Claremont's Abandoned Plots

[jrnewto]

According to Farouk in Uncanny X-Men #265, Storm was promised to him long ago, but since Claremont wrote this in 1990 we've had no concrete evidence with regard to who this might have been.

I'd always wondered "had one of her Rain Queen ancestors promised N’Dare’s child to him?"

Think I've now figured it out!

It very possibly was Storm’s uncle, Shetani (who was established in the UXM Annual in 2006).

It was revealed that the males within the family bloodline did not receive any of the power passed down so he sought a different sort of power to destroy theirs and had been hunting for Ororo for years.

It is very possible that he made a deal with Farouk in exchange for power of some sort in the past… which would give N’Dare, her mother, more reason to flee with her child.

[jrnewto]

When Sauron hypnotises the X-Men in Marvel Fanfare #3, Nightcrawler sees himself as a demon, Colossus some type of insect, but most interesting is that Storm sees herself as a cat-like creature. Given her feline eyes, how do you think Claremont was going to tie this into her ancestry? He obviously intended this to go somewhere since he had her able to see exceptionally well in the dark, and cat’s see exceptionally well the dark too, correct?

Where was this leading? A rain goddess who also possessed cat-like abilities?

[fortyseven]

When Sauron hypnotises the X-Men in Marvel Fanfare #3, Nightcrawler sees himself as a demon, Colossus some type of insect, but most interesting is that Storm sees herself as a cat-like creature. Given her feline eyes, how do you think Claremont was going to tie this into her ancestry? He obviously intended this to go somewhere since he had her able to see exceptionally well in the dark, and cat’s see exceptionally well the dark too, correct?

Where was this leading? A rain goddess who also possessed cat-like abilities?

Storm's (or at least her original costume belonged to) was originally going to be a able to turn into a cat before they gave her weather powers.

[Lorendiac]

When Sauron hypnotises the X-Men in Marvel Fanfare #3, Nightcrawler sees himself as a demon, Colossus some type of insect, but most interesting is that Storm sees herself as a cat-like creature. Given her feline eyes, how do you think Claremont was going to tie this into her ancestry? He obviously intended this to go somewhere since he had her able to see exceptionally well in the dark, and cat’s see exceptionally well the dark too, correct?

Where was this leading? A rain goddess who also possessed cat-like abilities?

Storm's (or at least her original costume belonged to) was originally going to be a able to turn into a cat before they gave her weather powers.

Just to be sure we're clear . . .

I take it that you think the bit about "Storm sometimes sees herself as being a cat-like creature" was strictly an in-joke on Claremont's part? A subtle nod to the past (i.e. Cockrum's original idea for a black woman, wearing that costume, who might hang out with DC's Legion of Super-Heroes), rather than it being intended as a cute little piece of foreshadowing for anything Claremont was thinking of doing with Ororo in the future?

[Gorviss]

Storm's (or at least her original costume belonged to) was originally going to be a able to turn into a cat before they gave her weather powers.

Wow...this is an interesting thread! I thought I knew just about all of Claremonts dropped plots but clearly I was wrong. Interesting read about Strom...and I'm very glad they decided not to go this route. Ororo being able to change into a domestic house cat doesn't seem like such a great idea.

[jrnewto]

Storm's (or at least her original costume belonged to) was originally going to be a able to turn into a cat before they gave her weather powers.

However, Claremont continued to refer to this after she was established as an “weather witch”, not only giving Ororo exceptional night vision, not just shown when her body was switched with Emma Frost's, but when she and the X-Men went to Japan for the first time to help Sunfire against Moses Magnum, Storm could see through the thick, dark and heavy smoke of a massive blazing inferno.

In addition, she also stated that her hearing was nearly on par with Wolverine's, being able to deduced Cyclop's voice when he was attacked by Jean at the Hellfire Club.

I think Claremont definitely wanted to keep with Storm having some exceptional physical abilities that were catlike in nature.

He further followed this up in the X-Treme X-Men story arc where Brainchild devolved Storm back 1,000 in her genetic make-up. She was a primal slayer with very feline-esque features (from her eyes to claws to fangs).

Storm's family bloodline and genetic make-up give her some impressive developmental potential.

Given the additional cat conception for Ororo, I wonder if the Goddess/ Merciful Bright Lady Claremont intended to link her to was Tefnut, the rain goddess with the head of a cat?

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Bump from Hell by finding an answer to my question from 6 months ago about the X-Men: True Friends mini;

http://secretsbehindthexmen.blogspot.com/

I read it somewhere the other day, can't find it now. But it explains why Logan had claws in the historic part of the story, considering that the concept for the story was pre-Weapon X by BWS and pre-Hama memory implants.

[Fifolet]

Here's one that's indirectly related to the X-Men. During his run on Fantastic Four, he had planned a subplot where Reed and Sue hired Kitty as a live-in nanny for Franklin. Ironically, this got nixed because the editors decided to have Kitty rejoin the X-Men instead!

I wouldn't mind seeing something along those lines. As much as I'm enjoying WATXM, I feel Kitty as a character has devolved after Excalibur and Astonishing. It could be nice mixing her up with an unrelated x book for a time. FF could work well as she is tech savy, it could play with the Days of Future Past relationship between Rachel and Franklin (despite their current age difference), and most of all, I'd love to see what Hickman would do with her in a FF story environment.

[MartinRedmond]

Bump from Hell by finding an answer to my question from 6 months ago about the X-Men: True Friends mini;

http://secretsbehindthexmen.blogspot.com/

I read it somewhere the other day, can't find it now. But it explains why Logan had claws in the historic part of the story, considering that the concept for the story was pre-Weapon X by BWS and pre-Hama memory implants.

“I wasn’t coming up with the stories,” Byrne stated in Arena Magazine #11. “I was just the hired typist, basically, to come up with the words.”

So he didn't write anything at all of that! What a relief!

[Thrive2Mix]

im currently rereading uncanny and found it weird that Storm has been drawn with the cat like features...
this is very interesting..

[jrnewto]

The explanation for Storm's magic ancestry has been RIGHT THERE… and yet none of us saw it, but how in the hell could we have MISSED it?

1. Faltine are entities composed of pure magic energy.

2. Certain ones of them were able to take on human forms, Dormammu and Umar for example.

3. When a Faltine and a mortal procreate, the product of this union results in the child having WHITE HAIR and BLUE EYES, with exceptional magic potential (Clea being the most recent example).

Now we all know Storm's ancestry is priestesses and sorceresses, and they were exceptional magic users, and all those with such power had the tapetumus eyes and white hair.

So has the secret to Storm’s magic ancestry, including her tapetumus eyes and white hair, all along been pointing to their being an inherited trait from a Faltine ancestor?

[chakal]

Nice thread. Remember lurking in it more than 5 years ago before I joined. I was then looking for more info about Claremont.

One of the abandoned plots that was the most interesting one (and most mysterious) was "Mutant Wars".
It was in 1990? or 1989? When X-Men were missing, and Banshee wanted to find them and regroup them into a team again.
There's not much info about it. And it might not be Claremont's idea at all.

[sweetdumbass]

It was in 1990? or 1989? When X-Men were missing, and Banshee wanted to find them and regroup them into a team again.
There's not much info about it. And it might not be Claremont's idea at all.

I loved that period. ForgexBanshee>>>>>ForgexNemesis. They should have become the next Prof X.

[MartinRedmond]

We got X-Tinction Agenda instead of Mutant Wars?

[chakal]

We got X-Tinction Agenda instead of Mutant Wars?

I had to search for it...

The original idea and plot were more "global", but in the end, the result seems to be the same as originally planned - united x-men. The original idea was something along X-Men vs X-Men.
According to what I had checked right now Mutant wars were supposed to happen in: UXM #267-269, NM #95-97, Excalibur #28-30, X-Factor #60-62.

X-Tinction Agenda happened in UXM #270-272 (damn close), NM #95-97, X-Factor #60-62. Excalibur were doin' their own thing.

So, yes, and thanks.