The X-Men’s Storm Joins the Avengers

Marvel continues to reshape its world of mutants with its “From the Ashes” relaunch of the X-Men line of comics, and now the revamp of the X-Men is also affecting the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, as Storm will not just be receiving her own ongoing series (announced yesterday), but she will also be joining the roster of the Avengers in this August’s Avengers #17, which is also introducing a new artist on the series, with Valerio Schiti (hot off of his amazing run on G.O.D.S. with Jonathan Hickman) will be taking over from C.F. Villa, who had launched the Avengers with writer Jed MacKay, and had been the artist on the book for the first year plus of the hit series.

This, of course, is not the first time that Storm has been a member of the Avengers, as she joined the team during the latter half of Brian Michael Bendis’ long run on the Avengers, but that was when she was still married to longtime Avenger, Black Panther. Their marriage was annulled a few years later, so she will be joining the team on her own for the first time.

Why is Storm joining the Avengers now?

After the fall of Krakoa, the world’s attitude towards mutants has been extremely on edge. Even after the villainy of Orchis, which tried to turn the world against mutants to rid the planet of mutantkind, was exposed, it is hard to put that genie back into its bottle, and so the Avengers feel that having a high profile mutant on the team will go a long way towards easing the anti-mutant sentiment in the world. Plus, of course, it doesn’t hurt that Storm is one of the most powerful mutants on the planet, which will help the Avengers with their global battles.

Avengers writer Jed MacKay, who is, of course, also writing X-Men, one of the flagship X-Men titles as part of the “From the Ashes” relaunch, explained his thinking on bringing Storm on to the team in a Marvel press release, “When we were putting together thoughts for X-Men, one problem kept coming up—Storm needed to have a presence in a book befitting her status, but it would be weird for her to be on an X-Men team if she wasn’t the leader. The solution was simple—she needed to be on the global stage, among equals, and what better place for that than the Avengers? We’re excited to bring Storm back to the Avengers and show what adventures she’ll get up to as part of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!”

The superstar artist, Schiti, shared some thoughts in a press release on both his new stint on the Avengers (he previously worked on the series during Jonathan Hickman’s epic “Time Runs Out” story arc), and specifically the role of Storm on the team, “As a reader, I am a great fan of Jed’s run, and I really love the way he writes the team: not just as fellow soldiers, but as a group of friends with a shared past. At the same time he doesn’t hold back on action and fight scenes! The balance between these two moods is exactly what excites me the most when I have to start a new gig!”

He continued with his views on Storm joining the team, “I have a soft spot for the mutants, so you can imagine my happiness when I knew that Storm was joining the team. It’s always fun to draw her powers, her body language, and her outfits. There’s just one challenge: you always have to remember that she’s not just a mutant, she’s a goddess!”

Avengers #17 is due out August 7th, with an electrifying cover by Joshua Cassara.

Source: Marvel