Today, look at the bizarre way that Storm's guest appearance in the Atlantis Attacks storyline was handled while she was considered dead in the pages of Uncanny X-Men.
This is "Can't Cross Over," a feature where I look at instances when comic book writers had to adjust their stories to deal with crossovers.
THE FALL OF THE MUTANTS LEFT THE X-MEN KIND OF SORT OF DEAD
In the crossover event known as the "Mutant Massacre," the X-Men were attacked by a team of villains called the Marauders (the X-Men interrupted the Marauders slaughtering the group of underground mutants called the Morlocks). The X-Men survived the initial battle, but lost Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde to severe injuries (and temporarily lost Colossus to injuries, as well). The Marauders then continued to hunt the X-Men even as the team went on the run, leaving Xavier's School behind. In New Mutants #51 (by Chris Claremont and Kevin Nowlan), Storm convinced Magneto that Magneto has to join the Hellfire Club to help protect the X-Men. She also mentions "Plan Omega" for the first time. In Uncanny X-Men #219 (by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri and Dan Green), Storm reveals that "Plan Omega" is that since the Marauders are devoted to killing the X-Men, the only way to stop them is to convince them that the X-Men ARE dead. The problem that the X-Men don't know is that the Marauders AREN'T stuck just hunting down the living X-Men. In that very same issue, they hunt down the former X-Man, Polaris, while her boyfriend, Havok, is checking into the X-Men. So their whole plan was based on a misunderstanding of the Marauders' main goal. The Marauders didn't just want to kill the X-Men, they wanted to kill all mutants. So faking their deaths wouldn't change anything.
In any event, while they were debating faking their deaths, they instead died for real, sacrificing their souls to stop the villainous Adversary in Uncanny X-Men #227 (by Claremont, Silvestri and Green)...
The magical being known as Roma brought them back to life and allowed the X-Men to keep up their faked deaths if they wanted to. They decided to go that path, but they were once again convinced that the Marauders would leave their friends and family alone if the bad guys believed the X-Men to be dead.
MEANWHILE, ATLANTIS ATTACKS
The 1989 Marvel Annuals crossover was "Atlantis Attacks," a very complicated (it was a 14-part story taking place over a few months) story that involved Ghaur of the Devant Lemurians coming up with a plot to bring the demon Set to Earth. It involved tricking Attuma (the then-leader of Atlantis) into invading Earth (the relatively minor aspect of the story that actually involved Atlantis, you know, attacking) so that Atlantis would be left defenseless for the Lemurians to attack, slaughtering a bunch of people in a blood sacrifice to Set. There was also a giant Serpent Crown and, of course, the Lemurians collecting seven super-powered women to serve as the brides of Set.
The seven superpowered women were Jean Grey, Invisible Woman, She-Hulk, Andromeda (Attuma's daughter), Dagger, Scarlet Witch and Storm.
However, you might then ask, "But Brian, didn't you just say that Storm and the X-Men were believed to be dead at the time?" Why, yes, they were. So how in the world would Storm be able to involved in a crossover that would pretty clearly involve her showing herself to be alive? Glad you asked. It is kind of hilarious, really.
HOW DOES NO ONE KNOW THAT THIS IS STORM?
The brainwashed Storm attacks Captain America and the Wasp in Avengers West Coast Annual #4 (by John Byrne and Terry Austin) and despite her looking just like Storm (who they fought alongside during Secret Wars. Heck, Wasp even fought AGAINST her at one point) and having powers just like Storm, Cap and Wasp just think that she, well, you know, looks like Storm and has powers like Storm, but it can't possibly be Storm because everyone knows Storm is dead.
Then, in the final part of the crossover (in Fantastic Four Annual #22 by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Tony DeZuniga), the superheroes, while trying to stop Set and save the brides of Set, actually talk amongst themselves about WHO the seven brides are and they can only all identify five of the seven! They don't know Andromeda and they can't recognize Storm!
In the end, when they then recue the Brides, AGAIN they still just say, "Looks like Storm, but it can't be, because she's dead"...
This is ESPECIALLY hilarious because earlier in that very same issue of Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm makes fun of Ms. Marvel (who had been mutated into a female version of the Thing at the time) for being surprised that Doctor Strange was alive, as Strange was also thought to be dead at the time (I'll write about the bizarre aspect of Atlantis Attacks about how so much of it involves people faking deaths or exposing faked deaths or, like with Storm and another character, faked deaths just not being acknowledged). He points out how often superheroes survive their "deaths" and yet everyone just can't believe Storm is Storm because the X-Men have to be dead, right?
It's obviously just a concession to the fact that the X-Men office did not want Storm to be viewed as alive, but was willing to lend the character to the crossover still, Byrne and Thomas just had to work around it and the workaround was just too funny.
There's never any explanation for how Storm gets back to the rest of the X-Men without anyone noticing that she is herself. The Brides just team up to destroy the giant Serpent Crown and that's it.
If any of you have any suggestions for other good examples of comic book writers having to alter their stories to adjust to major comic book crossovers (or situations like this one), drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!