![X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel](https://i0.wp.com/www.comicsblend.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/xmen1cover-198x300.jpg?resize=198%2C300&ssl=1)
Storm, Brian Wood, Olivier Coipel – it’s a creative marriage made in geek heaven!
X-Men #1 by Wood & Coipel launched this week with Ororo in command of an all-female team. Wood’s smashing take on the mutant windrider on the previous volume of X-Men last year was a hit with fans. I even declared Wood’s writing of Storm was the best since the Chris Claremont golden years.
The iconic X-woman recently split from Black Panther, joined the Jean Grey School, and is now sporting her Mohawk again. Wood tells Marvel.com how he found a voice for Storm that resonated with fans.
“This is one of those honest answers that don’t always come across so well in interviews, but I don’t know. [Laughs] I remember when I started writing X-MEN [in 2012], I said in an interview something about how I was looking forward to figuring Storm out, to discovering my version of her voice. In the end I went with my gut, and wrote her as a flawed but determined leader, one not afraid to make controversial moves if the end goal is a noble one. And it worked; the reaction to my Storm was beyond overwhelming.
I often write from the gut, or go with instincts. I am not a person who spends much time self-analyzing. I prefer to trust my skills and while not everything I do hits the target, most of the time it serves me well.”
![X-Men #1 by Terry Dodson courtesy Marvel](https://i0.wp.com/www.comicsblend.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/x-men-1-dodson-197x300.jpg?resize=197%2C300&ssl=1)
Wood continues writing Ultimate Comics X-Men and now in both universes Storm wears the Mohawk hairstyle she once sported in the 1980’s. Wood explains what the change represents:
“I brought the Mohawk back in the Ultimate version of Storm, in that case mostly because I find it iconic and striking, more of a style thing than anything else, and it made sense in the context of the Ultimate stories. I think in the [Marvel Universe] it can represent a level of freedom she might not have had in the recent past, sure. But I think it can change again—why not?”
One of the most intriguing elements of Wood’s previous run was Storm’s conflict with Cyclops so who does Ororo answer to now?
![X-Men #36 courtesy Marvel](https://i0.wp.com/www.comicsblend.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/xmen36-197x300.jpg?resize=197%2C300&ssl=1)
“I think Storm has obligations to the Jean Grey School, and I think she answers to the general needs and security of mutant kind. She never struck me as a blind follower of an ideology, though. There was this somewhat infamous interview I gave a few weeks back where I brushed off a question asking if Storm was Team Logan or Team Scott; I don’t know, to answer that straight, she is whatever she is in the comics now, right? Whatever writer’s already defined that, that’s what she is. But I’m not going there, personally. I won’t break continuity, but I’m not going to strive to define her actions as a mutant as being in one of two boxes, you know. I like Storm too much for that. She deserves her independent thought.
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
Storm appears in All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis and the new Uncanny X-Force by Sam Humphries.
By Editor