WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for X-Men Gold #33 by Marc Guggenheim, Michele Bandini, Erick Arciniega and Cory Petit, on sale now.
Marc Guggenheim’s tenure on X-Men Gold has changed some of the most iconic and foundational members of the X-Men in some new and surprising ways. Rachel Grey got the character focus she’s always deserved, Kitty Pryde is learning who she is untied to any of her exes and most drastically, Storm once again wields the Asgardian hammer Stormcaster, imbuing her with mystical might.
Already one of the most powerful mutants the X-Men has to hand, Storm with the power of Thor is easily one of the most powerful people on Earth but a return home to Kenya puts Ororo’s divine powers in perspective as she comes across an evil god who has converted her entire village into worshippers.
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Bring The Thunder
Ororo Munroe was first gifted the magical Asgardian hammer Stormcaster in 1985’s Uncanny X-Men Annual #9 by Chris Claremont and Arthur Adams, part of a crossover with New Mutants. As revenge for a previous defeat, Loki abducts Storm to Asgard, bringing the New Mutants with her and scattering them throughout the nine realms as he works on manipulating Storm into working for him. While the New Mutants worked on reuniting and returning home, Loki transformed Ororo into a raven to follow him around and be his eyes in the sky, while he worked on the complex spell to keep her under his thrall.
The X-Men travelled to Asgard to rescue their teenage charges and their wayward former team member — Storm was powerless at the time due to being on the receiving end of a blast meant to depower Rogue. When the X-Men confronted Loki, he turned Storm human again gave her the hammer Stormcaster — forged by Eitri the Dwarf, who also forged Mjolnir — which she used to attack the X-Men, but soon snapped out of Loki’s spell and turned on the trickster god. The X-Men convinced Loki to send them all home and put everything back how it was, and the powerless Storm chose to give up the hammer rather than accept the gift of Loki.
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She was later give her hammer back by Thor, but chose to destroy it for good in a fight with the God of Thunder by smashing it against his own hammer, and Stormcaster failed to stand up to the power of Mjolnir. There have also been alternate realities and What Ifs where Storm wielded Stormcaster, such as What If? #12 titled “What If The X-Men Stayed In Asgard?” or the obscure X-Men: Millennial Visions #2001, which saw Storm once again become the Goddess of Thunder by wielding the hammer of Thor Girl.
Most recently, a version of Thor with Stormcaster appeared as a member of the Thors, who enforced God Emperor Doom’s will throughout Battleworld. It’s unclear which domain she was assigned as her home dimension of Earth-904 wasn’t one of the realities saved by Doom and incorporated into the patchwork planet, but she made several appearances across Battleworld in titles such as Thors, Ultimate End, Armor Wars and MODOK: Assassin, often in crowd scenes to show the scale and power of Doom’s unstoppable Asgardian army.
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The Goddess of Thunder
Storm reacquired Stormcaster in the pages of X-Men Gold after she was imprisoned in solitary confinement and began to panic due to her claustrophobia. Though the hammer was thought destroyed, it was once again whole, possibly as a result of Secret Wars; it wouldn’t be the first hammer to have survived the event, after all.
The hammer burst through the cell walls and reunited itself with Ororo, once again giving her the power of Thor. At the time, it seemed like the hammer was answering Ororo’s need for help but this week’s issue of X-Men Gold reveals it was actually answering the prayer of Ainet, the woman whose raised Storm.
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Ainet was first introduced in 1998’s X-Men #77 by Joe Kelly and German Garcia, which dove into Storm’s history in Africa between the death of her parents and her accepting Charles Xavier’s offer to join the X-Men. Ainet brought Storm into her village of Uzuri following the death of the Munroes and taught her how to properly manage her powers; without Ainet’s guidance, Ororo was messing up the fragile ecosystem of her village and the villages which surrounded it, but Ainet taught her how to think about the consequences of her incredible power. It was Ainet who led her people into believing Ororo was a walking goddess, which at the time gave them something to believe in, but only now has opened the door to something much darker.
When she left her village to join the X-Men, Ororo never came back, and eventually the people there stopped believing in her. This allowed a new, dark god named Uovu to sway the villager to his cause, leaving Ainet as the only apostate in this new regime. Forced to swear loyalty to Uovu or die, Ainet prays to the old gods to give Ororo the power of true divinity so she can return home and smite the usurper god, a call which is answered in the ruins of Old Asgard as Stormcaster senses the fear and anguish of the incarcerated Storm, and flies to Earth to rescue her.
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Storm learns of her adopted mother’s death through her contacts in the Wakandan embassy, many of whom still view her as their queen despite the annulment of her marriage during Avengers vs X-Men. Blaming herself for allowing a dark god to rise in her stead, Storm returns home to Uzuri to confront Uovu, but the dark god in command of the death cult which has overtaken her home has plans to convert her to his cause and spread his message back to America. Preparing for god vs god smackdown, Storm confronts Uovu with Stormcaster in hand, but instead is surprised by the one thing he could give her which could possibly sway her to his side.