ORORO: BEFORE THE STORM

Ororo: Before The Storm #1-4

by Marc Sumerak, Carlo Barberi (Illustrator), Marvel Various (Writer)

The back alleys of Cairo’s “Thieves’ Quarter” are no place for a child to grow up — unless that child is destined to be one of the greatest Marvel heroes of all! Long before she became the X-Man known as Storm, a young orphan named Ororo Munroe prowled the streets of Cairo, a pickpocket trained by a master thief. But when the opportunity of a lifetime arises, get ready for awesome Egyptian adventure as Ororo leads her fellow street urchins into…the tomb of Ozymandias! Plus, more tales of Storm’s early days as a hero, including team-ups with Jean Grey and Spider-Man — and her first meeting with Gambit!

COLLECTING: Ororo: Before the Storm (2005) 1-4, Uncanny Origins (1996) 9, Uncanny X-Men: First Class (2009) 4, Marvel Age Spider-Man Team-Up (2004) 5, Uncanny X-Men (1981) 265-266, material from Uncanny X-Men: First Class Giant-Size Special (2009) 1, Black Panther (2018) 23

Genres: Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Collections, X Men

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2022

About the author

About Marc Steven Sumerak

Reviews

[Bert Fechner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such an amazing title (seriously, I love that title) for a mediocre book. First off, I may be biased for liking this as much as I did where someone might score it lower because I'm a huge X-men fan. (I own the single issue Gambits first appearance that shows up in here! Big Gambit fan) with a cast of characters as diverse and interesting with a sprawling colorful backstory as the X-men it's really cool to see Storm get some love and I wouldn't mind seeing other x-men get this treatment. It honestly makes me want to write a fanfic focusing on Ororo, Scott, Jean, Hank, Kurt, Marie, Kitty (and if I had to Logan) before they became the x-men. This book contains the standalone 4-part short "Before the Storm" which fleshes out more of Storms established backstory. Think of it as not changing anything but expanding on something that once happened during this time. I liked it with a few nitpicks- at times it comes off as kid-friendly with elements that while not bad make me roll my eyes and question irrelevant bits that younger readers wouldn't even notice. And another little one- I'm not the biggest fan of this art style. Other things that bother me about it are it feels a little incomplete at times, including relevant parts and not the whole- of issues concerning Storm. And as for the Storm/Gambits first appearance arc- even with the recap it feels a bit jarring trying to play catch up with a story we're just dropped into the middle of for 2 issues. Overall not bad and if anything makes me want to create some X-men related stuff reigniting my love for this title and that counts for something.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Different versions of Ororo’s origin, a lot of them were pretty similar. One downside was that one of the stories had the stereotypical objectifying “hot female superhero” outfits, all impracticality and s-x. Pretty gross, but I guess a talking point with the kiddos.

[lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

some bits fun, some bits were um... interesting! but it was interesting to see how different comic styles are, especially how they've developed since they began.

[KrissyKat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't bad, but wasn't good either. I enjoyed the different art styles and variations of the same story, but it did get a bit dull reading almost the same story