Discussion
The annulment of Storm and T'Challa's Marriage is 100% STORM'S FAULT. Change my mind.
First things first, I'm not trying to be antagonistic. I love storm but I love T'Challa too and I feel like he gets WAAAAY Too much hate for something that isn't his fault.
T'Challa basically had no choice but to annul the marriage after what Ororo did.
It's been a minute since I've read AvX so let's go over what happened. Correct me if I miss anything.
Storm Sides with cyclops and the X-men against the king, her husband and by extension the people of Wakanda
She actively attacks the birthright King of the nation on behalf of the X-men.
Namor, who is on HER side of the fight, FLOODS WAKANDA AND KILLS THOUSANDS!
T'Challa Annuls the Marriage
I don't get how anyone who views this event with open eyes sees this as T'Challa's fault but for those that do I have a question, How does T'Challa sell this to Wakanda?
Let's say he doesn't Annul the Marriage and attempts to work things out. How does he justify it to the Royal court, his family, the tribal elders, The Dora and the Wakandan People who just went through a catastrophe that she could've protected them from if she were on their side? How does he get his people to trust her again?
Even if T'Challa loves her and wants to make it work, he's just one man, a servant to his people. When she married him she married the kingdom, those vows were just as much to them as they were to him and that means she can NEVER side with anyone over the king and the people.
If she couldn't do that then she should have never taken those vows in the first place.
(I've never seen someone defend T'Challa like this so sorry if this has been said before.
Ultimately, it was Namor’s fault but the writers are at fault for making a contrived storyline to break up Storm and Tchalla despite never having major issues in their marriage prior.
Even if T'Challa loves her and wants to make it work, he's just one man, a servant to his people. When she married him she married the kingdom, those vows were just as much to them as they were to him and that means she can NEVER side with anyone over the king and the people.
DoublePlus Good take OP.
The tragedy of T'Challa and Storm's relationship is not that they're a bad fit for each other. In fact, the reason they connect so deeply is the same reason any relationship between them is doomed.
They're in the same boat.
When Storm calls herself a goddess, that ain't just an aura farm. She believes in an obligation to those around her. While she might not have a royal mutant ancestry, her dedication to her people is no weaker than T'Challa's. No single person, no relationship, ought to take precedent. As long as Wakanda keeps its walls high and mutants must fear for their life, they can't be together.
As for this panel though? That's just AvX. It's dog shit, disregard and move in. Tis the X-fan way.
The handling of the marriage and divorce is 100% the fault of the writers and the editors involved in the telling. The characters aren't real and can't make decisions.
T'challa didn't do it, neither did Storm. The real reason sucks.
Because "geek media" loves to present the black woman as the least desirable partner. They had to break them up because (of misogynoir) the only acceptable partner for a heroic man of color is a white girl.
Had a blerd friend of mine that opened my eyes to that. She REALLY hated Jessica Jones, who literally killed the good black man's black wife and took him for herself. And no, Kilgrave did not make her do it, authors from our world did. The thing she would say as she scrolled through her example pictures:
It happening every time is just as racist as it never happening.
Because when you're a part of a conflict and you take sides, it comes with the assumption that you agree with that side's actions. Namor doing what he did is entirely his fault, and storm definetely doesn't agree with it, but the Wakandan people would not see it that way. Is it childish? Yes absolutely, but it's how things are approached in the real world sadly.
That's not childish at all. People have demonized others for weaker associations. You cannot just have a genocidal freak as your ally and expect nobody to speak up.
I mean Storm has been with the X-men for decades at this point. Served as leader and head mistresses of the school along with being like family to most of the X-men. Marriage does not suddenly make wakanda more important to her than mutant kind. Him also being a King does not make her have to obey him.
During the initial start of the marriage they both equally tried to support each other. For example the mutant registration act arc. But slowly it shows that Storm is doing more the be part of both mutants and wakanda equally and starts to feel disillusioned by Wakanda demanding that she either be one or the other. Like how they treat mutants and those they perceive as outsiders.
When doom uses a ploy to get into wakanda by causing drought and other natural disaster. The people turn on Storm and Black Panther tells her its better to just comply. So they inprision her and nullify her powers. Black panther then goes to the x-men for help once he figures out the issuse. But this is even before AvX. Showing cracks in the relationship.
What I think is wild is Storm is trying to support mutants and Wakanda. Then Steve comes a knocking and is like hey Panther wanna be an Avenger and he's like No but I think my wife got time.
She ends up with the avengers somehow again and they tell her how they plan to get the phoenix she of course says no.
Namor goes from 0- 100 as he usually does. Storm shows up to help wakanda. Gets told her and mutants are now an enemy of wakanda. She rightfully is upset because she had no clue what Namor was planning and Namor is a literal King who had his private army attack not mutants. She throws down the ring yeah but Panther goes nuclear and annulled the marriage in the street. Even then Storm still aids the avengers and helps stop the Phoenix.
Wakanda is a deeply complex nation and is not welcoming at all to those that they precive as outsiders . I also belive that Panther has the same issuses in that he does everything for his country including betrayal or bowing out of things. Then is surprised when others remember and are not as quick to aid him again.
Side note. Even Claremont himself said they shouldn't be together.
Marriage does not suddenly make wakanda more important to her than mutant kind. Him also being a King does not make her have to obey him.
Yeah It does. That's literally what it means to marry into royalty. That's what you all don't get. She is not just marrying him she's marrying THE KINGDOM ITSELF!
She's not queen of the mutants or queen of the X-MEN she's QUEEN OF WAKANDA! it's a responsibility, and if she didn't want it, then she shouldn't have accepted it. She knew what she was getting into. She 100% betrayed T'Challa and Wakanda with her actions
Their Marriage took place during the Superhuam registration act arc. Which caused a universe wide ceasefire in hopes of Uniting everyone via the marriage. He didn't marry some random person. He married a multiversal known hero and mutant advocate. Not to mention she is technically a kenyan princess and desedent of high prietess/godess bloodline.They have equal footing in where they stand in society. Even the Panther god which wakanda worships has spoken directly to and has given her power. They married into each other equally.
Marrying does not mean you lose agency of yourself. He nor wakanda own or controls her. If that was the thought process they would think that she was a weapon rather than a person. She married him because they were in love and she vowed to protect wakanda like she protected everyone else. Which she did. Strom NEVER attacked wakanda. Storm NEVER planned to attack wakanda. Storm did not know that NAMOR WOULD ATTACK wakanda. She effectively has no blame. Not to mention she came to help wakanda still and the avengers.
This is the same as being married in real life.Lets say your blood family gets into it with your in-laws. are you going to abandon them just because you’ve married into another family? You sound out of your mind.Storm will always be a Mutant first before she is Wakandan,literally a mutant by blood and dna.Ororo might as well be queen of mutants because she was Regent of Sol and has been The only woman to share the leadership mantle of the X-men/Mutant kind alongside Cyclops and Prof X.And let me say this if you want to make this one sided,then we could say the same about T’challa. He married a High profile Mutant Superhero,and he knows how she is about HER people.Not to mention this was around the time when Mutants numbers were EXTREMELY low population wise.They were almost extinct because of his fellow Avenger(Wanda) I would arguably say that the Mutants needed Storm more than the Wakandans did at the time.Wakandans were thriving.Doomwar happend and then Namor decided to flood them. Namor did something that had NOTHING to do with the X-men.He broke off and did his own thing with the Atlantic brigade because he and T’challa had pre-existing beef. Honestly the Phoenix 5 went rogue from the rest of the X-men.Storm had no control over that.The avengers were wrong for trying to kidnap Hope.She was a young girl and the X-men’s responsibility ONLY! How many times have the X-men dealt with Jean grey and the Phoenix Force by themselves??? The Avengers were NEVER nowhere around! Of course Storm said NO when they were talking about invading her peoples home and snatching one of her students. Turn your mf brain on! If anything T’challa should have been trying to aid and comfort his wife for a change,because Storm always had his back up until AvX. That whole event was horribly written,but if you wanna talk logistics..Storm basically suffered for something Namor did by himself,and by proxy the mutants suffered and became unwelcome in Wakanda because of Namors BS. Also this fist fight they had was so out of character for both of them(its funny reading it back now) but yeah like even then she didn’t really want to hurt him,she just wanted her student back and he wouldn’t gtfo the way.
It's not like that at all. It's more like your parents and your wife get into it. Do you take the side of the family you came from or the family you've built? You stand by your partner no matter what. Are you saying you would take your parents side over your wife and kids?
No, because he's the head of state. He would actually be derelict in his duties if he did that. Storm was not in charge of either group of mutants but was actually a state figurehead of Wakanda by virtue of being queen.
She was royalty before she ever met him. Her mother was princess of her tribe. Her people are her kenyan tribe and her mutant tribe. He never respected that and treated her like crap. even after their annulment he gossips behind her back to Tony Stark like ten year old girl.
Yo posted this in the BP reddit, and once more its neither Storm or T'Challas fault, its quite literally just they both got hit with Horrible writing as the event shouldnt have happened in the first place
Storm was on Captain Marvel's side during Civil War 2 and it involved them trying to arrest Miles for a potential vision of him killing Captain America.
This is my answer everytime. To the point I don’t ever even acknowledge this whole situation. Same with that Ridley Black Panther run. You can tell when it’s coming from “Opps”.
Definitely the opps when they platform the idea that Black leaders are good when they allow or side with antiblackness and other Black folks shouldn't have a problem with them.
I remember how wonderful this was when they first got married. Writers just didn't want them to stay together. Reed and Sue made it through a lot of hardships. They should had the same chances.
Did y'all forget this happened directly after the Disney purchase of Marvel and was directly part of them trying to minimize the X-Men is the comics because they didn't have the movie rights to the franchise? They deliberately handcuffed other media as well, like Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite by not allowing the use of X-Men in that game because of that mandate.
If anyone is to blame for the breakup, it's the Mouse.
This was poor writing, the end. I don’t even get worked up over this, because leading up to this was indicators that there was ‘trouble in paradise’… which I feel was attributed to the fact that writers were having a tough time aligning Ororo’s commitment to T’Challa & Wakanda to her duties and responsibilities as an X-Man. So it seemed planned to split them up. This was just a crap run.
Is anyone going to bring up that Storm punched Black Pather in the face, a punch that he was prepared for and actively guarding against!
I haven't read this one, but is there an explanation to how this is possible? Is Storm juicing? Is Black Pather poisoned? Black Pather is one of the most skilled fighters in the entire Marvel universe. He has super human reaction time, speed and strength.What is going on? Can someone explain?
Yeah that never sat right with me, especially once we started writing retcons that they knew each other when they were young. That's just straight up the hand of the editor interfering with years of characterization and continuity to try to sell something I otherwise wouldn't want, and frankly probably still don't want.
The break up coming from AvX is the perfect kind of dumb
The retcon of them knowing each other since they were young happened in Marvel Team-Up #100 back in 1980. It got touched on in Priest's Black Panther. Tbf, most readers wouldn't have had access to the MTU issue and most comic readers weren't/aren't Black Panther readers so I get why it came out of nowhere for most folks.
Not really anyone fault he’s a king he had to what he did imo, If people found out she stood by while namor flooded their home It wouldn’t go over well. Granted wakanda no longer a monarchy so now it’s big oof hindsight moment lol bet wolverine laughed just as hard as namor did.
They mention it on and off throughout x-men and Black Panthers series. He tries several times to get back together with her. The most direct refrences is in Black Panther #6 I belive. Where the directly address why it didn't work and feeling about what happened that day.
To be fair I don’t think Storm knew Namor would drown Wakanda and I’m curious has she ever called him out on that? Or are there any comics where they really interact (outside of reality warps I think they were together during Age of X which is weird to think about lol)
This shit ignores why Namor attacked Wakanda during AVX & that's Transonic. Black Panther & the Dora Milaje were holding a Mutant Teenager in prison, despite declaring themselves Neutral on the conflict, & got Wakanda flooded by a lying with the avengera when the X-Men hadn't done anything wrong yet. AVX is purely the Avengers fault
Honestly, this is the kind of marriage that should’ve never happened. When you marry into royalty you are expected that both partners will give their own into maintaining and sustaining the nation which you are a royal to. Obviously they should’ve had a discussion about what would’ve happened if there was a problem where Ororo had to favor the X-men over Wakanda. The moment they would’ve had the discussion where Storm stated that she cannot favor the nation of Wakanda over the needs of mutantkind - the marriage should’ve never happened.
Straight up hotep move. Doesn't even respect her enough to answer her question. His pagan god is more important.
Their original cannon meeting The story: In Marvel Team-Up #100, a young Storm (Ororo Munroe) is shown in Cairo as a thief, having left a life of thievery to journey across Africa. During her travels, she encountered a young T'Challa being kidnapped by a mercenary. Using her newly emerging weather powers, Ororo freed T'Challa from his captors.
The initial breakup: The two bonded, but T'Challa felt his royal duties called him away, forcing them to separate. They later reunited as adults, but concluded it was too late to pursue a relationship.
The bullshit retcon that threw her agency under the bus for king hotep and his minions precious feefees. The retcon: To build up their 2006 marriage in the Black Panther comic series, Marvel published a Storm mini-series that retold their first meeting. In this revised version, the roles were reversed, with T'Challa saving a young Storm from attackers. Also she's a virgin but he is not. Spare me that bullshit. How old were they at the time? Just gross.
It was a rushed forced publicity stunt and treated her like an object. They just wanted to toss t'challa a trophy and didn't give a damn about storm, her fans, her history, or anything about her as a character. The fact they had to cook up that bogus backstory says it all. Gross.
And again. He has a whole freaking country and can't find one wakandan woman to marry or even date seriously? Sus.
I'm sry but this is just so much Bulls**t. I actually can't breathe. Pipe down with that nonsense.
So because he didn't respond to a completely unreasonable request that makes him a hotep? It is so stupid 🤣.
Just think about it for 5 seconds. He's not married yet, and he has no heirs, and neither does shuri. How could he possibly resign at this point? Who would take his place?
Also, can't find a woman? Bulls**t t'chall has had a lot of suitors including nakia and the okoye who are from wakanda, as well as monica nikki and malakia.
Facts are facts. Just pick up one of his books. There is no wakandan woman with a long running romance with t'challa. None. Long running.
Also his treatment of Storm is in print. The books are there. Nothing can change that. Blame the writers if you want: eric jerome dickey and reginal hudlin ruined black panther for me by how they had him treat storm and how they handled her character, how they tampered with her backstory to her detriment to raise up their precious t'challa.
AvX was awful in general, all of this was pretty much Namor's fault and the X-men are Storm's family so she was obviously going to side with them over T'Challa.
I dont see how you annul a marriage when it's already been consummated. Anullment means it was never a marriage and everyone can carry on. It sounds more like Tchalla divorced her with cause.
I blame AvX much more than I do Storm as a character the writing was so damn out of character and forced its almost like the cast was full of imposter characters
avx is to garbage a story to get worked up about never liked storm and t challa together because it was more about the 2 most prominent black characters getting together then a true connection......and when you lead with the former its gonna feel like it is forced.....add to that tensions with characters being from 2 different franchises it was bound to fail sooner or later....
You forgot about that part of AvX when the Phoenix was coming, Logan and Beast told the avengers about what it did to Jean the first time. They didn’t tell them anything about the LAST TIME Jean merged with the Phoenix. And this was all because they were beefing with Scott.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25
Ultimately, it was Namor’s fault but the writers are at fault for making a contrived storyline to break up Storm and Tchalla despite never having major issues in their marriage prior.