Warning! Spoilers for X-Men Red #2 ahead!
Ororo Munroe, Storm debuts her Brotherhood of Arakko and reiterates that there are "no thrones on Arakko." This approach highlights the key difference between Ororo’s squad and Abigail Brand’s X-Men Red team: solidarity and community with the Arakkii. In doing so, writer Al Ewing and artist Stefano Caselli have the chessboard set for quite the interesting study in anarchy and critique of police structures as X-Men Red continues.
For context, Brand is campaigning to be the most powerful person in the Sol system as head of S.W.O.R.D. and has strategically connected herself with ORCHIS, Krakoa, and extraterrestrial mercenary services in various capacities to achieve that goal. Still calling the planet Mars, Brand considers the Arakkii people as a pawn to be manipulated into submission. The primary tool for exerting that control is her X-Men Red unit. In log entries, Brand reveals that plans to use the X-Men Red team as a police force, fabricating conflicts for them to handle while their presence stirs discontent between Krakoa and Arakko. However, Brand failed to properly estimate Storm as an obstacle to her plans.
During a Progenitors’ attack commissioned by Brand on an Arakkii clan of artists and poets, the X-Men Red team is floundering. Manifold has quit, Storm hammers home her new mission statement. "No thrones on Arakko," is punk, and Ororo’s declaration further shows the anarchist bent she envisions for the Arakkii. X-Men Red #2 is written by Al Ewing, with art by Stefano Caselli, colors by Federico Blee, letters and production by Cory Petit, and design by Tom Muller with Jay Bowen.
Brand recognizes this shift in her opponent, noting, "I thought I was getting the Queen of Wakanda – instead, I got the Queen of the Morlocks.” That distinction cuts to the core of Storm’s character. Ororo can be viewed as having two competing motivations: being adored as Goddess and feeling responsible for those who would venerate her. Abigail Brand had counted on Storm being a deified pawn, but the Arakkii refuse to be patronized. Because of this Ororo’s comion and responsibility win out, leading to her language and actions of solidarity. This punk side of Ororo came back into the light in X-Men Red #1, where Ewing and Caselli show Storm begin to form the Brotherhood, destroy Arakko’s former throne, and reference her 80’s punk aesthetic in her newest redesign.
Solidarity with one’s community, anti-authoritarianism, and mutual aid are hallmark values of punks and anarcho-punks. They also appear to be the X-Men’s Storm during her time on Arakko moving forward. The overall success of Ororo Munroe’s punk planet mission remains to be seen, starting with X-Men Red #3 which releases on June 15, 2022.
X-Men Red #2 is available now from Marvel Comics.
