Hi, everybody. This is Chandler, and this is Chris, and this is Moriwa. And you're listening too, and it creates the podcast Welcome on in Everybody. For episode one two, we are so excited to have writer Morewa Iodeli. You are the current author of the solo Storm series and we are so excited welcome Morewa.
Yeah, thanks, thank you for having me.
Oh, such a pleasure. We love Storm, Chris and I Chris can express how much you love Storm.
Yeah.
I love Storm ever since her fight with Calisto, the leader of the Morlocks. That was one of the first issues that I read of her, and I just was so entranced by her power, her ability to take on any enemy even without her powers and be Victoria. Yes, like she is a goddess.
And the ads in that comic was very very good. I like how she's portrayed heights and everything. Mm hmmm.
Yeah. The thing about Storm, which I always kind of make fun of her in the sense is that she can do anything she can like if there is if there's a problem, she can be a pickpocket, she can pick a lock, she can do whatever. If she needs to be a martial artist, she can be a martial art, Like she just can do anything you need her to do in the moment because she is the She is the every woman for the X Men. She always gets them out of trouble, she always fixes it for them.
And I always feel like with Storm, I always look forward to stories where she fails or she doesn't succeed because she's such an amazing character, and I feel like your stories are going to get us there. I feel like we're going to see Storm, you know, in some dangerous situations where she can't just be incredible and powerful and make get her way out of it. So I'm very much looking forward to your entire Storm series.
Yeah, I was about to make a joke of that, you know, she can't do everything anything on the stick show up.
I personally have always loved the fashion of Storm. She is a fashion icon, and I love your series because with Lucas's art, you know, we get to see a lot of her iconic outfits. I look forward to diving into this issue because we see a lot of them in this issue too, and that's number one.
Yeah, I think about five different looks and we keep that up for every single issue. An issue too, she has a new superro costume where she wears that is all White's called brutal Storm. Look, you know, we keep doing that for different looks. Very so she's going to get a vibranium almal, you know, different stuff. So I guess we're playing around with a costume, a look, playing around with fashion of different characters. It was supporting characters
like Frenzy. We see how wearing a Golden Brooks for our shoes, you know, so fashion is going to play very big growth in the story as well.
I love that. I love that, and I love that we have Eternal Storm, which is very Sailor Moon. Chris and I love Sailor Moon. We all know Tailor Mountain goes through these transformations to super sailor Eternal Sailor Moon. So when I saw that at the end of this issue, I was like, we're going there. I love that.
Yeah, we have an only issue where she does the full transformation, like she turns to lights and everything before, so we get a full sale Moon like transformation.
As big fans of storms, there are different types of names for fan groups for storm They're called stormcasters. So I wanted to know who came up with the term stormcasters. And how many of their ideas were explored Around the naming of the fan group.
I think I've seen a couple. I think I've seen wind Riders and say stomp Casters. I wanted to name the letters page a dariyao Alta, but I think Marve wouldn't buy that. They just put Storm on the letters page. But I just like stomp castercase. I think I think that's the name of one of our weapons when Loki wanted to rival or something. So I just loved Stompcast and I just put that name in the letters page.
And I'm not even sure where I edit from, but that is the one that kind of like stock with me the most because it's had Storm in its compared to like wind Rider. So that's that's why it's that's the letters page and and the letters page so far, that's what I've been using. Their Stompcasters. That's our Each letters page has been starting very fun.
I noticed in those letter pages they asked all of the new writers of the X Men books, who your favorite X character is? And you said, Nimrod, explain.
Yes, why, Okay, it's it's a supposed to be a joke, but I don't think anybody cuts onto so that it's sort of like a dark joke kind of thing. It's I think they asked what character do I, uh do we like most related to? And I feel if I say Storm, it feels like a chip answer. Every creator is got to like name the characters they like most related to. And I also felt like, because I'm a dude, people who think you most relate to a chick, it's
like you're kind of stretching. It's a little and if I name any other character to be like, then go and write a character and leave Storm alone. There were different things going through my head, so I decided to choose Nimrod because it's what I actual kept to me at a point where I was still writing this story and I was still scared. So at the time that I was still contemplative, I was going to probably haven't
drop the series and everything. So I chose Nimrod because at that time, I felt Storm was going to defeat me. Like Storm the series and in the current story, Storm is the one that defeats nime Rod. So it's I think I explained it on Twitter where I gave this full explanation of our nime Road represented me at that
moment facing Storm and everything. So yeah, and the the artist also illustrated that about to where Storm fats Name Road was also Lucas was also the artist on the project, so there are lots of circumstances around that relationship between Storm and Name Roads that I was like, I'm Neimerod at this point makes sense.
I see, I see your point. I will accept the answer. Well, you mentioned Lucas Vernec. Lucas is the artist of the current series of Storm, but he was a previous guest on our podcast, so we always like to call back to previous episodes in case those listening want to go back.
That's right, So listeners, if you want to hear that podcast episode of X reads, go back to where we cover New X Men number one twenty one.
Yes, now in Storm, we'll get into it in deeper discussion when we're going into the show or the actual issue. But you really foreshadow that Storm is going to die, you say like kind of just basically say it an issue one, and I'm am a little scared for her. I'm scared for you writing this because people love Storm. I can't even imagine, So I don't want you to
spoil anything. I just want to lay it out for the audience early that we know, or at least you've foreshadowed that she's going to die in this series, and I'm very, very curious how this is going to happen. But now the Watcher has made her a turn, we'll see.
But one of the questions that came from our fans as we ask them online if they had in questions for you, and she gets radiation poisoning in this first issue, and their question was how much time is going to pass between issue one and two and does the radiation poisoning affect her into the second issue?
This second issue basically takes place almost like the next day. This story flows in the very almost make it almost
with each issue like a diary, you know. We kind of almost follow out like a day to day kind of thing, you know, like we were seeing issue one to see like three days later, five days ago, you know, so you kind of see, you feel the impacts because I think Superrus leave these extraordinary lives that each day is so interesting, it's so fun to covide, So there's no serious time jump, and it should so we're going to see the effects of radiation poisoning as she continues
superheroactivities an issue too, So we're stilling to see the effects. I can't say how long it will last without it's being a spoiler, but we're going to see ar go on, you know, trying to issue too, especially focuses on are trying to ignore it, but say that it's she can't ignore it. She's basically dying and then she has to look for means of solution, means of solving this problem. And her first attempt is to go to night Nurses
new Superhero hospital. There's got to be in actinsas so, and so we're going to see what the new super hospital looks like and some adventures are get to happen because of that visits. So we've got to say that doctor Voodoo is going to come into the play because it's both a doctor and the master of the mystic art, you know, and will they be able to solve this problem? You know, if they solve it, does that mean she she will still survive or she still die, you know,
different things like that. So it's something that will still continue in this first few issues, That's what I can say. But the fact that when she died or not, she will die. That's inevitable. Like I've said, it's an issue one. It's inevitable at this point. So but how is it going to happen? What are the consequences? Is yeah, I think it's one of the adverts in the Marvel books. Marvels made a joke like, oh, maybe we should have made it a mini series.
Another question for you was what is the what is your favorite element? That storm can wheeld? Is it lightning? Wind?
Is it hurricanes?
Yes?
What's your favorite?
How to say temperature? The fact that she can suddenly freeze you or defrost or heat and you know it's the temperature manipulation is my favorite, and second is wind and then lightning. Those are my top three.
We did have another question from our listeners and audience, how is it working with Lucas Warneck.
When I was writing the script, I didn't know who the artist was going to be, So I was trying as much as possible to just like write as generic as possible, just be true to myself, because you know, usually as a writer you're told to like try to write to the strength of your artists, like, oh, if the artist is better at drying machineries and landscapes, you know, you write stuff to that if it's more of character dynamics,
you know. But I was writing these scripts just for me because I didn't know who the artist was going to be. And when I found out it just Lucas Warnick. I got a little scared and worried because I'm like, oh man, it's going to eat all my scripts and you'll probably just like quits in the middle. Because this is someone that has worked with Jerry Dougan. You know, Kieren Galen is going to just catch a with of my scripts and be like, like you probably asked Marth
like did I do something wrong? Why did you have to demote me with like with this writ or something? And so I was so pleased when on like suddenly I think he read the scripts for is should too or so, and it twitted and say like, oh, my script are one of his favorites. They're very visual and fun and everything. So that was very very artwarming. So it's it's been really fun, and I think some Breevots probably ask some things around and I think it's the
funt of that we have some things in common. So that has been nice. For example, when it comes to
like a lot of fashion. I was making specific iNTS in the script about the need for fashion and things like that, without knowing that Tom was probably taking note of that and picking an artist that was I was probably looking for a writer I was going to explode outside of him, Like we're currently working on an issue where there's going to be a big dinner and stormware out to like dressing this very fabulous dress, and Lucas just comes with like three beautiful gala dress designs and
we did now to choose. We're like, damn, like this is just so good, you know, beautiful stuff, and every issue like is you know how we have like this beautiful design is saying like el fire Gala that's they publish. Imagine you're getting stuff like that every issue by Lucas Warnek and it's not for the public eye is just for like you and the editor to see. That's how crazy it is. As like saying, oh, yeah, picked one, and like how do we pick one? Like this all
just so good? I like, you know what, pick one for us? And it's like I don't. I can't pick either, you know. So it's it's it's been really fun because I think we're very visual in nature, we were very visual. We're both very visual, we both gravitate towards beauty. And I also noticed that even is panel structures I've gradually changed, you know, his his work is becoming a little more cinematic, using more landscape panel layouts, which we've seen subsequent issues.
So I think we're kind of synchronizing in these stories, which is also I didn't specify that I wanted cinematic panels, but those are my favorites, and without saying them, he adjusted to those panels, maybe because if we just feel it from the script or something, or maybe that's what he likes to and it's just going with the flow. So it's just been beautiful walking together in this series. It issue looks better and.
Better, wonderful. Yeah, I mean, we love his work. He's incredible, and you know, he was spotted i think by Marvel people early on because of his fashion sketches. He used to do all these redesigns of characters before he was writing or i'm sorry, drawing from Marvel, and so I love that you get to push that element of his talent because he's so incredible. So we love Lucas. We loved when we had him on the show, but we're going to start diving into storm. So this is going to set the era.
Now.
Normally Chris and I we talk about comics from the eighties, from the nineties, a long time ago. I don't think we have ever done the same month. I mean, I feel like it's so rare where we're like the issues coming out and we're talking about it. So this issue came out October second of twenty twenty four.
The top song at the time was called a bar Song by Shaboozie, and.
That song is everywhere. I hear it on TikTok, I hear it on Instagram, I hear it in shopping malls. That song is everywhere, So I can understand why I'd be number one on October second. The top film is a film that I really want to see. I haven't seen it yet. It's called The Wild Robot.
It's a Jeeps animated film, and this is about a robot that a shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, and the robot must learn to adapt to their harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with animals on the island.
And it looks very sweet, so but what's really fascinating about October second, the day that your book came out, is that there was an annular solar eclipse.
That had an anular solar eclipse.
Yes, not a total solar eclipse total blocks out the sun. Annular there you still see the ring of fire around the sun. But still that is a very auspicious thing to happen on the day, the first day of your first issue of Storm. So I just thought it was I thought that was a cool coincidence.
Very cool.
Well, let's do this all right. We're doing Storm number one, as you said, published October two, twenty twenty four, written by yourself morewa Iodeli art by Lucas Vernick, and it's titled Grand Opening. And on the cover, we'll just do the cover a you know, there's many many beautiful covers of Storm number one, And on the cover, tell us about putting this cover together. Did you have any direction or how did this come together?
Out of the directions for each issue, what's for issue one? I think the editors like taking control because they all is that at tense to be for you want to not be plots specific, for it to be character specific, almost like peanut like pinups. So that anyone can like approach the story and give it a shot, because, for example, this story is good to gradually move towards like cosmic thrilla. But if the issue should give you that from the beginning, some people might not be willing to try it out.
But if it's more a little like generic and something that anybody can approach, you get to fall in love with it before you find out what it's really about. So the editors usually give more of the directions for issue on covers understood.
Yeah, this this cover cover aids by an artist named Matthaeus Menjannini. I'm going to take a shot at that name, and it's gorgeous. It is Storm in her new outfit that she's wearing for the Avengers. She's, you know, skyrocketing across the ocean. There's a sunset or sunrise behind her, and it's quite dynamic. It's it's a wonderful pinup and it does attract the eye. Of course they want to pick it up because it's so cool looking.
Yeah, I really feel her force and she's moving at great speed with a lot of power.
It's amazing. Mm hmm.
Is that style is very recognizable when Tomby what sends me to Cova. I knew it was the one street because it was is the cob artist on Wakanda series and also on God Spike Jonathan Aikman. So I was like, oh, man, I love this guy. What is very very good.
I love those covers of God. I did not even make the connection that that was the same cover artist, but yeah, that's that's beautiful stuff. But yeah, like diving into this issue, we are really excited because our very first page, we get Storm's Closet.
Yes, the fashion looks. I love it, love love it.
It's so cool, it's giving Clueless. Yes, you know, at this movie Clueless, there's a character named Chare and she has a computer with all of her outfits and she gets to go through her outfits and then the closet is mechanized to bring it out. And so to me, this is the you know, the twenty twenty four version of Cluelyst's Closet, And we get, yeah, all of these amazing Storm looks. What's your favorite, Chris, by the way, of the ones that we currently see, which one is your favorite?
So, you know, the bathing suit look in the center is so reminiscent to me, of the Arcade video game, which we're obsessed with. That Arcade game brought back so many nostalgic memories for me, So anytime I see that outfit, I always feel like it's my favorite. But ah, that punk rock Storm so good, Mario.
My favorites is My favorites is to jumpsuits to Jim Lee.
Oh yes, now is it an Now? I know that it changed because there was the one when she has the short hair on the next page, and then there's the one that she wears that is also in the animated series. I think Jim Lee did both of them. Maybe I'm wrong, But do you have a preference between the two of the jumpsuits?
No, they won't buy jim Lee. I think the other one is extreme x men, I'm not sure that the artist. I'm not sure. Well, I prefer the one like that we see in x N ninety seven in the Phosophew episodes.
Yes, that is that is a classic iconic outfit. I'm gonna choose my favorite. You know, I might Chris, I might have to go with you because I think the original John Cockrum might be But I love the design of the as Guardian Storm, the thor when she wields Thor's hammer. It's one every time I see anybody cosplay this look or I see it drawn. It's so dynamic and so cool looking. And I know it's very short lived in her comic life, but I love seeing it so every I'm so glad it gets featured in the comic.
And it's such a wonderful trip for us down memory lane here on Read's podcast, because I feel like we've covered so many of the issues where these outfits appear. So yeah, I'm loving it, and I do. I do love that as Guardian looks so much too.
I think it's mixing retten appearance in Immotal though by Alio and Matt and Cocolo the ask Guardian look.
Yes. I do like in the closet how she has all of her head dresses on mannequin heads, because she wears all sorts of different crowns and it's been drawn different ways by many different artists, and so I love that that also gets a moment in the closet.
Well, while we're still in the closet, I need to know what is on the right on that page where we see her looking at the holograms and you see the Hellfire Gala on the left in the background. But what's that dress on the right.
I think it's a dress where she she why, it's where she was having It's a comic where she was dance with Night's Crolla, and I think they danced into the clouds. It's it's it's a look from a comic. Forgot where the public is from bods, it's it's it's a it's a popular distance. It's a dinner gout where she wore and she was dancing with Nightcrala. So it does exist in the comments.
Cool.
Well, you know, Chandler, I think we just found another issue that we get to x reads.
Yes, absolutely, it would cover that one. Uh. And then we see this gorgeous door and it's kind of engraved with her upbringings as being well, this is when she her her origin of being in the rubble and losing her parents all the way to becoming a goddess of the weather. And the way that this mural is done is incredible. Now there's two other murals. I see. There is the bottom left, which to me, is this the moment where she stabs Callisto in the heart.
Yeah, the morlocks right, more when she comes to live the Morlocks.
Oh yes, after and she says, Morlocks listen to me. Uh. And then I see in the bottom right she's Queen of Kanda. Yes. I love the detail. You guys like really obviously love this character and you, you know, really pull from all sorts of interesting elements. I chose.
Are on that rubble and when she was the goddess of the office in Kenya where she was mostly nude, and Lucas chose Queeno Wakanda and the Morlocks.
I love how then Storm comes out the door and she doesn't just walk out the door, she louts out the door.
Yeah, yes, this is probably like Lucas, just look at that hair or just the and the color is too on. This knocked it out of the park.
Yeah, no good.
We'll give a shout out to the color artists. Uh Alex I see Guemares and uh fair Cefuentes souh, so big shout out to those two. We get our title page, which is a gorgeous, giant full page of Storm, and it's half in the light, half in the dark. A little bit of foreshadowing is that we are going to be going to dark places styled grand opening.
Yeah, and this is something we're going to be saying in every issue of Storm. We're going to be seeing title pages with like different unique at walk. But I've got to be repeating art walk, so you're not going to be saying this particular image like every issue like you're saying some books. It's going to be. It's going to be unique artwalks every single time that's going to
representage title. So like initial two is death by Voodoo, and I got to see a page of Storm being sick in our bedroom in the Storm Sanctuary, you know. Initial three, it's going to be another title in pen in Doom. I got to see a shot of a Gothic statue in the cemetery, you know. In the issue four, Storms and Dead in a pool of water are in the rain, you know, and I think it's a flaming. The wind is tied too, you know. And in issue five it's good the tytoo is going to be Oblivion
weights no longer, you know. So I get to say different at walks that represents each of those titles. So we're going to be having fun those types of pages as well.
Incredible. I love it. We I can't wait to see all these. By the way, we then turned into this Storm Sanctuary and we learn all about this incredible place that she is built in Atlanta, and I think it's hilarious. By the way, how the internet got mad that Storm has her own sanctuary. She probably saw that and it was so silly that fans were just like, how does she have this? It's just like, how does Superman have a fortress of solitude? Exactly? It just it just happens.
It's comic books, and so why not? And I love this. I'm curious on creating the Storm Sanctuary, what was your direction? What did you really want to kind of have us know about the sanctuary.
When it comes to the design, like the look of the sanctuary, I wanted some I wanted a place that was very massive, like the size of like four city like four to five city blocks, extremely massive, and she was alone there with her animals, but in case of emergencies, the place to fill up with people instantly. So it's so it's it's we we see a lot of all these superhero fights where you know, there's all these dangerous situations.
You know, you're fighting a bad guy. Buildings are collapsing and all the like where do the people go, like in during times of war like the Cold War, if they were like bonkers and stuff like superhero shaft things like that. That's what there's there's superhero bases that are massively before things like that, like oh, there's this great battle you know, stay in Justice happening. She goes there.
Other people are evacuated to this place, so she was good to have like backup food and stuff, adjusting Ma Jessy purposes and outside everywhere safe. Yeah, pack your loads and go. But I wasn't super sure where I was going to look. I know I wanted a lot of plants. I know I wanted a lot of animals because that's reflects storm. But I was looking for I was looking at images of like this incredible I don't know if
they were fake or not. Incredible, like shopping malls kind of thing in China where they have like big screens where you just see like wheels almost like swimming, crazy stuff like that kind of thing. So I just sent
a couple of images and stuff. So and Lucas took that and was like, okay, okay, this is to non naturalal So I decided to like make it look more natural, So I think it took expressure from like the Korean super trees, you know, and different things, so it made it look more natural, more nature friendly, and made it work. So really happy about that.
He definitely looks so peaceful and serene. And we see Storm flying through the sanctuary and approaching, you know, the front gates. I'm assuming those are the front gates, and she has a big inhale and then next hale because she opens the doors because she has to now do a press conference, and she is surrounded by reporters.
We basically get a little bit of a story from the reporter. But we're going to go back in time. We're going to go back seven days ago to Oklahoma City where there was a disaster, and of course Storm is the scene. And I love that she brings Frenzy with her. You know, I think I don't really see those two often together, but I think they work very well together because Frenzy is just brute strength, is able to accommodate storms. You know, she doesn't have physical strength,
she just has incredible strength overall them. But I do love that having somebody impervious to help with this kind of disaster situation. I thought Frenzy is a good choice.
And very much. Yeah. And I think because Storm has this very sad story that has to do with like building collapse, that's how she lost appearance, you know. And you know she also got injured on so many things. I think it's a scenario that would have been plain in height so often. So she probably has like a list of people that she knows that are perfect for
this scenario. You know, was the person that as impenetrable skin that when not get hurt with the persons super strengths that can go into tight spaces and lifts big rubbles up. You know, it would be good to have someone like callous strength and impervious skin, but is so big and huge, might not be able to get into nooks and cranies. You know. I think you would have she would have thought of all these things, and she was able to just pick the perfect person Frenzy. Yes, Yeah,
the perfect person for this, for this thing. So it's so besides the fact that she has history with h and so many things, I also think she would pick up because it's something that she would have constantly been in her mind because she's she's the perfect hero for this kind of rescue Storm and arcause Storm would have always been taken about this. Who's the perfect person for this?
That's great. I love the thought that goes into that. And of course I love Frenzy's outfit. We talked about this a little bit at the front, but you know, she has these very cool gold shoes, purple high waisted pants. She's got a white blouse on with suspenders and these really actually have a pair of these these gold tips that you screw onto the onto the lapel of your shirt. Yes, yes, I have a pair of these, so I know exactly what these were. And then she has amazing around purple
glasses with gold rims glasses. Yeah, yeah, this is great. And of course Storm looks incredible as always. She has like a pantsuit on and her her blazer is actually a coat, I guess, a big, big, giant billowy coat, and it's got like some sort of Paisley design type inside. On the outside it's just a flat black look, and she's got black heels on, a gold head wrap and gold bracelets and kind of a bunch of necklaces around
her neck and no shirt on. Of course, you know, she because she's very comfortable being naked.
So I wanted, I wanted, desperated to bring back the head wraps. It's a very it's a very popular thing in Africa, and it's also something that should walk very often in Chris Clement's era, but we've not seen that in head drops for a while. Yeah, I understand that it doesn't want that to be very proud of that, but air drops are also very important to us, so
that balance. So we're like, okay, we's she's going to have some things where I got to see out with the head wraps, so I just had to bring it back because I have to bring it back.
Well, I think it's great, you know, I as as a design style and as a cultural style, Like I think it's really cool to see the head ramps, you know. I've definitely in the Twin Cities where I live. We have many Somali people here, we have the second largest Somali population, and so we see a lot of head raps here as well. And I feel like we storm, like you said, used to wear that and and I
love the design in the style of it. I'm so glad that you pushed for that because it's so cool looking and of course it comes into play when she gets a little bit more dynamic at the end because it has to fly off. You see the action of it actually because those are you know, tied pretty tight for it to come off.
It's kind of yeah, yeah, like one of my favorite cartoons growing up, or Samurai Jack. And one thing I like about sam Right Jack, is because you know he was on his baggy clothes, like I'm so restrictive at the time, so fight, well, you know when the clothes come off, you know ye're in for a lot of action. You're in trouble now, that kind of thing. So that kind of thing for the head dropped, like, oh man, some lets ahead go. You're in trouble now, you know that kind of thing.
Well, well, we see a lot of destruction and rubble as are flying overhead, and they are there because they have the ability to perform miracles and help the situation. As they're surveying the area, you know, Storm is just like, where are the reads so empty? Surely not everyone in the city is trapped under rubble, but guess what, A lot of people are so frenzy. She senses that shockwaves are going to be incoming. But Storm's got it. She can handle that she can handle almost anything, and she
lifts rubble and she finds some survivors. It looks like a family there with a poor child that is just you know, crying her eyes out.
The rescue sequence is really really cool and dynamic, and with the constant threat of these shockwaves coming out of the nuclear plant, we should we should preface that what's happened. If if you have not read this, please go read the issue. But if you're just reading along with us, There's been a nuclear meltdown at the plant and is sending shock waves into the city, and Storm is able to neutralize these shockwaves with her air pressure powers of
creating counter waves to block the press. Sure that's coming out of the of the nuclear plant. But yeah, there's this beautiful sequence of all these people being rescued. And then of course Frenzy rescues somebody from Orcus and they're wearing an Orcus T shirt. She I love the coloring of making her panel red because it shows the shock of her anger that she has and the indecision that she has in this moment, because she's like, I don't want to rescue this person. But Storm of course snaps.
There's Pittis did mixed up with Anga with so many things.
Just like one of the reasons why I love Storm is this moment here because she says, we save everyone, you know, and and the next panel is just you see, you see love and compassion of Storm. You see, you know, all of these beautiful moments of her helping people and Frenzy helping people, and that's just you know, it's wonderful to see mm.
Hmm it up in a dog, you know, puts it out, fires up in old ladies. Yeah, yeah, things like that.
But this next shock wave sends a little bit of debris that Storm does not catch. She's not perfect. She cannot stop everything in the tracks. So a piece of branch or a piece of a tree lodges itself into her shoulder, causing her to bleed, and you know, it looks pretty bad, but you know, she does not let it slower down. She's like, we have to say, these people, this is just a flesh wound, as they say, and she is not having it. And this is when the
head wrap comes off. But she's like, enough with these shockwaves. I'm going into the heart of this and figuring out how to make this thing stop. Because you know, she figures her cold powers, her temperature powers can freeze the reactor and make it stop, and so she starts making it snow in Oklahoma of all places, down on this nuclear plant. And in the sequence, what I love is that you remark on how the plant has destroyed the fish, it has destroyed the animals, and she does not like
this plant. She's very, very against the nuclear power.
There's so many things that apples in that sequence that I'm trying to recollect everything that happened in my head. First of all, I wanted to show the fact that, like the way some people say, like, oh storms like a glass cannon, that even though she's this super powerful being, you know, like Frenzy, she's not vulnerable. You know, just a little debris moving at eye speeds its capable of
hurting her. You know, there's this power move that she makes that I saw in a classic comedy that she doesn't do so often anymore, where she can quickly almost like teleports, or move at incredible speeds by riding lightning up into the skayats, you know, very eye speeds, you know,
and she is angry. She's always in tune with nature, which also are from you know, in the opening scene with in a storm sanctuary where all these plants are like green and the animals are healthy, and and then but at the other side of this, it's it's this nuclear power plant and because of it's going nuclear, it's killed us all this life. And if we're to note, it's even though it's happening after this happened before the
storm sanctuary. Is it this that triggered that to say, you know what, I'm about to do the counter able to do something about it. You know, if there are things like this causing arm to the ecosystem, what if I create something that helps the ecosystem? You know, So that kind of thing. Just trying to like play around with a lot of things from from thematic deep things to cool action moments.
Yes, she gets close to the nuclear power plant, frenzies protecting the people with an awesome thunderclap, and we see that Storm has radiation poisoning. This is the first time I've ever seen Storm throw up on mail. For me too, it's alarming. I think that you know that this could happen to her, that she has radiation poisoning, but she still soldiers on, you know, she doesn't let this stop her.
She you know, grabs a lead door and she starts going into the reactor because she's going to stop this reaction no matter what, even if it kills her. And as she makes her way down, we see a surprise. It's not the nuclear reactor.
It's actually a boy, and it's a mutant boy. And he is hovering in the center of this room and with all this energy swirling around.
Him, this nuclear energy.
It's really sad to see on the bottom below though of this page, a bunch of dead research scientists. Yeah, and he says, I'm sorry, I can't stop myself. The more I try to stop, the worse it gets. Please please Storm kill me. And Storm is using a door, a metal door with people in it to just kind of like soldier on like Chandler was saying, just trying to get to the boy. But that is a lot of force. That that boy has a lot of uh power and energy.
As the great does. How does our super powerful without child is it's it's it's also something I kind of like relate to what's on another side of It's not in terms of power or something. Well, I think there was this time that I didn't know I was having
like migraines. I didn't know what they were, but I know I was having like this serious, like else kind of attack where I'm li like in this so much pain, like just so much pain, and none of the regular meds that you use for regular ethiache works, you know. And there was a time that the pain was just so much, so so much, so so much that I closed my eyes and I prayed that God should just kill me, that maybe if I die, like the pain
would stop. So it's always something I also try to always put in my stories in that there are things worse than death, you know, and sometimes it can be emotional pain, it's can be physical pain, it can be extreme guilt. You know, there's so much there's so many things that are worse than death. And that was what that boy was experiencing at that moment.
Well, you know, the mutant metaphor of the kind of puberty of it, of discovering your powers, and and you know, we've seen many of those stories told over time and where we see mutants going through their puberty awakening of mutant powers, and this is probably one of the most cataclysmic ones that we've seen on page in a while. But it of course can happen, and it's not their fault.
It's just something that has triggered and started. And I think the empathy that you know gets told in this story is so fantastic to kind of, you know, say, it's not their fault. It's just kind of something that happened, and we can't hold them accountable for it. We just have to learn from it and try to, you know, stop it from the future in a way of you know, nurture and identifying and all that sort of stuff. But
what's really fascinating in your storytelling, which I was. It took me kind of a couple of times just to kind of really lock in on how interesting this is is that we see that there's the giant alien Kaiju thing in the plant diversion. People think, oh, that's what happened, and all of the public opinion is surrounded on fear and hatred of alien and alien technology and not this mutant boy. And you're so used to seeing the other narrative of it's a mutant and all the people hate
the mutants. We've seen that story all the time, So to twist it on this weird alien Kaiju technology. I thought was a really interesting angle to take on this because it just shows how the public opinion just sways. However, it's going to sway whether it's true or not.
Especially in politics.
Now.
You see when it's sampful campaign, you know, you see everybody say, oh, yeah, the current ruling party, you know, the lights to you. They try to so distrust like this is the generation where we've had the most distrust for the Government's rightfully so by the way, you know, even even the defending party, you know, when they want to want to talk, they won't talk bad about the government that they were part of and try to win
your votes, you know. So it's sometime I wanted to like explore that general distrust for the government and you know, distrust in the media that we keep saying over and over again, like if something is going to rival bigotry, I think that would come close. And someone said so as someone said something very interesting online, which was also part of what I was going for about The thing about bigotry sometimes is it's for a lot of people
you can't necessarily cure it. You just changed the direction, like oh, they et mutants now, but why do they certainly love mutants quotes unquote, you give them another enemy to eight. Oh now it's the aliens. Oh now it's those you know. Now it's those engineers and all those this things. You know, I already start saying, like, oh, they're attacking some in their school. The teachers are not
defending the kids. You know, all the things you hear that they do to mutants, they are certainly doing it to this other group of people, you know, And that's that's that's what they do. So sometimes when they stop criticizing one party, it's not because they're now better people. They just find their new targets, you know, almost like the old Watchman thing of you know, give them become an enemy, that kind of thing. So yeah, so it's also one thing I wanted to play with.
Well, you know, it was really fascinating and I really appreciate that storytelling because what it does is, of course, it forces your main character to make a decision. And you know, before we get to her conversation with iron Man, I just I love that you have a target and it says storm shopped here one.
Yes, I just.
Noticed that that's a great Easter egg.
Yes, yes, So anyways, I love that.
Yeah, I really wanted to have phone. I really wanted to phone without full spread. The thing is Storm doesn't talk much, so and I might not get to show off on the fact that I know to like write characters. And because I'm not an American, I also want to show off that I think I can write a few American accents and stuff. So and as a new writer, you get a lot of criticisms that this person is not
just good in dialogue and some some something. So I also wanted this play to kind of show off that, yeah, Storm doesn't talk much, but if I was writing like a story where the characters talk much, I can handle it, don't worry. But yeah, so it's also you need to show off there to like just writing people from different sets with friends, accidents, with different personalities and everything like that.
Yeah that's great. But yeah, we go to the scene with Tony Stark and she's asked him to analyze was it the alien technology that did this or was it the mutant you know, child? And after a lot of analysis, if I'm going to count the times, it's eight hundred sixty six million, nine hundred seventy eight thousand, two hundred and seventy five times.
That's right on multiple machines through various content processing you and it's using several algorithms, including some design by Reid Richard's Lunella Lafayette Forge, Rebe Williams, and Storm's former sister in law SuRie.
Yes, so this is red Bull quadruple million. Time to check.
No doubt about.
It's no doubt about it. And know Storm is faced with that choice. And like you know, as as as a writer, you've got to You've got to put your characters through hard decisions. And you really give Storm a hard choice because she could stay silent, let people stay angry at this distant thing, you know, or making.
Is already dead. You know, yeah, that I'm not here. You know something? Well, well why you know?
Yeah? And she she does what she feels is correct. But before she tells everybody. I love how she introduces herself as I am Storm, Mistress of the Elements, because we know that that's the very first thing she says in X Men, the animated series.
Yes, because I was. I was also watching the animated series at the time when I was writing. That's because you know, I was still pitching, I was still doing different things, you know. So I was when I was also watching the series, and that was part I was like, man, I'm going to put that line in there. Yeah, Mistress of the Elements.
It's so good, it's so good. But yeah, we get this big speech from her. Go ahead, Chris.
Unfortunately, though, she is feeling those effects of that radiation poisoning, and she is on stage in front of the world, in front of all these reporters at the podium, and she coughs and she says, Goddess because on her hand is blood. So we know that, you know, she's in trouble.
Yes, we get glimpses of where everybody else is at over at Haven, which is Gail Simone's book friend Kenny x Men. We have that cast up characters of Rogue, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Jubilee, and this is Ransom, one of her outlayers, Yeah, sitting in the kitchen of their New Orleans home. And then we have some Avengers up in their Earth's orbit each Q And And what I didn't realize until just now is that Storms Sanctuary is actually like applying saucer. It's
not actually built in Atlanta. Because I was gonna ask you why did you build it in Atlanta? But I see it doesn't it's not doesn't exist in one place. It moves around like a like.
A yeah boy, it's in Atlanta, boy, it can move around. Yes, yes, quick behind the scenes notes, yes, I think Lucas. Lucas really wanted Cyclopes to be there, so he already framed the characters where Rumsome is, that's where Cyclopes does Cyclopes. You could see when the post everything it feels very Cyclopes. Yeah. So but we're like, ah, so I I liked it, but to was like, it's getting to confuse lots of people.
I was like, boys, it could be like Cyclopes came over to like ask some discussions or something with the like no, so okay, let's make it Ransom because Ransom has the is the most physically like physical like Cyclopes. He's tall, he's a little bulky and stuff like that.
Yeah, it makes sense, and and he's there in that storyline at that time. So but yeah, she she tells the people the truth. She said that it wasn't alien technology,
it wasn't the engineers. It was a young Muton boy whose hour came to fruition and the way that it's illustrated as far as people's faces turning to you know, their their hatred is now moved from aliens onto the mutants, and you know, the way that the people react around the kitchen table is a great dynamic of seeing Wolverine walk out of the room and like you could tell that they're just like No, though, I will say, I feel like in this situation, Rogue or night Crawler, you know,
or I don't know, some of these characters would have would have done the same thing as Storm. I feel like their hearts would have been aligned to that decision making Wolverine maybe, I mean, he's a secret keeper.
So in the in the original one, Wolverine walks away, Cyclops also walks away. Okay, yes, kept the secret to both of them. Both of them would keep the secret.
Yes, yes, both.
Of them are the ad two that walked away. So we had to cut Cyclops from walking around. Then Ransom would not walk away. Some would just be like, oh, man, you know, yeah, yeah.
And what are your thoughts about the reactions of the Avengers to this.
Yes, it's mostly it's mostly it's mostly like, man, she's going to be in a lot of trouble and you know, that's also extra responsibilities for us. If your team meets is going through a lot, that's also something like how much can you rely on that person too if they're going through like so so so so much, you know, so different stuff like that. So yeah, so there's that's too, There's there's it's mostly worry and fear, not feel hap, but there are percussions of what she had just done.
Well, Storm, on her first day of declaring herself Earth's protector and nurturer, had fueled prejudice within its humans and made its mutants the target of public disdain. And we see a more wide shot of this panel of Storm alone at the podium, but now the audience is empty and there are a few stragglers that are leaving, but there's overturned chairs, and it just feels as if the public has abandoned her, which is.
A ton on you know, because there was news about the Storm series even before I was contacted Run to work on the series, So there was already rumors about, oh, Storm is going to run for Congress and other stuff. So that's why I put this in the story. I wanted to like kind of throw people off, so add this story independently. But I also wanted to play with that too. That Yeah, your thought she was going to run for office because she's popular and stuff. Yeah, now
she isn't so popular. If she tries running for an election, she probably gets zero votes or something. It's that bad, that kind of thing.
Yeah, And then on the final page we get a brush with Eternity, the being with no end, and they have found Storm worthy and they transform her, and I guess in reality or in their mind to eternal Storm. I don't. I can't tell if this is happening to Storm on planet Earth or if this is just happening in the ethos of Storm.
Is this an astral version of her?
Yes, this is this is not happening to our This is just happening like it and it's mind because the narration says, but beyond that planet, beyond that Solar's system, beyond that you rest, like this is a realm that is in like the manifestation of I think dimension of manifestations. Yes, that's the name of the realm. We're going to get
to see that place in Storm five. So like this is just like it turn it's his mind of yeah, this is my this is my plan for this check I'm going to turn it into this cosmic being.
Wow.
So and now, so the story's going to be how will this happen? You know? And what does that mean? Like is she got to imbue Storm with this power or is she going to take over Storm's body and kill Storm? And you know, it's like, what's going to happen? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? You know, we don't know yet, And so some people celebrate in ups like how sure is going to be a good thing?
You know, it's might be a bad thing. So like you had Dark Phoenix, like you know, he add Dark Phoenix saga and online I kept saying this is the turn saga. How are you sure like this is a good thing? Yeah, well, let's see, this might be a good thing too, you know. And if you notice the the look and the design on the faces like African war paints kind of thing, that's cool. The crown is back and of the crown from the David Cockroom design.
It symbolizes a goddess form and everything. But also the clothes she's wearing is a little similar to rogue storm. It's it's it's a form of storm that shows up when Storm was first met Doctor Doom and she transformed into this terrible form that would control all the weather on the planets at you know, and in the narration, Generation says that this form of Storm is as powerful
enough to rive out the Phoenix. So and you can see that similarity with this form too, like as there always been this connection with Eternity that we didn't know was that what was happening then, was that eternal Storm form coming out then that we didn't know, you know. In the Narration, in the first appearance of Storm, you know, it says our eyes are blue, you know, and as old as time, or say older than time, you know, something like that. And it's like, how can someone's eyes
be older than time? Like she's what really teenager? How could you get so as so's It seems like there's always been this foreshadow of a relationship with Eternity for Storm, and we're finally going to say it's coming into fruition,
you know. In Fantastic four where T'Challa and Storm replaced Sue and Read, you see where they're trying to save the universe and doctor Strength able to save the universe, how to move Eternity into Storm's mind because I and Storm are the only two people in the entire existence that would house that much power, that could alse eternity in their mind, you know, So why is that?
You know?
Why are they do only to that can do that? You know, so things like that. So there has always been this connection, and we're finally bringing it to the forefront, and we're going to see what that means for Storm in this series. But be bad bats very cool.
Well I can't wait. Yeah, so much. Or for first of all being on the show, and also for giving us some insight into the making of this book and what we can expect, because you know, I really hope that the series is very successful and you know, sells a bunch of copies. So you know, this is a great little teaser for people if they are listening and they are debating if they're going to collect the Storm series.
I'm definitely convinced. I'm definitely collecting the whole thing. So I really appreciate that.
Yeah, thank you, Adam. This is basically the first time that Storm is becoming a solo hero. So because we're creating a lot of new things for us, this series, especially for collectors, is going to be having a lot of bunch of first you know, first appearance of Storm's new bees, you know, first appearance of it's a no Storm.
You know, So you're going to be having a lot of frost first first, because we're going to be creating a lot of new things, adding a lot of new things, you know, an issue to in text form anyway, we're going to be saying, what is the link between Storm and you know Agamoto fo so supreme? You know, so we're good to see things. You know. There's the first time stops with to meet doctor Voodoo. You know, what
does it mean? You know? And so it's it's it's an exciting time to be a Storm fan, the second time to be a fan of comics.
Yes, and I understand next year is her fiftieth anniversary. I think so, yes, yes, yes, this is a great time to be a Storm fan. So wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. We really appreciate you being here. Somebody wanted to follow you on social media? How would they find you?
I'm available on Instagram and on Twitter on threads, but I'm usually easy to find on Twitter. I reply to dms, to tweets, and I give a lot of information about the series when new issues are coming out, plots, you know, czs and stuff on Twitter at Moria so yeah, or just if you we finally get to it. Any time a new issue comes out, we got we get ashtab urus spoilers to trend, you know, and sometimes you know, we have like I one of both Sweet Sweets X spoilers.
So if you're finding it difficult to expel my name or find it, if you go to a roal spoil as you probably see it a couple of tweets by me.
All right, awesome, Well, thank you, thank you so much. This has been amazing.
Thank you for having me it. It's a pleasure and I really add a lot a lot of fun.
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