Very soon, the X-Men titles are all going to see a major shift with the launch of the Age of Revelation crossover event. Like the classic X-Men storyline, Age of Apocalypse (which is celebrating its 30th anniversary), all of the X-Men titles are being replaced by new titles. In the Age of Apocalypse, the titles were replaced by series set in an alternate reality. In this crossover, the stories are all set ten years in the future, where Apocalypse’s heir, Revelation (formerly known as Doug Ramsey), has conquered the world, and the X-Men are trying to stop him.
One of the major titles in the event is Rogue Storm, a new series taking the place of Storm’s regular series. Marvel’s solicitation for the series is as follows:
KILL THE GODDESS, SAVE THE WORLD!
X YEARS LATER, with Earth’s gods gone, only ORORO MUNROE, the mutant god of storms remains. She is a goddess driven mad by dark magic and grief. Now, as STORM threatens to freeze the world into a new Ice Age, Rogue leads a team of killers and legends – Gateway, Iceman, Fantomex, Spiral and Warpath. The sole mission of this Uncanny X-Force: kill Storm.
The series will be written by regular Storm writer, the acclaimed Murewa Ayodele, and drawn by veteran artist, Roland Boschi. CBR was able to exclusively talk to Ayodele about the upcoming series. We also have a few preview pages provided by Marvel:
I saw you mention that you have known about Age of Revelation since you started on Storm, but at the same time, it must be hard to plan that far ahead when no one knows how long a series will be approved for. How do you balance that out when plotting a series like Storm?
Murewa Ayodele: Yes, if memory serves me right, Editor Tom Brevoort had informed me about ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM and AGE OF REVELATION before I wrote the script for STORM #1. But the thing about events is that the launch date is hardly ever set in stone until it is ready to be announced. The schedule and availability of the creative teams that will bring the event to life, and other variables that are above my paygrade to be privy to play major roles in deciding a launch date.
So, as you have rightly pointed out, as a writer, you have to plot your overall story, add enough seeds (and Easter Eggs) that you will harvest in the AGE OF REVELATION timeline, while also having a contingency plan in case your series is cancelled before any of the major milestones which you are not even sure of their launch dates. How was I able to balance this? Well, the honest answer is, I wasn’t. I was blazing through my ongoing story – planting all the seeds necessary for AGE OF REVELATION along the way, but I didn’t have any contingency plan for if the series got cancelled early. Each story arc of the STORM series just gets so freaking exciting that I can’t help but plan for them even before I get the green light for them.
“Rogue Storm” is obviously an iconic reference in X-Men history. How did you come to decide to use that name for this series?
Image via Marvel
I knew I wanted to tell a mystical story. At some point, I played around with the idea of a bald Storm as portrayed on the iconic cover of UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #272, but I later dropped the idea. I love female characters who are incredibly stunning and confident with or without their hair. (Winks at Impala.) I also played around with the idea of a Storm who can only internalize her powers to augment her physical abilities because of an injury. Then I considered replacing her altogether with Ashake, her identical-looking ancestor.
Tom Brevoort, I guess, knowing a lot of my current story beats have been referencing and have been influenced by UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #145 – #147 – the Rogue Storm story arc, suggested the title ROGUE STORM and the co-star, Rogue.
As fans will quickly come to realize, the name will keep taking on more and more meaning with each issue of the ROGUE STORM series. It is both a callback to the original story arc and a completely new direction for the character of Storm (and Rogue) as well.
With all of the various X-titles in the Age of Revelation, it must have been a bit of a mad dash to pick which characters to use – you’re using some major characters, including Rogue, who is currently the star of a whole OTHER X-Men title. How did you all go about picking which characters were free to use?
Image via Marvel
It’s multi-layered. For example, for our teleporter, I wanted Nightcrawler. But one would need just cause to unsit a character from their home series – especially if the home writer still wants them. Editor-in-Chief C. B. Cebulski suggested Blink, but I didn’t get to the character pool fast enough. I think this means there is an element of “First Come, First Served” to it, too. Then I remembered we are the home series for Gateway, and no one had claimed him yet. That’s how we were able to secure Gateway.
We were fortunate enough to get Iceman from EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN/EXPATRIATE X-MEN (thank you, Eve L. Ewing), but we also had to release Bishop to the series, LONGSHOTS.
Rogue was a special exception. When I pitched ROGUE STORM to the room at the AGE OF REVELATION summit, I was so happy to see how much everyone loved it – especially the Rogue bits. When Gail Simone pitched UNBREAKABLE X-MEN, we were all hyped, especially for the Rogue bits. The room wanted Rogue to be in both stories because they were both great uses of the character and vital to both plots, so Gail Simone and I had our own private meetings and discussions on how to best coordinate between our stories. Rogue fans are in for a treat.
Tom Brevoort encourages his creative teams to grab onto the different corners of the X-World and the Marvel Universe, so each book can have its own unique voice and appeal to its own distinct demography of readership. For example, ROGUE STORM takes place on the African continent, which allows me to make bold, sweeping changes (a.k.a F#©% $#!% Up) with little worry about disrupting other books’ stories and settings. In the X-World, I’m working in the Uncanny X-Force space of violent brutality. And in the wider Marvel Universe, the story is set in the mystical sphere of things. It’s a unique combination, and because of that, a large portion of the characters that we need are unique to our story, which I believe is the case for the other creative teams as well.
We’re heading into an alternate future storyline right after Hellfire Vigil’s alternate future story with Storm and her daughter, Furaha. Is there any hope for fans that there might be some overlap in these two futures?
Furaha was introduced to be a mirror for Storm to reflect on her short-lived relationship with her own mother, N’Dare. For ill or for the better, the type of relationship we have with our parents greatly influences the type of relationship we have with our children.
Storm’s magical proclivity is a result of her maternal side of the family and its heritage. ROGUE STORM (Issue #2 especially) begins the major exploration of Storm’s relationship with her magical heritage. If we keep getting more issues greenlit, we hope to bring together her dive into her magical side, her relationship with N’Dare, and her feelings about Furaha into a crescendo of catharsis for our protagonist.
The scope of your Storm stories have been so epic, and that certainly sounds like the case with Rogue Storm, as well. What do you think makes Storm so well suited for these larger-than-life events?
Image via Marvel
The idea of the duality of mortality and divinity has often popped up in stories about Storm over the decades. It started with her first appearance in GIANT-SIZE X-MEN (1975) #1, was reiterated in the last issue of the Rogue Storm story arc [UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #147], and explored further through the Goddess of Thunder moniker in X-MEN ANNUAL (1985) #9, X-MEN GOLD (2017) #25 – #35, IMMORTAL THOR (2023) #5, WHAT IF…? SEASON 3 EPISODE 7, etc. It’s always been repeatedly hinted at in Chris Claremont’s run on UNCANNY X-MEN, Dwayne McDuffie’s run on the FANTASTIC FOUR, and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ run on BLACK PANTHER that Ororo Munroe has more going on for her than her mutation.
Spider-Man works well in the everyman setting of New York City. Captain America works well in a leadership role where duty for what’s bigger than the individual is the watchword. I personally find Storm to work great when the mundane and the fantastical collide. I’m intrigued by the struggles of a mortal god. So, why do I think Storm is well-suited for these epic stories? Because they keep popping up in her publication history over and over again, because I find those stories particularly fun, interesting, and profound, and because of that unforgettable scene that lives rent-free in my head from X-MEN GOLD (2017) #25, where Storm has a power-dampening collar around her neck yet stands and summons lightning like a god.
ROGUE STORM is going to be a balls-to-the-wall Sword-and-Sorcery epic with war-mongering monsters, a team of mutant assassins, and a protagonist who has a big axe and is not afraid to mutilate victims with it. It’s everything I love about Storm pushed to the max. It’s absolutely a must-read.
Rogue Storm #1 is due out October 15, 2025