Fans of Storm, the mutant goddess who can control the weather, are finally getting the origin story they've been waiting for in X-Men: Apocalypse. Unfortunately, though, Halle Berry, who previously portrayed the superhero in four X-Men films, isn't reprising her role. Instead, Alexandra Shipp is making her debut as a younger version of the character in Apocalypse, which takes place in he '80s. In the film, fans finally get to see Storm's first brush with the X-Men, and even get a glimpse at what her life was like before she joined the mutant family. So yes, Storm's origin story finally gets told in X-Men: Apocalypse , but as for how it measures up to her origin story in the comics? Well, it's actually pretty similar.
In the original comics, Storm first meets Professor X when she attempts to pick pocket him in Cairo. In the movie, however, Apocalypse gets to her first. Storm is actually the first mutant to catch Apocalypse's eye, and the first of the four horsemen to join his cause. It's Apocalypse who helps nurture Storm's abilities, not Charles. And how her story evolves from there is a huge departure from the comics. (This is likely both due to plot concerns and to the fact that Storm's relationship with Black Panther is off the table since T'Challa joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe.)
Needless to say, the new Storm is a bit grittier than the one audiences are used to. "This Storm is a little bit different because you're meeting her in Cairo. ...You're seeing all the pain that she's gone through. It's not like she's in the mansion having a great time," Shipp said in an interview with Collider .
When we first meet Storm in Apocalypse, she is living in Cairo, using her powers to help her steal from the local merchants, just as her character, Ororo Munroe, did in the comics. She's struggling to get by, using her powers to survive — a stark difference from the Storm we all know, who uses her powers to protect innocent lives. Though her tragic background is never explicitly stated in the film, it's clear that Ororo is an orphan, just like she is in the comics, an assumption Shipp and director Bryan Singer confirmed in the above Collider interview. It's part of what makes Storm so susceptible to Apocalypse's charms.
All Storm wants is a place to belong. Following the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, in which Mystique outed herself as a mutant and saved the President, creating more peaceful relations between mutants and humans, Storm idolizes Mystique. She wants to be recognized for her abilities in a similar way, and that's where Apocalypse swoops in. As Apocalypse goes on, it might be easy to label Storm a villain due to her alliance with Apocalypse, but Shipp doesn't see it that way. "I don't necessarily see her as a bad person, or as a bad mutant. I don't see her as a villain. She doesn't know that she's a villain. That's just all she's ever known, is just bad," Shipp told Collider.
All in all, the Storm in Apocalypse is pretty similar to the Storm in the original X-Men comics. In fact, Shipp researched for the role by reading every comic book she could get her hands on, but one thing you can't get from the original stories is the infamous Storm accent. Berry's Storm accent has been a sore subject for decades, so there wasn't too much pressure for Shipp to copy her performance. Shipp, whose version of Storm also speaks Arabic in the film, opted for a Kenyan accent.
Hopefully, fans will get to learn even more about this new Storm in future films. And, who knows, maybe one day we'll get to see the famous Storm — Black Panther union on screen after all.
Images: 20th Century Fox; Giphy (2)
