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MRL - Ororo: Before the Storm (2005)
Aug. 3rd, 2025 11:27 pm Ororo: Before the Storm (2005) - written by Marc Sumerak, art by Carlo Barberi
Another limited series origin story, this time about Ororo Munroe, aka Storm.
So, of course, we start the story with some wannabe Indiana Jonesstealing retrieving an ancient Aztec artifact in Mexico. He's betrayed by the mysterious guy who hired him and falls to his apparent death. Probably. This book is aimed at younger readers, so it isn’t made explicit.
He then get to meet young Ororo, a leader in a crew of child thieves run by Achmed El-Gibar. He seems to treat his army of orphan thieves fairly, for a man who makes children work for their food. He also has sway over the local police, but we never see why. It’s probably just one of those things inherent to the genre of children books and I shouldn’t be overthinking about it, but I can’t help it.
Anyway, Ororo is sneaky, a loyal friend, a good leader, and fiercely misses his parents.
Nari, hot-headed and not as skilled, is her main rival. Together with Hakim, the three are chosen for a special job. The mystery guy from the beginning hired El-Gibar to retrieve the Opal of Ozymandias from inside one of the Pyramids and he sends his students to deal with the booby traps. He does seem to care for them, for a man sending children in a dangerous, possibly deadly, mission.
Mystery guy also name-drops Apocalipse when he explains why the Opal is so valuable - it grants eternal life, and also eternal servitude to Apocalipse, but the guy seems to be into that.
The kids make their way to the final room. Nari grabs the Opal, inadvertently awakening the statues that act has its guardians. Things look bad, until statue!Ozymandias recognizes Ororo as someone with a significant destiny in relation to Apocalipse, mentioning future events (depicted in past comics, I assume), and lets the kids go.
Unfortunately, mystery guy is waiting for them and traps Ororo and Hakiim in a rock slide, taking the Opal from Nari.
Ororo has a flashback to her parents deaths - trapped in rubble after an explosion. The thought of the same happening to Hakiim awakens her latent powers and they manage to free themselves, only to find the El-Gibar and the rest of the kids have been captured and are about to be sacrificed in a ritual to bring Apocalipse back. They put their training to good use, liberate their friends and Ororo tricks the bad guy into becoming a stone statue himself when he claims the power of the Opal.
In conclusion, a nice story and a nice showing of Ororo’s qualities. However, I’m definitely not the intended audience, because the fact this is framed as a group of street urchins having an amazing adventure and not as a group of orphans being exploited by a man of dubious morals really bothers me.
Another limited series origin story, this time about Ororo Munroe, aka Storm.
So, of course, we start the story with some wannabe Indiana Jones
He then get to meet young Ororo, a leader in a crew of child thieves run by Achmed El-Gibar. He seems to treat his army of orphan thieves fairly, for a man who makes children work for their food. He also has sway over the local police, but we never see why. It’s probably just one of those things inherent to the genre of children books and I shouldn’t be overthinking about it, but I can’t help it.
Anyway, Ororo is sneaky, a loyal friend, a good leader, and fiercely misses his parents.
Nari, hot-headed and not as skilled, is her main rival. Together with Hakim, the three are chosen for a special job. The mystery guy from the beginning hired El-Gibar to retrieve the Opal of Ozymandias from inside one of the Pyramids and he sends his students to deal with the booby traps. He does seem to care for them, for a man sending children in a dangerous, possibly deadly, mission.
Mystery guy also name-drops Apocalipse when he explains why the Opal is so valuable - it grants eternal life, and also eternal servitude to Apocalipse, but the guy seems to be into that.
The kids make their way to the final room. Nari grabs the Opal, inadvertently awakening the statues that act has its guardians. Things look bad, until statue!Ozymandias recognizes Ororo as someone with a significant destiny in relation to Apocalipse, mentioning future events (depicted in past comics, I assume), and lets the kids go.
Unfortunately, mystery guy is waiting for them and traps Ororo and Hakiim in a rock slide, taking the Opal from Nari.
Ororo has a flashback to her parents deaths - trapped in rubble after an explosion. The thought of the same happening to Hakiim awakens her latent powers and they manage to free themselves, only to find the El-Gibar and the rest of the kids have been captured and are about to be sacrificed in a ritual to bring Apocalipse back. They put their training to good use, liberate their friends and Ororo tricks the bad guy into becoming a stone statue himself when he claims the power of the Opal.
In conclusion, a nice story and a nice showing of Ororo’s qualities. However, I’m definitely not the intended audience, because the fact this is framed as a group of street urchins having an amazing adventure and not as a group of orphans being exploited by a man of dubious morals really bothers me.
