X-Men '97 Adapts a Major Storm Storyline From the Marvel Comics
Here's how that Storm storyline happened in the X-Men comic books.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for X-Men '97 episodes 1 and 2.] As Storm, mutant mistress of the elements, Ororo Munroe commands and controls the weather. But by the end of Wednesday's two-episode series premiere of X-Men '97, titled "To Me, My X-Men" and "Mutant Liberation Begins," the goddess wind rider has another moniker: human. When she's stripped of her mutant powers, Storm decides to leave the X-Men — just as another former member makes their shocking return.
One year after the Mutant Control Agency's Henry Gyrich (Todd Haberkorn) assassinated Professor Charles Xavier (Ross Marquand), the mutant leader's death has made humans more tolerant toward mutantkind — save for the Friends of Humanity. The anti-mutant hate group is using retrofitted Sentinel technology that Gyrich created with Bolivar Trask (Gavin Hammon) to continue their crusades, capturing and collaring mutants with inhibitor collars that use doses of radiation to temporarily neutralize their superhuman powers.
Entrusted with Xavier's dream of mutant-human coexistence, reformed mutant terrorist-turned-hero Magneto (Matthew Waterson) surrenders himself to Dr. Valerie Cooper (Catherine Disher) and then stands trial at U.N. Headquarters for crimes against humanity. But when the Friend of Humanity's Carl Denti (Lawrence Bayne) targets the trial of Magneto as the X-Cutioner, the extremist fires his laser rifle at the X-Men's new leader... and shoots Storm, who throws herself into the blast meant for Magneto.
"The breeze is gone. I cannot feel it, nor the moisture, nor the air," a powerless Storm says. "What has he done to me?" Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast (George Buza), answers the question: The X-Cutioner fired a concentrated dose of mutant power-suppressing radiation that affects genetics on a cellular level — and the effects appear permanent. Storm is an Omega-Level mutant no more.
X-Men '97: Storm's Power Loss, Explained
"It's a kind of living death -- nobody wants that, even for a moment!" – Rogue, Uncanny X-Men #185
In the comics, it's Gyrich who shoots Storm with the full power of a neutralizer gun in 1984's Uncanny X-Men #185. Storm is stripped of her powers saving a reformed Rogue, not Magneto, and is confirmed to be depowered in Uncanny X-Men #186 — the now-classic "Lifedeath" by writer Chris Claremont and artist Barry Windsor-Smith.
Over the double-sized issue, Storm begins a romance with the mutant inventor Forge, who suspects that the process that stole her powers can be reversed. But when Storm learns that Forge designed the gun, the couple's confrontation takes place in a raging rain storm that — once upon a time — Storm would have summoned. Forge vows to find the cure, but Storm thunders at him for helping Gyrich subjugate and destroy their people. "My feet may never leave the ground," she says, leaving him, "but someday, I shall fly again!"
"This is not life, Forge, merely existence -- a shadow of what was. To believe otherwise is but the cruelest of deceptions." – Storm, Uncanny X-Men #186
1985's Uncanny X-Men #198, titled "Lifedeath II," sees Storm return to her homeland in Africa. While in self-exile from the X-Men, Storm experiences visions of her former life and, still without her powers, saves a newborn baby's life. Storm's soul-searching ends with acceptance: "I have no powers. My body cannot fly," she says. "But I no longer mind, for in my heart and soul — where it truly matters — I soar higher than the stars!"
Storm eventually returns to the team and, despite her lack of powers, defeats Cyclops in a duel to determine who will lead the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #201 — the same issue that Cyclops welcomes his son, Nathan Summers. She later seeks out Forge to help restore her powers, which wouldn't return until 1987's Uncanny X-Men #226.
"They're your powers, Storm -- call 'em home!" – Forge, Uncanny X-Men #226
Forge — the man who made the weapon that took Storm's powers — helps her regain her mutant abilities with a device of his making. The experiment works, and Storm once again takes to the skies as the wielder of the weather and mutant goddess of the elements.
New episodes of Marvel's X-Men '97 premiere Wednesdays on Disney+. ⊗