Trade Issues: X-men-World Apart

Trade Issues: Where Chris reads comics he should have read years ago.

X-men was my first exposure to comics. On Saturday mornings, I ALWAYS made sure to wake my ass up, run to the TV, and watch X-men: The Animated Series. It was a mind blowing series and one of my all time favorite cartoons. It was just so action packed and AWESOME. Aside from Jubilee, it managed to bring together some of the X-men's best characters for the show (Nightcrawler would have been an excellent replacement for the firework throwing Asian. Not to say I dislike Jubilee; she's gotten much more badass in recent years). One of THE most badass members of the team was easily Storm. When she called down the lightening, I always knew the baddie was done for. 

It's often been the same in the comics. Storm has, quite literally, always been a force of nature and one of the biggest hitters on the team. On top of that, she's one of the most layered characters having been a goddess, a queen, a thief, a X-men member, an Avengers member, and a member of the Fantastic Four. X-men: World's Apart centers almost entirely on her. For a Storm fan, this would be a good find!

The plot is sort of generic: character has problem (Storm having to deal with being both a head X-men member and the Queen of one of the most powerful nations on Earth) when a large situation arises that character must deal with. While character deals with big situation, they learn how to deal with their original problem by the time the happy ending roles around. You've read it before. It happens!

What makes this comic good is the situation: Storm is called back to Wakanda when Gentle (a former student at the Xavier Institute and a native Wakandian) is accused of murder. Things get out of control when Storm discovers that an old X-men adversary has returned: Shadow King. A telepath that rivals Charles Xavier, The Shadow King has enjoyed torturing both Storm and Karma for years. Despite his death, he continued to exist on the astral plane. He has returned, taking telepathic control of both Black Panther and Cyclops. Panther declares to his nation that Storm is no longer his wife and Gentle must die. At the same time, The Shadow King has implanted in Scott's mind that Emma has betrayed the X-men and is heading across the country to kill her.

With two crises on two separate sides of the planet, Storm is the only one who can change anything. Save the man she loves or save her beloved X-men?

I love stories like this. Mini-series that focus on a central character from a large group is always nice because it gives the author time to do a bit of a character study. This writer didn't disappoint as he delved into Storm's character to show how she feels about the different aspects of her life and just how far she's willing to go to protect them. Despite the general genericness of the plot, the study of Storm was what made this book.

Also in this trade were two more comics that detailed the romance between Storm and Black Panther through out the years. While not at all essential to the World's Apart mini-series, they were cool to read.