic and going with the flow. Also, I don’t like to point

black man” charges against

out the obvious. We just had the relationship happen

the hero?

and didn’t surround it with neon lights and write giant

WOLFMAN: I remember

cover blurbs telling everyone how daring and cutting

we talked early on about

edge we were. We didn’t think of it as anything but a

him starting out more tra-

logical development of their relationship.

ditionally with comic-book

EURY: Aside from Blade and Cyborg, which black super-

dialogue, the angry young

hero has most impressed you?

black kid, but then, very

WOLFMAN: Several of the characters from the Milestone

quickly, once he realized how

comics, actually, names long since forgotten. I told Dwayne

his father sacrificed every-

McDuffie at the time that those books were some of the

thing for him, changed him

best comics being published anywhere. His writing was

to what he was; educated,

sharp and fun and the stories were all different and orig-

Tek Titan

smart but suspicious. Education and being black were

Cyborg, created by

not and shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. Other than being

Marv Wolfman and

New York City-angry when the others generally weren’t,

George Pérez.

we didn’t want to emphasize Vic’s color over his personality. EURY: Victor’s friendship with Sarah Simms, who was

white, grew very organically in the series, but came during an era when interracial relationships were

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inal. Good stories and good characters.

Visit Marv’s website at www.marvwolfman.com.

A Look at the House of Ideas’ Black Super-Heroes of the 1970s Who’s Stronger, Black Panther or Daredevil? The author assesses T’Challa’s super-powers (or lack thereof). This commissioned pencil drawing by Gene Colan comes to us courtesy of Ted Latner.

guest editorial by jerry boyd

During the height of the 1960s civil-rights movement, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took a famous pause in his crusade to ask actress Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura of TV’s Star Trek) to not abandon her role to take an active part in the movement. As one of the few blacks regularly seen on a dramatic (if futuristic) program, she’d inspire thousands of young black children to “seek the stars one day in their endeavors” by her positive example, as King put it.

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Before we cover the thirtysomething “new” X-Men, let’s honor the “old”: Neal Adams’ magnificent cover for X-Men #56 (1969) was reportedly rejected on the baseless notion that the figures obscured the logo! (News flash: Given the poor sales of X-Men at the time, that might’ve helped the book!) The inset shows the published version.

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ORIGINAL X-MEN • N EA L A D A M S

vid

by Da

milton e” Ha n o b “Ham

Arthur Adams (no relation) started

LONGSHOT • A R T H U R A D A M S

his series career at Marvel with the 1985–86 miniseries Longshot, an X-Men spinoff written by Ann Nocenti. Yes, these detail-rich pages are Art’s

pencils!

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Beware His Power, John Stewart’s Might An Interview with Denny O’Neil and Phil LaMarr

Samurai John Bruce Timm’s mega-cool painting of Green Lantern in Samurai Jack-style can be seen in color on Phil LaMarr’s site (see datacard for info).

interview

by Dan Johnson

Conducted on August 20, 2004

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Very few names in comics are as revered as that of Green Lantern, possessor of the amazing power ring. For decades, various heroes have fought for justice under that moniker. One of the most unique men to wear a power ring is John Stewart. When the character was first introduced in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #87 (Dec. 1971–Jan. 1972), he not only took on the assignment of becoming GL Hal Jordan’s back-up, but also DC Comics’ first costumed African-American hero.

really thought out what the Guardians’ requirements would be to become a member of the [Green Lantern] Corps. In the

It has been over 30 years since John Stewart first took flight, and a

original story, Hal Jordan was

lot has since changed for both the character and in how African-

fearless. Well, Hal Jordan would

Americans are portrayed in comics. When deciding who would participate

have to be a moron to be fearless.

in this Green Lantern “Pro2Pro,” the conclusion was drawn to chat with

We kind of skipped over that.

two men who have given John Stewart “voice”: Denny O’Neil, the writer

LaMARR: And Darwyn Cooke

who crafted the hero’s origin story, and Phil LaMarr, the voice actor who

[writer/artist of the retro series,

plays John Stewart on the Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited. —Dan Johnson

DC: The New Frontier] thanks you for skipping over that! O’NEIL: Right, right! Some later

“Ancient” History

writers did explore that there was

Denny O’Neil in

some sort of genetic deposition

1974, two years

DAN JOHNSON: Gentleman, I want to thank you both for

to using the ring, I don’t know. The original John Stewart

sitting down with BACK ISSUE to do this special “Pro2Pro.”

was an angry black man and it sort of fit in with the political

after co-creating

PHIL LaMARR: I just want to say that this is an honor for

tenor of that series, which was pretty angry.

John Stewart. This

me, Denny. I was a big Batman fan when I started [read-

JOHNSON: I would have to say you handled the portrayal

photo originally

ing comics] in the late ’70s. You had a huge impact on

of John Stewart as a black character better than Marvel

appeared in The

my imagination.

was handling some of their black characters in that same

Amazing World of

DENNY O’NEIL: That’s very complimentary, thank you.

time period.

Now, I think you were born about two years after I started

LaMARR: Yeah, they handled him a lot better because they

[writing comic books], in 1967?

didn’t call him Black Lantern. That was the going formula,

LaMARR: Right.

back in the day.

O’NEIL: Wow, that makes me feel ancient.

JOHNSON: True. With John Stewart there seemed to be more

JOHNSON: Denny, get us started—tell us about the history

characterization than with Marvel’s efforts. It is really

of John Stewart.

painful today to look at the original Luke Cage with the jive

O’NEIL: I run into this problem all the time. That was 30 years

talk and everything. At least with John there was an attempt

ago and no one was taking notes. Nobody thought that

to make him realistic.

anyone would remember [the character] beyond four or

O’NEIL: Ideally, of course, he would have been written by

five years. With the Green Lantern/Green Arrow series, Neal

a black writer, but there were virtually none in the field back

[Adams] and I were kind of aware that we were pushing the

then. I always feel a little awkward when I’m doing an ethnic

envelope a little bit. I think it was just a consensus between

character because it’s not Irish Catholic, but sometimes you

the two of us and [editor] Julie Schwartz that we needed a

have to do what you have to do.

black character. The rationale for being a Green Lantern made

LaMARR: Well, yeah, to tell a story. Was there any thought

it very easy to create an African-American [Green Lantern]

to the character [being used] beyond that first story?

because there is no reason that a guy like that couldn’t get

O’NEIL: I don’t know that we thought about it. If we had, we

the ring.

would have certainly realized it would have had an afterlife.

LaMARR: Right. Abin Sur was magenta.

LaMARR: Was continuity as big an issue for you guys

O’NEIL: Exactly! I don’t think until this day anyone has

writing then?

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ration because the audience [for Justice League] doesn’t have

line, it just hasn’t been rehashed as so many others. In my

as strong an idea of John’s background as they do

mind, the John Stewart on Justice League is the guy you

Superman’s or Batman’s. I think it would be really interest-

created, Denny. He just has gone through a military life as

ing to find out if he was an angry young man, and is he still

well. I think he is a little older, but he still has that level of

when he is not faced with earth-shattering crises. I think

energy. He suffers no fools and he’s still very no-nonsense,

that may be why [the writers] have spent more time with

but he’s also a little tempered. This is also a different time,

John than some of the others—there is more story to tell.

too. The social wounds aren’t as raw, so the anger is not

JOHNSON: Right. I can see the char-

as present.

acter that Denny created in Cosmic

JOHNSON: What are your thoughts on that, Denny? What

Odyssey, someone who is cocky and

do you think your take on John would have been if you had

who takes his shots and doesn’t stick

the chance to do some more stories about him?

around to answer for them and then

O’NEIL: It probably wouldn’t be too far from the character

you see this man screw up royally and

Phil is playing. It’s awkward for me [to answer] because I’m

he realizes too late that you have to

not black. I know about Malcolm X, and I think his life arc is

see the big picture and not just yourself.

kind of the character you are describing, going from anger

They really did a lot of that in Green

to trying to reach a deeper understanding. I think that is

Lantern: Mosiac as well.

what John Stewart has done.

LaMARR: There is definitely a story-

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The Art of Diversity: Neal Adams on the Creation of John Stewart Unforgettable Character, Unpublished Version Neal Adams’ self-rejected original cover art to Green Lantern/Green Arrow #87, courtesy of the artist. The inset shows the published version.

interview

by Dan Johnson

conducted August 27, 2004

You know that when a character makes his first appearance on a Neal Adams cover, he is off to a flying start—the only thing that could weigh more in his favor would be if Neal has a hand in his creation. That was certainly the case with Green Lantern John Stewart. The artist who drew Denny O’Neil’s script for Green Lantern/Green Arrow #87 reveals that his contributions went well beyond adding pencil to paper. —Dan Johnson

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did. I have suggested to DC this atrocity has to be undone. [As for John Stewart], I think they’ve been doing him okay. One of the reasons why I fought so hard to have a black Green Lantern was I did not want anybody to have any reason to say this character shouldn’t exist. The ring went out and sought out the best. Because John was the best, it gave him the prize, and the prize was that he got the job of cleaning up everyone else’s mess, and if he was willing to take it, he wasn’t going to have any reward, all he would have is a little gold star in his notebook and he would be a hero. That prize was given once to a white guy and a couple of times to some assholes, but it was given to John Stewart rightly and John Stewart to me is a real hero as opposed to a secondary hero. Even when he first came out, which I’m really so proud of Denny O’Neil for this, John just didn’t take crap from Hal Jordan. I felt that was exactly the way he ought to be. John Stewart became the other Green Lantern, and not just “junior Green Lantern” or a replacement. That was really what I hoping for from the beginning.

sidebar Before John Stewart. . . . . .Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and their Guardian bud were “hard-traveling heroes.” This stunning page from issue #81 comes to us from Heritage Comics. © 2005 DC Comics.

JOHNSON: Again, you really have to look at it in context to the times. Back then, that was a very important thing to do. ADAMS: You don’t realize the times you come out of until you look back and go, “What the hell was that?” That was insane. But that’s the time I came out of. We were warned that we were going to lose papers, but we didn’t lose a paper. I’m not saying there aren’t consequences to things that you do. The truth of the matter is, you can’t do them thinking that there are consequences because if what you are doing is right, you have to take the consequences. JOHNSON: Have you had much of a chance to see what DC has done with the character of John Stewart since you and Denny first introduced him? ADAMS: I would say that the character of Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern couldn’t be screwed up much more than [DC] already has. If the power ring sought out the very best person on Earth, and did not find Superman or Batman or the Atom or anyone else, but instead found Hal Jordan, then the things that we have seen, that presumably Hal Jordan did, could not have happened. The very best that Earth could provide could not have done the things that the character

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John Stewart: Classified John Stewart is a regular player in DC’s current titles, including the recently launched JLA: Classified.

sidebar•sidebar•sidebar sidebar•sidebar•sidebar sidebar•sidebar•sidebar sidebar•sidebar•sidebar Born Again Former Green Lantern/Parallax/ Spectre Hal Jordan is doing the ring thing again, as seen in the recent miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth.

Blackstage Past “Ghettohood” ’Fess up—is this gathering of cinema giants cool, or what? Our designer Robert Clark found this illustration online, and BACK ISSUE is honored to share it with you here. It’s courtesy of artist Sean Galloway (www.ledheavy.com/ lh2003/sean.html) and

(or: This Dude’d Better Not Let Me Near “Off My Chest”)

colorist Tony Washington

Darrell “Big D” McNeil

(too bad we’re a blackand-white mag—but you can see this in color on Sean’s site). Thanks, Sean and Tony! Cyborg and Steel © 2005 DC Comics. Storm, Luke Cage, and Blade © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. Black Vulcan © 2005 Hanna-Barbera. Fat Albert and Brown Hornet © 2005 Bill Cosby Productions.

Well, the good folks at BACK ISSUE were inundated . . . I say inundated . . . with emails as to my last appearance in these pages [issue #5]. Unfortunately for those writers, I’m back anyway! (A word to the wise: Trying to email a guy who doesn’t have email [me] almost ensures he’ll never read it. Savvy?) Anywho, in keeping with this issue’s theme of “black by popular demand,” I will now delve into this issue’s historical dissertation: the emergence of black super-heroes into the ’70s/’80s supertoon ranks. First, a couple of disclaimers. One: Six of the eight characters I’m going to talk about, I actually worked on their production in the ’70s and ’80s. The second may put me at odds with others of my brethren who’ll appear in these pages but, to quote a similar “darker” dude, Daffy Duck: “What the hey, I gotta have some fun! Besides, it’s really duck season!” Seriously, I understand (and appreciate) the whole idea of “seeing people who look like you,” the whole “it’s good for black kids growing up to see representations of people of their color/skin type on screen.” (I’m 47, by the time you read this.) There were no black super-heroes on TV, in any form, toon or otherwise, when I was a kid. (Unless you count Space Ghost, who wore black!) And while there were blacks in animation when I was a kid, I didn’t know they were there. Fact is, I didn’t know that blacks did cartoons until I first walked through Hanna-Barbera’s (H-B) doors as a show creator/breakdowner when I was 18 and met some

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DC’s Newest Hero. . . . . .and its first black headliner was previewed in this Jan. 1977 edition of The Comic Reader. Cover art by Trevor Von Eeden and Joe Orlando; courtesy of David Hamilton.

guest editorial by tony isabella

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OUT of fairness Jefferson Pierce, perhaps better known as Black Lightning, was the best character I ever created and represents the best work that I ever did in comics. The two questions I get asked most often at conventions and in emails are: Why did you create Black Lightning? How did you create Black Lightning? The “why” comes from ideals taught to me by my parents and the comic books I read as a child and as a teenager. I was raised to believe that the world should be what it never was and likely never will be . . . fair. To this day, my views on the comics industry and the larger world beyond it are shaped by the dual concepts that things should be fair and, if they aren’t, we should do something about it. There were no African-Americans in my Cleveland neighborhood, in my elementary school, or in my high school. My first African-American friends were the ones I met

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Jefferson Pierce Black Lightning’s alter ego in pencil form, courtesy of artist Trevor Von Eeden. If the names were a bit blaxploitation, it was because

through the comics industry. Our backgrounds might

those were the movies I was seeing with Arvell and the guys.

have been different—though not so different as some

With Black Goliath, I wanted to visit some new territory.

might think—but we had the love of comics in common.

The Panther was an African king. Cage was a streetwise

I had African-American friends who read comic books.

ex-convict, albeit an unjustly convicted one. The Falcon

Going to comics conventions and writing for fanzines, I

was revealed to be a brainwashed criminal. Blade and living

became aware there were many African-American comics

mummy N’Kantu were based in Europe and the Mideast.

readers. It didn’t seem fair to me—then or now—that

Misty was as streetwise as the characters which had inspired

there were so few African-American heroes in comics.

her. It was all foreign or street with little middle ground.

Prior to the first issue of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, we had

My intention for Black Goliath was, as a change of pace,

supporting characters Jackie Johnson (a member of Sgt.

was to involve him in more traditional “save the world”

Rock’s Easy Company), Mal (of the non-costumed Teen

and “stop the super-villain” stories. But neither I nor his

Titans), and the then one-shot John “Green Lantern”

book were around long enough for that to be realized.

Stewart at DC. Marvel had Gabe Jones in Sgt. Fury, Robbie

While completing my exclusive arrangement with

Robinson in Amazing Spider-Man, the Black Panther in

Marvel, I kept thinking about creating a new African-

Fantastic Four, scientist Bill Foster in Avengers, and Captain

American hero. I wanted to create a character to whom

America’s new ally, the Falcon, the only one getting shared

all of our young readers could relate, a character who would inspire them as Superman and Captain America had

That didn’t seem fair.

inspired me. Unexpectedly, a DC Comics editorial misstep

After going to work for Marvel Comics in the fall of

would give me that opportunity.

conventions, reading their fan letters, and working with

I keep trying to find a shorter way to explain the next part of my story. I’ll have another go at it:

young talents like Ron Wilson, Keith Pollard, Arvell Jones,

DC purchased two scripts for a planned new series called

and Aubrey Bradford, I quickly came to feel the imbalance

The Black Bomber. The hero, who would be their first

between a significant portion of our readership and the

“black” character to star in his own title, was a white racist

insignificant number of characters reflective of them

Vietnam vet, who, as a result of taking part in chemical

was something we needed to address.

experiments to allow soldiers to blend in better with the

Out of fairness.

jungle, turned into a black super-hero in moments of stress.

Excited young comics pro that I was, it never occurred

It gets worse.

to me at the time that I was making political/social

In each of the two well-intentioned scripts, the hero

statements by trying to add more such characters to

would, in his white racist persona, save a person he couldn’t

comics. I just wanted the world to be a little more fair.

see clearly and, on finding out the person was black,

At Marvel, the 1970s were an exciting time in this

exclaim something along the lines of—and this is a quote

regard. In addition to Cage, the Panther was now starring

—“You mean I risked my life to save a jungle bunny?”

in the unfortunately named Jungle Action, brilliantly written

And it gets worse.

by Don McGregor, and Marv Wolfman’s Blade made his debut in Tomb of Dracula. In Supernatural Thrillers, the Living Mummy was black underneath his wrappings, but you would have had to read the comic to know that.

1972, and meeting more African-American readers at the

title billing. That didn’t seem like enough.

through comics fandom and, not so many years later,

on The Black Bomber with the third issue. I begged

I was writing the renamed Luke Cage, Power Man and,

them to reconsider the series. I warned of protestors

for that matter, the Living Mummy series, but it didn’t seem

marching outside their offices with me in the front lines.

like enough. I added a Pam Grier-inspired Misty Knight

Ultimately, I convinced them to consign the Bomber to

to the Iron Fist series and turned Bill Foster into Black Goliath.

limbo with a question: “Do you actually want your first

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Talent, like Suicide Slum Smackdown An unpublished version of Trevor Von Eeden’s cover to Black Lightning #4

interview

by Brian K. Morris

Conducted on June 26, 2004, transcribed by Brian K. Morris (copyedited by Trevor Von Eeden)

Courtesy of the artist.

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lightning Beginnings:

In 1977, boredom paid off for Trevor Von Eeden. Born in Guyana, South America, in

Black Lightning #1 (1977)

1959, Trevor and his family moved to America in 1970. An “A” student and voracious reader, he found himself bored by the teachers’ constant repetition for the slower students,

Milestones:

so Trevor began sketching in the borders of his books in the style of the comic books

Black Lightning / ”Dial ‘H’ For Hero ” in Adventure Comics / Green Arrow in World’s Finest Comics / Detective Comics / Power Man and Iron Fist / Batman / Batman Annual #8 / Gree n Arrow miniseries / Blue Ribbon Comics #2 / Thriller / Black Canary limited series / Batman and the Outsiders / Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 / Lege nds of the Dark Knight #16–20

he’d come to love. His best friend, fellow comics fan and harshest art critic Albert Simonson (no relation to Walt), convinced Trevor to submit art samples to their favorite company, DC Comics. Imagine the 16-year-old’s surprise when a form rejection letter contained a hand-written invitation: ”If you’re ever in the area, drop by and just say hello.” After a couple of tryout jobs, Trevor left his medical studies at Columbia University to draw a new title, Black Lightning, created by Tony Isabella. This was the first DC

Works in Progress:

Satan, the Hero (Cochran Publishin g) / Black Lightning and Thriller proposals

title with a black lead character, drawn by the first black artist hired by the company, also one of the youngest. Trevor remained on the title throughout its entire 11-issue run before moving to other DC titles, most notably Batman Annual #8, the “Venom”

Photo courtesy of Trevor Von Eeden .

storyline in Legends of the Dark Knight (which indirectly spun off the character of Bane), and the cult favorite, Thriller. As his career progressed, Trevor concentrated more on his work than “selling” himself to fandom at large, having attended very few comic conventions, either as a guest or a fan. Just as the repetitive nature of early American schooling bored Trevor, a lack of originality in the medium diverted his attention from mainstream comics until a friend showed him Outsiders #10 (2003) and he saw the current incarnation of Black Lightning. Trevor is a man who loves to learn, who sees the value in the English language, in education, in pride, and self-improvement. When he’s not drawing, Trevor attends classes at Columbia University with the goal of sharpening his writing skills. Now, with almost 30 years of comics experience behind him, he’s knocking on the door again. —Brian K. Morris BRIAN K. MORRIS: How’d you get your start in comics? TREVOR VON EEDEN: I went up [to the DC offices] and met Jack C. Harris who became my first editor up there. He showed me around, then took me to meet Joe Orlando. Now, the thing you’ve got to remember that I was 16 years old and I was from another country, an entirely different culture. All I knew about American culture was what I saw in the movies, television, or learned in school. Where I’d come from in South America, it’s very country, very rural. All low buildings and all that kind of stuff. No skyscrapers, no television, nothing. So anyhow, this whole culture was like a big adventure for me at the time. Of course, with DC Comics having me come in and see the place, and meet them in person, I felt like Alice in Wonderland. MORRIS: I’ll bet.

Family Matters

VON EEDEN: They met me and realized that I was black, which they couldn’t from my

The artist (center), flanked by his older sister,

drawings. Coincidentally, they were thinking about starting Black Lightning, so the timing was perfect. They hired me to design the costume and I was going to draw the first appear-

Mrs. Lorraine Von Eeden Williams (left), a nurse

ance of the character. That’s when I was officially introduced to Jack C. Harris. I wanted to

practitioner, and his mother, Mrs. Baban Von

mention him because in my entire career, I’ve only had three editors that actually had any

Eeden, also a registered nurse and, in the words

kind of effect on me because most editors, especially after I became famous, just took what I gave them and that’s it. I wanted to learn, so I had to teach myself. But Jack C. Harris, he was one of the nicest, most supportive people that I’d ever met. It was because of him that

of her loving son, “an all-around great person.” Photo courtesy of Trevor Von Eeden.

I felt comfortable working at DC from the start.

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The Perfect

Peter Sanderson

When Giant-Size X-Men #1 came out in 1975, people referred to the international roster of mutant super-heroes it introduced as the “new” X-Men. But here we are in the early 21st century, and the new X-Men are now 30 years old. Several of these veterans, like Nightcrawler and Colossus, became mainstays of the Marvel Universe; Wolverine turned into a star nearly as popular among comics readers as Spider-Man himself. Yet perhaps the most innovative character among the new X-Men was Ororo Munroe, better known as Storm, who has the mutant ability winds that carry her aloft in flight, discharge

Storm by John Romita, Sr.

lightning bolts, and, as her name suggests, create

From The Uncanny

actual storms. She was one of the first of a new

Dave Cockrum Benefit

wave of super-heroines who were shown to be the

Book (see ad in this

to manipulate the weather. She can conjure up

equals of their male colleagues in courage, skill, and

issue). Courtesy of

power. Like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Black Panther, she was one of the first super-heroes with an African

John Romita, Sr.,

cultural heritage. Storm was also the first significant

Clifford Meth, and

African-American super-heroine, and today remains

Heritage Comics.

THE GATHERING STORM How was Storm created? “Boy, this is a complicated one,” says her co-creator Len Wein. It is indeed. Nor only were several people involved in the initial creation of Storm, but the original writer’s concept for the character was almost immediately radically revised by his successor. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the original X-Men series in 1963, but, strange as this may seem to today’s X-Men fans, the book was eventually canceled due to low sales. In the mid-1970s, it was decided to attempt to revive the series, revamping it to feature a cast of new X-Men from various countries. The team assigned to the project consisted of one of Marvel’s leading writers, Len Wein, and artist Dave Cockrum, a fan favorite thanks to his

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memorable work on DC’s [Superboy starring the] Legion

company. “I know that he created Nightcrawler to be

of Super-Heroes.

a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes,” Byrne

The story starts with artist Dave Cockrum and his

states, “and DC said no, he’s just too weird. [laughs]

astonishing creativity. “Dave, of course,” comments John

What does this tell us?” (Maybe that DC had changed

Byrne, “is one of those guys who was designing, creating

since it published the aggressively weird Doom Patrol

characters all the time.” Byrne says that Cockrum has

in the 1960s, a series that Byrne himself has since revived.)

“Tons and tons of sketchbooks full of drawings of all these

“Somewhere along the way,” Wein continues, “she

really cool characters,” but adds that “only a few of them

got the name Storm.” Though Wein and Cockrum had

ever see the light of day.” Agreeing that Cockrum’s prolific

dropped the character’s cat motif, they kept her cat-like

creativity is Kirbyesque, Byrne says that Cockrum “could

eyes. “Even though they no longer fit the character, we

hand some little publisher a sketchbook and say, ‘Here’s

liked them too much to drop them.”

a universe.’”

As for her “real” name, “I came up with the name

“Storm sort of started as a sketch in Dave’s book,”

‘Ororo’ on my own, going to the local library to do

recalls Wein, “but as a character called the Black Cat.”

research on the new character,” Wein says. “‘Ororo,’ as

Wein adds, “It’s why she had those cat’s eyes, by the way.”

I recall, means ‘beautiful’ in Swahili.”

(Cockrum’s Black Cat had the same name as a celebrated

Ah, but some of you are thinking, Storm’s full name

Golden Age super-heroine. Of course, that Black Cat was

is Ororo Munroe. But Len Wein didn’t come up with

white; there weren’t black super-heroes in mainstream

“Munroe,” a name that is decidedly not African. That

comics back then. Cockrum’s Black Cat also preceded her

would not fit with his original concept of the character.

namesake in the Spider-Man series, who debuted in 1979

JUNGLE GODDESS

and is also white.) Cockrum’s Black Cat didn’t have Storm’s familiar

When Professor Charles Xavier invites Storm to join

weather powers, but another of his sketchbook creations

the new X-Men in the landmark Giant-Size X-Men #1,

did. “There was also a male character who controlled the

she lives on the Serengeti plains of Kenya, close to

weather whom we called Tempest,” Wein reveals. “Trouble is, neither character was jelling properly. While we liked the Black Cat visual, her powers were unnecessary. While we liked Tempest’s powers, his personality wasn’t working out.” So now another important figure in Marvel history enters the tale. I’ve been writing about X-Men history for over 20 years, and I had never known before writing this article that Roy Thomas played a key role in the creation of Storm. Thomas had taken over from Stan Lee as writer of the original X-Men series in the 1960s, and in the 1970s Thomas succeeded Lee as Marvel’s editor in chief. It was Thomas’s idea to revive the X-Men as an international team. “It was Roy Thomas who suggested taking the Tempest powers and giving them to the Black Cat character, thus

The Black Cat

solving the problem,” Wein reveals. “We did so. David

Artist Dave Cockrum’s

did a redesign to the Black Cat costume, adding the

original interpretation

headpiece and the glider cape, among other things.” “Dave showed me his sketchbook years ago,” John

of the character

Byrne says, and he not only saw Cockrum’s Storm

who would become

sketch but also his original drawing of Nightcrawler.

Storm. Courtesy of

“The original version of Nightcrawler had red and yellow

Dave Cockrum and

stripes on his boots and gloves, but other than that was exactly the same.”

Roy Thomas.

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Mount Kilimanjaro. She is virtually naked, clad only in

So one could think of the

a sort of loincloth; her long hair flows across her breasts,

Serengeti as Storm’s Smallville, the

satisfying the requirements of the Comics Code. Like

relatively remote place where she

Eve before the Fall, Ororo has no sense of shame about

grew up and learned to master her

nudity; this fact in itself reveals that she is not part of

emerging superhuman abilities.

Western society. She has an innocence about her, linked to her connection with the world of nature. As readers see in Giant-Size X-Men #1, Ororo is

NEW AUTHOR, NEW ORIGIN

regarded by an African tribe as a goddess, and she uses

Having co-created the new X-

her powers over the weather for their benefit.

Men, Wein left the series almost

Nonetheless, Ororo accepts Xavier’s invitation and ends

immediately. He wrote Giant-Size

up in his Westchester County mansion, where he gives

X-Men #1, but only plotted the

her the code name Storm. “It was my idea to make her a goddess,” Wein states.

first two issues of the regular series, #94 and 95. (In those more

“I just liked the idea of the ‘fish out of water’ concept.”

commercially innocent times,

In his conception, when Storm joined the X-Men, “Ororo

the new X-Men continued the

went from someone whose every word was law to

numbering from the original

someone who suddenly found herself an equal among

series, rather than debuting as

equals. That was something that took a bit of getting

issue number one.) Wein turned

used to.” It would seem, then, that had Wein remained

the scripting of those issues over

as X-Men writer, Storm would have interacted with

to newcomer Chris Claremont,

Xavier and her teammates in a very different manner.

who took over full writing chores

“By making her someone who suddenly had to learn

with issue #96; Dave Cockrum

how to interrelate with others as an equal, it gave us

remained on board as artist and

potential story areas,” Wein points out.

collaborator.

John Byrne has a somewhat different take on the

Claremont took characters

effect being a “goddess” had on Ororo. “If we go back to

that Wein had co-created for the

Giant-Size #1, she clearly grew up largely alone. If you

new X-Men in directions sharply

look at the introductory scene, she wasn’t hanging out

different than what Wein intend-

with the villagers; the villagers went to her. So she was

ed. As stated in BACK ISSUE #4’s

clearly holding herself apart from the commoners.”

“Greatest Stories Never Told” column, Wein intended

Byrne agrees that the villagers themselves may have

Wolverine to be a teenager and for his claws to be part

thought it was inappropriate for them to associate with

of his costume. Wein thought Nightcrawler would be a

a “goddess.”

morose, brooding figure, and saw Colossus as the central

So does this mean that Ororo was actually deeply

Goddess by Grell Mike Grell may not be known as an X-Men artist, but he’s been woefully absent from these pages (but not for long) and we couldn’t resist sharing his gorgeous rendition of Storm with you. Courtesy of Ted Latner (www.comicsfun.com).

figure of the team.

lonely, and that hence belonging to the X-Men gave

Storm was no exception to the rule. Wein intended

her a sense of family and community that she had

that Ororo’s background was just what Giant-Size X-Men

been missing? “I would suspect that that’s right,” Chris

#1 implied it had been: that she was a mutant who was

Claremont agrees.

born into an African tribe and had lived her entire life

Claremont also points out that Storm’s sojourn in

on the Serengeti plains. “All the evidence we really had

the Serengeti was important for her self-education in

to go on in the first issue was there: that she was African,

utilizing her powers over the weather. “It’s been alluded

that she was revered as a goddess,” says Claremont,

to more than once that in her learning curve she

adding, “backstory was nonexistent.” Not having had

unwittingly created some ecological disasters while

the time or space to show Ororo’s past on panel, Wein

trying to help her people. Unlike Thor, whose hammer

had left Claremont an opening to construct a backstory

magically makes weather appear, for Storm to bring

for her in issue #102 that surely took both Wein and

rain to her drought-stricken corner of the continent,

the readers by surprise.

someone else lost water. And part of her experience

First, Ororo had not been born in Kenya, but in

during those years in Kenya was a learning curve on

Harlem! She was the daughter of an American named

how to wield her powers in concert, in balance with

David Munroe and his African wife N’Dare. The family

the biosphere. She could not just whistle up a macrostorm

moved to Cairo, Egypt, where catastrophe struck during

and not have to pay for it somewhere else.”

the Suez crisis of the 1950s. A French plane crashed

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