Contains Spoilers for Storm (2024) #1!As Storm embraces her future as a solo hero in the Marvel Universe, she has quickly found herself in conflict with Cyclops. Storm will always stay true to herself, but that doesn’t mean that her actions won’t have consequences for other mutants. What her choice means for her relationships with those mutants is now the big question.

Storm #1 – written by Murewa Ayodele, with art by Lucas Werneck – illustrates just how divided the X-Men currently are. While saving civilians, Storm discovers that the cause of a disaster at a nuclear reactor is a newly manifested mutant, and after false rumors spread about all the possibilities of what happened, she goes public with the news.

This puts her in direct contrast to Cyclops, who recently hid the fact of a similar mutant manifestation when it also caused a major disaster.

Storm And Cyclops Find Themselves On The Opposite Sides Of Mutantkind's Latest Crisis

Storm #1 – Written By Murewa Ayodele; Art By Lucas Werneck; Color By Alex Gomes; Lettering By Travis Lanham

While Storm adjusts to life as an Avenger and solo hero, Cyclops is leading a new team in the relaunched X-Men series, where a secretive group called 3K are engineering their own mutants, having found a way to activate the X-Gene in adults. X-Men #2 saw this happen in the most destructive way possible, with one of the group's victims, Ben Liu, manifesting reality warping powers that reflected his traumatized belief that he’d been kidnapped by aliens. While Cyclops chose to obscure the role a mutant played in this situation, Storm chose the opposite route in Storm #1.

Storm's decision to reveal a mutant was complicit in the nuclear crisis in Storm #1 is a direct contradiction of Cyclops' perspective on the same issue – setting up a potential confrontation between the two.

In X-Men #2, Cyclops made the executive decision to hide Liu’s manifestation, letting the ‘alien invasion’ narrative stick, in order to stop things getting any worse for mutants and to keep the mystery mutant manifestations under wraps from an already-paranoid public. Storm's decision to reveal a mutant was complicit in the nuclear crisis in Storm #1 is a direct contradiction of Cyclops' perspective on the same issue – setting up a potential confrontation between the two that could have major consequences for the X-franchise.

Storm's Decision In Her Debut Solo Issue Could Impact Her Relationship With Her Mutant Allies

Storm #1 – Available Now From Marvel Comics

It will be fascinating to see how this decision affects Storm’s relationship with Cyclops and the wider X-Men. Avengers #18 featured Storm acting as the link between the Avengers and Cyclops’ X-Men squad, as they teamed up to stop Storm accepting an invite to the Avengers. While the two were on decent in this story, Storm made it clear that she preferred being part of a team of equals like the Avengers, rather than one where a lone individual – especially Scott – had the first and last say.

Interestingly, Storm #1 also shows the hero on good with Frenzy, who’s currently part of Havok’s government-sponsored X-Factor team in the rebooted X-Factor. That team couldn’t be more different than Cyclops’ X-Men, and Scott’s already expressed his disappointment with his brother in X-Men #3. In a world where Storm didn’t reveal this new mutant manifestation, she could have been the mediator between the two sides, but that’s unlikely to be an option anymore. It wouldn’t even be shocking if all of X-Factor cut ties with her as well, after what happened in Storm #1.

It's Not Immediately Obvious What Side Storm Would Be On In A Mutant "Civil War"

Storm's X-Men Franchise Future Is Unclear

One question is how this ties into the larger mutant vs mutant conflict that’s brewing in the main X-books. The Raid on Graymalkin crossover, occuring in X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, promises to pit the two teams against one another over their different ideological approaches as they try to liberate the former X-Mansion, which has been turned into ‘Graymalkin Prison’. It is currently unclear why the Uncanny team, led by Rogue, are opposed to Cyclops’ side, but they’ve certainly been more friendly with the general public than his squad, so they likely hew closer to her perspective.

With the X-Men so divided, Storm’s latest decision might push her away from Cyclops, and further divide her from the rest of mutantkind.

If the titular Raid is done secretly, then Storm might not know that it’s even happening, especially if she and Cyclops aren’t on speaking after Storm #1. It’s hard to imagine she knows about Graymalkin, since Storm isn’t the type to abide the government literally putting her fellow X-Men in prisons. In any case, what side Storm would take in the X-franchise equivalent of Marvel's "Civil War" is not presently clear. With the X-Men so divided, Storm’s latest decision might push her away from Cyclops, and further divide her from the rest of mutantkind.

Storm #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.