The Reel Rejects - MCU X-MEN: Why Storm Deserves The First Solo Movie!

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Starting point is 00:01:28 people have been saying like when's the next X-Men movie when's the next X-Men movie and then Disney bought Fox and then people are like when's the next X-Men movie and I have been saying no no we need

Starting point is 00:01:38 solo X-Men movies and there are a few in particular one most importantly that I think need to exist before anything else happens we're going to talk about that today this is why we need a storm solo movie

Starting point is 00:01:53 yesterday please like this video so I know you dug it if you like this video I've also got some ideas about Cyclops. I made one a little while ago in Coy's Comic Corner

Starting point is 00:02:01 about how I'd bring in Wolverine via TV long form. Please leave a comment below. Let me know what you want the X-Men to kick off with. But I got a lot of love and a lot of reasons for Storm being the first.

Starting point is 00:02:13 Let's get into it. You might already know this, but here's a basic origin of where Storm came from. It changes a bit. Continuity and X-Men's a hell of a thing. But in brief, Storm was born in Kenya. Her family then moved to Cairo, and then upon visiting Kenya again as a teenager, her powers developed, and then she went from being a thief, which I think is very important.

Starting point is 00:02:35 I'll talk about that later, to being revered as a goddess when she was able to actually make weather patterns to bring food to the people of Kenya. I think all of that is essential, especially with Kenya being a real place that faces poverty, plus all the Cairo origin stuff, making a very important character for a number of people. So there's a few reasons that Storm is the candidate as the most compelling character to get a solo movie. Now, I'm going to acknowledge right off the bat. They tried this, not with Storm, but do you remember before Avengers had their solo movies leading to a team, which would be a similar idea here, using the X-Men to have your solo, leading to an X-Men team? But you don't need to do it quite that much because a lot of X-Men already known. That said, Storm deserves this and is the most compelling because she has not just the best arc of a character that goes from Thief to Goddess and lands at Queen along their way,

Starting point is 00:03:25 but does it in a way that we identify with this character because we have been much closer to where she is. We've been people that are looking for food and people that are not to her level, but I'm necessarily, I don't know what your life's been, but people that have been so hungry, they'd do anything. And I think that makes, by the time she gets to Queen, even more captivating than, say, Tachala. We want to know what it's like to be on both sides of this incredible equation. And I'll talk more about her characterization in a second, but barring all of that. even if this character didn't have the insanely perfect origin or something that we've already tied bits of her later in life lore to, this is the most cinematic character possible. Storm is a character that might work even better in movies than in the medium of comic books where she lives.

Starting point is 00:04:10 Might even work better than in the medium of TV where she's excelling in an animated series again as she has before. This is a character that should have been the leads of the other X-Men films, not that. someone relegated to what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning, the same thing that happens to everything else. That is insane because this is a character that is a Roland Emmerich film in all the good ways meets all of the compelling elements of your favorite Oscar drama. This is what we love about movies. This is the big, insane, global spectacle of a witch of weather, someone who literally can manipulate the weather patterns to fly, to shoot lightning, to change sand to glass, to change temperature, to cause tornadoes.

Starting point is 00:04:55 Everything you love about weather movies, whether it's Twister or any number of hurricane films or any of the $5 Walmart movies, that sheer spectacle of, oh my God, this is the only way to see this safely is on screen instead of living through it, is wrapped in storm, but with the amazing narrative of a woman who grew up on the streets, who had to steal to survive, who then realize she was a goddess who then was worshipped, who then had to adjust to that and figure out what that meant to her morally, who also then married a king and became a queen of a nation that was private and then revealed itself and had all those new responsibilities. This is a story of the utmost responsibility. What does it mean to be so hungry you'd steal? What

Starting point is 00:05:38 does it mean to be left isolated and alone? And then adding to that, all of the struggles of developing powers, of being someone that's going through puberty and realizing that stuff is happening and it's crazy and then all of a sudden you've got the power of the weather itself and you're not a bad person because if she was a bad person like a lot of people think thieves are then she would use those powers horribly she could end the world she could run a country she could have become a dictator easily people have become a dictator with a lot less than the power to wield all weather but it shows the moral compass of a character which is what movies are about is showing a character evolve and change and why we need to listen to everyone i guarantee you nine

Starting point is 00:06:17 out of ten, maybe eight of ten, I'll be generous. Eight out of ten people would assume a thief is a bad person. I want a movie that shows that because you're desperate, you're willing to do anything. And then to get the power of a god and not punish others, I love so much that Storm is one of the most powerful characters in Marvel, and she's one of the

Starting point is 00:06:33 softest, most maternal, while still commanding. Strength and intelligence don't make you weak, and weakness doesn't sacrifice your maternal nature. She is a goddess and she needs a solo movie. And I think it's a really important character to represent people. Now, I know talking about representation upsets a lot of people,

Starting point is 00:06:51 and that's the benefit of this character, is she is someone that even the most in sepid, the most obnoxiously over-user of the word woke incorrectly, because that word has effectively lost all meaning, which is unfortunate. Everyone that complains something is woke, and why is it all women? Why is the only people of color getting roles,

Starting point is 00:07:09 even apparently executives? I think this character shows that women are, so strong in their own way. This isn't a character that's taken a man's job. This isn't a person of color that's taken a whitey's job. This is a character that has always represented Africa. If you look at stories about Africa, there's so much about nature, there's so much about loving what their land means to them, loving what the culture means to them, what it means for them to represent their culture. Storm represents an entire culture. We haven't really gotten to see a lot of. Yes, through Black Panther, we have seen a lot of Africa, but we've mainly seen a fictionalized

Starting point is 00:07:55 Africa. And I get that's a great way to bring that awareness. I love that we have Afrofuturism, and I love that we have so much more of a community that American audiences don't get a lot of, but I would really love now that we've broached that to bring in a lot of authentic African I would love to see real African communities represented. I would love like we had with Echo to see actual folk from a certain non-fictional land get a character. And I would really love to see what that does for people again. Because we're in a really tricky spot with Black Panther where this does allow for some of the recast Chala movement to maybe feel some closure.

Starting point is 00:08:36 It's not easy to have so few black characters be as important as Black Panther. and to lose Chadwick. It's impossible. What you do? And that's why I loved Wakanda forever so much because it was a way for the people that were asking that question that actually had to do something

Starting point is 00:08:51 to potentially get closure. What do we do now? I love that this character is, and this is a very tricky statement, but I'm going to say it and see if it stays in the edit. This character's almost racist proof because no matter what, people will complain when a black woman's on screen,

Starting point is 00:09:05 but what do you say when you go, oh, this important character from the late 60s, early 70s, uh is is newly important no it's she's been around for so long it's been important for so long and because we need more of this what a perfect example and it gets to be a representation of a real place and and so many people live in so many third world countries and in so many horrible situations that don't get to feel seen there's so many people that have been so poor they had to steal that never get powers and they don't feel seen what's more empowering

Starting point is 00:09:41 and seeing yourself on screen and seeing you become a goddess. I love Black Panther. I'm going to keep using that example because they get married. But he's a king. He was a prince. I don't identify with being born rich. I would love if Storm got to be the first X-Men to get a solo movie to go like, hey, that's what it must be like to get powers and not know how to wield them.

Starting point is 00:10:02 I remember being a teenager. I remember when hormones were driving me nuts. I can't imagine if I could shoot lightning. What must that have been like? And for that to also represent a ton of people that don't get as much representation as people look like me. I want that. I need that. I think Storm's the right move.

Starting point is 00:10:17 Storm is tricky to do before the X-Men because she's obviously so intrinsically tied to the X-Men themselves. What you do is you do like Civil War. You take iconic stories and you just use thematic elements. You grab certain key moments and tie them into things that work for a solo endeavor. And I think you can build on some of the very important solo stuff

Starting point is 00:10:35 that even might have taken place in a team book. So Storm coming before the X-Men might sound tricky because she's a leader of the X-Men, which is also a reason for her to have the first solo movie, if not one of the first. She leads one of the two teams. They split into blue and gold teams. Cyclops leads one.

Starting point is 00:10:51 She leads another. Cyclops was my other pick. If you want to see that video, let me know. I'll make a solo Cyclops video. But for now, Storm, obviously first. Storm is a character that is tied to so many team comics, but within those team books,

Starting point is 00:11:01 she has a lot of really great arc. So recommending you some comics and some things they could do in the movie. Life death, you probably just saw on X-Men 9-7. Life death's about her losing her, powers. And imagine the ascent of going from having nothing to having everything and then going back to feeling like it's nothing. You wouldn't feel as bad as you felt when you were impoverished, but you would feel a loss of power, especially when you were a goddess, what that would be like.

Starting point is 00:11:25 And I love the idea of that walk about that concept. And I think you could play with that, not necessarily to like the first movie, but maybe set some seeds of her going the other way. What would it be like to suddenly have all that power? How would you negotiate with yourself about what was just what was allowed what was what's it like to wield power that way later on do life death maybe even in a in a team movie do a storm too but like i think setting up seeds of of kind of the mirror to life death to be incredible i also love her stuff at the morlocks she fights with the morlocks a lot she was the leader of the morlocks at one point and she's got a lot of relationships with not just the pretty public x-men but the people that have powers that mutate them beyond public

Starting point is 00:12:02 consumption. Like, there are X-Men that live in the sewers because they're so ostracized and they're so belittled that they are pushed into the underbelly of society. And that's a further commentary on like the X-Men have it bad because they're saving a world that hates and fears them, but they're still like pretty attractive, televised people. What about the people that turn into green warts and or their powers go off and it emits horrible smells? Like, what about the mutants that can't even be in public. And I love that Storm, a goddess is wanting to identify and wanting to help people like that. And she uses her life experience from when she didn't have powers to like, you know, how to be street smart, how to run those things. I think showing Storm's street smarts and all of those elements

Starting point is 00:12:48 can tie into the Morlocks and maybe her having the Morlock story introduced in her solo movie leading to the Morlocks being important later. It'd be really interesting. I'd love to see a commentary on what happens when a girl that's a thief that feels alone, finds family. in crime and from crime finds a team of heroes and then feels tricky about later on running into that group of criminals and what does it mean to be a criminal when you have nothing handed to you and that could also tie beautifully into gambit gambit has a similar situation there's a lot of really unique stuff for storms mini arcs in the comics that could tie greatly into a solo movie so you've got the cinematic elements of why she might even be better on screen than on the page you've got the

Starting point is 00:13:26 arc that allows for everything we want in a good movie you need to care about the character You need to want to see where their art goes. You really need to want to see what they become. You've got so much morality. You've got this archetypal character that makes you identify with her through all stages of her life. You've got a lot of setting up for the world building of the X-Men. You can introduce a world that hates and fears them. You can introduce mores.

Starting point is 00:13:44 You can introduce a side villain or two. You can build a world. And you've got so much important representation for characters that don't get as much time in the light. And you can do it in a way that ties into certain familiar elements already within the MCU. It is going to be very tricky to introduce storm potential. potentially before the X-Men. It's going to not have people going like, doesn't she marry Black Panther later?

Starting point is 00:14:04 It's not for as long as you thought it was, but you can use those elements like Wakanda, like Africa being mildly introduced, like our X-Men familiarity from seeing the original movies, from seeing the show, and make Storm her own character. That way, by the time she lands in a movie, you already feel like she's ready to lead.

Starting point is 00:14:22 I don't want to see an X-Men team movie where it feels like everything is rushed together and then someone gets elected leader and we don't know who they are or care who they are. If you're getting an X-Men movie that has even as few as five, six, seven characters, that's a lot to bring together. I know Guardians did it. But what if, instead of going the Guardians route, we went the Avengers route, and we had some solo movies and maybe a couple movie with Cyclops and Gene, but Storm first to kick off the X-Men. And that's how I'd bring the X-Men into the MCU with Storm.

Starting point is 00:14:49 So what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments below. Please let me know how you want to see the X-Men get introduced. Let me know what you'd want to see in a Storm movie. There's a lot of great comics. If you want more comic wrecks, let me know. and also how do you think we'll get our first live action X-Men? I think they get introduced to the End of Deadpool 3.

Starting point is 00:15:05 There's so many options. Let me know below. Please like this video. Please leave a comment. If you want more Koi's comic corner, let me know what you want to see. Much love, Reject Nation. It's going to be back.

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The Reel Rejects - MCU X-MEN: Why Storm Deserves The First Solo Movie!

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